Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)

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

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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I keep wishing there were a way to "upvote" edits.

A way to add a very quick "thank you" note in the edit log, rather than having to add a note to a talk page somewhere. The big application is when someone corrects a mistake, or otherwise improves an edit I made, and I want to show that I've seen and approve of the correction. Basically, it would

• Provide warm fuzzies to editors in smaller doses than barnstars. New editors, in particular, might find it very reassuring and motivating.
• Demonstrate consensus agreement with an edit, as opposed to having to infer it from the absence of additional edits.
• Show that someone is paying attention to this page.

If I and another editor are going back and forth over something and they create a version that we agree on, I'm happy when I find a lingering small typo just so I can add an edit log entry giving thanks for the previous edit. Everyone can then see our "edit battle", capped with a final edit by one of us which the other approves of.

Even bots could use the feedback for algorithm training. "Yes, that really was vandalism, good catch."

Another application would be in watchlists and contributions pages, an "edits since the last one you upvoted".

(Yes, I know this would be a huge change to MediaWiki.) 71.41.210.146 (talk) 04:17, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

Registered users have an easy way to thank each other for specific edits without making a new edit. See Wikipedia:Notifications/Thanks. An IP address can be shared by many users and one user can have many IP addresses so the system is limited to registered users. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:28, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

Nifty! I never knew about that. I was imagining a more public version, where third parties could see the thanks. Basically A makes an edit *and B concurs*. (You'd presumably only list two or three explicitly before collapsing to a number.)

I confess I have no idea why IP address confusion constitutes a reason to limit use of the Thanks system any more than it limits use of user talk pages. 71.41.210.146 (talk) 05:49, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

I wish there was a way to thank IP's! It seems, to me anyway, that IP's either make the best or the worst edits, and I'd like to encourage the good ones!!! --MurderByDeadcopy^"bang!" 17:55, 11 November 2015 (UTC)

It's part of a larger feature Wikipedia:Notifications which is limited to registered users although some of the parts could also be done for IP's with some confusion. One reason for not doing it may be that thanks are less important than user talk discussions so there is less willingness to accept confusion over IP addresses. Also, the current Notifications system can deliberately only be seen by the user. If an unregistered user changes IP address then they would completely lose access to Notifications to the old IP address, while they can still view its user talk page if they know the IP address or can find it in a page history. PrimeHunter (talk) 06:08, 8 November 2015 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter: But is there a reason that IP addresses couldn't thank signed in users? That might be a really low-threshhold participatory activity for our engaged readers, that might encourage more people to go to history pages, which in turns shows how the process of content development works. It also could be the source of warm-fuzzies for our contributors, helping them feel more of their work is acknowledge. Participation would likely be really low at first, because of how hard it is to get to history pages. Sadads (talk) 13:57, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

Yes, but it's WP:BEANS. --Redrose64 (talk) 15:34, 12 November 2015 (UTC)

I have to confess, I have no idea how WP:BEANS is relevant. That refers to unintentional consequences of telling people not to do things, while the thanks system seems to be entirely about providing a way to do something. 71.41.210.146 (talk) 07:43, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

The Thanks are public and can be seen and searched by anyone: Special:Log/thanks. Finnusertop (talk | guestbook | contribs) 07:57, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Beans is about not telling people how to do things when we don't want people to do those things without understanding the consequences. Consider: every thank adds an item to your notification list. --Redrose64 (talk) 11:48, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

"Thank" does not appear next to bot edits in the revision history either. GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 15:26, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Page curation

Articles, such as September, 1914, that were edited redirects or moved from another namespace stop showing the page curation toolbar and the "Curate this article" link on the left side shortly after they were reviewed. GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 02:48, 14 November 2015 (UTC)

Yes, you're right, that's how the page curation software works. Marked as patrolled + more than 60 days old = not displayed in Special:NewPagesFeed. This fact is documented in Wikipedia:Page Curation/Help: "The New Pages Feed instead has an unlimited listing for unpatrolled pages, and a 60 day listing for patrolled pages". It is actually unrelated to redirects, page moves, or any other actions, although some of those actions may cause a page that was previously marked as patrolled to become 'unpatrolled', and thus re-appear in the list until very shortly after they get marked as patrolled again.

The situation has not changed since the last time you posted this information on this page on 4 November. WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:07, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

The page should be shown 60 days from the day a redirect was turned into a non-redirect, a page not in the article namespace was moved to the article namespace, or a reviewed article was marked as unreviewed, rather than only for a short amount of time. GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 03:35, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

Large amount of HTTP 504 responses on API

I do a lot of API querying in the context of WP:STiki and WP:5000. In particular, some of the reports in the theme of the latter (like WP:TOPRED) have been unable to generate this week because the API returns HTTP 504 (timeout) for a query. I'll note that for the overall script to fail, a single query must fail 10 consecutive times, and I installed a slightly pause between these retries. The queries are well-formed (I plug the failing URL into a browser and get the expected output post-failure) and it is always a different query that times out. I've never encountered this before in years of report generation. I've been trying to run the script occasionally for over a day now, with no luck, encountering the same issue. Anyone know what is going on? Thanks, West.andrew.g (talk) 18:31, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Can you dump the response headers ? They include headers which indicate the the cache server the request is hitting etc. That might be helpful in further analyzing. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 19:03, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

