Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)

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).

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:FAQ/Technical)

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.

« Archives, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214

API query to determine page protections

I need to determine the edit/move protections on a page via the API (e.g., office, full, semi, pending-changes, etc).

It is not easy to do via category memberships. For example, although there is a top-level "Category:Wikipedia semi-protected pages", beneath that there is also a "Category:Wikipedia_indefinitely_semi-protected_pages" and many other variations. When recursing through to find sub-categories, you quickly encounter sub-categories that contain pages that aren't under protection, and a greater depth, almost listing every category on the encyclopedia.

I haven't been able to find an efficient way to do this on a per-page basis. Could I download the entire list of protected pages from the "Special:" function? Probably, but that seems like overkill for a quick task. West.andrew.g (talk) 02:21, 7 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

mw:API:Info#inprop=protection. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:44, 7 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, the API is probably the best route. Membership of categories like Category:Wikipedia semi-protected pages does not necessarily mean that all the pages in that category are semi-protected, nor that all semi-protected pages are in that category. The category is merely a reflection of the templates on the page such as {{pp-semi}}. For example, User:Redrose64/Sandbox12 is semi-protected until 09:28, 7 May 2017 (UTC), but is not in any "protected pages" cats. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 09:30, 7 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Watchlist screwy

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T163337

Since the DB maintenance just a moment ago, my watchlist is very screwy. I'm seeing entries repeated 3 times, and in one instance an entry made 8 times for the same edit. What's going on?—CYBERPOWER (Chat) 14:59, 19 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

This was already reported on IRC, although I don't know whether there's already a task about it, but I do know Ops are aware. While the servers are back up, there's still work to do. Watch this space for updates. Thank you. Elitre (WMF) (talk) 15:04, 19 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It would be helpful if you were to list what watchlist-related settings you have set and whether turning any of them on/off makes a difference. BJorsch (WMF) (talk) 15:05, 19 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Same thing for contrib lists. --NeilN ^{talk to me} 15:09, 19 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Now at https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T163337. If anyone can reproduce, please say what your config is? Elitre (WMF) (talk) 15:10, 19 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

See my contrib list here for edits made before today's test. --NeilN ^{talk to me} 15:16, 19 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

In triplicate sounds like the issues reported when ORES was initially deployed as a beta feature. --Izno (talk) 15:23, 19 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Yep, turning ORES off did the trick for me — MusikAnimal ^talk 15:27, 19 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

What is ORES?—CYBERPOWER (Chat) 15:29, 19 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Cyberpower678: Last option in "beta features" --NeilN ^{talk to me} 15:33, 19 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Same here for contrib list. --NeilN ^{talk to me} 15:31, 19 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

m:ORES. It's a Beta Feature here ATM. Turning it on allowed me to reproduce, and people involved in that project are on this already. Thanks all. Elitre (WMF) (talk) 15:33, 19 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I refer the hon. member to the answer that I was given some weeks ago. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 20:19, 19 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

As can be seen a few sections above this, ORES will ceaes to be a beta and become enabled by default on 24 April. I suppose this won't happen if the above watchlist problem with ORES is somewhat common? Fram (talk) 09:00, 20 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Ops is sorting out the problem, and as it's both temporary, partial (only four wikis were affected), and specific to something about how the m:Tech/Server switch 2017 was performed, I believe that there will be no long-term effect on the Ores project. In the short-term, the team will presumably make their decision after Ops has decided what caused the problem and how likely their solutions are to prevent this from happening again during the switch back to the primary servers on 3 May. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:42, 20 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Duplicates have been removed. The ORES deployment by default is happening today. The code has been reviewed and we don't expect duplicates on the watchlists. Trizek (WMF) (talk) 13:41, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Chronological order of archive entries

Why aren't archive entries sorted chronologically? Shouldn't that be improved?--Hubon (talk) 20:59, 19 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Please clarify with an example what you refer to. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:07, 19 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

TO the best of my knowledge, they are sorted chronologically based on archive time. עוד מישהו Od Mishehu 03:20, 20 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Hubon: Assuming that you refer to archives created by bots such as ClueBot III (talk · contribs) and lowercase sigmabot III (talk · contribs), the bot goes through all of the threads that are on the original talk page, selects those which meet the criteria for archiving (such as time elapsed since last post), copies those threads to the bottom of the archive page in the same order, and then deletes them from the original.

Let's assume that a talk page has an archive with three threads (A B D) and the original talk page still has seven threads (C E F G H I J). Of those, three of them (C E H) are eligible for archiving, so after the bot has visited, the archive will end up with six threads (A B D C E H in that order), and the original page will have four (F G I J). Later on, thread K is created on the original talk page and thread F becomes eligible for archiving; so after the bot has again visited, we now have the the archive with seven threads (A B D C E H F), and the original page with four (G I J K). It might be that thread C was created before thread D, and that that thread F was created before thread H, but archiving bots always add at the bottom, they don't insert into chronological order. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 11:31, 20 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

עוד מישהו, User:Redrose64: Excuse me, I was [very] imprecise: Of course, I only meant the order of search results when using the seach box!!! Sorry once again for this confusion! Greetings--Hubon (talk) 19:45, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

PS: @עוד מישהו, User:Redrose64: Thus, I would still like to repeat my question with reference to this clarification. Best--Hubon (talk) 00:25, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Given archives are (approximately:) in chronological order and their pagenames tell the order, a more general feature (and more widely useful) that would solve it is "have search results be sortable by name". DMacks (talk) 01:29, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

There was a discussion about the modified question which could probably be found by searching the archives for "prefer-recent". An example of searching the ANI archives for "Jimbo" with most-recent first is:

Jimbo prefer-recent:1,1 prefix:Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/IncidentArchive

That does not work in an ideal manner as no data is stored regarding when a particular mention of Jimbo occurred. The "when" might be inferred from a signature timestamp, but there is no indexed database entry with the information. However, it worked pretty well the once or twice I've tried it. Johnuniq (talk) 10:33, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@DMacks & Johnuniq: Hm, I still do not quite get why it is not possible to create a feature that makes the search function arrange search results by the page name of the respective archive page. I guess, that would be basically more reasonable and feasible than having them sorted by timestamps etc.--Hubon (talk) 14:04, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Listeria bot again

Listeria bot adding non-free files to pages in the Wikipedia namespace was previously discussed at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 154#ListeriaBot adding non-free images to Wikipedia namespace page. For some reason the bot is adding File:Lyla.jpg (non-free cover art for an Oasis album) to entries for Lyla Lin in Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Missing articles by nationality/Taiwan and Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Missing articles by occupation/Models. The edit sum left each time was "Wikidata list update". Perhaps the bot is actually doing what it's supposed to do and the problem is with the Wikidata? -- Marchjuly (talk) 04:55, 21 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

There is a non-free file Lyla.jpg on enwiki, and a (completely different) free file Lyla.jpg on commons. Wikidata links to the latter, but on enwiki the local file automatically gets precedence. Solutions may include renaming either of the files, having Listeriabot use the full url for the image, or changing listeriabot to check whether a local file with that name exists, and in that case not including the file. Fram (talk) 07:02, 21 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for that bit of info Fram. File:Lyla.jpg appears to have been uploaded more than 10 years before c:File:Lyla.jpg, so I'm not sure if that matters when it comes to requesting a file name change. - Marchjuly (talk) 07:33, 21 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I will have fixed the issue shortly--the Commons file is likely to be a copy-vio. Only upload, used UploadWizard, and professional quality, so it should be deleted shortly. In the meantime, perhaps the en.WP version of the file should have a longer name. --Izno (talk) 12:36, 21 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Same thing is happening with File:Olga Tufnell.jpg and User:Stinglehammer/Born in Edinburgh working in the field of science. -- Marchjuly (talk) 09:49, 21 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

This looks like a case of someone using a non-free file locally without an appropriate rationale given that the Commons file appears to be free. Regardless, one or both images should be moved, which will take care of the problem in the short term. --Izno (talk) 12:40, 21 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for that info Izno. c:File:Olga Tufnell.jpg and File:Olga Tufnell.jpg are named the same, but are different images. If the Commons licensing is correct and it is an image of the same Olga Tufnell, the non-free should be deleted as replaceable fair use per WP:NFCC#1, unless it can be converted to PD or a free license for some reason. -- Marchjuly (talk) 14:54, 21 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The easy fix for such problems is to follow the steps on Template:ShadowsCommons and resolving them, seems like. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 22:59, 21 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for that info Jo-Jo Eumerus. -- Marchjuly (talk) 08:20, 22 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I've marked the local Olga file for deletion as replaceable non-free, unless URAA issues come up. The album cover has been renamed due to the vague name, the Commons file is up for deletion. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 12:15, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Gallery Issue

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T163727

For some odd reason, while editing Connecticut, and inserting a gallery, the images kept increasing in size while using the image search mode. I'm currently using Google Chrome v. 58. —JJ Be rs 17:29, 21 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Which editing environment were you using? There's been some work done on VisualEditor's gallery tool recently, but I don't know if any of it has been deployed yet. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 07:34, 22 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Whatamidoing (WMF): I was using the VisualEditor at the time. —JJ Be rs 15:21, 22 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

That looks like fun. Please read phab: T163727 and make sure that the bug I found is the one that you found. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:39, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Ombox-like formatting

