Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)

The technical section of the village pump is used to discuss technical issues about Wikipedia. Bugs and feature requests should be made at BugZilla.

Newcomers to the technical village pump are encouraged to read these guidelines prior to posting here. Questions about MediaWiki in general should be posted at the MediaWiki support desk.

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Frequently asked questions (see also: Wikipedia:Technical FAQ)

Click "[show]" next to each point to see more details.

If something looks wrong, purge the server's cache, then bypass your browser's cache.
This tends to solve most issues, including improper display of images, user-preferences not loading, and old versions of pages being shown.

No, we will not use JavaScript to set focus on the search box.
This would interfere with usability, accessibility, keyboard navigation and standard forms. See task 3864. There is an `accesskey` property on it (default to `accesskey="f"` in English). Logged-in users can enable the "Focus the cursor in the search bar on loading the Main Page" gadget in their preferences.

No, we will not add a spell-checker, or spell-checking bot.
You can use a web browser such as Firefox, which has a spell checker.

If you have problems making your fancy signature work, check Help:How to fix your signature.

If you changed to another skin and cannot change back, use this link.
Alternatively, you can press Tab until the "Save" button is highlighted, and press Enter. Using Mozilla Firefox also seems to solve the problem.

If an image thumbnail is not showing, try purging its image description page.
If the image is from Wikimedia Commons, you might have to purge there too. If it doesn't work, try again before doing anything else. Some ad blockers, proxies, or firewalls block URLs containing /ad/ or ending in common executable suffixes. This can cause some images or articles to not appear.

For server or network status, please see Wikimedia Status. If you cannot reach Wikipedia services, see Reporting a connectivity issue.

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Is this ever going to be fixed?

I find it incredible that a massive and popular site like Wikipedia still suffers from this stupid bug whereby stale pages are regularly shown and/or pages are incorrectly shown as uneditable until one adds that stupid "?action=purge" thing to the URL. What a total load of nonsense. There is even a page somewhere I think that explains this "purging" crud as if it was some kind of a beneficial feature rather than a ridiculous bug that should have been fixed years ago.

The usual disclaimers that I know WP is free, built mostly by volunteers, etc., etc., all apply, so there is no need to trot all that out. Just someone PLEASE fix it!!! 109.151.36.98 (talk) 00:30, 25 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It appears nobody filed a bugzilla request after my above post at #Article appears protected when it isn't. I will probably file one next week when I have more time if it hasn't been done by then, but I don't know how hard it would be to solve the problem. By the way, the purge function is old, has other uses and was not created to fix instances of this problem but is able to do it. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:44, 25 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

(That section link is now WP:Village pump (technical)/Archive 93#Article appears protected when it isn't.) --142.205.241.254 (talk) 22:27, 26 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I found the old bugzilla:27978 from March 2011 where the problem may have started. The bug was quickly closed as "Resolved" because the problem could not be reproduced on the reported pages. I have reopened the bug with links to many reports since then. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:47, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Templates not transcluding at Barack Obama

(Please see Talk:Barack Obama#Templates) Transclusion of the final thirteen templates at Barack Obama has failed and, instead, regular links to the templates are being displayed. What could be causing this? Thank you, -- Black Falcon ^(talk) 17:13, 26 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Probably Wikipedia:Template limits—the page is transcluding too many and too large templates. Ucucha (talk) 17:21, 26 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Specifically, it's the post-expand include size:

NewPP limit report
Preprocessor node count: 282439/1000000
Post-expand include size: 2048000/2048000 bytes
Template argument size: 879412/2048000 bytes
Expensive parser function count: 24/500

(Those numbers are in the HTML source of the page.) Ucucha (talk) 17:22, 26 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, that clarifies the cause of the problem. I noticed, too, that the article now appears in Category:Pages where template include size is exceeded. Can anything, other than removing a few templates from the article (possible but not ideal), be done to correct this? -- Black Falcon ^(talk) 23:48, 26 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's either that or making the templates smaller. {{Navbox}} and its subtemplates, for example, are huge and could perhaps be streamlined. Ucucha (talk) 23:54, 26 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I have offered a possible fix at Talk:Barack Obama#Templates), which reduces the template processing counts to:

NewPP limit report
Preprocessor node count: 205464/1000000
Post-expand include size: 1572569/2048000 bytes
Template argument size: 673222/2048000 bytes
Expensive parser function count: 10/500

As this fix may cause problems in future maintenance, I have not implemented it immediately, but described it on Talk:Barack Obama#Templates, so that editors there can decide what they want to do.

--NSH001 (talk) 15:50, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

MediaWiki:Gadget-LongEditSummaries and MediaWiki:Gadget-LongEditSummaries.js

This gadget no longer works; see #Edit summary max length and behaviour above, and try the gadget out for yourself - it makes no difference.

Could an admin please delete these two pages and remove the gadget's entry from MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition (second entry under "editing" section)? There is no need to fool users into believing they can obtain longer edit summaries when they in fact cannot. — This, that, and the other (talk) 03:51, 27 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Done. Ucucha (talk) 11:28, 27 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There is no need to delete MediaWiki:Gadget-LongEditSummaries and MediaWiki:Gadget-LongEditSummaries.js. Can you please undelete those so that the code can still be seen by others ? The existance of those pages alone doesn't have any influence on the Gadgets system. Assuming you want someone to be able to fix/redo that script... Krinkle (talk) 17:06, 27 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've restored. Good luck fixing the script. :) Is there anything that needs to be done to the page to indicate that it is being retained for this reference only and that it doesn't work? </clueless> --Moonriddengirl ^(talk) 15:40, 3 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Template Question, time since last edit

Is it possible to have a template add a page to a category based on how long it has been since the page was edited? For example, if the template is placed on a page at the time of page creation, would it be technically possible for it to add the page to a category 30 or 90 days after the last edit to the page by anyone? If so, will the category addition occur even if no one ever again accesses the page, or would the cached version, with no category, remain until the first time it was accessed after the timer ran out? Monty ₈₄₅ 23:56, 27 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I think this could be done using two of the magic words, {{REVISIONTIMESTAMP}} and {{CURRENTTIMESTAMP}}. But the software would not realise that the page needed to be re-built and re-categorised after N days, so the idea wouldn't work especially well. Also, depending on what you were hoping to use the template for, the scheme might be broken by an automated/semi-automated "gnome" edit that didn't affect the part of the page you had in mind. -- John of Reading (talk) 11:54, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the reply, the lack of re automated rebuilding would stop the idea from working, which is what I feared. Monty ₈₄₅ 18:59, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You could employ a bot to make null edits on those pages every day, I know we have such a bot in my home wiki. — AlexSm 20:03, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This kind of bot has been proposed before and rejected. There is a reason the software works in the way it does, using null-edits to force updates is not the correct way to go about things. - Kingpin¹³ (talk) 20:20, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

You shouldn't need null edits for this - I recently added this exact feature to create Category:Stale Userspace drafts - and the category filled up with 12k pages in no time. ^Avic_ennasis @ 14:34, 1 Tishrei 5772 / 14:34, 29 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Your edit to {{Userspace draft}} made the software re-cache all the pages using that template. Going forwards I think you will have to make a monthly edit to the template to make the software rethink the categories for each draft. -- John of Reading (talk) 15:39, 29 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Is it possible to remove automatic new line after image using template:wide image?

Why?