And what queries are you running? Legoktm (talk) 00:29, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Module:String and references

One of the parameters in {{Infobox NRHP}} is an 8-digit number that uniquely identifies every site on the National Register of Historic Places (NRHP). Using this number, one can generate a link to informative PDFs of text and images verifying that this site is on the NRHP. The |refnum= parameter of the infobox is supposed to be used for this number, but over time its usage has been abused to include things such as references, other text, etc. While ideally it would be best to just go through and move all information besides the 8-digit number to some other place in the infobox, but having many tens of thousands of transclusions, it would be impractical to do this. Instead I have used Module:String to replace the 8 digit number with the external link to the pdf mentioned above. This works in almost all cases, except for one that has been brought up at Template talk:Infobox NRHP#refnum cannot have ref without a number. This case is when the refnum parameter includes only a reference but no 8-digit number. Something in the way Wikipedia handles references makes this case a false positive for a match for an 8-digit number, and it generates an erroneous link, as on Folkert Mound Group.

Articles like this are clearly in error, and we already have a cleanup category (added when refnum is just blank) that I want to place these articles in automatically using the infobox, but I am unable to figure out how to do so using Module:String. I want any input that includes an 8 digit number to be linked to the external link, but I want to catch the case where there is just a reference in the parameter and put those articles in a cleanup category. Does anyone know how I might go about doing this? Thanks!--Dudemanfellabra (talk) 21:20, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Dudemanfellabra, I added a check to make sure it only replaces digits at the beginning of the string. the other option may be to use module:unstrip which accesses the lua unstrip function. Frietjes (talk) 21:55, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Problem with Horizontal TOC on Chrome

it was reported to me that {{Horizontal TOC}} is rendering in a vertical orientation in Chrome, for example see List of Presbyterian churches in the United States. I have Firefox and Internet Explorer installed, and see the intended horizontal lists in those browsers. I do not have Chrome installed, so I cannot check it, or diagnose any problems. anyone have any ideas about what is going on? does this have anything to do with recent changes to how lists are rendered? Frietjes (talk) 21:47, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

I can confirm the issue in Chrome 46.0.2490.86 on OS X El Capitan and I have taken a screenshot to demonstrate it. –Fredddie™ 22:00, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

User:Edokter, User:Redrose64, ... could this be related to the recent changes to the site-wide css? Frietjes (talk) 22:08, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

@Frietjes:, I just added .hlist .toctext { display:inline !important;} to my personal CSS, and it was magically fixed in Chrome. Should we add this to MediaWiki:Common.css? Plastikspork _―Œ^(talk) 23:34, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Could this be related to phab:T92481, which added display: table-cell to .tocnumber and .toctext in mediawiki.legacy/commonPrint.css? Laoris (talk) 00:17, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Probably. Can't say for sure it is entirely at fault however - it does seem to be an isolated issue for Chrome users for example. Plus, the "base settings" for the toc class name and toc id value are screwy to begin with...

#toc,.toc {
  display: inline-block;
  display: table;
  zoom: 1;
  *display: inline; /* somebody thinks this helps things given the first 2 display hacks
                          to get around IE7 which isn't even supported anymore but it's like talking
                          to brick wall when comes to getting nonsense like this fixed */
  padding: 7px;
}

... but I believe the specific issue(s) in this case comes down to the use of the {{Horizontal TOC}} template & it's reliance on the .nonumtoc css settings found further down in MediaWiki:Common.css file from the hList settings.

I'm pretty sure something is now "off" in that definition set thanks to one recent change or the other and that is where User:Edokter will need to add something like...

.hlist.nonumtoc .toctext (
    display: inline;
}

... in order to "properly" rectify this 'specific' template 'related' issue. -- George Orwell III (talk) 05:51, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

George Orwell III and Plastikspork, thank you. it looks like we just need an admin like PrimeHunter or Edokter to make the change in MediaWiki:Common.css. I am pretty sure it's both the "nonumtoc" and otherwise which are having problems, but the "nonumtoc" is the most widely used with hlist (as far as I can tell). Frietjes (talk) 16:07, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

It is a little more complicated than that... .nonumtoc is not the culprit; it is the use of display:table-cell; which seems to take precedence in Blink (Chrome and Opera). I don't know why, but that should probably be reverted. In the mean time, I'll add a temporary fix to Common.css. -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 17:03, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

The horizontal TOC at List of Presbyterian churches in the United States is still a bit weird because now the numbers are visible. The temporary fix in Common.css needs to be placed above the .nonumtoc .tocnumber { display: none; } rule so that TOC numbers will still be hidden in horizontal nonumtoc TOCs. —Laoris (talk) 17:23, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

yes, for nonumtoc, the display for the number should be none. Edokter, can you fix this? thank you! Frietjes (talk) 18:08, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Done. -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 18:50, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

• This TOC template does not work in Opera either. It looks worse that the default TOC; I'm going to comment it out until the bug is fixed. Rgrds. --64.85.217.210 (talk) 13:25, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Recent changes for WikiProjects

Is there a way to get a recent changes page for articles tagged within a WikiProject? {{WikiProject Devon}} is tagged on all the WikiProject's article's talk pages and the closest I can get to a recent changes is this, but it only lists edits to talk pages, not the articles themselves. Ideally I'd like to see changes to both. Many thanks to any help, Jolly Ω Janner 22:57, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Database reports/WikiProjects by changes is not quite what you want.