Hey guys, could you please take a quick look of the template in my sandbox] and fix the formatting so that a border or a box appears that the text should be in (if you can)? Just like template:ombox. Thanks!—‎Lost Whispers _talk 17:46, 22 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Can your explain what the problem is? Ruslik_Zero 20:13, 22 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Lost Whispers: On my talk page you pointed me to a page on the Arabic Wikipedia. Can you clarify which project you are writing the template for? -- John of Reading (talk) 20:20, 22 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Ruslik0 the template you see on my sandbox should appear like this one here, but it lost the borders and the box in general. What can we do to make the box reappear again? And @John of Reading:, we are trying to use the template to address that an article is featured providing the date in which it was featured on and the version (ID) which made it featured. Currently we are using this format to make that box-shape which the template could provide much more easily:

<div class="plainlinks" style="
background-color: {{{bgcolor|#f9f9f9}}};
{{#if:{{{extra-style|}}}|{{{extra-style}}};}}
{{#if:{{{width|}}}|width:1000px {{{width}}};}}
border: 1px solid #a4a4a4;
{{#if:{{{border-color|}}}|border-color: {{{border-color}}};}}
{{#if:{{{color|}}}|color: {{{color}}};}}
font-weight: ; 
{{#if:{{{margin|}}}  | margin:  {{{margin}}};  | margin: 1.1em 0 1em;}}
{{#if:{{{padding|}}} | padding: {{{padding}}}; | padding: .2em 1em;}}
vertical-align: middle; 
clear: both;
{{#if:{{{text-align|}}} | text-align: {{{text-align}}}; | text-align: center;}}
">    [[Image:Symbol star gold.svg|25px]] ئەم وتارە بووە بە [[ویکیپیدیا:وتارە ھەڵبژێردراوەکان|وتارێکی ھەڵبژێردراو]] لەسەر [{{fullurl:{{FULLPAGENAME}}|oldid={{{وەشان|}}} }} وەشانی {{{ڕێکەوت|}}}] ([{{SERVER}}{{localurl:{{NAMESPACE}}:{{PAGENAME}}|oldid={{{وەشان}}}&diff=cur}} بەراوردی بکە بە ئێستا]). بۆ زیاتر سەیری {{#ifexist:{{TALKPAGENAME}}|[[{{TALKPAGENAME}}|پەڕەی لێدوان]] و}} [[ویکیپیدیا:پاڵاوتنی وتاری ھەڵبژێردراو/{{PAGENAME}}|پاڵاوتنەکەی]] بکە.{{نیشانەی وتاری ھەڵبژێردراو}}</span></div><noinclude>

But as you can see in the end of this article for example you can see that it's not even with the other templates, because the current format is not omboxed like, so it kind of messes up the page. (I hope I'm making my point)—‎Lost Whispers _talk 20:42, 22 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Our ombox styling is specific to tables, and your template uses a div (and none of the other structure required by the mbox-family). Your template in it's current form can thus not use ombox-styling on English Wikipedia. BTW. I do see some problems with navboxes on ar.wp in the page you link to. It seems ar.wp navboxes apply larger border areas, without accounting for the fact that those will be 'outside' of the reserved area of 100%. This is also why on the left side of the page, elements do not line up. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:24, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Inconsistent line spacing between list levels

I've noticed that spacing between lines in multi-level lists is inconsistent across browsers/devices. For example, let's take the following list:

Markup	Renders as
* coffee * tea oolong matcha * eau de vie	coffee tea oolong matcha eau de vie

When I view this on Windows PCs using either Chrome or Edge as the browser, the line spacing between 'tea' and 'oolong' is noticeably greater than the spacing between any other lines. When I view this on Android mobile devices using either Chrome or Silk as the browser, the line spacing between 'tea' and 'oolong' is noticeably less than the spacing between other lines. I tested this issue using raw HTML markup in place of the * wiki markup, and there was no change. Is this something that could be fixed on Wikipedia's end, or would this need to be solved by OS and/or browser developers? —jameslucas (" " / +) 03:12, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Is this strictly about sublists, or is it about the start of any list vs the preceding content? For example, how does this look:

Markup	Renders as
Drinks: * coffee * tea	Drinks: coffee tea

for spacing between "Drinks:" and the first list item vs spacing between the two list items? DMacks (talk) 03:37, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

In the case of a list item following a non-list item, the line spacing is greater both on PC and on Android mobile (although not by the same ratios). I'd say that's roughly as it should be. —jameslucas (" " / +) 03:50, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The relevant CSS rule seems to be

.mw-content-ltr ul,
.mw-content-rtl .mw-content-ltr ul {
  margin: 0.3em 0 0 1.6em;
  padding: 0;
}

with the gap in question being that 0.3em. I don't know where it's set: it's not in our local MediaWiki:Common.css. We can't simply remove that declaration, since the rule above supersedes this rule:

ul {
  list-style-type: square;
  margin: 0.3em 0 0 1.6em;
  padding: 0;
}

which is set at an earlier stage - again, origin unknown. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 08:32, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not knowledgable enough to speculate on where that CSS is coming from, but I was able override it, and that improved things greatly when viewed on PC. For anyone wishing to do the same, vist your CSS and paste the following code [updated to reflect Redrose64's suggestions below —16:39, 24 April 2017 (UTC)]:[reply]

.mw-content-ltr ul,
.mw-content-rtl .mw-content-ltr ul {
  margin-top: 0;
}

Thanks, Red! —jameslucas (" " / +) 13:05, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

You don't need to re-specify any declaration where the value is unchanged, so you can omit padding: 0; - and you can also replace the declaration margin: 0 0 0 1.6em; with margin-top: 0; --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:52, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Good call. (I didn't know about the margin-top property.) Is it technically possible to apply this universally to the standard CSS for Wikipedia? And would that be a good idea? I'm having trouble imagining why the ~~1.6~~ 0.3 em margin would be good in any instance. It strikes me as an accident, a bad choice, or a really dirty hack to address some ancient browser. —jameslucas (" " / +) 16:39, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

margin-top is one of the original CSS 1 properties; and so was automatically carried over into CSS 2 and the working draft for CSS 3 (which hasn't seen any progress in almost ten years). All modern browsers support CSS 2 in its entirety; many also support one or more of the CSS 3 modules as well. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 18:25, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I guess that shows how shaky my CSS knowledge is. But my question was more about Wikipedia than the specific formatting of the code: Is there a reason not to change this attribute for the entire site (as opposed to me fixing it only for myself)? Is there any justification (technical or otherwise) not to eradicate that ~~1.6~~ 0.3 em margin for everyone? —jameslucas (" " / +) 18:54, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The 1.6em margin is the left one, we'll want to keep that. ;) The 0.3em top margin seems to date back to the beginning of the Monobook skin if not earlier, I have no idea why it's there. Anomie ⚔ 12:08, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Right you are: the 0.3 margin is the one I meant (amended above). Is there any process we/I can initiate to have it removed (or considered for removal)? —jameslucas (" " / +) 13:20, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Consensus here is a good start. Then MediaWiki talk:Common.css to override it locally and/or file a task in Phabricator to request it be changed in MediaWiki. Anomie ⚔ 18:45, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It looks like there's a decade of archived conversations at MediaWiki talk:Common.css; I'll do a little skimming to see how this topic has been discussed in the past. In the meantime, I appreciate the guidance and welcome further ideas, comments, and suggestions. I realize that none of this addresses the appearance in mobile browsers, but it'd be great to at least solve this for desktops. —jameslucas (" " / +) 22:04, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

MTC! v1.0.0

I just released a new version of my move to Commons tool, MTC!. I'm looking for a few willing volunteers to try it out and provide some feedback :) Thanks, FASTILY 03:40, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Fastily: It works quite well, especially the filtering of non-free images. It would be nice if categories and renames could be added in the UI though. Jc86035 (talk) Use {{re|Jc86035}}
to reply to me 09:48, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Also, is there a way to move files from wikis other than enwiki? Jc86035 (talk) Use {{re|Jc86035}}
to reply to me 09:59, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hi Jc86035, thanks for the feedback! I'm currently exploring a sane way to add categories to transferred files, if you have any suggestions, please feel free to share them :) No immediate plans to expand the tool beyond enwp just yet. I want to make the tool as stable and feature-complete as possible before adding other Wikis. Best, FASTILY 22:53, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not really too interested in maintaining WP:FTCG anymore, so if you'd like to steal ideas or code (the code is in C#, which is similar enough to Java, and in the public domain) you are most welcome. (To be clear, I don't intend to abandon FtCG, but nor do I plan to add new features, particularly since Fastily's new tool seems to have gained a lot more traction than FtCG.) — This, that and the other (talk) 08:50, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hi TTO, thanks for the offer! I'll have a look. Cheers, FASTILY 22:53, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Populating Category:Infobox templates with sandbox pages of certain infobox templates

Hi, There are a number of infobox template sandbox pages that are populating Category:Infobox templates. For example, Template:Infobox GB station/sandbox and Template:Infobox factory/sandbox. I tried this edit on the /doc page of Infobox factory, adding Template:sandbox other, but it did not solve the problem. Could someone check if there were any changes to a template that these infobox templates are calling on? Thanks, Funandtrvl (talk) 18:57, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It's been added from Template:UF-hcard-geo, so you'll need to make the change in there. -- WOSlinker (talk) 14:58, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

How can I edit the subtitle used in the official (Android) mobile app?

For many articles, there is a subtitle used in the official Wikipedia app that serves as a summary/disambiguation, and shows up in search results and under the title on the article itself. For example, searching for "Test" shows (with the subtitle indicated in brackets here) "Test [Wikipedia disambiguation page]", "Testosterone [Chemical compound]", "Test (assessment) [Procedure for measuring a subject's ability; assessment intended to measure a test-taker's knowledge, skill, aptitude, physical fitness, or classification in many other topuics (e.g., beliefs)]", and "Test-driven development []", among others.