"

The above image is taken from Wikipedia's entry on the Solar System, and I'll give you five seconds to point out as many flaws as you can. All done? Where do we start? Clearly our sun is dying, its once-dazzling surface now an ember, and there's some other star, several times larger / closer / brighter than our own sun, tucked just out of view in the upper right frame. To be honest, I find that kind of geocentrist shading interesting more than anything else, but it's not what we're here to discuss. Similarly, I'm going to ignore the presence of "dwarf planets", which everyone knows is a concession by International Astronomical Union to keep Arizona happy. No, I'm talking about the fact the planets seem to be breathing down one another's necks, Jupiter within fist-bumping distance of Mars, the asteroid belt apparently slipped from the gaunt hips of our emaciated sun. Now, there's a very good reason that the planets are often presented squished up together like this: it's because black ink is really expensive. Given the choice between illustrating planets as pixel-sized dots on a single page, or going all-in on a 30 page wide fold-out showing planets in all their glory and scale, most artists prefer to cut out all that "empty" space and bring celestial bodies into frame. It's an obvious design solution, but one that nevertheless impacts upon the public's understanding of astronomy. Even though the Wikipedia page makes pains to point out that the scale in this image has been messed about, the industry-wide practice of moving planets about trickles down into public consciousness." From Five iconic science images, and why they're wrong

Template:Wide image is unusable with multiple images (see User:Bulwersator/test2) User:Bulwersator/test is better but it is ugly and results in wiiiiiideeeeee page (pl:User:Bulwersator/test is only ugly). Is it possible to remove automatic new line after image using template:wide image? Bulwersator (talk) 07:24, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That template is not intended for multiple images. You want something like {{Multiple image}}. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 10:54, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

edits not showing up

Hi,

I am trying to update the page for my organisation which is rather badly out of date.

I've made the updates, and clicked Save, but now I visit the page, twenty minutes later, the old version of it has come up.

How do I get my edits to last?

James Murphy Director of Communications National Youth Orchestra

Page in question: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Youth_Orchestra_of_Great_Britain — Preceding unsigned comment added by NationalYouth Orchestra (talk • contribs) 09:48, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Your addition was automatically reverted.[1] You have other issues and I am taking them to your talk page. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 10:42, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

"Decent Article" symbols for iw links

What is the current standard for adding little status symbols for iw links? FA and GA symbols are added, how about the "decent article" status that's used in da, fi and sv Wikipedias. The status equals roughly the B quality in here, being a status with more relaxed standards and more casual promotion process than GA or FA. Pitke (talk) 14:11, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Just worked this out. You are referring to the {{link GA}} and {{link FA}} templates which put

and

symbols on the left of the "languages" list (or, if in MonoBook skin, the templates which amend the style of the bullets in the same list), as seen against "Deutsch" and "Español", etc. on Vietnam war. This seems to be done via css; the effect of {{link FA|es}} is to add an empty HTML element: <span id="interwiki-es-fa"></span> so I personally can't do anything to add the equivalent for this class (which seems to be exclusive to the Danish, Finnish and Swedish Wikipedias). --Redrose64 (talk) 19:36, 29 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, thanks. All that remains is to probe whether such symbols would be welcome in a wiki that doesn't use the classification itself. Kinda. Pitke (talk) 10:39, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Have found in MediaWiki:Common.js that there is function LinkFA() - this seems to be highly relevant here. At the top of that function there is a note that it's maintained by R. Koot (talk · contribs), so you could try contacting him. --Redrose64 (talk) 23:33, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

there is no attribute "class"

The W3C Markup Validation Service is giving this error on every page:

<poem<
there is no attribute "class"
<html lang="en" dir="ltr" class="client-nojs" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml"...
</poem>

I am guessing this is part of the RTL/LTR updates? ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 21:03, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like our DOCTYPE doesn't allow a class on the html element. The following also generates an error in the validator:

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD XHTML 1.0 Transitional//EN" "http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/DTD/xhtml1-transitional.dtd">
<html class="foo" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">
<head>
<title>Title</title>
</head>
<body>
<p>Text</p>
</body>
</html>

(The DOCTYPE is copied from Wikipedia.) Possibly recent changes to MediaWiki introduced a class for the html element. Ucucha (talk) 21:22, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't think you could have a class= on the <html> - after all, the CSS files are brought in during the <head>...</head> (in our case, with the <link /> elements), which hasn't been parsed yet. --Redrose64 (talk) 21:31, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see class listed as an attribute for <html>.[2] ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 23:43, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

See bug 30497. Reach Out to the Truth 00:34, 29 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hi, I'm the developer who created that patch. There's no technical reason why you can't have a class tag on the <html> tag, CSS is applied to all elements, no matter what their position. I wasn't aware that it would cause a failure in validation, so I'm happy to fix it so that it will be applied to <body> instead. Johnduhart (talk) 01:15, 29 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

large numbers are rendered differently by various servers, leading to number formatting errors.

Large numbers, such as 82000000 are getting rendered as 8.2E+7 by some server (srv*) and as 82000000 by others (wm*). The 8.2E+7 notation causes templates that format numbers (such as {{val}}) to fail and pages using these templates to be rendered incorrectly. It seems obvious that all server should return the same results in order to be able to create reliable rendering of large numbers. Assuming there is no use case for 8.2E+7 notation, I'd like to get all servers to return 82000000 when you type 82000000.

To test this, you can install this Chrome extension I created: it takes the name of the server that rendered each Wikipedia page from the comments inside the HTML and makes it visible at the bottom of the page. Alternatively, you can use view-source to see this information manually. Then try refreshing this page to see how the below test is rendered by various servers:

{{#expr:82000000}} = 82000000

Any help in tracking down people that can help resolve this is appreciated. — SkyLined (talk) 21:55, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

NB: I just found that not all srv* server render it as 8.2E+7: some do, some don't. — SkyLined (talk) 21:57, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This is a known issue, I believe; some of the servers are configured differently than others, and this causes some math operations to return different values depending on the server. Ucucha (talk) 00:43, 29 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This is, AFAIK, ultimately down to features of the operating system and hardware, since MediaWiki uses PHP maths functions, PHP uses the system's native C functions, and the C functions use direct OS/assembler-level maths. Some of the modern servers are 64-bit architecture while the older ones are 32-bit, which probably makes a substantial difference. Essentially not something which is likely to be resolved. Happy‑melon 20:57, 29 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

A long time ago (three years ago, or some such), I recall being told that many changes like this would go away once all the servers were updated to run the same version of PHP, which apparently wasn't the case at the time. Is there any way to tell which version(s) of the infrastructure software are being run currently? Dragons flight (talk) 21:30, 29 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes: Special:Version section "Installed software". --Rogerhc (talk) 23:15, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That only tells you the software on the machine that happens to render it. I was looking for a way to see software usage across the entire production cluster. As established in the bugzilla thread, some machines are using PHP 5.2.4 and others are using 5.3.2. Dragons flight (talk) 23:34, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If you want faster/consistent servers, visit foundation:Fundraising. --Redrose64 (talk) 21:27, 29 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Helpful, Redrose, except for the complete and utter absence of any analysis of a connection between a lack of funding for servers and the issue under discussion. Is there a bugzilla bug filed on this subject, does anyone know? "Not something which is likely to be resolved" somewhat lacks the can-do spirit --Tagishsimon (talk) 21:31, 29 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Funny, that. They are more likely just hire more HR people. Or perhaps another storyteller! Killiondude (talk) 23:01, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