—Wavelength (talk) 23:31, 16 November 2015 (UTC)

Indeed, I'm look for something more similar to Special:Watchlist. Jolly Ω Janner 00:05, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

@Jolly Janner: Here is what you want. I created a page with all the articles whose talk pages are tagged with the {{WikiProject Devon}} template, so now you can use the related changes feature to monitor those pages. You will probably want to ask someone who has AWB update the list of articles routinely so that new articles will get added to the watchlist. Hope that helps! --WayfaringWanderer (talk) 03:36, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Wikiproject devon/Article list is the list of articles that seeds the custom watchlist, by the way. --WayfaringWanderer (talk) 03:39, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Many thanks, as this is exactly what I was looking for. This will be a useful window on the WP Devon page for users to patrol. Jolly Ω Janner 03:46, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

I do this for both WP Louisville and WP Kentucky, but I also include the talk pages. With AWB, it's pretty easy to build and save the list:

1. Open AWB, then Select Source: Category and enter "WikiProject {your project's name} articles"
2. Click "Make list".
3. Right click over list, and click "Convert from talk pages"
4. Click "Make list" again. (now you have all the project's pages and their talk pages)
5. If you don't have "Keep alphabetized" set, then right click over list, and click "Sort alphabetically".
6. Go to the menu, click 'List | Save list..." and proceed to save the list as a file.
7. Open up the file you just saved in a text editor, Ctrl-A and Ctrl-C.
8. Edit the wiki page you're keeping the list on (and running "Recent changes" against), Ctrl-A and Ctrl-V, and save the page.

Stevie is the man! ^{Talk • Work} 21:10, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Possible problem with DRN's "Request dispute resolution" button

Conversation here about how at least two editors have experienced a problem with the auto-form not appearing. Not sure about what is causing this problem, so I am going to ask the people on here if they have a clue about this? Cheers, Drcrazy102 (talk) 01:19, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

You need to enable the Form for filing disputes at the dispute resolution noticeboard gadget in preferences. 106.51.28.175 (talk) 12:06, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Wikipedia talk:Dispute resolution noticeboard/request#Protected edit request on 17 November 2015 106.51.28.175 (talk) 13:06, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Disable link and enable tooltip on location map

Hi there. Could someone help me with this, please? Thanks in advance! Rehman 14:01, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Solved. Rehman 05:28, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Template:Geological_range is broken

See Template:Geological_range, Lokotunjailurus, Panthera leo spelaea (hidden for now), Miomachairodus --Ilya (talk) 17:37, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

+1:This is really bad, Sadads (talk) 17:41, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

My guess is that the problem is with the recent edit to Template:Period_start. Template editor or admin should revert. Mamyles (talk) 17:47, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Sadads, Mamyles, moved the tfd notice inside the noinclude. Frietjes (talk) 18:04, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for that, & I have done something similar at Template:Geologic Ages Inline (which needs checking by someone more expert than me). However, someone has tried to fix Template:Geological range which I don't think was wrong but now looks wrong. - David Biddulph (talk) 18:34, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

looks fine now. Frietjes (talk) 21:29, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

New Pageview API

If you're interested in page views, then you may be interested in this recent announcement from the Analytics team: https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/analytics/2015-November/004529.html Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 19:30, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

Multiple error reports of The Wikipedia Adventure (WP:TWA)

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T118823

Greetings, From my watchlist, I see reports of TWA errors at Wikipedia talk:The Wikipedia Adventure (bottom of the page) and at Wikipedia:Teahouse/Questions#The_Wikipedia_Adventure_Getting_Stuck_on_Automated_Messages. From one of the messages, it looks like it may be being worked on.

We've logged this bug and are working to fix it: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T118823 Ocaasi (WMF) (talk) 22:35, 17 November 2015 (UTC)

I don't know if anyone here at VP needs to get involved, but I thought to at least report it here. Thanks. JoeHebda (talk) 01:04, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

Recent changes page

Hi, I suggest a feature for the RC page. I usually try to catch vandalism and revert it. The RC page is a convenient way to do so. However, I want to be able to see the major edits (like the bold text meaning large byte count change). This eliminates the small edits. Therefore, I suggest a feature be added that only shows bold changes (large changes in red and green) so it will be easier to catch section/[age blanking vandals, and others who post gibberish. Thanks, SireWonton (talk) 01:18, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

