Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)

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The technical section of the village pump is used to discuss technical issues about Wikipedia. Bug reports and feature requests should be made in Phabricator (see how to report a bug). Bugs with security implications should be reported differently (see how to report security bugs).

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Page stats tool effects unclear

I installed the following editing tool in my common.js page and when I open VE or source editing I don't see any difference. It says it adds more links to the toolbox. What toolbox does it mean? Qwerty284651 (talk) 06:30, 9 February 2024 (UTC)

@Qwerty284651 Replicating the mw.util.addPortletLink(..) function call, it seems it adds them to the end of the "Tools" dropdown menu to the right of "View history" at the top right of the page. – 143.208.236.146 (talk) 07:14, 9 February 2024 (UTC)

Thanks. Qwerty284651 (talk) 03:46, 10 February 2024 (UTC)

It's also debatable if ten year old scripts still function well. Sjoerd de Bruin (talk) 09:07, 11 February 2024 (UTC)

Of the four links that that tool adds, only one currently works. http://stats.grok.se/ should probably be changed to WikiShark, and the other two are down until Dispenser ports them to Kubernetes (which is somewhat unlikely as they had a number of spats with the wikitech team and haven't been active for years). --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 15:50, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Courtesy ping to Anomie, as it's their script. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 16:00, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

I haven't used it myself since 2017, after I noticed that my ad blocker had been blocking it (probably because of "stats" in the name) for some time and I hadn't missed it. 🤷 Anomie⚔ 17:34, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

😢 Qwerty284651 (talk) 17:57, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Correcting or changing a repeated word

How can I change a specific word, for example a name that appears many times in the same article? Is there a Gadget to help? Or do I have to do it manually? Anyway please kindly let me know as soon as possible so I can move forward with my project. Arbabi second (talk) 08:25, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

Probably the easiest way is to use VisualEditor's search and replace feature. Nardog (talk) 08:28, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

The desktop source editor also has search and replace. Click "Advanced" in the toolbar and then the magnifying glass icon at the far right. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:26, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

But that doesn't allow you to replace only the occurrences visible in the output. Nardog (talk) 07:11, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

On the basis of the more the merrier, most browsers have plugins that will enable such a function (if not natively available). Neils51 (talk) 23:27, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

I have to imagine Arbabi second is looking for a feature that allows them to replace a word for everyone reading the article, not just for themself. Nardog (talk) 23:38, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Absolutely, I have a Firefox plugin that does that (well, once you have clicked on 'Publish Changes'). It's great to have options. Neils51 (talk) 07:52, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Huh? What is the plugin? You mean there's a plugin that allows you to replace occurrences of a string only in the parts of wikitext that get rendered as entered in the parsed output? Nardog (talk) 08:12, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

I use it for global replace in the page or section being edited. Rare to have to do this though. I use substitution lists for say 'accessdate', etc. https://github.com/Woundorf/foxreplace. Neils51 (talk) 08:46, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

REST API returning HTML that doesn't exist in standard page

I'm unable to upload screenshots of the HTML, so I'll do my best to explain. In the table for https://en.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/html/List_of_Chainsaw_Man_chapters, the second row is an empty table row element; . But on the normal page, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Chainsaw_Man_chapters, this empty table row element does not exist. I looked at the source code for the table template, but I don't have much experience there, so I didn't see anything obvious that would explain it. Why does the REST API have this empty table row element? Tyephlosion (talk) 13:42, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

The output of the REST API is generated by a new wikitext parser called Parsoid, which will eventually also be used for normal page views. You can see the Parsoid output in the context of a normal page view like this: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=List_of_Chainsaw_Man_chapters&useparsoid=1 (there's also a preference to enable it: Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing-developertools).