My half-informed guess is that this is likely to be caused by the lucid upgrade. This upgrade is being rolled out to all servers in a staggered fashion, so if we don't fix it, this problem will only get worse over time, as the probability that you'll hit a server that wrongly formats 82000000 as 8.2E+7 rises and eventually becomes 100%. I tried to ping the guy who's doing the lucid upgrades so he can take a look, but since he's not around and since I should really go to sleep now, it's probably best to file this as a bug in Bugzilla. We like bug reports for tracking purposes anyways. --Catrope (talk) 23:14, 29 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm happy to file a bug if you'll tell me where to find the Bugzilla. — SkyLined (talk) 23:19, 29 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Nm; found it using google at [3] — SkyLined (talk) 23:26, 29 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Filed bug 31259. — SkyLined (talk) 23:37, 29 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

5,000-revision deletion limit counted incorrectly

On List of Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards, the page said that there were "3,734 deleted edits" while deleted, but when undeleted (or before it was deleted) says that it has over 5,000 revisions and can only be deleted by a steward. What is the reason for this discrepancy? -- King of ♥ ♦ ♣ ♠ 22:40, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 84#Upper page limit for deletions may answer your question. Jenks24 (talk) 22:49, 28 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Bing isn't updating urls

I moved Bunker (golf) to Hazard (golf) on 14 May 2009. Although Bing has updated the article title in its search results, clicking the link still takes you to the redirect. How do we get Microsoft's attention on this? Marcus Qwertyus 08:42, 29 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Redirecting from Bunker to Hazard is OK on "bunker golf" search, but "Hazard golf" search also links to redirect. Anyway, I think it is rather Bing problem. Bulwersator (talk) 09:32, 29 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud cache of WP

In this arstechnica piece on the Kindle Fire they mention an X-ray read-ahead cache of related Wikipedia content. Does this mean that we should expect Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud to be caching WP from now on? If so, does it open up any new performance possibilities? Just wondering... LeadSongDog come howl! 18:41, 29 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Creating new usernames

A current WP:ANI discussion about a longterm anticontributor leads me to wonder: how does one create an account? I thought that there were only two ways to create accounts (either by creating the account with itself, as I did, or by becoming an AccountCreator), but he's obviously figured out some other way to do it, since surely we didn't give a longtime vandal the AccountCreator right. Nyttend (talk) 04:58, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If I'm right, the Account Creator flag simply removes a limit of 6 accounts/IP address/day. Any user that isn't blocked with "account creation blocked" enabled can create accounts, but anyone who wants to make more than 6/IP address/day needs to have the flag.Jasper Deng (talk) 05:01, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed. Any account which isn't ACB blocked can register more just by visiting signup whilst logged in. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 06:09, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's that signup page I've never before seen. Is it linked from somewhere? I can't get useful results from WhatLinksHere. Nyttend (talk) 11:24, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Special:UserLogin/signup also. The signup is just a version of, and linked from, Special:UserLogin. It's linked specifically from some username block templates, and more generally Special:SpecialPages. However all you need to do is have a browser tab open where you aren't logged in and you can copy-paste or click the link into a new tab all you like (up to the account limit). I expect this vandal also has it has a bookmark. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 11:38, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The main problem with trying to use Special:WhatLinksHere in this manner is that it it doesn't work for virtual namespaces - those with a negative number, such as Special: pages. Another problem is that it only lists links established using wikilinks, not the http: form. --Redrose64 (talk) 14:44, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The first problem is bug 17597. You can vote for it. Helder 17:15, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Problem with Template:Infobox election

Someone in there, there seems to be a problem with a colspan being one greater than it should be. Specifically, if you render United Kingdom general election, 2005 in PDF, the map seems to span one column more than candidates.

I've been trying to figure out where this extra column is comning from for the last few hours, to no avail. Can someone confirm/deny if the colspan is set to 4 throughout the infobox? Headbomb {talk / contribs / physics / books} 06:33, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There is no column span problem, and no extra column. It appears that the PDF renderer ignores the CSS width specified on the tables. So while the browser displays the nested tables at 100% of the width of the outer table, the PDF version sizes it to fit its content and (since the cell content is left-aligned) it leaves empty space on the right. This sounds like something to bring up on Help:Books/Feedback. Anomie ⚔ 11:49, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ah nested tables. Should have known. Headbomb {talk / contribs / physics / books} 15:39, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

dual wikipedia pages

I am in a discussion about the aspartame controversy at NPV. If I do not sign on the discussion is not visible. It appears when I sign on. Is this normal? Do you have dual pages? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Arydberg (talk • contribs) 07:16, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

No, we don't have dual pages, but sometimes an old version gets cached incorrectly. I have purged the page so that the latest version will be copied again to all the Wikipedia servers. You could also try bypassing your browser cache. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:02, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Logged in users are accessing pages using a more frequently updated server while IPs use a server that relies more heavily on cached content. Killiondude (talk) 22:50, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

DNS entry hacked?

Did the main DNS entry get hacked? It whois now shows it as

Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered

with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net

for detailed information.

WIKIPEDIA.ORG.ZZZZZ.GET.LAID.AT.WWW.SWINGINGCOMMUNITY.COM

WIKIPEDIA.ORG.IS.WRONG.GO.4.GULLI.COM

WIKIPEDIA.ORG

And you can't connect. Vegaswikian (talk) 18:57, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It came back for a few and then went down again. Vegaswikian (talk) 19:08, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Where do you get that? whois.org and command-line whois wikipedia.org show normal results for me, and connecting to the site works fine. Ucucha (talk) 19:23, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That's known as "whois spam", and has nothing to do with DNS. Some methods of querying the whois database search for any record containing the entered text (rather than just an exact match), so some spammers include the names of high-profile websites in their own records in some strange attempt to get traffic to their sites. Anomie ⚔ 19:25, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I got that from SamSpade. http://www.internic.net/whois.html also seems to be having trouble finding the site with their whois function. But still no access. Vegaswikian (talk) 19:28, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

For a period commencing approx. 19:00 UTC I was unable to access any Wikipedia page - the error generated by Firefox was something like "Firefox is unable to locate the server at en.wikipedia.org" and the usual "make sure it's spelled correctly" stuff. --Redrose64 (talk) 19:46, 30 September 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Secure login link

I think the secure login link on the login page needs to be changed: it gives https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Special:UserLogin.

However, when switching between wikipedias (interwiki), it goes to a simple https://xx.wikipedia.org --- and therefore logs me out. Choyoołʼįįhí:Seb az86556 ^{> haneʼ} 04:10, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The cross wiki problem is a known issue. I have changed the Login page to point to the new urls. There is one snag, I don't think there is a replacement atm for the "{{#ifeq: {{SERVERNAME}} | secure.wikimedia.org" trick that we used to change the content between secure and insecure servers. If anyone has an idea for a replacement, please do share. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 11:11, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That line is added dynamically in MediaWiki:Loginend when a user is not on secure.wikimedia.org. Unfortunately, there is no magic word to query the used protocol (there is $wgProto, but no {{SERVERPROTO}}), meaning that check will have to be removed. — Edokter (talk) — 11:15, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

bugzilla:31293 proposes to simply split up the user message for the Special:UserLogin page from the server side. That would fix this specific problem. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 22:20, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Great. I hope this will be done for all wikipedias. Choyoołʼįįhí:Seb az86556 ^{> haneʼ} 02:35, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Bandwidth throttling

Does wikipedia use bandwidth throttling, and if yes which conditions engage/disengage it ? Gzilirion (talk) 07:00, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

To my knowledge, there is no throttling of any kind. — Edokter (talk) — 11:20, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Database_download#Sample_blocked_crawler_email Bulwersator (talk) 11:23, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Suggestion re some images

Would it be feasible to have a prefference option so that stuff tagged as {{badimage}} will not display, thumbnail or make http requests for the image at all?