External links in edit summary

Hi all. Been on a long break, learning the ropes again. Have I missed some change, or is there a reason I can't seem to make an external link in an edit summary anymore? I swear it used to be possible. Or perhaps I'm losing my mind. Thanks! Ignatzmice•talk 04:05, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

Nope, never was possible. Too much opportunity for mischief. TenOfAllTrades(talk) 04:11, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

Well then. Time to rest my brain for a while, I suppose. Ignatzmice•talk 04:16, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

Welcome back.--S Philbrick(Talk) 15:49, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

Chrome's feedback and Watchlist's shortcuts coincide

Has Wikipedia society resolved this? Just in case you don't know a crash report window pops up if you click Alt+Shift+I in Chrome--Dixtosa (talk) 12:27, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

Yes, not just Wikipedia. Try it on any other page, pressing that will make it pop up. — Preceding unsigned comment added by SireWonton (talk • contribs) 01:14, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Tool for ordering lists

Hello. Some people have the habit of ordering chronological lists top->bottom from the most recent item to the oldest, which is unusual for – say – filmography lists. Has anybody written an alogorithm to turn them upside down? I know it's quite a basic thing in any programming language, but I'm quite rusty with those. :) Thanks for any replies. --Mihai (talk) 13:57, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

What lists? Can you give an example? --Dixtosa (talk) 14:29, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

I have found the need to do this on several occasions. However, I think it is relatively easy to do semi-manually:

1. copy list to spreadsheet
2. add an index column
3. sort largest to smallest
4. paste results back to Wikipedia

Suppose an automated tool could make this a little easier, but given how easy it is to do now, I prefer that scarce developer tools be prioritized on other issues.--S Philbrick(Talk) 15:47, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

@Dan Mihai Pitea and Sphilbrick: Here is a function that reverses the lines in the selected text in the text box, you can add it to your common.js file. Unfortunately, adding buttons to the WikiEditor's toolbar is not as simple as it should be [1],[2]. You can call the function from the browser's console instead -- after saving the code to your common.js file, select several lines in the textbox, press F12 to open the console, and enter reverseLines() (or if you didn't save it to your common.js yet, enter the middle 3 lines from the code below). --V111P (talk) 04:01, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

function reverseLines() {
    var $ta = $('#wpTextbox1');
    var text = $ta.focus().textSelection('getSelection').split('\n').reverse().join('\n');
    $ta.focus().textSelection('encapsulateSelection', {pre: text, peri: '', post: '', replace: true});
}

FLL Logo

Can someone explain to me why File:FLLlogo.jpg is showing an older image, even though I just uploaded a brand new picture (since they just re-branded)? The other pictures that I updated (File:FIRST Robotics Competition (logo).png, File:Jr FLL logo.jpg, & File:FIRST Tech challenge logo.png) all changed. Is this a bug or did I do something wrong? Elisfkc (talk) 20:10, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

Your computer probably has the old one cached. Try a WP:BYPASS. --Redrose64 (talk) 20:41, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

It wasn't even working when I used Chrome incognito, which usually gets around the cached problem. However, it's correct now so everything is fine. Elisfkc (talk) 20:52, 18 November 2015 (UTC)

Image purge

Can someone please purge the image File:Perspective_isometrique_cube_gris.svg in the article Isometric graphics in video games and pixel art? For me at least the graphic is still showing a much earlier version. It is important because the image takes measurements and they are not correct when the image is squished like it is for me now. Thanks. SharkD  Talk  00:17, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

See section above. --Redrose64 (talk) 00:19, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

I am using Chrome, and have been trying to bypass the cache by pressing CTRL+F5. I've also tried purging the page using ?action=purge after the URL in the address bar. Is the image showing correctly for you? SharkD  Talk  00:47, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Your three latest versions at File:Perspective isometrique cube gris.svg#filehistory look identical to me so it's hard to see which one of them is displayed. At Isometric graphics in video games and pixel art#Overview I see a square display of https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Perspective_isometrique_cube_gris.svg/150px-Perspective_isometrique_cube_gris.svg.png. For me it is a 150×150 image with a green 30° to the lower left outside the cube. What do you see? PrimeHunter (talk) 12:01, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

The "latest" .svg on Commons has a 'more narrow' left and right margins (whitespace?, transparent?) than the previous versions have. And on the WP article itself, I doubt I'm seeing a 150×150 rendering (would be square); more like 150×167 here (a rectangle). Can this be more about the use of the dual image template and/or its settings than about chaching? -- George Orwell III (talk) 01:16, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

You describe the 540×600 version uploaded by AnonMoos after my post. There is indeed something wrong now. The article currently displays a 150×150 scaling at https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Perspective_isometrique_cube_gris.svg/150px-Perspective_isometrique_cube_gris.svg.png, presumably of the most recent of the 713 × 713 versions by SharkD, but it's stretched to 150×167 in the article. That's the dimensions it should be scaled to if the current 540×600 version had correctly been used to make the scaled version. I have tried all methods at commons:Help:Purge except renaming the file. The generated html of the article says: <img alt="" src="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Perspective_isometrique_cube_gris.svg/150px-Perspective_isometrique_cube_gris.svg.png" width="150" height="167" srcset="//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Perspective_isometrique_cube_gris.svg/225px-Perspective_isometrique_cube_gris.svg.png 1.5x, //upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f7/Perspective_isometrique_cube_gris.svg/300px-Perspective_isometrique_cube_gris.svg.png 2x" data-file-width="540" data-file-height="600" />. So MediaWiki knows what dimensions the image should have, and asks the user's browser to display it with those dimensions. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:04, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