So the question now is, why is Parsoid output different from the old wikitext parser? I'm not sure, but we can make some guesses. You can paste the {{Graphic novel …}} templates into Special:ExpandTemplates to reveal the wikitext that is fed to both of the parsers, and there's a fragment that looks like this:

…
!width=24%|English release date
|-


<tr style="text-align: center;"><th scope="row" id="vol1" style="text-align: center; font-weight: normal; background-color: transparent;">1</th>…

I would guess that the |- markup preceding the <tr> generates the extra empty table row. I have no idea why that doesn't happen in the old parser. The |- doesn't seem necessary anyhow, and if you track down which template it comes from, you could probably remove it. Matma Rex talk 17:01, 14 February 2024 (UTC)

The template generating the |- is

{{Graphic novel list/header
|Language = Japanese
|SecondLanguage = English
|WithTitle = yes
|Width = 100%
}}

{|class="wikitable" width=100% style=""
|-style="border-bottom: 3px solid #CCF"
!width=4%|<abbr title="Number">No.</abbr>
!width=48%|Title
!width=24%|Original release date
!width=24%|English release date
|-

But I don't see anything to change in the template. Is is the Parser that is adding it and there is nothing to change here? Tyephlosion (talk) 14:22, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Like I said, just remove the |- [1]. I tried it out, found and fixed another minor issue, and made an edit request for the template: Template talk:Graphic novel list#Edit request: remove extra table row. Matma Rex talk 16:05, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Talk page font size

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T357724

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T357983

On mobile edition, the first post in a talk page section (or anywhere else that uses the same tool for topics, including this page) has a larger font size than normal. This does not apply to the title, subsequent posts in the section, or desktop edition. Is this supposed to happen? QuicoleJR (talk) 19:43, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

It also applies to Meta-Wiki, so it seems to be a MediaWiki thing. QuicoleJR (talk) 19:47, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Actually, upon looking at mainspace, it seems like talk page replies and section titles are some of the only things not affected. Can someone with a bit more technical knowledge please explain why the font size went up? Thanks, QuicoleJR (talk) 19:49, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

This is probably related to phab:T349303, by Jon (WMF). You should be able to change the font size at Special:MobileOptions. It seems like indentation size has increased drastically on mobile too. Sdrqaz (talk) 20:03, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Weird, seems like setting it to small and then back to the default it was on fixed the problem. QuicoleJR (talk) 21:18, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Actually, that only fixed it for this specific page, and not any of the others. QuicoleJR (talk) 21:21, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

The indentation issue is now tracked in a separate ticket

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T357742

. Jdlrobson (talk) 01:58, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Really hope this isn’t the intended design 70.23.34.176 (talk) 20:05, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

I'm noticing the font size is drastically differing between articles in the mainspace on mobile. It is quite disorienting. Y2Kcrazyjoker4 (talk • contributions) 21:37, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Came here to ask about it too. Not happy with the change at all. Would appreciate any help in how to revert it back if possible. Thriley (talk) 21:40, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Quite literally made an account about this. Looks awful and is just way too big of a font. Not everyone that uses wikipedia is my 97 year old grandmother. Also would like a way to revert this. Someguyfromminnesota (talk) 23:36, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Click the hamburger button at the top, "Settings", and then "Small". Nardog (talk) 23:41, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

There are two issues here. For logged in users as Nardog suggests change your font size to small. It is mislabelled but this is meant to be default.

For anonymous users we have an issue with cache. It should fix itself over the next 24 hours. Jdlrobson (talk) 00:14, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Hi Jon, is the line spacing supposed to remain close together or as it was before? Victor Grigas (talk) 02:05, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

According to phab:T356339#9510249, this is an intentional change. — The Earwig (talk) 02:24, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

It shouldn't be. QuicoleJR (talk) 14:40, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

I’d echo the complaints about the font size/line spacing change, as it’s actually creating an accessibility issue for me- I have vision issues that make it difficult to follow lines of closely-vertically spaced text, and it is genuinely difficult to read the mobile wiki right now. Setting it to “regular” helps but it makes everything look stupidly large (because it is). I’d also advocate for a revert. Padgriffin ^{Griffin's Nest} 01:13, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

It looks awful. Left alignment instead of justified? Are they insane? --2800:AC:4010:C67:1:0:28ED:3368 (talk) 13:44, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Justified text is generally a bad idea on the web. The technology isn't advanced enough to match print typesetting [2] and W3C advise against it for accessibility reasons [3]. the wub "?!" 14:30, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

At one time we had a user preference "Justify paragraphs", which IIRC was in Preferences → Appearance somewhere near to "Show hidden categories". It was removed a little over ten years ago as part of a general clearout of little-used preferences (every preference, whether enabled or not, adds a little to the overhead of every page). For those who complained about the loss, a gadget was provided instead, to achieve the same effect. It's still there, at Preferences → Gadgets, under the "Appearance" heading. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 23:53, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

Mobile font line spacing

This update in my opinion is hard to read, it’s harder to tap hyperlinks, I looked at the New York Times app and for every 10 lines on New York Times now Wikipedia has 11. Victor Grigas (talk) 02:58, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

A comment was posted about this at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Accessibility; I've copied it below. Graham87 (talk) 07:37, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

I can't use Vector Wikipedia due to migraines, and redirect to Mobile Wikipedia.