This would be of great assistance to certain users that don't want to see that sort of content. Sfan00 IMG (talk) 10:52, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Have you seen a little something called the image filter? Ironholds (talk) 10:55, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image_filter_referendum Bulwersator (talk) 11:19, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]
Help:Options to not see an image. -- zzuuzz ^(talk) 11:25, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=31298 - I've put in an 'enhancement' request.. Sfan00 IMG (talk) 19:04, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Auto-include talk header template

I suggest that the wiki software auto-included {{talk header}} at the top of every talk page at the moment of its creation. It's a really good reminder for experienced editors and a good intro for new editors. Maybe even create a bot to add it at the top of every page that lacks it now. Thanks for listening! Woz2 (talk) 17:10, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If we want that thing on every page, let's do it in some sensible way—sitewide JavaScript or a MediaWiki message—not by transcluding a template on every single talk page on this project. Ucucha (talk) 17:13, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The documentation currently states "This template should be used only when needed. There is no need to add this template to every talk page." Has consensus changed on that? I hope not. Anomie ⚔ 17:31, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It also states that it is "intended to be used on particularly active talk pages that attract commentary from inexperienced editors, and/or high levels of debate from everyone", none of which can possibly apply to non-existent pages. --Redrose64 (talk) 18:18, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Hmmm... What's the downside of including it? Woz2 (talk) 17:39, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Clutter. At one time, absent talk pages were commoner than talk pages that existed; so the "discussion" link being coloured blue could be seen as an indicator that discussion had started. Then WikiProject banners were invented, and so the red "discussion" link is a rarity. Many talk pages (like this one) consist of nothing but project banners, there is no discussion as such. These are tolerated, but I doubt that a general use of {{talk header}} would be. --Redrose64 (talk) 18:18, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ok Thanks! Woz2 (talk) 18:23, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Server error

I keep getting the following error message when I attempt a contributions search in the Wikipedia Talk namespace:

Proxy Error

The proxy server received an invalid response from an upstream server. The proxy server could not handle the request GET /wikipedia/en/w/index.php.

Reason: Error reading from remote server

Apache/2.2.8 (Ubuntu) mod_fastcgi/2.4.6 PHP/5.2.4-2ubuntu5.12wm1 with Suhosin-Patch mod_ssl/2.2.8 OpenSSL/0.9.8g Server at secure.wikimedia.org Port 443

Does anyone have any idea why this is happening? ---RepublicanJacobite_TheFortyFive 18:12, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I am still waiting and hoping for an answer to this question, because I am still getting this error message when I attempt to do a contributions search in the Wikipedia Talk namespace. I have not been able to conduct such a search in days, and it is rather frustrating. ---RepublicanJacobite_TheFortyFive 16:30, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Try using the new HTTPS servers NEW server. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 17:02, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah, that connected right away. Thanks! ---RepublicanJacobite_TheFortyFive 17:38, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Edit notice on BLP articles

Resolved

– With many thanks for the friendly help from David Göthberg, TheDJ, Anomie, Edokter, and Redrose64. Now all BLP edits show the important notice, rather than just a minority of them. First Light (talk) 15:04, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

There is a very helpful edit notice that was created for Biographies of Living Persons, but unfortunately it only shows up when you click the "edit this page" at the top of the article. Never when you click to "edit" a section of a BLP article. Go to Fareed Zakaria, the most recent BLP I edited, to see what I mean. All BLP articles exhibit this bug. Since the vast majority of edits are made to individual sections, can this be fixed so that the edit notice appears on all edits made to BLP articles? Thanks, First Light (talk) 19:43, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This is a known problem, and it's been mentioned before. The relevant JavaScript is MediaWiki:Common.js and the notice is Template:BLP editintro; the doc page for that states "this edit intro is shown automatically when editing a page categorized as either Category:Living people or Category:Possibly living people, provided that the edit page is accessed through the main edit tab". See also WP:EDITINTRO and MediaWiki talk:Common.js/Archive 16#BLP editintro. --Redrose64 (talk) 20:08, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I see. Too bad, since it does very little good the way it stands. If this could be fixed, it would help with one of Wikipedia's worst problems (certainly the worst public relations problem): people using Wikipedia articles to attack their enemies. See an example here.[4] First Light (talk) 20:43, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If somebody is determined to defame another, they will ignore the {{BLP editintro}} whether it's shoved in their face or not. Wikipedia:Vandalism gives advice on spotting and dealing with cases like this. --Redrose64 (talk) 21:27, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

But for new editors and vandals, it will make them think twice, or maybe find a reference. I've also seen both new and long-time editors unknowingly violate BLP policies. As far as the PR issue, it only confirms to the press that we aren't doing everything we can to protect the reputations of innocent people. Though I do very much appreciate what we are doing on Wikipedia with limited volunteer technical time and expertise. First Light (talk) 21:47, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I see two ways we can fix this:

1: We could use a for-loop: Currently the code in MediaWiki:Common.js looks for Category:Living people and Category:Possibly living people and if they exist then adds "&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" to the edit link at the top of the page. This happens when we view the page, before we click the edit link. As far as I can see we can add a for-loop that locates all the section edit links since they are clearly marked with <span class="editsection">, and then add the same "&editintro=Template:BLP_editintro" to all those section edit links.

2: We could use a hidden category and an ajax call: I have noticed that hidden categories are visible on the edit page even if we edit another section than the one that adds the category. So we could add a hidden BLP category to all BLP pages (perhaps automatically by using the infoboxes). Then we can use javascript that runs when we edit the page (not before we edit the page) and checks for that category and then uses an ajax call to render {{BLP editintro}} and inserts it.

I prefer method one above (for-loop) since it is simpler to implement, it costs less server resources, and I am sure it will work. While I don't know enough about ajax coding to even be sure that method two would work. However, my javascript skills are too rusty and I am semi-retired from Wikipedia so you guys need to ask the experts over at MediaWiki talk:Common.js to implement it.

--David Göthberg (talk) 23:21, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank You! A possible solution for something that is worth solving. I'll put a note over there, including a paste of your message, to see what they can do. Regards, First Light (talk) 23:39, 1 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Done. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:37, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Well done, and thanks. First Light (talk) 14:57, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Dis needed in Template:WikiProject Royalty

Hmmm, how do I disambiguate royalty to royal family in Template:WikiProject Royalty? I am not seeing it linked there... --_{Piotr Konieczny aka Prokonsul Piotrus| talk to me} 01:51, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It uses {{WPBannerMeta}}, which automatically generates the link (and all the rest of the box). In this case, you'd want to use |MAIN_ARTICLE=[[Royal family|Royalty]] (if there is consensus for the change, of course). Anomie ⚔ 02:00, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Similar to this edit which I did for WikiProject Mills over a year ago. --Redrose64 (talk) 12:47, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Show recent edits to pages I've edited

I'd like a page that can do something like "show me all recent edits to pages I've edited in the last n days", where "recent" is defined as "since the last time I edited that page". For bonus points, it could exclude pages where the only edits I made were marked as minor. Does anyone know of such a thing? Toohool (talk) 05:41, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Use " Add pages I edit to my watchlist"? Bulwersator (talk) 05:52, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The problem with that is that I don't want to watch those pages forever. If I leave a message on someone's talkpage, for example, I don't want to see every message that someone else leaves until forever. Toohool (talk) 06:03, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

See Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)/Archive 77#Functionality on "my contributions" for a discussion of User:Markhurd/hidetopcontrib.js, which approaches the functionality you want.-gadfium 07:49, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That's somewhat helpful, but doesn't fully solve the problem. After I see that I'm no longer the top edit and look at the history of a page, there's no further indication if another edit happens. And later on, I might forget that I already looked at that page. The ideal tool I'm looking for would show all edits subsequent to mine, sorted by most recent. Toohool (talk) 17:44, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

History pages over at Commons show a marker reading updated since my last visit against recent edits. --Redrose64 (talk) 18:11, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like the sort of thing that could be done using the API and a a script in your .js page. Basic idea would to create a dynamic "watchlist" from pages you recently edited and use the API to check for changes. Changes could be shown in a separate section of your watchlist.