Where do these subtitles (for lack of a better term) come from? They don't seem to be pulled directly from anywhere in the page itself, I couldn't find a way to edit them in the app, and I've tried to read up on the mobile app pages to no avail. I ask because the subtitle for Nichijou is awkwardly phrased and seems to be missing a word or two, as seen in my screenshot to the right.

How can I edit this subtitle, or request it be edited? --The Human Spellchecker (talk) 19:04, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Spellcheck: it is coming from Wikidata, in this case from wikidata:Q483120 where you may edit it. — xaosflux ^Talk 19:07, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

You can only edit it on what's rapidly becoming my least favorite website, Wikidata; the app pulls the data direct from there so edits made on Wikipedia can't affect it and changes made to the wording don't show up in Wikipedia watchlists. ‑ Iridescent 19:08, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Iridescent: You should be able to see these type of changes on your watchlist, check if you have "Hide Wikidata" selected. — xaosflux ^Talk 19:33, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

That absolutely floods your watchlist with unhelpful cruft like D University Hospital Lewisham (Q14956783); 11:53 . . Wittylama (talk contribs) (‎Created claim: Property:P3794: organisation/lewisham_hospital, #mix'n'match) and D TeachText (Q7691157); 01:15 . . Infovarius (talk contribs) (‎Removed claim: Property:P31: Q7397, #petscan). It's not realistically feasible to have it enabled if you have more than a few pages on your watchlist, and since nobody on WD appears to grasp the concept of "meaningful edit summary" you need to be willing to manually check every change you see for it to be worthwhile enabling it. ‑ Iridescent 19:38, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Yes that is a mess, please note - I don't think the "meaningful edit summary" problem from wikidata is an editor problem, the interface does not provide an opportunity to use edit summaries for (main) data items. — xaosflux ^Talk 19:42, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

phab:T43490 discussed this, but apparently it was closed without being actually completed. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 11:27, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

See also Wikipedia:Village_pump_(proposals)/Archive_138#Rfc:_Remove_description_taken_from_Wikidata_from_mobile_view_of_en-WP, and the note from @Quiddity (WMF):. Quiddity, in regards to the removal: what is the phab ticket number that can be used to track this? — xaosflux ^Talk 19:12, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Perhaps @OVasileva (WMF): knows? — xaosflux ^Talk 19:17, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
When I look at Nichijou in mobile view, I do not see a subtitle. When I type "Nichijou" in the mobile search box at the top of a page and do not click search or press Return, I still see the summary. Type "William" in the search box to see a variety of summaries. This is true for a half a dozen pages I looked at in mobile view, so for me, at least, the summary is turned off on the mobile page view, but it is still displayed in search results. I will leave it to the community to decide if the spirit of the RFC is being complied with by those results. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:22, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
Hey @Spellcheck: @Xaosflux:, I work with OVasileva at the Wikimedia Foundation. This is opportune timing, as we are actually in the process of rolling out a pilot of wikidata description editing on the Wikipedia Android app. More info here: [1] The wikidata descriptions have been live on Android for 2 years, but we recognize that, long-term, not being able to edit them where they are shown is an issue. There are definitely still other issues, but this particular solution is currently live in 3 languages and will be going to everywhere but the top 10 in our next release (this week or next). English should be done in a few months. We're moving conservatively, tracking revert rate and things of that nature as we roll them out so that we ensure this new editing model works. Let me know if you have other questions or concerns about this. Jkatz (WMF) (talk) 23:26, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Jkatz (WMF): From the discussion above, it appears this is not just a problem when viewing a page (which the English Wikipedia community has expressed concerns with) but that this non-enwiki data is also being shown on English Wikipedia search results. Is this being addressed? — xaosflux ^Talk 00:15, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
@Xaosflux: That particular issue will be addressed by editing from the page itself (similar to the page title showing in search). Wikidata description editing currently being piloted in Android should apply equally well here. If we want to improve this further, beyond making it editable in the article, I think the approach we have to take is with tracking, specifically making it easier to track this in your watchlist, which is currently possible but not ideal, and having it show up in page histories (which has not seen as much contributor interest. Here are some tasks we have in our backlog (not yet scheduled) to make this easier: Watchlist ((https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T46874, https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T90436, https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T108688) and history (https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T42358). In the meantime, the potential risks of having the description show in search should be weighed carefully against the massive benefits to searchers who are able to better choose the page they are looking, avoiding multiple searches and unnecessary page loads on mobile devices, for which data is both slower and more expensive. Jkatz (WMF) (talk) 18:42, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Spellcheck: Just wanted to note that I have removed the example image you have used from this section and tagged it for deletion. Please don't create derivative works of copyrighted material that are here under fair use and upload them under a free license. It doesn't release the copyright and is considered copyright infringement. --Majora (talk) 23:41, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
While technically correct, a "better" solution would be to recrop that screenshot, removing the image - as the point was to demonstrate the text problem. — xaosflux ^Talk 01:05, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I could have done that but it still would have required administrator action since the image would have still been in the history. I'm just not one to be cleaning up other people's copyright infringement. Never have been, never will. If you want to undelete the image, crop it, and rev'del the copyvio you are welcome to do so. If Spellcheck wants to fix it themselves and reupload it, they are welcome to do so. Copyvios deserve to be deleted on sight, not fixed, in my opinion. I've found through trial and error here and on Commons that trying to teach rarely works but a deletion notice gets people's attention. There are just too many copyvios in the file namespace to be spending too much time on any specific example. --Majora (talk) 20:37, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not faulting you Majora - you executed the policy appropriately; just making sure it was clear to Spellcheck why it was a problem (i.e. not that it was a wikipedia screenshot, but that the screen shot included an included image that was not allowed). — xaosflux ^Talk 20:52, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

suppressredirect being used without suppressredirect permissions

Hello all, trying to find where we may have a write up for this: for certain moves users without the suppressredirect are still able (in some cases are FORCED) to suppress the creation of a redirect when moving pages. I found a related, non-resovled, phab ticket phab:T71162 - but not documentation of which namespace->namespaces are having this behavior forced now. — xaosflux ^Talk 19:04, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

A I know redirects are automatically suppressed for moves of js and css pages - as it makes no sense. Ruslik_Zero 20:35, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Ruslik0: Here is an example. — xaosflux ^Talk 20:46, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

example 2. — xaosflux ^Talk 21:01, 23 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The second example shows a module being moved to a new name. I think that has always not left a redirect because #REDIRECT cannot work on a module page where only valid Lua can be used (example from March 2013 is here). Johnuniq (talk) 00:44, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

At one time, moving .css and .js pages certainly left a "bad" #REDIRECT [[]] directive; it's relatively recently (two years ago maybe?) that redir suppression became the default for .css and .js pages. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 00:54, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

After thinking, these anomalies are all likely due to special situations: one was an non-wikitext content type page; and the module: namespace is somewhat special as well. — xaosflux ^Talk 01:02, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]
FYI, suppressredirect was disabled some time ago for user's JS/CSS subpages. Requested re-enabling: phab:T115947. XXN, 20:34, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

extra fixes coming in to manual edits

Anyone noticed that nbsps are being added to edits? Is this some new bug or a feature of Firefox under Ubuntu? Ϣere SpielChequers 08:49, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Are you using wikEd? It automatically converts nbsp characters to their character entities. – Train2104 (t • c) 12:13, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I wonder if we could get Special:Tags added to WP:WikEd edits, so that we didn't have to ask.

This has come up several times, and so far, every person who's seen this behavior has been using wikEd. I believe that it does this on the grounds that the MOS prefers (or used to prefer?) visible HTML codes instead of actual non-breaking spaces (which some editors don't know how to create, and most editors don't know how to identify). WhatamIdoing (talk) 18:06, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@WhatamIdoing: I've made the suggestion to Cacycle. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 16:08, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Yes I'd opted into wikEd. Is this an acceptable feature of WikEd? It reminds me of the arguments about the minor fixes that AWB editors can opt into. I use AWB without said fixes and I'm not really comfortable with changes I didn't know I was making and am not sure I want responsibility for. Ϣere SpielChequers 09:53, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

MOS:NBSP says: "Always insert hard/thin spaces symbolically ({{nbsp}}, {{thinsp}},  ,  ), never by entering them as literal Unicode characters entered directly from the keyboard." PrimeHunter (talk) 09:47, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a move cache?

Or else, how is something like this possible? – Train2104 (t • c) 11:58, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It was two different moves to two different names. The second move must have moved the redirect left by the first move. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:13, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Self-trout D'oh! This is what happens when you look at non-standard issues first thing in the morning. – Train2104 (t • c) 12:18, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The first move was probably an error, and the second move was probably an attempt to correct that. It's quite easily done: you move the page, and having done so, you realise that you moved it to the wrong title. So, since the "move" feature hasn't reloaded the page, you use your browser's "back" button to return to the page that you had moved (*), and move it again to the intended title. The error comes at the point marked (*): it is in not refreshing or reloading the page, so the move is being applied to the previous page name, not the current one. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 15:01, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Tech News: 2017-17

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

New filters for recent changes are now available as a beta feature on most wikis. You can turn it on in your preferences. Remaining wikis will have the new filters on 9 May. [2]
When administrators, bureaucrats and stewards make a user a member of a user group they can now set an expiry date. A user group is for example "administrators" or "bots". This means that they can give someone user rights for a limited time. This is similar to how blocks and page protections can be limited in time. Special:UserRights will have new options for this. You can read more about user groups. [3]

Problems

Since the data centre test last week the content translation tool has been disabled. This is because of a database problem. It will be back as soon as the problem has been solved. [4]

Changes this week

The GuidedTour extension will be enabled on all wikis. This is a tool to explain to new users how to edit. [5]
Wiktionary will handle interlanguage links in a new way. The Cognate extension will automatically link pages with the same title between Wiktionaries. For this to work all old interlanguage links have to be removed. You can read more about this. [6]
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 25 April. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 26 April. It will be on all wikis from 27 April (calendar).