I also switch fonts and increase font sizes due to eye strain. Now Mobile Wikipedia limits many lines to 24 px to 27 px. Which can be awfully cramped. I think Mobile Wikipedia should either revert the change or use a multiple of the users' specified font size. 173.66.17.86 (talk) 02:27, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

New text size / format issue

Is there a way I can revert back to the old mobile version? I really don’t like the new format. Hurts my eyes. Thriley (talk) 06:46, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

I agree. Spent the last hour trying to track this. It’s also on WikiMedia too. The rendering of inline styles is affected too with content bleeding over each other. I can’t believe this was by design, feels more like a gaff/malicious event hopefully to be changed soon. 109.151.12.170 (talk) 07:17, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Mobile line spacing

This new mobile spacing, which I see was an intentional change, is just unreadable for me. Everything is hard to read and cluttered. Is there any way to revert it on my end? And I think it should be reverted altogether; this is awful. Zanahary (talk) 11:13, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Ok, I found this custom CSS that works:

.mw-body p,
	.content p { line-height: 26.4px !important;}

` — Preceding unsigned comment added by Zanahary (talk • contribs) 11:21, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

If you already increase font sizes, that may still be too cramped. 173.66.17.86 (talk) 17:17, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Font change on mobile view

Hello there, Wiki changed the font on Thursday night but is there any way you are able to revert it back to the original font before the changes on Thursday. The new font changes on mobile looks very ugly and I personally would much prefer the original font design. VileName8089289 (talk) 18:16, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

VileName8089289, you can personally change it back, as described above. — Qwerfjkltalk 20:54, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

Could you help direct me to this please. VileName8089289 (talk) 21:18, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

• Hello there, Wiki changed the font on Thursday night but is there any way you are able to revert it back to the original font before the changes on Thursday. The new font changes on mobile looks very ugly and I personally would much prefer the original font design before Thursday night. Could anyone help send me the instructions to revert it back to the original font design on mobile please. VileName8089289 (talk) 13:09, 19 February 2024 (UTC)
  • VileName8089289, Click the hamburger button at the top, "Settings", and then "Small".— Qwerfjkltalk 16:59, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

    I meant the fonts used before Thursday night not the current ones in use now. Even when I click on settings it comes out with the current font designs I.e. Small, Standard and Large as opposed to the prior four options of Very Small, Small, Medium and Large. Is there any way of going back to the original font designs on Wikipedia before they changed everything. VileName8089289 (talk) 17:48, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

    No. — Qwerfjkltalk 17:49, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

The new font size on mobile is awful and half-baked

The larger font ("standard") for paragraph texts looks awful. The ability to switch font size is appreciated, but it's hidden behind a hamburger menu and then a settings page on mobile site, which few, if any, persons will notice. It took myself days to realise that it is a personalisation option, and not shoved down the throats. And personally, I believe that the "standard" font size is way too large than it needs to be, considering that most mobile sites like news articles, etc. uses a font size comparable to the "small" size on Wikipedia, to which my (and other people's) eyes have been accustomed over the years. Furthermore, the <li> items, infobox items, image captions, etc. do not respect the personalisation choice, which is bad, they are always "small". If someone does choose "large" or "standard" font, they should have the entire article in that font, not just the paragraph text. Thanks! —CX Zoom[he/him] ^{(let's talk • {C•X})} 17:22, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

There is currently a typo in the interface. The small is meant to be standard (default) and standard is meant to be "medium" but some logged in users are getting the incorrectly labelled "Standard" as default. This will be corrected soon.