I'd be interested in trying it. I don't think it would be too hard. It would be useful. I'm busy for the next couple of days, however. --RA (talk) 19:03, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Updating Template:Tel Aviv suburban railway map

Recently, a new line was openned by Israel Railways. Unfortunately, I doin't quite undrstand how to edit {{Tel Aviv suburban railway map}} correctly. Please update it in the following way:

The line from HaRishonim ends at TA Savidor Central.
The line from Hod Hasharon Sokolov goes to the end of Tel Aviv (Tel Aviv HaHagana), and then goes to the following stations (all new, not accessable):

An updated map on the company's site can be found at http://rail.co.il/HE/Stations/Map/Pages/RouteMap.aspx. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 15:02, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Doing... I'll take this - I've amended many RDTs in the past. --Redrose64 (talk) 15:27, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Done Five new stations, but only three new rows required. --Redrose64 (talk) 16:19, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I can't access mobile.wikipedia.org since October 1, 2011. My browser gives me a parser error.

I am using a Samsung SCH-U430 cell phone to access the moblle version of Wikipedia. The URL that I have always used is http://mobile.wikipedia.org. All of a sudden the link won't work today, I get the error message "Parser Error". My phone is using Obigo Browser Q04C1-1.22 built on Apr 27 2010. I have tried other URL's such as m.wikipedia.org, en.mobile.wikipedia.org, and en.m.wikipedia.org. They still give me the same parser error. I also notice that that mobile Wikipedia site is a beta version. Can anybody help me out to get mobile Wikipedia working again on my phone? All my other bookmarks and other websites that I go to work as before. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 70.81.58.142 (talk) 16:34, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This is because the old WAP 1.0 server (mobile.wikipedia.org) was switching to the new m.wikipedia.org mobileFrontend. This mobile frontend does support wap, but it only paginates per header, not by a fixed size. So likely the server is sending way too much data towards the user, and probably invalid WML as well, causing these errors. I think this switch should be undone, the new fronted is totally not ready to support WAP yet, as I have told the team multiple times. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 17:07, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

bugzilla:31310 —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 20:27, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Until this issue is fixed I've been using http://wapedia.mobi/en/ — Preceding unsigned comment added by Barrymtl (talk • contribs) 17:26, 3 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Mobile fontend general (maybe dumb) question

I'm posting this here 'cause you guys are quickest to respond: How does the content for the mobile frontpage end up at http://en.mobile.wikipedia.org/ ? The one @nv is empty right now, and I'm trying figure out where I'd need to put whatever should be shown there. I found the headers in the system-messages, but where's the body of the blurp/how does it get there? Choyoołʼįįhí:Seb az86556 ^{> haneʼ} 20:41, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

One way to have a mobile main page is to add ids beginning with "mf-" to elements that should be displayed on mobile (ie <div id="mf-foo">content</div>). (This isn't the method used by enwp.) See m:Mobile Projects/Mobile Gateway. --Yair rand (talk) 22:52, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

(e/c) http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mobile_Projects/Mobile_Gateway#Selectors should help you. I don't think you need to add a bugzilla ticket anymore, just add the selectors to the relevant sections. You can look at the (normal) english mainpage with the "View source" option of your browser to see how it was done for en.wp or use the mf- method. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 22:57, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

AH! good pointer. thanks. Choyoołʼįįhí:Seb az86556 ^{> haneʼ} 23:38, 2 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

PDF generation does not work

See WP:HD#Render Server Error since October 2, 2011. It seems articles can no longer be downloaded as PDF. Does anybody know what the problem is and when it will be fixed? Toshio Yamaguchi (talk) 17:46, 3 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

watchlist tweak: is this possible?

It seems to me it should be possible to tweak a watchlist so that pages I have been active on in the last X days are highlighted (or possibly even separated into their own section). That would save a lot of digging through stuff I'm merely watching to get to stuff where I'm currently an active participant. There's no way to do this through CSS alone, obviously, but does anyone know if there's a javascript tool that can do it? or would this require developer intervention? --Ludwigs2 17:54, 3 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Personally I've found that using 'my contributions' with the 'hide top contribs' script makes it a lot easier to find my contributions to pages that may need following up on. –xeno^talk 17:57, 3 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Link to Hide Top Contribs. Also, a shameless plug for my own Mark Edits After My Own, which does something similar but instead of hiding Top edits, instead just highlights all pages that are NOT Top and are NOT on your watchlist (therefore drawing your attention to pages that require your attention since you no longer have the most recent edit on that page and the page is not on your watchlist). So I use my contribution page and my watchlist in combination, in this manner, by watching pages with few edits and by not watching pages with plenty of edits and instead using my contributions page for those instead, so that my watchlist doesn't get filled up. Gary King (talk · scripts) 19:53, 3 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

revisiting usbk/usbktop widths

Please discuss my suggestion. ⇔ ChristTrekker 18:32, 3 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Native HTTPS support enabled

Please help in updating out scripts to no longer use secure.wikimedia.org work-arounds and use protocol-relative urls to Wikimedia domains (i.e. //upload.wikimedia.org instead of http://upload.wikimedia.org.

Thanks, Krinkle (talk) 20:36, 3 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This might be useful to work from, especially if someone finds a way to filter it by namespace (only template is really interesting). Ucucha (talk) 22:00, 3 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Couldn't you have just got a single certificate that covered all the wikimedia domains rather than giving to give every domain it's own IP? Plugwash (talk) 04:01, 4 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

No. Certificates don't work that way.--Ryan lane (talk) 18:27, 4 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, the Subject Alternative Name field can allow a certificate to work that way. Its main limitation, according to a DigiCert web page, is that mobile devices running Palm OS or old versions of Symbian OS do not recognize it. PleaseStand ^(talk) 20:53, 4 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Also one thing that doesn't seem to be made clear about the new https system. Is login information protected in any way as it passes between "esams" and "pmtpa"? Plugwash (talk) 04:17, 4 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The information is not. For the majority of the requests there is no traffic between esams and pmtpa, so any tracking that could happen at that level is pretty limited. We are looking at ways to protect this information as well, though.--Ryan lane (talk) 18:28, 4 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like the current state on this is that traffic between the Amsterdam proxies and the US-based servers is still unencrypted HTTP (same as they were before, with or without the secure.wikimedia.org gateway). This does in principle leave that traffic vulnerable to sniffing from the US or Dutch governments or a couple of large corporations. This could be changed to run over an encrypted VPN or something, but we've so far considered that a lower priority than protecting against the "hostile local network or internet provider" case -- which SSL on the front-end protects you against. --brion (talk) 18:18, 4 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Scripts that need updating

These scripts need updating to use protocol-relative URLs...