Meetings

You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 25 April at 19:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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

16:40, 24 April 2017 (UTC)

Visual Editor causing weird changes to infoboxes

It appears that under some circumstances, Visual Editor causes an undesirable rearrangement of parameters in {{infobox station}}. A typical example occurs in this edit; the problem dates back to at least February. I don't know what to make of it. Pi.1415926535 (talk) 17:37, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Pi.1415926535: This behaviour goes back much earlier than February. VE reorders template params to match whatever order is laid down in the TemplateData (if you edit the page source, it's given by the "paramOrder" array). If a parameter is not mentioned in the TemplateData (such as |image_caption=), it's moved to the end. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 19:06, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Doesn't seem unreasonable, though |other_name=| style=Amtrak on one line isn't ideal. Sam Walton (talk) 19:09, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

See T133874, declined as "not a bug". – Jonesey95 (talk) 21:45, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you all for the explanations. Since |image_caption= is a very common alias for |caption=, is there any way to add it to the TemplateData so that it doesn't get moved to the bottom? Similarly, is there any way to prevent the |other_name=| style=Amtrak bug by modifying the template? Thanks, Pi.1415926535 (talk) 02:45, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Pi.1415926535: I've modified the TemplateData so the parameters should be rearranged properly (the "Block" option in "Template preferred format"), but it seems to be taking some time for the change to propagate to VE. Jc86035 (talk) Use {{re|Jc86035}}
to reply to me 14:21, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Pi.1415926535 (talk) 19:35, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

E-Mail Rate Limit

Hello! I'm a volunteer account coordinator for The Wikipedia Library and often when I'm processing accounts I run into the issue of the e-mail rate limit. Which usually means I have to go over to Meta and sometimes Commons to send the remainder of the e-mails. Is there a local technical solution I'm perhaps missing? Thanks for the advice. --Cameron₁₁₅₉₈ ^(Talk) 17:53, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Cameron11598: Why are you sending emails instead of using the mass message feature? --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 19:14, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Redrose64: I'm emailing links to a google form, the link allows anyone to enter their information for us to pass on to the partner. We only want to share the link with users who's account's are approved for access. --Cameron₁₁₅₉₈ ^(Talk) 19:27, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Cameron11598: the local solution would be account creators as it allows access to what you are looking for: (noratelimit) - apply at WP:PERM. — xaosflux ^Talk 21:27, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Xaosflux: Thanks! --Cameron₁₁₅₉₈ ^(Talk) 00:54, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Teahouse Ask a Question

Carrying on conversation from my talkpage, it appears the Ask a question function isn't working. If you use it, it isn't saving the question. Does anyone know why this is? I'm using Windows 10 & Chrome latest version in case it matters. Joseph2302 (talk) 18:12, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Joseph2302: Thank you for reporting, there indeed was a problem. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 20:10, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

"Unknown parameter" message displayed in non-preview mode in Wikipedia app

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T141403

In the Einstein family article, the infobox for Maria "Maja" Einstein contains an unsupported parameter (ethnicity). Accordingly, when I preview the page in my browser, I see the following message:

Warning: Page using Template:Infobox person with unknown parameter "ethnicity" (this message is shown only in preview).

However, I also see the message when I view the article (i.e. in "non-preview mode") in the Android Wikipedia app (rev 2.5.191-r-2017-03-31) on my mobile device. I don't see the message if I view the article in my browser on my mobile device, just in the app. Is this known behaviour? DH85868993 (talk) 23:48, 24 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

That's because some editors decided to abuse a parser function / magic word to break the preview and change the way it appears when there is a perceived error in the page. The app picks up the page in a different way from the desktop view and so those errors go with it. It is funny considering that there was a whole discussion claiming that preview should be identical to "read pages", and yet such editors are allowed to abuse it. The fix needs to be made in the templates that generate those errors or the mediawiki developers need to remove the tool that allows such misuse. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 197.218.90.227 (talk) 08:32, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T141403 — Preceding unsigned comment added by 197.218.90.227 (talk) 08:48, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the reply. DH85868993 (talk) 09:28, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

No.of Articles

Hi! In Tamil Wikipedia, We have 99,700+ Articles. But, [7] and [8], In these two links the no of articles in Tamil Wikipedia varies. Why is this?--Shriheeran (talk) 08:56, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Because one number is update 'live', and the other only once per day ? —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 09:39, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Got it--Shriheeran (talk) 10:23, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Admin stats not displaying

Example here; it seems that admin stats are not appearing on administrator user pages, and instead, a message is displayed stating that the user is not an administrator when they actually are. Would anybody here be able to fix this problem? Thank you in advance. Patient Zero^talk 12:18, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

See User talk:Cyberpower678#Adminstats error. Anomie ⚔ 12:37, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Editing tools for GNU/Linux

Are there any maintained editing tools for GNU/Linux? AutoWikiBrowser was the only cross-platformed editor I could found but its dead. --David Hedlund ^SWE (Talk) 15:10, 25 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@David Hedlund: I think the Windows version of AWB can be used on Linux through Wine, but I'm not sure how well it works on different distros. You could also try the in-browser version, but it also has some problems like not supporting regex find/replace. Jc86035 (talk) Use {{re|Jc86035}}
to reply to me 14:41, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

This is what I do. The demon scripts at the bottom of method 2 need to be updated, if you use them let me know, they give a general idea what is being done. The Cygwin method is good unless you're doing complex scripting, suggest start there if you're not sure. Keep in mind AWB when it writes out the I/O file keeps a file handle open so deleting it causes unusual behavior. The solution is the unix script either overwrites or zero-length it. -- GreenC 15:08, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks but I don't want to run GNU/Linux from another OS. Are there no such solution? --David Hedlund ^SWE (Talk) 16:01, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Method 2 links them via a shared directory, which can be done over a network directory share or however. Last time I tried to run via Wine it worked but I didn't do much testing. -- GreenC 16:38, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Here we are perilously close to undermining one of Wikipedia first principles- an encyclopedia that anyone can edit if they are rich enough. I always view any code that is generated using proprietory software as potentially un-free- which violates our strict observance of copyright. We insist on ogg, we use .odt not .doc so saying we advise users to Microsoft or upload a filter to throttle back their computer is not just a technical issue but a moral issue as well. Picture the scenario where you have a class of Raspberry Pi user, running Raspian or Ubuntu to bring computers to a poor community working on solar- you are saying they can enjoy the fruits of Wikipedia but are not allowed to contribute.

We wonder why the age-profile of editors is changing, we acknowledge that youngster are more likely to access the WP through a phone app and are beginning to make the connection. We don't ask the question 'Are there any maintained editing tools for Android?

So instead of patronising, or evading the questions lets put it another way 'Which edit tools need to be rewritten to make them cross platform?'. 'What is the time scale for rewriting them?' and 'When notified what resources does the foundation need to deploy to expedite the process?'. ClemRutter (talk) 17:08, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@ClemRutter: Please participate in https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T163935 if you want. You may want to copy your text to that issue, I liked it. --David Hedlund ^SWE (Talk) 19:33, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Please cross-post for me. I haven't a phabricator account and I suspect I am spreading myself too thinly as it is- I will have a look later, I am mystified by how intellectual resources are being used, and how the absolute basics are ignored. Actually I am not, working with volunteers is like herding cats, and that is used by staffers to prioritise their passions rather than tackle the fundamentals where they could be really effective. ClemRutter (talk) 23:41, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

There is JavaScript Wiki Browser, which is similar to AWB but runs in your browser. It worked well for me the couple of times I used it, but I haven't used it for anything complicated. — Mr. Stradivarius ^{♪ talk ♪} 04:35, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

URL going to wrong article

This should link to British Israelism, but links to th Oxford Universoty Conservarive Association. Doug Weller talk 04:52, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I think you meant this. You were missing a final "6" from the oldid. The revision ID you linked to was the same as this. It looks like the title is ignored if the oldid is valid. That could be used for mischief, I suppose, but let's just stay away from the WP:BEANS instead. – Jonesey95 (talk) 05:42, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

title= is always ignored if oldid= (or certain other parameters) is present. Your oldid was an edit to Oxford University Conservative Association (you mistyped the title above). PrimeHunter (talk) 20:53, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Nav box and mobile... Is someone in here really good at editing Wikipedia?

Look at my sandbox. I'm trying to make the nav box on the right either look minimally decent on mobile (i.e. not all messed up), or not appear at all on mobile. Either one would be fine with me. Is it really impossible? Karlpoppery (talk) 05:23, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

If someone answers, please email me, otherwise I won't see it. Thanks. Karlpoppery (talk) 05:04, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

SVG rendering problem?