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T358074

Jdlrobson (talk) 02:18, 21 February 2024 (UTC)

Category tree bullet color change

If you visit a category page that has subcategories to at least two levels (e.g. Category:Wikipedia help forums), each subcat name is preceded by a right-pointing triangle. If this triangle is clicked, the next level of subcats are listed and the triangle changes to point downwards. This triangle, being a clickable hotspot, counts as a link, and in the past it was clearly indicated as a link by being shown in the blue link color. As of today, it's now the black text color. This seems to be the following rule:

.CategoryTreeBullet a,
.CategoryTreeBullet a:link,
.CategoryTreeBullet a:active,
.CategoryTreeBullet a:visited {
  text-decoration: none;
  color: inherit;
  speak: none;
}

Specifically, it's the color: inherit; declaration, since if this is suppressed, the triangles take on the blue color that they previously had. I think that the change to inheriting the black text color is detrimental, as itt goes against MOS:COLOR, second bullet Links should clearly be identifiable as a link to our readers. Is there a phab task related to this? --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 21:50, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

This seems to be an unintentional effect of change https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/c/mediawiki/extensions/CategoryTree/+/992275 by @Nardog. This CSS for .CategoryTreeBullet a has already existed in the extension, but it didn't apply to anything (as far as I can tell – don't know how that happened). The recent change replaced some <span> tags with <a>, accidentally causing it to take effect. Matma Rex talk 22:36, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for the report and apologies for the oversight. Patch submitted. Nardog (talk) 23:15, 15 February 2024 (UTC)

Re-using source on VisualEditor does not work

Hiya, while trying to re-use a source using VisualEditor via adding a citation on User:Tails Wx/1965 Colorado floods, it apparently would not let me click on the source that I intend to re-use. As I'm editing on desktop, it does show a list of sources that I could re-use, but I can't seem to click on a source that I'd like to re-use. Automatically and manually adding a source does work, however. Thanks! ~ Tails Wx (🐾, me!) 02:59, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing this out. You're right, and it seems to be because of a change made in T336417. I've made 1003837 to revert that change, so once I get that approved I'll try to get it backported so this will work again. DLynch (WMF) (talk) 03:58, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

I'm also having this problem. WhatamIdoing (talk) 04:51, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

It'll be happening to absolutely everyone, unfortunately. (Though fortunately I think it's only citation reuse that's affected. But I didn't go hunting for other side-effects.) DLynch (WMF) (talk) 04:59, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Resolved

This wound up being put in phabricator as T357745, and the fix was put out to all the wikis about 3 hours ago. DLynch (WMF) (talk) 15:45, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Sortable table is not sorting numbers correctly

For some reason, at List of people with absolute pitch, if you try to sort by year of birth, most of the entries will show up in proper ascending or descending order, but some will be strangely at the end. E.g. click to sort that column for either "sort initial" or "sort descending" and Brian Wilson (1942), Stevie Wonder (1950), and Yo-Yo Ma (1955) are always at the end. ...? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ ―Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 11:31, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Fixed Indagate (talk) 11:51, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Wow, someone was accidentally throwing in an empty table caption in the middle. Thanks, I. ―Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 11:54, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Resolved

―Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 11:54, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Xtools

Many wikis allow users to opt-in to showing some of the more private information on XTools. En-WP, on the other hand, seems to have done a project-wide opt-in by default. How do I opt out of that? 🌺 Cremastra (talk) 14:39, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

You can't, as per local consensus. I found Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)/Archive 111#Edit Counter Optin but I seem to recall at least one other local RfC. At any rate, it's been quite a while since this was last discussed. If anyone feels compelled, they should feel free to start a new RfC. — MusikAnimal ^talk 15:38, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

I have started a discussion at VPPR. 🌺 Cremastra (talk) 20:15, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

{{Deceased Wikipedian}} and {{nobots}}

Wikipedia:Deceased Wikipedians/Guidelines § On the talk page says that the template {{Deceased Wikipedian}} includes {{Nobots}}; however, this isn't mentioned in the template documentation. I therefore just wanted to check whether or not this is correct (and therefore, whether talk pages that contain {{Deceased Wikipedian}} should also contain {{nobots}}). (Pinging Pigsonthewing, who WikiBlame tells me added this in 2015.)