@Redrose64: What section? -- Veggies (talk) 12:07, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

#FLL Logo. --Redrose64 (talk) 22:43, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

I'm having problems myself. Thumbnails are not updating even after hard-refreshes, manual-purges, and cache-clears. -- Veggies (talk) 12:07, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

Maybe SVG images are immune to purges? SharkD  Talk  02:29, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Beats me. I swapped out the {{Double image}} template for {{Multiple Image}} just in case since it's status is deprecated anyway but I don't see any difference in behavior between the two.

I also tried a "full purge" per the API options available - specifically:

• https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/api.php?titles=File%3APerspective%20isometrique%20cube%20gris.svg&action=purge&forcerecursivelinkupdate=1

... but I'm still seeing the "wrong" rendering regardless (though I beginning to wonder why a 'true' cube viewed dead center on the z axis is anything but equal in height and width; are we sure the base image is was a good one to begin with here?). -- George Orwell III (talk) 06:32, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

It is working properly for me now. I see the correct image in the article. SharkD  Talk  14:06, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Category:Pages with incorrect ref formatting – 200 new overnight

There not actual new, some several weeks old. All seem to be connected to media (TV mostly). Null edit make it go away, nor real edit. – Unbuttered parsnip (talk) mytime= Thu 16:53, wikitime= 08:53, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Someone has tried to add remove a reference to a navbox, {{NBCUniversal}}. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:57, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

You're right, I just saw it, small blue writing on a blue background. Unbuttered parsnip (talk) mytime= Thu 16:59, wikitime= 08:59, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Fixed it. -- John of Reading (talk) 09:01, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Looking for testers

Hello folks! I've just added two new features to the test version of reFill, a tool that can semi-automatically expand bare references (more information here):

1. The tool can now generate localized templates for Wikipedias in other languages (like this on frwiki). While this shouldn't affect enwiki, I want to make sure that nothing goes wrong as some core parts of the code have been changed. If you edit other Wikipedias and want reFill work there, please let me know!
2. The tool now has the ability to expand New York Times references, by leveraging its API.

If you use reFill and have time to try out the new features, please help test the experimental version. Thanks a lot for your help! Zhaofeng Li [talk ♦ contribs] 12:41, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

By the way, I want to thank User:SyntaxTerror, User:Victor Lopes, User:Frank Geerlings, and all others who have translated the tool into other languages. You guys rock! Zhaofeng Li [talk ♦ contribs] 12:53, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Much prefer this version that using the script via my css.js (or whatever the correct page is). Just used it on this edit and looks good. Will find a few more bare url refs and give them a try. Lugnuts ^{Dick Laurent is dead} 19:51, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Did this edit that filled in eight bare URLs. Takes a bit of time (approx. 2 minutes), but does the job. Lugnuts ^{Dick Laurent is dead} 20:38, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

Blank spaces left when second-level headings follow floating boxes redux

Resolved

is it just me, or is this bug back again? Frietjes (talk) 19:50, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Yep, def. back again. Lugnuts ^{Dick Laurent is dead} 19:51, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

that sucks, just added my hack back to my common.js to fix it until someone fixes it elsewhere. Frietjes (talk) 19:57, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

can TheDJ or someone else file a bug report? Frietjes (talk) 20:00, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Blank spaces under level 2 headings

This was reported a week ago, and it's back. I just saw it come back for some reason, on the 2015 Saint-Denis raid. It also appeared on some of the cached articles that I had, where previously, there had been no whitespace. epic genius (talk) 19:52, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Yeah, it's definitely back again. I've spotchecked a batch of articles mentioned in the previous discussion and every one of them now displays large expanses of blank space. What problem is this change intended to fix, because it really looks like the "cure" is consistently worse than the disease? The Big Bad Wolfowitz (aka Hullaballoo) (talk) 20:08, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

phab:T118475 again. We're deploying the fix right now, sorry about this, it's ridiculous. Legoktm (talk) 20:12, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

I notice that at the very same moment that this bug returned (19:49 as near as I can make out), the little notification/talk message counters got smaller and paler. In monobook, anyway. --Redrose64 (talk) 20:14, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Yes, this is under "Changes this week" at #Tech News: 2015-47. https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Server_Admin_Log says:

• 19:24 logmsgbot: twentyafterfour@tin rebuilt wikiversions.php and synchronized wikiversions files: wikipedia wikis to 1.27.0-wmf.7

The bug return was also due to the new version. Thanks for the fast fix. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:37, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

+1 - I hope this bug isn't here to stay!. –Davey2010^Talk 20:17, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Stupid bug you go squish now! Lugnuts ^{Dick Laurent is dead} 20:21, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Patch has been deployed, and the bug should be gone (may take ~5min to propagate). Legoktm (talk) 20:26, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Yep, gone. Nice one! Lugnuts ^{Dick Laurent is dead} 20:36, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Seconded. epic genius (talk) 20:47, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

Thanx. The Big Bad Wolfowitz (aka Hullaballoo) (talk) 21:39, 19 November 2015 (UTC)

2 articles with the same name ?