This image File:Areas of insect wing.svg as used in this Good Article Insect_wing has a black artifact in the middle of it. The Original image does not, which suggests it may be a problem with the rendering software. Is this something that is known and if known is there a solution or does this require a "ahem" bug report?--S Philbrick (Talk) 12:17, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like phab:T43424, rsvg doesn't support <flowroot> and related tags, so it winds up rendering the unstyled path that's supposed to contain the text as a black object instead. But that image doesn't actually put any text in the <flowroot>, so it's useless and can be removed. Along with at least 90% of the other markup in the file. Anomie ⚔ 19:19, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Sphilbrick: This is c:Help:SVG#flowed text. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 05:50, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks to both of you @Anomie: and @Redrose64:, I'll see if someone at the Graphics lab can help.--S Philbrick (Talk) 11:50, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Country wikilinks in sports articles

I would like to change the inappropriate wikilinks (for example in this article) from France to France. Is here any easy template for doing it?
Maiō T. (talk) 16:41, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Maiō T.: Sport in France has no mention of table tennis so I don't think it's a better link than France for the national table tennis team of France. We never link "Sport in X" for national sports teams of country X. If there are national team articles for a specific sport then we may link them like {{fb|France}} producing

France, linking France national football team. A quick search only found two countries, China and Portugal, with an article about their national table tennis team. If you want to change the practice then you could try Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Table tennis (low activity) or Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Sports. Many editors can make the required template edits if there is consensus. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:42, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Next to last editors button

The next to last editors button on the diff page used to be broken in that it was always visible, but only showed the most recent editor no matter what page it was clicked on. Now it always show no difference, even though when you show the changes manually, it is obvious that changes were made. Natureium (talk) 18:37, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Natureium: I don't know which feature you refer to. Please describe it more carefully with an example link, say whether you see the feature if you log out, and whether it works in that case. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:44, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

When you are on your watchlist page and click "diff" or a View History page and click "compare elected revisions", one of the options underneath "previous edit" is "next-to-last editor". This button used to only work on the most recent edit even though it's visible on any page where an editor has edited more than once in a row. Now, clicking on it just takes you to a page that says "(No difference)". Natureium (talk) 21:17, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Natureium: I don't see that feature and you didn't do any of the three things I asked for but a search found User:DerHexer/revisionjumper#Function: ← next-to-last editor, a script by User:DerHexer. I assume you have enabled revisionjumper at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets. MediaWiki:Gadget-revisionjumper.js shows it loads code from de:MediaWiki:Gadget-revisionjumper.js. Another time, please answer clarifying questions and realize that users see different things depending on various circumstances. Sorry for being grumpy but it's important information to helpers that you don't see the reported feature if you log out. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:12, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I came here for the same reason. It looks like you've identified the source code, but I'm not sure what the next step is for fixing this problem. Is there anyone here who can help with that? -- Irn (talk) 13:41, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I notified the script author DerHexer above by wikilinking the username. He is active and edited the German Wikipedia today. de:MediaWiki:Gadget-revisionjumper.js can only be edited by German administrators but others could post to the talk page. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:04, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Mobile: browser previous page then previous page does not work after clicking edit section

Let me know if you cannot reproduce this bug.,111.241.208.22 (talk) 19:08, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

which mobile browser. which operating system. which versions of those ? —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 19:20, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

This happens on Android chrome latest version and windows chrome latest version under developer tools mobile mode.118.160.128.174 (talk) 02:13, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Let us know here when you can provide a list of steps to reproduce, step by step, and exact version information ("latest" can mean many things). Thanks! --Malyacko (talk) 11:09, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I made an image description and post it on Phabricator here.Golopotw (talk) 19:05, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

LoginNotify coming soon to a wiki near you!

Hi all. The Community Tech team has almost wrapped up work on wish #7 on the 2016 Community Wishlist Survey -- Warning on unsuccessful login attempts. We want to give you a preview of how the new feature will work, and get your feedback.

The project aims to improve security on Wikimedia sites by notifying users when there are unsuccessful attempts to login with their username from both known and unknown IPs and devices. This project builds on the LoginNotify extension which was created by Brian Wolff in 2016.

How does it work? The extension keeps track of known devices (browsers really) by placing a cookie in the browser. This cookie automatically expires in 180 days. If a failed login attempt happens from a new browser, it generates an Echo notification alerting the user about the login attempt. The other way that we identify known devices is by checking the current IP address subnet against the IP addresses that have been used recently (as stored in a temporary server cache). None of the information is stored in a database and at no point is any private information revealed publicly, including the attacker’s IP address/location. The WMF Legal and Security teams have reviewed the implementation for both compliance with our Privacy Policy and security considerations.

For known devices/IPs, we allow up to 5 login attempts before alerting the user about the login attempt, since it's fairly common to mistype or forget a password. If there are 5 or more failed attempts, the notification will say: "There have been 5 failed attempts to log in to your account since the last time you logged in. If this wasn't you, please make sure your account has a strong password." There would be another notification at 10 attempts, 15 attempts and so on.

For unknown devices/IPs, we alert on every failed attempt. The extension bundles these notifications to avoid spamming users with too many notifications. For example, if there are 3 failed attempts from an unknown device, there will be a single notification, which says: "There have been 3 failed attempts to log in to your account from a new device since the last time you logged in. If this wasn't you, please make sure your account has a strong password." On further attempts, that notification would update to say "4 failed attempts," "5 failed attempts", and so on.

How does it look? The first picture on the right is what the notification looks like if the attack happened on the wiki that you're currently on; the second picture is what it would look like if you view it on a different wiki. The notification is issued from the wiki where the attack happened.

There are two ways for the user to get these notifications - either by web Echo notifications or by email. By default, the web notifications are on for everyone and email ones are turned off. This is configurable in the notification preferences.

The text for the notifications as well as the threshold for when you get the notifications is subject to changes, based on your feedback.

This extension does not give you notifications when somebody successfully logs into your account from an unknown device or IP. It is technically possible to generate those, but if somebody else has logged in, they could just as easily see those notifications and do a password reset (which the notification encourages you to do). The ideal way to handle this is to issue email notifications for this case, but since most Wikipedia accounts do not have emails associated with them, this wouldn't be useful to majority of the users. So for the time being, we have settled for not issuing these notifications.

We'd love to hear what you think of this so far, and what you think we should change, if anything. We expect to deploy this within the coming weeks. Thanks for your time! -- NKohli (WMF) (talk) 19:52, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

For accounts with 2FA - will this fire from bad passwords alone, or will they also have to enter a bad token value? — xaosflux ^Talk 19:57, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It'll fire from bad passwords alone. There's a ticket at T158379 to discuss the possibility of generating notifications when somebody is attempting to guess the token value repeatedly (given they know the password to the account). -- NKohli (WMF) (talk) 20:15, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I like this idea, but would there be an opt-out or a way to disable these? Not to get too beans-y, but constantly pinging or thanking people is a common form of mild harassment, and triggering password-reset emails is less common but tends to be more worrying to the recipients, especially if they're not very technically inclined. Opabinia regalis (talk) 21:10, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Yep, you can opt in/out from your Notification preferences. Email alerts are off by default and Echo alerts are on by default to minimize spamming. The notifications will be bundled into one, so hopefully it won't be too spammy. :) -- NKohli (WMF) (talk) 21:15, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! (Heh, I clicked "thank" before realizing the irony... ;) Opabinia regalis (talk) 21:34, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, this looks good. But can "bundle" be spelled out? If the relevant server is under a light load, and an attacker enters one bad password per 20 seconds for one hour (180 failures—very possible with some harassers), what would happen? Re notification preferences, are you saying that there will be a new entry under "Notify me about these events", and that one entry could be set to off to stop LoginNotify while allowing any other wanted events? Johnuniq (talk) 00:54, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

If those 180 attempts happened from an unknown device/IP, you'd get one notification saying there were "180 failed login attempts". If it was a known device/IP, you'd see multiple notifications, for every 5 tries (so at 5, 10, 15... attempts). But I'd like to point out that such a scenario is quite difficult to achieve, because Wikipedia requires you to enter a captcha for every attempt after 3 failed attempts and after 6, you're blocked from login attempts for 5 minutes. Regarding preferences, yes, you will have an option for "Notify me about failed login attempts" followed by two checkboxes, one for Web notifications and one for email. You can turn them on/off as you like without affecting any other notifications. -- NKohli (WMF) (talk) 04:44, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The way I understand it, if I try to log in from an unknown device and fail the first time but succeed the second time on the same device, I'll see a notification once I make it in. Is this correct, or will that notification be removed automatically? As someone who clears their cookies on a nightly basis, every morning will be an unknown device. – Train2104 (t • c) 02:30, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

That's right. You will see the notification on login. If you login everyday, chances are pretty high that you don't mess up your password often, so you won't likely see many unwanted notifications. -- NKohli (WMF) (talk) 04:44, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Javascript and Module editors

When it came to the editors for Javascript scripts and Lua modules, I used to have some form of code editor for the inputs that would allow me to insert tabs, highlight brackets, etc. Now I'm getting the standard input that is used for templates and regular articles. Was the code-editor-input deprecated/removed, or is a preference or something similar? -- Alex^TW 22:46, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Upper left corner of the editing window for a lua page has <> icon? Click that. For me, that toggles between normal wikitext editor and code editor.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 23:17, 26 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Trappist the monk: Bingo. Thanks! -- Alex^TW 10:51, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Reporting: my Login is no longer working

Greetings, When I attempt my usual English WP login (user name is JoeHebda), it loads page at

login.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CentralLogin/start?token=

with this message

Central user log in

The provided authentication token is either expired or invalid.