All the best, ‍—‍a smart kitten_[meow] 17:34, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Template talk:Deceased Wikipedian#Nobots. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 17:40, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for that link, and apologies that I didn't think to check that talk page :) Based on the final comment in the linked section, I'll remove the part of the guidelines that says the former template includes the latter. All the best, ‍—‍a smart kitten_[meow] 17:47, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Sandbox page in categories

A user sandbox page, User:Blenge Hackett/sandbox/L-Z, is sitting in Category:Proposed constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom by virtue of the transclusion of dozens of "next election" results templates from pages in articlespace. User sandbox pages can't be in articlespace categories as if they were already finished articles, so it has to be removed from the category, but I'm struggling to figure out how to do that — trying to manually wrap each individual template in the {{suppress categories}} wrapper one-by-one would be a long and tedious task, trying to do it in AWB didn't work because I couldn't make AWB replace }} with }}}} at the end of each line (it's presumably programmed to consider that a likely error and thus refuse to do it), and trying to embed the whole mass of templates in a single invocation of suppress categories just breaks the whole page with a "Post-expand include size is too large" error.

So is there another way that I'm missing and/or a bot that can be programmed to whip it out, or am I just going to have to sit here for an hour manually wrapping each individual template on the page myself? Bearcat (talk) 18:42, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Never mind, I figured out how to get it done in AWB, I needed to turn off "Apply general fixes" so that it wasn't simultaneously fixing }}}} back down to }} at the same time as I was trying to expand it the other way. Bearcat (talk) 19:02, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Disregard my nevermind, that also broke all the templates, so I do still need help getting the page out of the category some other way. (Though I am thanking my lucky stars I tried that before wasting an hour doing it all manually...) Bearcat (talk) 19:04, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

I think Pppery fixed it for you with this edit. I was working on copying the whole page into Special:ExpandTemplates, which would have revealed which page was causing the problem. – Jonesey95 (talk) 19:29, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

(edit conflict) Your AWB attempt didn't work because it produced {{suppress categories|#section-h:Lagan Valley (UK Parliament constituency)|Elections in the 2020s}}}}, whereas the syntax you wanted was {{suppress categories|{{#section-h:Lagan Valley (UK Parliament constituency)|Elections in the 2020s}}}}, but that probably also would have PEIS-ed out. This is moot now, since I've fixed the categorization via an edit to Weald of Kent (UK Parliament constituency) and filed phab:T357813 for the underlying issue I was working around. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 19:30, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

If only __NOCATEGORY__ was ever created.... (Set the WABAC machine to 2008 Mr. Peabody). — xaosflux ^Talk 19:06, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

or deploy mw:Extension:NoCat. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 19:30, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

Couldn't you just place no wiki tags around the entire contents of the page? You could then remove them and edit the page, only using preview instead of actually publishing your edits. When you have it looking the way you want, you would simply readd the no wiki tags before saving. --User:Khajidha (talk) (contributions) 13:04, 17 February 2024 (UTC)

And templates should not normally be adding categories to articles. Any categories should be in a noinclude section. This is to avoid this sort of situation. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 02:08, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

Template:Colored box 2

Hi,

Could anyone assist me in completing the page for this template?

Regards Riad Salih (talk) 21:21, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

It looks like you copied this template from French Wikipedia. If you want it to work here, I recommend changing the parameter names to English and then documenting them in the /doc subpage. Before doing that, though, why is a new template needed here? Is there an existing template that can do what you need? – Jonesey95 (talk) 21:34, 16 February 2024 (UTC)

I've translated the parameter names roughly into English. Cremastra (JWB) (talk) 19:22, 17 February 2024 (UTC)

Free Image Search Tool broken?

As seen on {{Photo requested}}, the Toolforge Free Image Search Tool has been broken for quite some time. Every time I go to https://fist.toolforge.org/fist/fist.php I get a 500 or 404 error. Is there a replacement or workaround for this? Ten Pound Hammer • ^{(What did I screw up now?)} 01:53, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

Have you notified the owner of the tool ? https://toolsadmin.wikimedia.org/tools/id/fist —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:53, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

How do I do that? I don't see a way to do so on that site. Ten Pound Hammer • ^{(What did I screw up now?)} 21:36, 18 February 2024 (UTC)

It looks like that external tool's maintainer has asked for issues to be reported here. I've removed the broken listing from that template, feel free to revert if it ever gets fixed. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:09, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-08