User:TheDJ/Gadget-HotCat.js (done)
User:Henrik/js/afc-helper.js (done)
User:Dr pda/prosesize.js (done)
User:AndyZ/peerreviewer.js (done for all but the preview part, since that is so complicated, it needs a lot of time)
User:SQL/userinfo2.js (done)
User:Ale jrb/Scripts/csdhelper.js (done)
User:Quarl/wikipage.js (not done, don't understand the script)
User:Shubinator/DYKcheck.js

Hope that helps. —Tom Morris (talk) 13:38, 4 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've done as much as i can do. Someone please use the scripts extensively to make sure i didn't break anything. I note that most of these issues would not have existed if people had been using wgScript, wgScriptPath or wgArticlePath. Please people, only use absolute paths in scripts, if you need to go cross wiki. if you stay within the same wiki, we have these perfectly usable global variables, that are there to prevent problems like this and also make you script much more portable for other wiki users. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 19:40, 4 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I've added one that doesn't work. →Σ ⚑ ☭ 04:27, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

JavaScript help needed

I need a snippet of JavaScript that will triggers the p-cactions menu in Vector to show. It must do so by triggering an event like :hover, and must not change any CSS propereties. (I need this to fix a small bug in my MenuTabsToggle gadget, where IE immediately hides the menu after toggling to menus, despite the mouse hovering over the arrow that normally triggers it to show.) — Edokter (talk) — 07:49, 4 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Never mind; I restructured some HTML and it seems the IE bug magically disappeared. — Edokter (talk) — 15:03, 4 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Template issue with Template:Lz12 and Template:Lz

Resolved

– The Lz12 template was modified to remove the deleted Lz template. --Kumioko (talk) 15:09, 4 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The template {{Lz12}} contains a deleted template of {{lz}} and I am not sure what this template affects so before I start messing with it and break something else I wanted to drop it here for comments. --Kumioko (talk) 13:06, 4 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The original for that deleted template may be found at meta:Template:Lz. --Redrose64 (talk) 13:40, 4 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, do you have any advice for how to fix this template? --Kumioko (talk) 13:48, 4 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

{{lz}} only occurs within the "noinclude" part of the template. Changing those lines isn't going to damage anything. I suggest you just remove the three lines from "Compare..." to "123}}". -- John of Reading (talk) 13:59, 4 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you its done and I have marked this discussion as resolved. --Kumioko (talk) 15:09, 4 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like we've been upgraded

MW 1.18 is apparently here (Special:Version). There are a few teething issues (sidebar not collapsible, no edit toolbar... looks like ResourceLoader is dead). — This, that, and the other (talk) 00:31, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Scripts are back. The Twinkle drop-down menu is now broken, so that will need to be fixed... aside from that, all seems to be OK. — This, that, and the other (talk) 00:34, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Closing AfDs, the text in the "closing" and "relist" boxes is now like this and straining the eyes, is that a temporary thing I hope? - The Bushranger _{One ping only} 00:37, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Not only is the Twinkle menu visually broken, but the scripts themselves are still having issues. I just now got a "User talk page modification: Unknown error received from API while saving page" error. Regards, Orange Suede Sofa (talk) 00:38, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

And Twinkle is occasionally 'hanging' while closing AfDs. Sigh! - The Bushranger _{One ping only} 00:52, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I notice all the tabs and sidebar links are underlined now. It looks pretty ugly (but I still much prefer the underlines in the body which is why I have that setting.). Also, the 'm' and 'b' notes on the watchlist aren't bold any more. ♫ Melodia Chaconne ♫ (talk) 01:55, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

My watchlist isn't working correctly. Multiple changes to the same page are supposed to be collapsed together, but it's not working... Also, there's an odd glitch with the down arrow next to Twinkle, the page menu gadget, etc. It's showing 5 times in a row, the same distance apart, and the text goes in front of it. Might either of these things have to do with the new version? →Dynamic|cimanyD← (contact me) 02:47, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

In the "user contributions" list the ability to filter by namespace is gone.[5] Will Beback talk 01:55, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This was reported on bugzilla:31197. Helder 02:05, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Citations in {{reflist|group=upper-alpha}} are broken, see South American dreadnought race#Footnotes. There's also an extra drop-down arrow over "TW" in the top right corner (presumably only for users of Twinkle). Ed ^{[talk] [majestic titan]} 02:46, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

See #bug in #tag:ref parser function. I did fix one use that had quotes around "upper-alpha"— see Help:Cite link labels. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 09:51, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I have the same arrow problem, except since I use this I have several extra arrows. →Dynamic|cimanyD← (contact me) 02:50, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

User talk:72.27.85.119 is also borked in a really weird way... Hersfold ^(t/a/c) 03:05, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yet a permanent link to the current revision of the page works just fine. →Dynamic|cimanyD← (contact me) 03:08, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

One good thing I noticed is the message you see when you watch/unwatch a page now slides down smoothly, instead of just appearing. →Dynamic|cimanyD← (contact me) 03:10, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The letter tags for minor edits ("m") and bot edits ("b") in page histories and my watchlist are no longer showing in bold type for me. —{|Retro00064|☎talk|✍contribs|} 03:14, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wasn't it possible before to click on links in diffs? That no longer works. Orange Suede Sofa (talk) 03:18, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

What do you mean? —{|Retro00064|☎talk|✍contribs|} 03:28, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Wikilinks in the body of diffs used to be displayed with markup (e.g. [[foo]] instead of foo), but were still clickable. Now they are still displayed with markup but are not clickable. Or at least I think it used to work that way. I remember it being very useful when verifying sources directly from a diff. Orange Suede Sofa (talk) 03:46, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Unless there's a local site hack or gadget that I'm overlooking, I don't think that was ever the case. You can check a diff on dewiki (which is still running 1.17) for comparison.--Eloquence * 04:08, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, you're right. I have "Improved diff view" checked in my gadget preferences. I'm assuming that is it. Ok, then... that's broken. Regards, Orange Suede Sofa (talk) 04:13, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I came over here hoping to find out why, since approximately 00:00 UTC today, any page looks as if I hadn't logged in or my monobook skin disappeared. Tabs which were at top of page (history, edit, talk, etc.) are gone, though a search down the page found the functions themselves. The entire left margin (with the Wikipedia globe and links to the Main Page and all sorts of other functions) is gone. It was OK on Wikimedia Commons for about an hour then, but the same thing had gone whacko there when I returned after a few hours offline. If an upgrade caused this, I hope there's a downgrade very soon... – Athaenara ✉ 07:49, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Is this also the reason why the website keeps crashing? I've just wasted an hour trying to edit one page. DrKiernan (talk) 08:32, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, seems so. It works in Mozilla but not Explorer. DrKiernan (talk) 09:06, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Invisible block: should blocked user be told automatically how to get third party review?

I was told on my talk page that my bot account had been blocked. However, I can't see any indication of the block. I don't want to try much testing in case it gets this account blocked too.

I'm not seeking opinions on the merits of the block. I'm sure that will all be sorted out. I'm merely seeking technical help on the following:

why is the block invisible to me at the blocked account (Lightbot) even if I log in as that account?
I understand blocked users are told how to get a third party review. Why is that also not visible to me?
what is the method of getting third party review?