So far, I have closed out my browser & started over, attemped Login at WikiMedia. Don't know what to try next. Please help. Regards, JoeHebda

I get the same problem. DuncanHill (talk) 13:00, 27 April 2017 (UTC) I kept getting the "loss of session data" message, so followed the instructions to log out and in again, then got the "Central user log in" message referred to above. I closed browser, switched my internet connexion off and on again, and seem to be logged back in. Very worrying to me as I couldn't edit from IP - I use mobile internet (3 Mobile in the UK) and someone has put a school block on the IP address. Using Edge on Win 10, with mobile hotspot via 3 Mobile to connect to internet. DuncanHill (talk) 13:03, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Me too. I can't log in from any Wikimedia site or from another browser. My user name is Epicgenius. 198.179.73.106 (talk) 13:04, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Had the same problem - I was sent to login.wikipedia.org, I logged in there and was able to login and then go to en.wikipedia.org. See my post below for another problem I just noticed today Ҝ Ø Ƽ Ħ 13:05, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Same problem here, but it is working now. Odd. Patient Zero^talk 13:08, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Working too once I tried KoshVorlon's method. epicgenius (talk) 13:09, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I just carried on trying to log in and it eventually worked! Patient Zero^talk 13:09, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Working now the normal way. When the problem occurred I was actually force logged out. – Train2104 (t • c) 13:10, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

My JoeHebda login is now working. I did a complete power-Off of my laptop & re-boot. Now all is OK. Cheers! — JoeHebda • (talk) 13:10, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Watchlist not updating

I just tried to add a page to my watchlist (currently I have 4 in right now ), rather than getting the prompt that says the page was added into my watchlist, I'm going aroiund in a loop. When I try to edit the raw watchlist, pretty much the same thing happens. Anyone else having this issue ? Ҝ Ø Ƽ Ħ 13:05, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Quick update -- it just started working again! Ҝ Ø Ƽ Ħ 13:08, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Watchlist not loading

I've been having a weird watchlist issue since yesterday (April 26). When I try to load it, I just get an empty document. Same result in Firefox and Chrome (I'm on a Mac). I just created a test account to see if it was my browsers, but that account's watchlist worked fine, so I guess it's something specific to my account.

Any ideas as to what would be causing this? Thanks! Trivialist (talk) 18:31, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Does this link work? Max Semenik (talk) 19:48, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Disregard, it's working now. @MaxSem: Wasn't able to try your link when my watchlist was broken, but trying it now produces the same effect I was getting before (empty document). What does "safemode=true" do? Trivialist (talk) 20:46, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

"safemode=1" (the value suggested at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 154#Tech News: 2017-16) prevents personal CSS, JavaScript and gadgets from running. It shouldn't make an empty document, and doesn't for me. Maybe you still have the problem but only at random times. How many pages do you have on your watchlist? PrimeHunter (talk) 21:01, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm. Was broken again (safemode didn't work either). Checking the number of pages on my watchlist (1,930), I removed them all, added only the Main Page, and now it works fine. What's the maximum number of pages you can watch without breaking things? Trivialist (talk) 21:15, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Adding and removing pages from Special:EditWatchlist breaks somewhere around 3-5k watched pages; otherwise, watchlists have no programmatic limit. --Izno (talk) 21:17, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I watch 8,347 pages and have no problems viewing Special:Watchlist or removing pages from Special:EditWatchlist. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:46, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

21,192 pages (probably about 21,191 too many for sanity) - at this level, the watchlist editors are very slow, but still usable. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:00, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I re-added everything, and it's working fine now. *shrug* Thanks to all for your assistance. Trivialist (talk) 22:06, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@MaxSem: To note that I was having a similar issue at English Wikisource console said The character encoding of the HTML document was not declared. ... (full detail at enWS) and it occurred following the code rollout for us on Tuesday (I made no changes to Watchlist for that to be the issue). In the end I identified as one specific category that was problematicin association with setting to "not hide categories". [Process. I remove everything (it worked), added back groups of links until it broke; removed group then added individual links, until it broke again. Refreshed whole list minus the one category, worked. Hid category watch, put the full list back in and it worked; unhide categories, full list, it breaks. ] Someone else added the same category, and was unable to replicate it, though I can add and remove category repeatedly reproduce the killer. Also to note that safemode had no effect, it wasn't a js/css issue. — billinghurst sDrewth 08:13, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Billinghurst: what browser are you using ? I assume a very old Safari or Chrome or other WebKit based browser ? These freeze on some webkit-isolate CSS statements, and I suspect that the particular content you had on that page uses this CSS statement. Hmm, though googling indicates that this might be a Firefox warning.. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:07, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Latest Firefox for that. Noting that the problem was confirmed in latest Chrome, though I didn't grab that error message. The FF console gave no error message beyond that, all that there is to see. The broken category page is a maintenance category, and is/was empty. — billinghurst sDrewth 12:48, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@TheDJ:When I fire it into Chrome, it initially throws the std wiki error mesage

Error
Our servers are currently under maintenance or experiencing a technical problem. Please try again in a few minutes.
See the error message at the bottom of this page for more information.

When reloaded it gives a blank page, and non-expert me doesn't see anything via the console, it just looks like a blank page, and what looks like elements of a nascent style sheet. — billinghurst sDrewth 12:54, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Billinghurst: I had the same issue on fr.wikt, see phab:T164059. Darkdadaah (talk) 15:35, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Edit Count

When I click edit count on my user page it leads to this broken link instead of the working link. CTF83! 19:29, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@CTF83!: your userpage is a bit busy, can you be more specific where this link is located? It may be a template, or a system message that needs updating. — xaosflux ^Talk 19:41, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Neither the string "edit count" nor the posted link occur on your user page for me. If you see it there then you must have some script or other feature adding it. Anyway, the xTools are notoriously unstable. Both url's currently give the same mostly but not completely broken result for me. I guess they are both supposed to work and you just hit one of them at a lucky time where the tool responded. The one you call broken is linked on "Edit count" at the bottom of Special:Contributions/CTF83! for users with the default en language in preferences. The link is made by MediaWiki:Sp-contributions-footer. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:32, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

That link in the footer doesn't work for either the user in question or myself, it loads but there are no edits. The template to be edited for repair is {{Sp-contributions-footer}}. – Train2104 (t • c) 23:59, 27 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Both links currently work for me. xTools are unstable as mentioned. We could discuss whether the link should be removed, or replaced with another tool at Wikipedia:WikiProject edit counters, but I see no reason to change the url to the other xTools form unless we have data indicating that form is more likely to work. My guess: It makes no difference. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:36, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Articles with broken section links.

Is there a list somewhere of articles containing broken links to sections of other articles, or broken links to section redirects? If not, can such a list be created? Cheers! bd2412 T 02:11, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Database reports shows Wikipedia:Database reports/Broken section anchors by Bamyers99. It's only for redirects. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:26, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

This is definitely a task to dive into, but I was actually thinking of broken anchors from links being used in other articles; for example, where a disambiguation page lists an incorrect link to a page section. bd2412 T 19:21, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Twinkle not working

I opened up my watchlist this morning and was surprised to discover that the Twinkle tab did not load. I have it enabled as a gadget. Wikipedia:Twinkle/Preferences shows nothing. My other tools stopped working last night. Is anyone else having this problem?--Auric talk 11:35, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Auric: Likely it's one of the user scripts that you have installed. which skin are you using ? I get errors when i load your monobook.js file, so if you are using monobook, then that is likely your problem. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:01, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It's not just Auric. It loads very erratically today for me. Yesterday it was fine. I'm also finding that some diffs don't load at all. And that there seems to be a slowdown in most pages loading. 12:04, 28 April 2017 (UTC)

My scripts load fine. As for watchlist, what reason do you have to believe it should load on the watchlist page? --Izno (talk) 12:16, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

No, something has changed. I suspect mediawiki.util module is not loaded extremely early anymore as it was before, and that now several user scripts etc are breaking because they refer to mediawiki.util, but are not wrapping there code in a mw.loader.using to enforce that dependency. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:22, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Twinkle is not working for me as well, neither the userscript nor the gadget version. Regards So Why 16:37, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@SoWhy: which skin are you using ? You are likely being affected by the below mentioned script-pocalypse 2017 edition, where we have dumped some old crap that people didn't clean up yet. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 16:46, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Monobook. I thought the problem only affects scripts in my monobook.js? Regards So Why 16:49, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I had to clear the scripts in my vector.js as well, before anything would work.--Auric talk 20:31, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Once you find the script that causes the problem (see below), all others should work again. TW works for me again for sure. Regards So Why 20:33, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Old script-pocalypse

Hi, if you are having problems, where elements are not appearing on the page all of a sudden, then this is probably because your userscripts are broken. The tech team has dropped some things that have been deprecated for about 6 years. However since most people don't know anything about JS, other than to copy paste into their common.js or vector.js page, some of you might have missed the 6 years of warnings :) If you have a problem. just report here, volunteers will help you along. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 13:16, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@TheDJ: is there a list of functions that have been removed? From what I've seen so far, the only one erroring out is addPortletLink. What else? Writ Keeper ⚇♔ 14:07, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Indeed. I was like "what the..." and poked around awhile, thinking the scripts I use were broken, until I realized my common.js was what was broken. I was able to patch common.js by using the replacements shown here. Stevie is the man! ^{Talk • Work} 14:11, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The wikibits Javascript module is no longer load by default. Code using wikibits should be refactored to use modern replacements.

wikibits identifiers

clientPC
is_gecko
is_safari
is_safari_win
is_chrome
is_chrome_mac
is_ff2
is_ff2_win
is_ff2_x11
webkit_match
ff2_bugs
ie6_bugs
doneOnloadHook
onloadFuncts
addOnloadHook
runOnloadHook
killEvt
loadedScripts
importScript
importStylesheet
importScriptURI
importStylesheetURI
appendCSS
addHandler
addClickHandler
removeHandler
hookEvent
mwEditButtons
mwCustomEditButtons
tooltipAccessKeyPrefix
tooltipAccessKeyRegexp
updateTooltipAccessKeys
ta
akeytt
checkboxes
lastCheckbox
setupCheckboxShiftClick
addCheckboxClickHandlers
checkboxClickHandler
showTocToggle
toggleToc
ts_image_path
ts_image_up
ts_image_down
ts_image_none
ts_europeandate
ts_alternate_row_colors
ts_number_transform_table
ts_number_regex
sortables_init
ts_makeSortable
ts_getInnerText
ts_resortTable
ts_initTransformTable
ts_toLowerCase
ts_dateToSortKey
ts_parseFloat
ts_currencyToSortKey
ts_sort_generic
ts_alternate
changeText
getInnerText
escapeQuotes
escapeQuotesHTML
addPortletLink
jsMsg
injectSpinner
removeSpinner
getElementsByClassName
redirectToFragment