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes

• If you have the "Email me when a page or a file on my watchlist is changed" option enabled, edits by bot accounts no longer trigger notification emails. Previously, only minor edits would not trigger the notification emails. [4]
• There are changes to how user and site scripts load for Vector 2022 on specific wikis. The changes impacted the following Wikis: all projects with Vector legacy as the default skin, Wikivoyage, and Wikibooks. Other wikis will be affected over the course of the next three months. Gadgets are not impacted. If you have been affected or want to minimize the impact on your project, see this ticket. Please coordinate and take action proactively.
• Newly auto-created accounts (the accounts you get when you visit a new wiki) now have the same local notification preferences as users who freshly register on that wiki. It is effected in four notification types listed in the task's description.
• The maximum file size when using Upload Wizard is now 5 GiB. [5]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 20 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 21 February. It will be on all wikis from 22 February (calendar). [6][7]

• Selected tools on the grid engine have been stopped as we prepare to shut down the grid on March 14th, 2024. The tool's code and data have not been deleted. If you are a maintainer and you want your tool re-enabled reach out to the team. Only tools that have asked for extension are still running on the grid.
• The CSS filter property can now be used in HTML style attributes in wikitext. [8]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

MediaWiki message delivery 15:34, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

What if there is an error in a headline?

The cite news template won't let me do sic.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 19:07, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

@Vchimpanzee Generally leave it as is or use {{not a typo}}, but this is more of a question for Help talk:Citation Style 1. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 19:52, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

I asked there.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:59, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

You can put [sic] in plain text, or if it is just an obvious typo, you can correct it (However, insignificant spelling and typographic errors should simply be silently corrected). – Jonesey95 (talk) 21:09, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

I did that. I was advised to use the template for a similar situation but I have no idea where I asked.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 23:23, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

Use sic template like this: {{sic|nolink=y|reason=error in source|errror txet}}. But check the original publication, as sometimes the indexing web site makes an error, but the original was correct. And Wikipedia editors have also made errors too. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 11:06, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

{{sic}} can't be used within citation templates as the italic text it outputs breaks the COinS metadata. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 15:14, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

AbuseFilter warning for WikiProjects

Related to Wikipedia:Miscellany for deletion/Wikipedia:WikiProject Glasgow:

A WP:WikiProject is a group of people, not a group of pages. We have a difficulty with pages being created when there's no group, sometimes due to a Build it and they will come mentality. The end result is that we have two thousand "groups", of which only a fraction are really effective.

My question for you all is: Could we have an AbuseFilter/something like that to "warn" against (but not prevent) the creation of new WikiProject pages? It would need to pick up "Wikipedia:WikiProject Foo" but not subpages. The warning message ought to say something like "A WikiProject is a group of people. Please do not create a WikiProject page unless you have already identified several other editors who want to join the group." (They can be directed to ask for more help at Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Council.)

Is this feasible? Is it worth it? WhatamIdoing (talk) 21:40, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

This is feasible. No opinion on worth, or whether it's common enough to warrant a filter. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 21:54, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

And the correct venue would be WP:EFR * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 21:54, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

Findlinks

https://github.com/greencardamom/Findlinks

Tool I recently made that might be of use to bot operators or admins who want to know which pages contain a certain domain name. There are other ways to do this (Quarry, Elasticsearch, Dumps etc). The advantage of the method - SQL query over an ssh tunnel to the replication server - is that it doesn't top out at 10,000 results like Elasticsearch, it can be called from the command-line on any computer and thus incorporated into other programs, it's fast and accurate, and can return results from 1 to over 800+ wikis with a single run. It's an awk script that doesn't require libraries. Only requires you have a Toolforge account (free registration). -- GreenC 23:39, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

Italics question

This question has probably been answered before, but does anyone understand why the italics in Useful idiot#Origin are behaving as they are? —Compassionate727 ^(T·C) 23:56, 19 February 2024 (UTC)

Removed unclosed ''. Nardog (talk) 00:01, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

The syntax highlighter gadget can be helpful in finding problems like this. Compassionate727, you can enable it in Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets. – Jonesey95 (talk) 02:54, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

You don't need the gadget for syntax highlighting. Just click the pen button in the source editor to enable it. It's also way better than that gadget. Aaron Liu (talk) 03:26, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