Thanks. Lightmouse (talk) 01:07, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Log/block&page=User%3ALightbot shows the block fairly clearly. ΔT _{^{The only constant}} 01:10, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I didn't know of that page. Is there a particular reason why blocks don't show at user pages? Lightmouse (talk) 01:45, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

it only shows in the block log and on the contribs page. ΔT _{^{The only constant}} 01:46, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The log exists for other users to see the block. It is prepended to the user's contributions page, and to their userpage if it is empty. The user who is blocked will receive this message when they try to edit, explaining who blocked them, when, for how long, why, as well as giving four ways to appeal. Prodego ^talk 01:49, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting. Why don't we tell users before they try to edit? Lightmouse (talk) 01:53, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Tell them what before they try to edit, exactly? That they're blocked? KillerChihuahua^?!?Advice 03:11, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Talk pages: new users - unable to create page

Unable to create talk page for new users, for example to place CSD and/PROD warnings. --Kudpung กุดผึ้ง (talk) 03:43, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

If you tried with Twinkle, I reported a similar problem above. However, I can still create pages manually. In fact, I just did so. Regards, Orange Suede Sofa (talk) 03:53, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I believe we just fixed this problem about 10 min ago. Please try it again. Thanks! -- RobLa-WMF (talk) 04:30, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Twinkle's AIV tab doesn't work either. →Σ ⚑ ☭ 04:28, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Different formatting of categories?

It looks like the categories box at the bottom of most pages has been reformatted to include more space between the category names. Where was this discussed or where would it be discussed? --Metropolitan90 (talk) 05:20, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I believe it was a result of the MW 1.18 rollout (see above). Not sure where you would go to discuss it, someone else might, though. Jenks24 (talk) 05:23, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

...I just noticed that now that you mentioned it. It looks horrible. So does text in the close/relist AfD boxes being this size. - The Bushranger _{One ping only} 05:44, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Looks good - more modern and Vector-ish, in my opinion - unlike the old category-link style that was left over from Monobook. — This, that, and the other (talk) 05:52, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That's all well and good - except I have (and prefer) Monobook, and would like to at least have the option to have the old style display. - The Bushranger _{One ping only} 06:03, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It does look terrible on Monobook. "More modern" does not necessarily mean "better". --jpgordon^{::==( o )} 06:13, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I can imagine that it would jar with the small, sharp style of Monobook. Perhaps we can change it locally through MediaWiki:monobook.css? — This, that, and the other (talk) 06:36, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I use the classic monobook as well, and yes, the categories look weird. The tiny inline icon that used to appear after an external link is now missing too... all I see there now, is a blank whitespace. -- WikHead (talk) 07:45, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It looks terrible in Monobook, so I just now switched to Vector, and I think it looks just as bad in Vector. --NSH001 (talk) 09:09, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like it was done in rev:92054 (bugzilla:12261), due to the change in how they are rendered. Peachey88 ^{(T · C)} 08:02, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Enhanced recent changes doesn't work

Enhanced recent changes is no longer working on my account. Is this the case for others, or am I alone in this problem?

I have used the feature for years, without problem. But this morning, it simply does not work. My watchlist appears, with all of the diffs displayed, rather than collapsed. as usual. Other Java features seem to work normally, so I don't think I have a Java problem. Has there been any change made overnight which could have caused this?

I have checked my preferences, and "enable enhanced recent changes" is checked. I have rebooted my computer, in case something hadn't loaded properly; but this makes no difference. Please help, as it is difficult navigating a long watchlist with all diffs displayed. RolandR (talk) 08:12, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That would be bugzilla:31358, also strange question, What skin are you running?. Peachey88 ^{(T · C)} 08:44, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Vector. Looking at the contributions above, it is clear that others are experiencing this issue, and that it is related to the latest upgrade. I hope it can be resolved soon. RolandR (talk) 08:51, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

1.18 issues

We've gone 1.18 (yay!). Unfortunately, not without any hickups that are sure to be fixed very soon. Please list your issues here. — Edokter (talk) — 09:08, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Special:PrefixIndex

When transluded on a page, Special:PrefixIndex is broken in that it displays in a table that no longer has it's width set to 98%, resulting in the links being cramped together like so:

But on it's own page (Special:PrefixIndex/User:Edokter), display is OK. It seems when transcluded, the CSS for #mw-prefixindex-list-table doesn't seem to get picked up. — Edokter (talk) — 09:08, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I see the CSS for the prefindex table is loaded trough the mediawiki.special module, which apparently is not loaded if you are not viewing a special page. That means that any special content transcluded on a normal page will not have it's accociated CSS loaded at all. — Edokter (talk) — 09:13, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Down-arrow in dropdown menu

The down arrow on top of the drop down menu (in Vector) is one pixel off (to the left). The arrow icon has been changed to enable highlighting, but some CSS may not have been updated. — Edokter (talk) — 12:14, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

bug in #tag:ref parser function

I guess this is yet another problem with the MW 1.18 rollout above.

When a <ref> tag is used within a note which is itself within a #tag:ref function, the superscript appears as a very long (and ugly) string (representing the internal link to the cite) instead of the normal small numeral. The link is still clickable and works fine, apart from the very ugly and off-putting display. Example at User:NSH001/sandbox.

--NSH001 (talk) 09:02, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Confirmed. This breaks {{refn}}. I think we have seen this one before. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 09:06, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Err, does that mean it's going to be fixed? It's been working fine (for months, at least) until now. --NSH001 (talk) 09:12, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

See the section above this one, and see an example of the damage: Prince George of Denmark#Notes. DrKiernan (talk) 09:11, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

All refs on that page contain nested <ref> tags; I don't think that is even supported... — Edokter (talk) — 09:17, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Support was added in rev:33066. {{refn}} has been working until now. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 09:29, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

It's the way suggested at WP:REFNEST when one wants to place a reference in a footnote. DrKiernan (talk) 09:25, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

For more examples, see Anna Essinger#Footnotes and Bunce Court School#Footnotes and Sir Arthur Harris, 1st Baronet#References. Hope this is fixed soon! Marrante (talk) 09:16, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

~~Already reported as Template:Bug.~~ ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 09:29, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Has this been fixed? I'm not seeing it. Ucucha (talk) 11:33, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Nope, still not working. --NSH001 (talk) 11:38, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Per Happy-melon on previous issues:

The "uniq...quinu" strings are strip markers: placeholders that the parser inserts to say "more complicated content will go here". Exposing strip markers, which is what is happening here, occurs when badly-formed code in MediaWiki causes the parser to be reset, and lose its memory of which strip marker corresponds to which piece of special content.

Logged as Template:Bug. If you see the strip marker below, then it is still broken; if you see "Fixed now!", then it is fixed. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 12:07, 5 October 2011 (UTC) ^{[note 1]}[reply]

^ ^[1]

Wikilinks in diffs no longer clickable

Can't click on wikilinks in diffs (or, more usefully, get them to show in popups). A big time-waster. --NSH001 (talk) 10:13, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

That wasn't core functionality, that is a gadget which is currently broken as to my understanding. Peachey88 ^{(T · C)} 11:43, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Improved diff view not working

This gadget is no longer working (preferences/gadgets/editing), at least in Monobook. Very annoying. --NSH001 (talk) 10:13, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

External link icon

I know I mentioned this above already... and I'm really not as concerned about the return of the EL icon as I am the double space it's leaving before punctuation. This is bad form that I'll never get used to looking at. (see screen-cap at Image Shack). -- WikHead (talk) 10:42, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The icon displays perfectly for me, in both Monobook and Vector, so I suspect the problem may be something other than the upgrade. --NSH001 (talk) 10:56, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Try clearing your browser cache. That can help to refresh the style files. — This, that, and the other (talk) 11:16, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Watchlist doesn't collapse