— JJMC89 (T·C) 14:21, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

That is what I linked to. Stevie is the man! ^{Talk • Work} 14:24, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

That can't be a 100% accurate list of functions that have been removed, because importScript still works. Those are all deprecated, yes, but not all of them were removed today. Writ Keeper ⚇♔ 14:29, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The list of actually removed function can be seen here. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 14:40, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Great, thanks. Writ Keeper ⚇♔ 16:50, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Another problem you might encounter is that you use mw.util.something, and that this is failing. This is because a script is not ensuring that mediawiki.util is loaded (before the above mentioned legacy script loaded this for you). This can be fixed by wrapping such a call: For this problem, you will need to change something like this:

mw.util.addPortletLink( args );

$.when( mw.loader.using( [ 'mediawiki.util' ] ), $.ready ).then( function() {
    mw.util.addPortletLink( args );
} );

—TheDJ (talk • contribs) 14:33, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@TheDJ: Thanks for the heads-up. I was wondering why most of my scripts are no longer working. Apart from Twinkle (see section above), the following scripts I have been using have stopped working (although I cannot swear that all worked until now):
- User:Mr.Z-man/rollbackSummary.js
- ~~User:Animum/easyblock.js~~
- ~~Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts/Scripts/qSig~~
- ~~Wikipedia:WikiProject User scripts/Scripts/Six tabs (sometimes)~~
- ~~User:Ais523/highlightmyname2.js~~
- ~~User:Anomie/util.js~~
- ~~User:Anomie/useridentifier.js~~
- ~~User:Fran Rogers/CH2 en.js~~
- ~~User:Ale_jrb/Scripts/csdhelper.js~~
- User:Ale_jrb/Scripts/unblock.js
- ~~UTC Clock gadget~~

Can you or someone else skilled in JS fix them please? Regards So Why 16:48, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@SoWhy: Hmm, I don't feel comfortable modifying other people's scripts, but I can make copies of them in my own userspace and fix them there, if the original script author is inactive. Writ Keeper ⚇♔ 16:52, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I doubt anyone minds if you just fix the script without making any changes but if you feel uncomfortable, maybe you can tell me which of those are actually broken and which are just not working because others are broken, then I can ask the authors to fix them. Regards So Why 16:54, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

NVM, I figured it out myself. By disabling those scipts that displayed errors in the JS Debugger of Firefox the rest started working again. Struck out those above. Regards So Why 17:08, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@SoWhy: *I'd* mind it. But it's not a big deal, really. I take it the scripts that still have errors are those that haven't been struck through in your list? The rollbackSummary script definitely would've caused a problem. I've created a new, working version of it here: User:Writ_Keeper/rollbackSummary.js. Writ Keeper ⚇♔ 17:12, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Great, thanks. I posted what I did below, hopefully someone will find it useful. Regards So Why 17:18, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Sysop highlighter script

I'm running a script , it was called adminrights.js which got changed over to Amalthea's userhighlighter.js. that highlights sysops names in a blue background. Amalthea's version depends on her bot which collects sysops's names. That page show all names minus 1, the format appears to be exactly the same in both diffs and the js code hasn't been changed in a long time (meaning at least a month !) It stopped working as of today. Anyone else having the same issue with this script? Ҝ Ø Ƽ Ħ 12:48, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@KoshVorlon: Moved your section to the current "help everyone make it through another Friday morning post-deployment". --Izno (talk) 13:02, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@KoshVorlon: Your vector.js had an deletion request on it, so i deleted it. I note however that it seems that it was working (how, I have no idea....), because it seemed to be the only place where you had that script included. If you want me to recover some of those scripts, give me a ping... —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 13:40, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

TheDJ Actually, I use monobook.js for my daily needs. I did read up and saw that we were supposed to stop asking for scripts via ImportScript (at least that was my understanding of it ) so I changed the request over (as you'll see in my monobook). It looked like it was working but has reverted back. I double check my monobook to make sure I have the call correct. Ҝ Ø Ƽ Ħ 13:45, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Script's working now, Amalthea saw my note on her talk page and made the change on her script. Ҝ Ø Ƽ Ħ 13:56, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

And I've cleaned up some more things in your monobook.js file. While importScript is deprecated, you don't have to worry that much about it right now. importScript is so prevalent throughout all the pages, that we will likely take special considerations at some point to clean that up. That's better than you using mw.loader incorrectly. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 14:05, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

TheDJ I saw your edits, thank you. It's curious that you're saying this mw loader is incorrect. I got that syntax directly from this page . It seems to match up with that page, specifically the section labeled ImportScriptURI. I'm not arguing, because you know Javascript better than I do, more like, I'm just curious, since I matched the call and made only a change to what was being called, what was incorrect ? Ҝ Ø Ƽ Ħ 15:41, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

You started it with the username, but that's not a valid start. It either needs to be a full url, or server relative url (so start with /wiki/ or /w/index.php) —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 15:44, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you ! I understand exactly what you're saying! Ҝ Ø Ƽ Ħ 18:34, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Guide: How to find which scripts are actually broken

For those less able to understand JavaScript, here is a handy guide to find out which scripts are broken and prevent others from loading:

Firefox

Open any Wikipedia page
Open the Developer Tools by pressing F12 or under Tools => Web Developer => Toggle Tools
Select "Debugger"
In the lower pane, select "JS"
Now it should display some lines with orange bullets. Open those by clicking on them, then click on the entry on the right ("load.php")
The userscript generating the error will appear above
Disable all scripts that appear above in your <skin>.js file until no more errors are displayed.
The rest should work again

Video of the steps

Chrome

Open any Wikipedia page
Open the Developer Tools by pressing F12 or under Menu => More tools => Developer tools
Select "Console"
Now the failing scripts should be displayed with a red background and a small red X symbol
Click any of the lines to find out the script which is causing the problems
Disable all scripts that appear above in your <skin>.js file until no more errors are displayed.
The rest should work again

Video of the steps

Hope that helps at least some people. Regards So Why 17:16, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@SoWhy: I'm struggling with finding the lower pane and JS. What browser are you using? I've tried FF and Chrome. Thanks. Doug Weller talk 17:57, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Doug Weller: Sorry, forgot that the split view is not enabled by default. Hit "Esc" while on the Debugger tab to open the lower pane. Regards So Why 18:14, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Here is a quick video I made (sorry, VirtualBox does not record mouse pointers but it should be clear from the highlighting): [9] Regards So Why 18:28, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I'm using Chrome, so my steps were a bit different, but I was able to find what you were pointing at. Thank you ! (You need to sticky that, if it's possible , I'm sure more questions will pop up about scripts ) Ҝ Ø Ƽ Ħ 18:45, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

My main problem is User:Apoc2400/refToolbarPlus.js, which has stopped working. The developer pane shows the main problem as "Uncaught ReferenceError: mwCustomEditButtons is not defined at HTMLDocument.refbuttons". --Auric talk 20:17, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Auric: Why do you need that script ? It seems like another version of reftoolbar, which is already enabled by default. This will clash with that default, and has also not been kept up to date apparently. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 20:40, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I have informed the original author of that script. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 20:44, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. It help(ed) in citing references and looking for errors in references.--Auric talk 20:52, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Still not getting it

I've tried working through the steps for Firefox and I'm just not getting it. Enough of of the steps and what the video shows are different enough that I'm just not getting it. Is there any other way for me to fix this? - SummerPhD^v2.0 04:17, 29 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@SummerPhDv2.0: I've removed some old stuff from you script file, that was really broken. Hope it's better for you now. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 08:29, 29 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I'm stuck as well

I'm afraid I'm not managing to follow it either. :-( I have tried following the instructions and watching the video a few times but my screen is not showing the same as the video. I have the most up to date version of Firefox on an iMac and have encountered loading problems for a while. I did remove some scripts the other day but it didn't fix it. Help, please? SagaciousPhil - Chat 08:38, 29 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed some things for you too. If you have any remaining issues, can you see if you can get a more accurate description of what sometimes fails on which page ? —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 09:15, 29 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Reminder about the next thing to break some scripts

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T162849

The BIG blue button is coming soon to editing tools near you – well, maybe not in the next few weeks, but probably this calendar year. Buttons under the edit summary will get converted to OOUI. This should affect relatively few scripts and tools, but if you're looking at your scripts now, then please consider whether yours will be affected by this, too. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 06:09, 29 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Article Creation through bots

Hello! I got bot status on Ta wiki. And I created this Bot account to create some articles, on a specific topic. See here, like this I want to do. I explored on mediawiki manuals on how to create articles using bot. But I didn't find anything. I have tested through paws. But I don't know how to create many articles through Paws or any other else. As like this article creation me too like to do this. Can you plaese tell me how to do this step by step.--ShriheeranBOT (talk) 11:44, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Have you considered using mw:Extension:ArticlePlaceholder instead? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 17:40, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Problem with "User contributions" page

On my user contributions page, one of the checkable options is written in what appears to be Finnish! It reads as follows:

Only show edits that are latest revisions
Only show edits that are page creations
Hide minor edits
Piilota mahdollisesti hyvät muutokset