Manually trigger an edit conflict

Recently, my browser has been going berserk (i.e. suddenly using a lot of CPU after the page has loaded along with that page, and only that page, freezing) whenever it sees the slightest of edit conflicts. How can I manually trigger one so I can investigate what's happening? Aaron Liu (talk) 03:28, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

You just need to:

1. Open 2 tabs in the edit screen for the same page,

2. Make different changes on each editor (to the same part of the text, adding a new line works),

3. Publish changes in one of the 2 tabs,

4. Try to publish changes in the other tab after the first has finished publishing. – 143.208.238.126 (talk) 05:37, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

You need two different user accounts to trigger a conflict. Open the 2 tabs in different browsers logged into separate accounts. – SD0001 (talk) 06:32, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

I (who am the IPv4 IP, not sure why it changes sometimes) tested this in the sandbox(with this edit) before I mentioned it.

Did it only work because I am an IP? – 2804:F14:809C:9001:40B8:9DB3:208F:16FD (talk) 08:37, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

Apparently yes, I had a look at how it works and it only checks user IDs, which you don't have as a logged-out user ([9] [10]). It's a weird limitation. This behavior isn't really thought out well, and some people have wanted to change it for a while (T175745). Matma Rex talk 16:38, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

It worked for me. Aaron Liu (talk) 17:11, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

Thanks, I'll try that! Aaron Liu (talk) 14:16, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

Weird, my browser didn't lag out this time. Aaron Liu (talk) 15:11, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

• One idea about what is going on, could be to check out User:Aaron Liu/common.js. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 11:02, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

  I only have the problem on Firefox ESR but not on mobile Safari. Aaron Liu (talk) 14:16, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

spreadsheet to table?

Is there an easy way of importing a simple Excel spreadsheet into a table in Wikipedia? I will shortly have 100 lines of a four column spreadsheet that analyses the citation and informational footnote style of a sample of featured articles (the results are a little surprising – so much for consistency of citation style within an article!)

Thanks, ThoughtIdRetired (talk) 09:33, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

Yes. Just copy-paste it in VisualEditor. (I tested this with Google Sheets, but it should work while copying from Excel as well. If not, just upload it to Google Drive first). – SD0001 (talk) 10:21, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

If that doesn't work you can just use an excel formula to generate the wikitext for the table rows

e.g. formula for e1: =CONCAT("|-\n|",A1,"||",B1,"||",C1,"||",D1)

I may have the syntax slightly off, but that demostrates the idea. This is how I usually do it. —  Jts1882 | talk  10:32, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

There's also an excel2wiki tool on Toolforge, which seems to work fine as well. --rchard2scout (talk) 11:04, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

In addition to copy-pasting, you can also drag-and-drop a .csv or .tsv file into the visual editor. It's a bit of a secret feature. Matma Rex talk 16:41, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

For future reference: Help:Tables covers copying and pasting into Visual Editor (or dragging a .csv file to it) and the Toolforge link. Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 204 § Excel to Wikipedia tables has a more detailed step-by-step about using Excel to generate the desired wikitext. isaacl (talk) 18:01, 20 February 2024 (UTC)

Template:Dubious span

Could someone please look at the page and edit the instructions?

'Span' does not appear in the body, just {{Dubious}}.

I got it working perfectly in this change, formatted as {{Dubious span|text=and, as of 2024<ref>https://www.fim-moto.com/fileadmin/user_upload/Documents/2024/2024_SBK_SS_SS300_World_Championships_Regulations_-Update_07February.pdf?t=1707819065</ref>, a Teams World Championship.|1="Teams World Championship"|date=February 2024}}.

So, I had to add the word span after Dubious. Thanks.-- 82.13.47.210 (talk) 02:35, 21 February 2024 (UTC)

{{Dubious}} is used without explicating the specific span of dubious text, unless I'm misunderstanding your trouble. Remsense诉 02:55, 21 February 2024 (UTC)

Cross-language links for "Pig butchering scam"

In advance, sorry for the verbose post, but if you have patience, it should all make sense.

FIRST, I am massively frustrated by this editor. If I switch to another window (say, to copy text), then return to this edit, and paste whatever - it gets pasted at the 'START of the line or paragraph, NOT where the cursor is (was). WTH?!? This also (sometimes) happens if I return and just simply type where the cursor is (was). Also, if I press [Shift] the cursor flies to the start of the line or start of paragraph. This means that whenever I type a caps [Shift], the cursor flies to the start of the line or paragraph.