It says

Error: $that.attr("id") is undefined
Source File: https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/w/index.php?title=MediaWiki:JQuery-makeCollapsible.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript
Line: 230

on Special:Watchlist, and for pages where there have been multiple edits, those do not collapse into a single line per page. Ucucha (talk) 11:26, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) I was just about to say that enhanced recent changes isn't working for me either, on recent changes or my watchlist. Grouping works, not collapsing. →Dynamic|cimanyD← (contact me) 11:30, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

To clarify, this is in Firefox 6.0.2 on Vector. The error console gives the error I pasted above twice, plus the following one:

Error: uncaught exception: Syntax error, unrecognized expression: [href*=&days=7]

I haven't tried turning off other scripts yet. Ucucha (talk) 11:43, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Classic skin sidebar

(e/c/) I don't know if it's due to 1.18, or someones been altering the css/js, but I'm getting two separator bars between "Contact Wikipedia" and "Edit this page" on the sidebar of Classic Skin, when looking at editable pages. Not a major issue, but it looks wrong.—An optimist on the run! 11:36, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I'm seeing large gaps between the various sections, i.e. between Donate to Wikipedia and Search etc.... The Rambling Man (talk) 12:09, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I was seeing that too. I changed to the Vector skin, and it's OK now. Voceditenore (talk) 12:53, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Twinkle bug, possibly caused by upgrade?

Okay, Twinkle is down for me. No little 'TW' in the corner; just tried to revert an edit using Twinkle but the usual [ROLLBACK (AGF)] [ROLLBACK] [ROLLBACK (VANDAL)] buttons didn't appear. HurricaneFan 25 11:56, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Same issue here. –Drilnoth (T/C) 13:15, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Collapsible navboxes

Navboxes no longer collapse. DrKiernan (talk) 12:01, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Works for me. Can you give some examples? --NSH001 (talk) 12:22, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

All the boxes at the bottom of Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh used to collapse. Now they are all fully expanded for me. DrKiernan (talk) 12:43, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, they work in Explorer but not Firefox. (I've just switched to Firefox because I can't edit in Explorer anymore.) DrKiernan (talk) 12:47, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

They are all expanded for me in IE8. Problems were also reported at WP:HD regarding Steve Bruce. - David Biddulph (talk) 12:50, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The new Sorting breaks all tables arround Wikipedia which include two headers

The issue is that the new Sorting applying in the past few days breaks all tables arround Wikipedia which includes two headers once you sort one.

Exemples (there are many more but posted the ones I use to edit):

– HonorTheKing (talk) 12:00, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I can't see any sortable tables on either of those articles (using IE8). - David Biddulph (talk) 12:17, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

And looking at the wikisource it says unsortable. Where are you finding something sortable? - David Biddulph (talk) 12:19, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Both tables are sortable, (IE9, Chrome, Firefox) not sure why you can't see them. exept of Ref they both sort. they sort for me but they break and merge the headers.

In addition, if you press the wikilinked in the header it sort the table and not go to the pressed linked.

Exemple: If you press FA Cup it sort it but not direct to it. It used to direct while pressing the names, and only by pressing the up and down icons it sorted.
– HonorTheKing (talk) 12:32, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The second table titled "List of Manchester United F.C. players with at least 100 appearances". In IE9 and FF7, clicking on a sort arrow creates a second header row with the Appearances title cell in the leftmost column followed by the other title cells. In IE9, when I clock on a sort arrow, it pushes the table below the images. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 12:37, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Looking again at the wikisource the one in List of Manchester United F.C. seasons does say sortable and one of the tables in List of Manchester United F.C. players does too, though others are unsortable. I don't know why they don't appear sortable for me. Perhaps it's connected with the new software? - David Biddulph (talk) 12:44, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The sort buttons are still there, but are now smaller (and nicer, I think). As far as I can remember, though, sorting tables with more than one row of headers has always been dodgy, which is why, when I create a new sortable table, I restrict it to one row of headers. --NSH001 (talk) 12:53, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

They sorted well before. No issues or something like that. The few issues were fixed few weeks ago after improving all tables after FLC talk for ACCESS. In past and now aswell, the two headers always included the sorting icons in the first header while the second didn't have one, but it was able to sort.

The Russian Wikipedia uses the same table format and as it uses the old Wikipedia Version you can see how it works there. Russian Page for ManUtd players
– HonorTheKing (talk) 12:59, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Related: No sort arrows

There are no sorting arrow buttons in at least some lists, including List of songs in Green Day: Rock Band and List of Rock Band Network songs, although the text is indented as though they were present, and clicking anywhere in the header sorts the table. –Drilnoth (T/C) 13:11, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Namespace option on contribution history

There used to be (12 hours ago or so) a "Namespace" option on the contributions history pages. Did it disappear for everyone? I've tried switching my interface language back to English from Dutch, and my skin from Monobook back to Vector, and it stays gone.—Kww(talk) 11:34, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Gone for me, missed your while I was writing mine below.--Crossmr (talk) 11:42, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

User contributions is lacking search-by-namespace function

I'll be short. My User contributions is normal and functional otherwise, but it's missing the droplist for Search by namespace. It works normally in all other wikipedias and Commons too, but not here. I want it back :( Pitke (talk) 06:35, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

This function was removed at the request of Domas, one of the developers. No-one knows what his reason for requesting this change was. Apparently, "if we don't hear from him [Domas] by the end of this week, then I'll suggest that the change be backed out." See mediazilla:31197. — This, that, and the other (talk) 06:43, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I want it back as well. I often used that feature. -- Alan Liefting (talk) - 07:42, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I also use the function, though if there were a very good reason for removing it I suppose I could live without it. Will Beback talk 07:54, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, let's have that back. –xeno^talk 12:38, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The entries in my Watchlist are now all expanded rather than being collapsed. Would this be a related issue? -- Alan Liefting (talk) - 07:50, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

For me, the contribs dropdown menu for search by namespace is gone both here and on Wikimedia Commons. – Athaenara ✉ 07:58, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I have both of those probs

Sp33dyphil ^{"Ad astra"} 08:43, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Can't filter contribs by namespace??

Did I miss a memo? When did this happen? I was just checking out contribs and I can no longer select a drop-box to filter by name space (article/talk/wikipedia/etc). This was insanely useful. Why was this removed?--Crossmr (talk) 11:42, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Confirmed. This did work yesterday. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 11:58, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

See immediately preceding subsection. –xeno^talk 12:54, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Some JS tools broken

A couple javascript tools (User:Dr pda/prosesize.js, User:Dr pda/prosesizebytes.js, User:Shubinator/DYKcheck.js) are no longer working on Firefox. rʨanaɢ (talk) 13:04, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Buttons in editing bar don't work

Since yesterday, every page loads with an error message at the bottom of my browser (IE7). The error seems to manifest itself in the editing bar, e.g. etc. None of the buttons in the bar work when you click on them. Voceditenore (talk) 13:13, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Missing text when saving

Hello, I have just created and saved a draft user page (FionaSturgeon/ChangeBASE), however the saved version does not show all the content I put in at the creation stage. When I go to edit, the text in question reappears, so it definitely is there in some form but is not being displayed for whatever reason. I am using Google Chrome.

Does anyone else have this issue, or know how I go about fixing it? I am new to Wikipedia so it is likely that I'm missed something - any help would be appreciated.

Many thanks, Fiona — Preceding unsigned comment added by FionaSturgeon (talk • contribs) 13:07, 5 October 2011 (UTC)[reply]

[2] [1]

[1] Fixed now!

[note 1]

[1]

Is this *ever* going to be fixed?