I've just come across List of deceased hip hop artists and List оf dесеаsеd hiр hор аrtists - They have the same title yet the content's somewhat different (The talkpages for both are completely different) so are the names somehow different as I can't spot any differences between the 2... Thanks, –Davey2010^Talk 04:31, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

The second version has many Cyrillic letters instead of Latin letters. You can for example copy-paste the name to the "Characters" field at http://r12a.github.io/apps/conversion. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:52, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

I marked the second one for speedy deletion using a rationale that seemed reasonable to me. – Jonesey95 (talk) 05:03, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

PrimeHunter - Bloody hell how on earth did you know that!?, I spent about 5 minutes clicking between the tabs like an idiot trying to figure what on earth I was missing! ,

Jonesey95 - Ah thanks I was gonna tag it after but wanted to find out the issue first,

Well least it's not a bug! :), Thanks for both of your helps, –Davey2010^Talk 05:10, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

If you look at the source of this discussion, you may see a difference in how the characters render. Some fonts will show them as the same, and some will show them as different. Mine uses a monospace font of some sort, which shows the Cyrillic letters as smaller and "thinner", as if they are underfed. – Jonesey95 (talk) 05:17, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

Ah yes the other one has all letters & stuff - I had never even gave it a thought about the Latin stuff, I'm still using the prev 'pedia font so that could be why there wasn't a noticable difference, Ah well thanks for your help :), –Davey2010^Talk 06:05, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

Telugu Language

Can anyone help in answering Template_talk:Infobox_Hindu_temple#Telugu?--Vin09 (talk) 04:44, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

Watchlist changes

Instead of the links for differemt periods (1 hour, 2 hours, etc.) there is now a drop-down selecion list. That's OK I suppose, but if you use it, your URL gets extra crud in the query string besides ?days=0.5 - why, for example, is &action=submit required? --Redrose64 (talk) 23:02, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

Probably something to leave at phab:T50615 which implemented the change. Or possibly @Matma Rex: for comment. --Izno (talk) 00:30, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

I'm pretty sure the "string" expansion was always talking place IF you ticked on either button on the Watchlist page regardless of changing any of the parameters or not in the interim.

I believe the only way a "clean" string comes up for that page is if you open your Watchlist page using the corresponding link for it in your Personal tool-Bar (above the search box on the top right in Vector). I'm pretty sure your WatchList's hours/days setting in your User: preferences needs to be the same as your last (now) drop down menu selection too. -- George Orwell III (talk) 06:42, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Peer review bot down - please help!

Hi technically aware Wikipedia village pump (Technical) denizens, I'm one of the regular peer review mop (non administrator) handlers. We have a crisis brewing... the bot that closes old reviews (PeerReviewBot) has stopped working, last edit June 19. This is a very time-consuming and labourious task to be done manually that was previously easily automated. The bot is owned by CBM who is mostly retired.

Is it possible to either get the bot started again, or create a similar bot that does the same thing? Yours very gratefully, --Tom (LT) (talk) 23:09, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

It might be worth asking at WP:BOTREQ. I notice that the bot's userpage says the code is available on Toolserver SVN, which no longer exists - I wonder if it was backed up somewhere. — This, that and the other (talk) 23:11, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

I am retired from running bots. The bot's source code is available on wikimedia tool labs from anyone who has access to the VeblenBot project, i.e. Ruhrfisch and possibly me. Unfortunately, although I have made several public requests for someone to take over the bot, nobody stepped up to take over. If anyone is interested, I can see if I can still log in to email them the bot code. It is not a difficult project to code from scratch, in any case. — Carl (CBM · talk) 00:22, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

@Fhocutt (WMF): I know you got Citation bot up and running--is there scope for you to poke at this bot also? --Izno (talk) 05:47, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Notification look change

I'm not sure if this is good or other, at this point. But mentioning it. I have Modern skin. That you-can't-miss-it red notifications now just very subtly changes from a white 0 to white numbers when there are notifications. It's so subtle you don't notice it unless you are looking for it. Maybe that's not all bad. It might have something to do with the latest Tech News mention, "Echo notification icons in MonoBook will look more like other icons in the theme." — Maile (talk) 23:52, 20 November 2015 (UTC)

Disabled checkboxes

The three checkboxes in [3] are disabled. GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 04:33, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Well, go ask User:Σ about it, then. — This, that and the other (talk) 04:36, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Widescreen, default text size, picture madness

