mike.lifeguard+bugs wrote:

Product-> MediaWiki Extensions
Component -> DPL (if it exists, let's find out...)

That page was edited twice on November 27, 2008. Is this not expected behavior?

djevelunge wrote:

Mike: DPL - Decision Analysis Software? (A lifeguard? Exactly what i was asking for... :)
Brion: No, this is not expected. Old news, in this case more than two years old, keeps popping up at the "latest news"-collums.
For some reason the dynamicpagelist(?) assigns a new date to them.
This has been a problem for at least the half a year that I have been writing at no:wikinews.

djevelunge wrote:

Found it; DPL: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:DynamicPageList
Not realy my field, this...

Same problems with n:cs:. Page is not edited and suddenly pops-up on the list although it's ancient.

Some observations about actions done nearby this issues (does not apply to all cases though, some cases even did not have any edit connected to them done):

1. The category page of category used in DPL has been edited.
2. The template in such article has been changed.
3. The sortkey added via included template has been changed.

Hope this may help?

djevelunge wrote:

I've posted your responce on the no:waterpost, awaiting replies.

As far as my knowledge goes I have the same impression as you have: there does not nessesarily have to be done any of the above mentioned actions for this to happen.
However, number 2 & 3 are a bit over my level of knowledge.
I will return with responses when they come.

Bug 16813 related if not dupe.

brian.mcneil wrote:

This bug is a duplicate of 16813, and 16287. That is, this is impacting all Wikinews language versions.

Certain workarounds make this annoying "feature" less likely to crop up on the main page, but use of DPL in category page headers can become a ridiculous looking mess.

Additionally, on English Wikinews, a number of DPLs are automatically spidered by a bot and imported to Portals on Wikipedia. It does look ridiculous when something as simple as fixing a sort order makes a Wikipedia portal say that 2+ year old news is "current".

djevelunge wrote:

Funny enough: This was a major problem on Norwegian Wikinews until I posted the bug; and have to my knowledge not been observed since.
However, for future eventualities, any tips for workarounds will be appreciated.

Some notes:
*When you remove a category (or a template containing said category), and re-add it, this is obviously going to reset the date the category is added. The solution is to not remove the category. (Flagged revs can help with this. See Bug 20813. See also Bug 20378 which was a proposal to allow some method to fix the issue which didn't go over too well)
*When changing the sortkey of a category, the category timestamp is updated - I filed a bug about that Bug 16287, however it seems to me as if thats unlikey to get fixed.

In relation to Comment #5
*If the category page itself is edited, this should not affect anything
*Template in article changing will affect it only if that template included the category in question
*If the sortkey changed, this will definitily cause the issue in question. If you have to change the sortkey, do it at publish time or not at all.

Assign open DynamicPageList issues to new component maintainer.