Is this a known issue? --Rob Sinden (talk) 14:31, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Robsinden: Very strange. Could you add ?uselang=qqx to the end of the URL on that page, and paste what shows up in place of that text here please? For example, I see (ores-hide-nondamaging-filter) (which means the text comes from MediaWiki:Ores-hide-nondamaging-filter). I assume there's some issue with detecting your language, so that might show the same thing. Sam Walton (talk) 14:34, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Samwalton9: You get this Finnish text if you select "en-GB" in your preferences. -- John of Reading (talk) 14:42, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Samwalton9:, reading across as follows: (sp-contributions-toponly) (sp-contributions-newonly) (sp-contributions-hideminor) (ores-hide-nondamaging-filter) --Rob Sinden (talk) 14:44, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I've created the British English element on translate wiki, please review it. But why is Finished used as a translation backup for British English? Trizek (WMF) (talk) 15:23, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The log [10] says a version in the wrong language was deleted two hours before your creation. So you didn't have to create an English message, we just had to wait for the en fallback to be propagated. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:49, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

translatewiki:Special:Log/Amire80 shows seven other ORES-related en-gb messages in the wrong language have been deleted. The author has been informed and all their non-deleted edits are to fi messages so the cleanup should be complete next time messages are imported from Translatewiki. Until then en-gb users may see several of the current Finnish messages at [11]. There was a similar problem at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 152#Protection tab where a Translatewiki editor wrote a bunch of messages in Sindhi instead of English. It would be nice if messages using the wrong alphabet were detected automatically. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:47, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Project of a TeaHouse-specific archival bot

We are currently discussing here a special archival bot for the Teahouse (a place for new editors) that posts to the user talk pages of those who asked a question when the thread gets archived. Any input from people familiar with archival bots or the bot policy in general is welcome (but please post at WT:TH to keep it in one place). Tigraan^{Click here to contact me} 15:52, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Vibiana/Cathedral of Saint Vibiana mix-up

I have a client who's name is Vibiana. It's a venue located in downtown LA. It used to be a catholic cathedral but hasn't been for years. It now houses weddings, runway shows, tv shows, etc.

Starting Monday, no one has been able to geo tag Vibiana anywhere. When it's googled, the Cathedral of Saint Vibiana shows up. Vibiana doesn't at all. I was told this may be because of a connection to the Wikipedia page that geo locates the Cathedral.

Cathedral_of_Saint_Vibiana

Is there a way to fix this?

71.93.209.113 (talk) 17:36, 28 April 2017 (UTC)Vanessa[reply]

— Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.93.209.113 (talk) 17:34, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I'm not sure what the problem is supposed to be here. When I do a Google search for Vibiana, the whole first page of results points to the commercial web site or to reviews of the venue, with the exception of the Wikipedia page, which mentions that the site is an event venue. When I search for "Vibiana" on my phone's mapping app, the first hit is the venue. – Jonesey95 (talk) 18:11, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

When Googled via desktop, the page that comes up to the right is Cathedral at Saint Vibiana - yet the links to the left are all of the venue. The Cathedral at Saint Vibiana Wikipedia page may mention it's now a venue but the problem is the geo tag that I'm assuming comes from Wikipedia. The name doesn't match the business brand which is a problem for the client - suggesting the venue is a church. If you attempt to geo tag a social media post, all that comes up is the cathedral, not the venue. People have always been able to geo tag simply "Vibiana" but now it's "Cathedral of Saint Vibiana."

71.93.209.113 (talk) 19:05, 28 April 2017 (UTC)Vanessa[reply]

Hi Vanessa,

Do you know when this started? There was a change to how geo coordinates were handled in this article in January 2017. JJMC89 might know what the effects could be.

When I go to maps.google.com and search for "Vibiana", the map marker says (only) "Vibiana". I don't have a Facebook account or anything like that, but I'm sure that lots of people here do; could you give exact directions for how to see the problem? WhatamIdoing (talk) 19:54, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

The edit should have had no impact on the coordinates. |display= still includes title, so the coordinates are still primary. Also, the coordinates and the rest of the provided GeoData information are the same. — JJMC89 (T·C) 20:19, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

It started on Monday (maybe late last week). If you have Instagram or Facebook and attempt to post a picture (or edit a current picture to include a location) and attempt to geo tag "Vibiana," the tag will only come up as "Cathedral of Saint Vibiana." I was told the problem originated in but it's looking more like a Google problem.

It's a branding problem for the client as they're no longer the church, just the venue. I google the venue and it does come up but the geo tag for social media is the issue. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.93.209.113 (talk) 20:27, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I can understand why that would be confusing for potential customers or event attendees.

For anyone else who's looking into this, Wikidata has had the same coordinates since 2013, so that looks like an unlikely source. WhatamIdoing (talk) 20:37, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

To me this just looks like something/someone at google has merged the two entities on the Google side. Nothing we can do about that. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 20:49, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Well, nothing we want to do. Google likes Wikipedia and it's possible Google used our article Cathedral of Saint Vibiana to associate that name with "Vibiana" alone or with the coordinates in the article. But we shouldn't remove correct information just because external websites may use it in an unfortunate way for somebody. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:04, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, everyone, for being so accommodating. I don't know why my colleague directed me here or why I followed the trail but here I was. Off to find out the real source. Again, thank you. 71.93.209.113 (talk) 20:59, 28 April 2017 (UTC)Vanessa[reply]

I think this is a Google or Facebook issue. – Jonesey95 (talk) 21:04, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

One of the categories added to the article relatively recently is "Catholic cathedrals in California". Since this is not technically a cathedral anymore, that would be incorrect, no? — Æµ§œš¹ _{[lɛts b̥iː pʰəˈlaɪˀt]} 21:09, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Categories usually don't distinguish between current and former entities, except categories exclusively for former entities like Category:Former cathedrals in the United States. There is no Category:Former catholic cathedrals in California so I see no reason to remove it from Category:Cathedrals in California and lose the category connection to cathedrals in the state. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:26, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

What about "Former Roman Catholic church buildings in California"? — Æµ§œš¹ _{[lɛts b̥iː pʰəˈlaɪˀt]} 21:33, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

That's not a subcategory of Category:Cathedrals in California. We want the most specific categories on articles. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:46, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Other than the specific wording, I'm not seeing a difference between the extant "Former Roman Catholic church buildings in California" and the hypothetical "Former catholic cathedrals in California". How are they different? — Æµ§œš¹ _{[lɛts b̥iː pʰəˈlaɪˀt]} 23:48, 28 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

I gather from Cathedral that all cathedrals are church buildings, but not all church buildings are cathedrals. So we should presumably have both the "Cathedrals in California" and "Former church buildings" cats on this page. WhatamIdoing (talk) 06:06, 29 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Template help please

Will someone knowledgeable of template coding please help me with Template:Redirect category? The documentation shows |same line= as a parameter for use but does not describe its action. Furthermore, when I look at the template coding itself, I do not see anything parsed by such a parameter. What is its purpose please? Thank you.--John Cline (talk) 04:50, 29 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@John Cline: |same_line= was removed on 31 October 2014 by Paine Ellsworth. — JJMC89 (T·C) 05:31, 29 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

To editors John Cline and JJMC89: I should be whipped, kicked and fish-slapped for missing that documentation update! (Sincerely hope there aren't any more like that out there!) Best to you! Paine Ellsworth ^put'r there 07:27, 29 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

@Paine Ellsworth: Here, have a traditional whack: —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 08:04, 29 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Whack!
You've been whacked with a wet trout.

Don't take this too seriously. Someone just wants to let you know you did something silly.

That din't hurt! <cringe> That's a whole lot better'n being smashed 'n squished by a whale. Paine Ellsworth ^put'r there 09:14, 29 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Remove page from watchlist confirmation

Why am I asked to confirm removal of pages from watchlist nowadays? It is annoying having to do this every time. It is doubly annoying that you are not taken back to the original page after confirming and then have to back up through two pages to get there. Is there any way of turning this off and going back to the old way that didn't require these extra clicks? SpinningSpark 09:24, 29 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

Not getting email notifications when an article on watchlist is changed

This has been happening sporadically (off/on) for the last year. It's been happening with more frequency this year, even though I pruned my watchlist in case having too many articles on it was the problem. Most recent example: one article on my watchlist (that I have been very actively involved in editing) was edited 3 times by one editor on "21 April", and by GreenC bot on 25 April -- but I did not receive emails about it. I only discovered the edits because I visited the article today (29 April 2017) and looked at its history. I double-checked my watchlist and, yes, the article is included in it.

I checked the Watchlist settings. It says:

You have 51 pages on your watchlist (excluding talk pages).

Email notification is enabled.

In Preferences > Advanced options only the following are checked:

Expand watchlist to show all changes, not just the most recent
Hide my edits from the watchlist
Add pages I create and files I upload to my watchlist
Add new files I upload to my watchlist
Show Wikidata edits in your watchlist

There's nothing in the options preventing my receiving email notifications. Pyxis Solitary (talk) 09:56, 29 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

What you want is something that alerts you when you are not on WP to when something on, say, your watchlist changes. — O Fortuna^{semper crescis, aut decrescis} 10:08, 29 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]

template:FIAV

Hello, Some state flags have a text or motto, like the flag of Brazil. In such flags, the reverse side is congruent to the obverse side and according to Glossary of vexillology this symbol () must be shown for these flags. The problem is that despite the symbol (), there is no tooltip for the "IFIS equal" symbol. This symbol is not in Template:FIAV. Could you please add this symbol to the FIAV template. Shfarshid (talk) 10:25, 29 April 2017 (UTC)[reply]