The workaround appears to be to place the cursor in the middle of a word and start typing there. To add to the confusion, sometimes the characters appear in reverse order, as if it were a right to left scrip (such as Arabic). Meaning that I have to cut text from the beginning of the line and paste where it belongs (assuming that it is not backwards words). Damn!

This obviously appears to be a bug. I wish I could revert to the old and trusty Wikipedia interface.

Anyway, to the task in hand, I have just been editing the cross-language links for Pig butchering scam which, previously, did not have any cross-language links - although I knew that there are pages in Chinese (simplified, HK, TW, SG, etc.). However, since the Chinese language pages were previously linked to Romance scam, I first unlinked it in order to link the Chinese page 杀猪盘.

BTW why does [[zh:杀猪盘]] not render as expected, per:

• Help:Interlanguage_links#Syntax ?!?

Just to add to the confusion, after successfully linking the (simplified) Chinese 杀猪盘 page to "Pig butchering scam" and creating a "Pig butchering scam" section in Romance scam, with link to "Pig butchering scam" — I discovered that the Chinese page now ONLY shows cross-language links to the English page "Pig butchering scam" — apparently (unintentionally) severing the several other cross-language links which included, amongst others:

• 杀猪盘 simplified CN Chinese (still linked to English language page)
• 杀猪盘 HK Chinese
• 杀猪盘 TW Chinese
• 杀猪盘 SG Chinese
• etc.

There are others...

I tried to repair this in WikiData here:

• Wikidata page for Pig Butchering Scam (Q116149824)

If I type zh (ISO code for Chinese), a drop down appears with (ONLY) three cryptic options:

• 文言 (zh_classical) - which I understand to be ancient Chinese
• Bân-lâm-gú (zh_min_nan) - which I understand to be Southern Min (Taiwanese, Fujian and other regions)
• 粵語 (zh_yue) - which I understand to be Cantonese

This is a far from complete list of Chinese written languages. No matter, the three options proffered by Wikidata are not easy to recognize except, perhaps, for Chinese scholars.

I realize that the above issues are probably partly due to the migration (in progress) from in-page cross-language links to linkages between the different language editions mediated by Wikidata.

I also suspect that, possibly, the issue with the "flying cursor" may be some conflicts between Wikipedia editor and some browser add-on, Google "assistant" or other wigit. Maybe others have similar experiences and/or know what else might be causing the cursor to fly-away when typing. I suspect that this is Google automatic translation pop-up wigit (maybe [Shift] is a hotkey) - I just turned it OFF.

Anyway, hopefully someone reading this post can assist me in repairing and re-connecting the cross-language links for Pig butchering scam

Enquire (talk) 04:31, 21 February 2024 (UTC)

For reference, I found the following:

• Chinese_language lists 18 dialects of Chinese
• Language tags in HTML and XML (W3C)
• Language codes for simplified Chinese and traditional Chinese? (Stack Overflow)

Enquire (talk) 04:48, 21 February 2024 (UTC)

BTW why does [[zh:杀猪盘]] not render as expected, per: Help:Interlanguage_links#Syntax ?!?

Because that's the wrong syntax. The link there would change the interwiki link value in the sidebar (in what is now basically a project-specific override for Wikidata). If you want to see the link, you need a colon in front of the language code: [[:zh:杀猪盘]] produces zh:杀猪盘. Izno (talk) 05:21, 21 February 2024 (UTC)

If your wish is to link the article zh:杀猪盘 and Pig butchering scam together, it is already working as intended.

Chinese Wikipedia is a multilingual Wikipedia. Different from most other language versions of Wikipedia, Chinese Wikipedia has a built-in mw:LanguageConverter (which is often forgotten by developers and it causes lots of troubles) that converts between CN, TW, HK, SG Chinese listed above. Linking to "CN Chinese" article equals to linking "TW Chinese", "HK Chinese", "SG Chinese" (as well as "MO Chinese" for Macau and "MY Chinese" for Malaysia) in one place.

You are seeing TW, HK, SG Chinese options in Language Switcher because you are in mobile view. You see them disappear because you are in desktop view. MilkyDefer 06:14, 21 February 2024 (UTC)