Last modified: 2012-08-15 12:50:23 UTC
Currently: $ grep wgDisableAnonTalk * -R includes/DefaultSettings.php:$wgDisableAnonTalk = false; includes/Linker.php: global $wgUser, $wgDisableAnonTalk, $wgLang; includes/Linker.php: $talkable = !( $wgDisableAnonTalk && 0 == $userId ); $ So it's only a visual hack. The whole feature should be disabled by not checking user_newtalk at all.
Added code to User::getNewtalk to prevent DB query in this case. https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/16855
patch merged. closing.