I think we can all agree that the wild west days of Wikipedia happened from 2001 to 2006. That's when they shot out the skeletal which became the core then we starting asking questions about quality and format and exactly what Wikipedia should be. Well, most of that was before 16:9 widescreen became the standard. I'm guessing Wikipedia renders at a specified pixel size per text that works well with an old 4:3 VGA monitor (50< pixels per inch (PPI) ), but this is way too small for your standard 16:9 1080p widescreen monitor, and I'm sure is even worse on smaller WQHD (~100ppi) and 4K monitors (28" = 150ppi). Before anyone says that the fault is on monitors have such high resolutions without being scalably larger screen sizes, understand that the pixel density is much too low on primitive tech, not too high on new tech (In fact even 300+ppi "Retina displays" do not even meet visual limits, a field that is plagued by non-science marketing misconceptions and doesn't seem to understand the distinction between being able to "count pixels" and be able to perceive a difference). I have had my browser set for Wikipedia to display at 175% for over a year and do not even think about it anymore. It just looks right. I picked it because at smaller sizes there seem to be scaling issues and any larger pictures look bad and it would be too much anyway. Sometimes, when there are lots of pictures in articles especially when they are pushing sections down, I reduce to 100% just to check it out, and it's often awful. Not only do the pictures push way beyond their sections, but the text is not comfortable to read.

Here is a screenshot at 100% and 175%, notice how the pictures are in the section they should be in, in fact that left picture that looked all by itself in the 100% view majically popped down to the section it was supposed to be in, and that leads to the collapsed garage photo actually being in the collapsed section

480px for closest scaling, but best to view full size

At the very least I am requesting an ability to be able to change your own default text size in your Preferences, though this only benefits users that know about it, much less the general public. Thank you. B137 (talk) 07:11, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

@B137: While waiting for an official fix, you can workaround it by adding some custom styling to your common.css:

#content {
    max-width: 800px;
    font-size: larger;
}

This will limit the width to 800px and make the text slightly larger. Zhaofeng Li [talk ♦ contribs] 08:47, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

@Zhaofeng Li: Thank you. Wow that's even more obscure than going to Preferences. It helps but is a little clunky, I made it a little wider than that but is there any other keyword than "larger" for the text, perhaps something where you specify the px for vertical text resolution, or maybe just another word? larger1, larger2, largest..etc? B137 (talk) 09:02, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

@B137: For font-size you can specify px directly, or use small, medium, large, x-large, xx-large, etc. See MDN for details. Zhaofeng Li [talk ♦ contribs] 09:08, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Or, even better, use percentages, say, 125% or 140%. — This, that and the other (talk) 09:15, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Thank you. That once again addresses the issue somewhat for me, but not for the general viewer. B137 (talk) 09:25, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

The 'general viewer' has no account and therefor has no preferences. And the idea of a cookie-based fontsize widget has been explored but not found feasable. -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 11:58, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

You say that like they don't matter. And this issue is not something I'm making up. It's already a talking point for HD and ultra HD monitors, and many sites and operating systems are responding. Also, what I meant by "more obscure than preferences" was that even the average wiki user wouldn't be able to utilize that unless it was so pressing that they researched it. You can lead a horse to water and it might not drink, but it's more likely than if you left it altogether. B137 (talk) 12:06, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Actual hardware viewing dimensions for the "general", anonymous or logged-in User: do not seem to be polled or tracked in an formal manner so setting the display/viewport [skin] "defaults" also do not seem to be based in any rational or statistical based formulations either (more like subjective 'beliefs' instead).

In other terms: If all you ever work on is a 17 inch laptop display panel; you're positive your optimal "display" settings are the norm. But if all you ever work on is a 26 inch desktop monitor; you're positive your optimal "display" setting are the norm. And if all you ever work on is done via a Miracast to your 55 inch smart TV; you're positive your "display" setting are the norm too. To round out the illustration, the "higher-ups" setting the current defaults in question seem to fall mainly into one of the three groups rather than be spread across all three groups; thus the "slanted" or "jaded" take frequently voiced regarding this issue.

Lacking the hard data needed to quell such bias, things are not likely to change I'm afraid but good luck if you make the effort. -- George Orwell III (talk) 21:39, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Actually, the ideal solution would be to adopt responsive web design strategies, with the layout adapting to different screen sizes/resolutions automatically. Zhaofeng Li [talk ♦ contribs] 08:14, 22 November 2015 (UTC)

Agreed (though that developmental front is also currently "stalled"). Can't do much about that while the 'content area' is constantly encroached upon by the typical site-logo and side-bar designs. And I don't know why the Winter prototype approach was dropped either - it seemed to be the logical next step after the Vector "refresh". I so hope they didn't drop it just because of a few .css "mistakes" :( ----

image tidy-up

I got into a pickle with File:Men of Men - bookcover.jpg, can someone remove the last two updates ? Thanks GrahamHardy (talk) 17:03, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Which is the correct version, GrahamHardy?Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 17:06, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

the 2nd one up, 3rd one down, can the last two updates just be removed ? Thanks GrahamHardy (talk) 17:09, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

I've requested the removal. I assume that the current image is the correct one.Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 17:54, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

New template

Hey, in WikiProject Equine we kept coming up against the issue of not having an infobox specifically for horse shows and events. So I decided I'd create one. I have it in my sandbox right now (you can view it here) but I've never written a template before and would like somebody to check it out. It's likely not finished, as I'm waiting for some other WPEQ members to check it out and give feedback, but I'd like to know if it's a good start and if it would produce the correct template when moved to mainspace. Thanks. White Arabian Filly (Neigh) 17:44, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

If you mean the current wiki source of User:White Arabian Filly/sandbox#Infobox:Equestrian event then it has nothing to do with source code of a template. You only have code to call a template. Similar code is usually displayed on infobox pages but it is transcluded from a documentation page and not part of the actual template. Click the "Edit" or "View source" tab on an infobox to get an idea how the source code looks. And see Help:Designing infoboxes. Also, infoboxes are not placed in mainspace but in template space, but if you had working code in a user sandbox then it could also be called there by just giving the full name including namespace. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:49, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Thanks for your help, PrimeHunter. I have moved it to its own subpage, User:White Arabian Filly/Template:Infobox equestrian event and have added most of the source code. I know I have to add more and do some more work before it's ready to launch, but it's closer now. By my count, there are at least 15 articles the template can be used on once it's complete. This is my first time creating an infobox, so it's a learning process for me. Thanks again. White Arabian Filly (Neigh) 22:52, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Creating a new infobox is ambitious when you haven't made any template before. I have helped you get the some of the basics right [4] so you can now call it with {{User:White Arabian Filly/Template:Infobox equestrian event|...}} to test it. A tip: You can test code changes without saving by placing test calls inside <noinclude>...</noinclude> of the page itself and previewing. The previewed version and not the saved version will be used for rendering your test call. Note how labeln and datan for each integer n are a pair in {{infobox}}, with label usually being a constant string displayed on the left half of the infobox, and data is a parameter set by the caller and displayed to the right of label. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:21, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Thank you again, I am going to test it on Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration, which I created and mostly wrote, so if I mess it up nobody will get mad--I can just revert. White Arabian Filly (Neigh) 23:52, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

You are not combining label and data in a meaningful way. I really suggest you read up on {{infobox}} and make tests by previewing directly on User:White Arabian Filly/Template:Infobox equestrian event as described in my tip. Otherwise you may get a really long cycle of saving template changes and then testing them. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:01, 22 November 2015 (UTC)

.ogg files fail with javascript error

All page that contain an .ogg file, even file description pages (and currently also the Main Page!) fail with the message Uncaught TypeError: Cannot read property 'insertRule' of undefined in Chrome. The error appears after Chrome's native player disappears. -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 18:26, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

It works for me. Chrome 46.0.2490.86 on Windows Vista. A search of your error message shows phab:T118792. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:27, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Unexpected background color around thumb images due to LIGHT BLUE in Monobook

User:Liangent/lightblue and Special:Permalink/691743758 contain a demo: view it in Vector and it shows Wiki.png on pink background; view it in Monobook and some unexpected white/blue area is shown.

We copied those styles to zhwiki and this issue was reported on zhwiki VPT by some other user today; upstreaming it here. Make sure to test both pages (article and non-article) because different styles are used. Liangent (talk) 22:30, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Here is a simplified example:

Vector versus MonoBook shows the difference in rendering. Something apparently happens when Wikipedia:Extended image syntax#none is used in a div with padding. Can you just avoid doing that? PrimeHunter (talk) 23:46, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

MediaWiki:Monobook.css mistakenly thinks all instances concerning the div.thumb class are always part of a gallery-type of image display when of course that is not always the case. It seems the universally {common] defined background-color: transparent; is being overridden to 'sky-blue' by

div#content, div#p-cactions li a:hover, div#p-cactions li.selected a, div#content div.thumb {
    background-color: #f8fcff;
}

... by design but never gets around to "reverting" back to the "default" for some reason. Basically, the gallery-type instances need more specific selectors in order to differentiate it from the NoN gallery type of image display cases. User:Edokter? -- George Orwell III (talk) 23:58, 21 November 2015 (UTC)

Fwiw... I think the above needs to be split into...

div#content, div#p-cactions li a:hover, div#p-cactions li.selected a {
    background-color: #f8fcff;
}
div#content div.thumb {
    background-color: inherit;
}

... but that entire 'sky-blue' section in the .css has caveats defined for certain namespaces/selections/etc. so it would need some vetting first to be sure the changes aren't making things worse elsewhere. -- George Orwell III (talk) 00:18, 22 November 2015 (UTC)

X!'s tools for Neelix

On [5], many numbers are wrong. They display zero when they should actually be nonzero. For example, it says that Neelix

• does not have any deleted edits
• has not moved any pages
• has not deleted any pages
• has not protected any pages
• has not blocked any users
• has not uploaded any files
• did not thank any users
• did not review any pending changes
• did not patrol any edits

when in fact, none of the listed statements are true. GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 04:08, 22 November 2015 (UTC)