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iPhone iOS Safari changes on desktop view when rotated vertical vs horizontal?
Latest comment: 2 years ago1 comment1 person in discussion
I just noticed that when viewing Wikipedia on the desktop using my mobile iOS (Safari), when I rotate my phone from vertical to horizontal, Wikipedia updates the resolution from a longer vertical dimension to a longer horizontal dimension without changing the page zoom, meaning lines that may be subject to word wrap when having a shorter horizontal dimension now show their full line when changing to a longer horizontal dimension (rotation mobile from vertical to horizontal). I think this is awesome! I ... just want to know what Phabricator request this is so I can see how/why it happened, and thank whoever suggested and/or implemented it! Steel1943 (talk) 21:13, 17 December 2022 (UTC)
"Edit" links visually disrupted
Latest comment: 2 years ago4 comments3 people in discussion
Vector 2022, Windows 10 Pro, Chrome Version 108.0.5359.73 (Official Build) (64-bit)
In every page I have become accustomed to the "[ edit | edit source ]" link provided at the upper-right of each section; when I click it, the editor goes into section edit mode. So far, so good. Lately after one or two WP:ITSTHURSDAYs, the edit links have been visually cut off halfway. I can only see the bottom of the text and the upper part is blanked out. See screenshot for a visual.
You have the align edit links right gadget on, which has caused at least one other issue that's discussed above. That gadget needs to be adjusted to support Vector22. Izno (talk) 03:36, 15 December 2022 (UTC)
@Izno: correct, I had custom CSS in my common.css, and eliminating that line has suppressed the bug, for now. EDIT: In fact, adding line-height: 1 has fixed it just as Qwerfjkl promised. Elizium23 (talk) 05:28, 18 December 2022 (UTC)
What I need to create a Wikipedia fork
Latest comment: 2 years ago9 comments5 people in discussion
It's been suggested that this (rather than Miscellaneous) is the place I need to ask about this.
How much disk space is needed to hold a decompressed (and by what method?) download of what is available?
Must the download complete without interruption or need to be restarted from scratch if something crops up?
71.105.190.154 (talk) 08:55, 10 December 2022 (UTC)
In size terms, there is a monthly update posted giving file sizes for enwiki + for one other randomly chosen dump - as of Dec 2022 it comes out as an uncompressed size of 92 GB (articles, current text only), 194 GB (all pages, current text only), and 26 TB (all pages, full history). Andrew Gray (talk) 12:06, 10 December 2022 (UTC)
which doesnt include most of the images, since those are part of Commons (400+ TB) or wikidata which is an important part of many templates these days. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 21:31, 10 December 2022 (UTC)
Various articles like the forking FAQ and the Size of Wikipedia are out of date to various degrees...I am not aware of any 26TB disk drives readily available but do have multiple free bays in servers. Does Mediawiki automatically handle multiple partitions or drives or computers sharing a network file system? Are What Links Here tools readily generated from the download? 71.105.190.154 (talk) 08:41, 12 December 2022 (UTC)
That's because it is basically not easily doable or even definable what constitutes as a fork any longer. The whole system is so large and so complex, just setting it up requires so many resources and people to manage those resources, that it's not worth describing in an FAQ. Forking is more of a theoretical possibility for a large collective of people, than a very practical thing to do. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 13:33, 12 December 2022 (UTC)
As I said in my earlier topic on Miscellaneous...I want a site where I have sole authority to take revisions live. I don't expect to see much traffic but I'd have satisfaction and without downloading everything I can't do triaging with maximum ability to restore deleted material and so forth.71.105.190.154 (talk) 08:26, 13 December 2022 (UTC)
Latest comment: 2 years ago3 comments2 people in discussion
Per this discussion, it seems three rows need to be added to Module:Good article topics/data. I have the template editor right and could make the edit, but I know nothing of Lua or what the possible impact of adding subtopics might be, so wanted to check here first. The rows to be added would be "culture, society, and psychology", "culture, sociology and psychology", and "culture, sociology, and psychology", all to match "soc". Mike Christie (talk - contribs - library) 14:17, 18 December 2022 (UTC)
The module implements the mapping table described in the documentation for {{GA/Topic}}. Thus adding a new mapping will enable a new keyword to be used for a topic, without affecting any of the existing mappings in place. isaacl (talk) 15:03, 18 December 2022 (UTC)
Do you know in advance what templates you want to monitor? If so then you need to compare lists of articles using the template before and after the time period, and various tools can help with that. If not then you may be out of luck, unless it's worth digging up an old database dump to analyse for the "before" list. Certes (talk) 09:45, 19 December 2022 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago25 comments15 people in discussion
Hi everyone,
Once again, we want to thank all of you who have participated in discussing the new Vector 2022 skin so far, through the years of development as well as during our recent RfC. All your comments, questions, and concerns have helped us to make the skin better for readers and communities. We have a couple of updates on the skin and our plans for deployment.
Limited (fixed) width
As per the RfC closure, the "only clear blocker" to the deployment of the skin was the issue of fixed width. It was deemed insufficient to only control the width with an editor-maintained gadget. The team was tasked with building a WMF-maintained toggle, which is clearly visible and available to both logged-out and logged-in users. As a results of this, the team has:
Built a preference for logged-in users which allows for the width to be set across pageviews and wikis. The preference is available in the appearance section of the preferences page (enable limited width mode) and may also be set as a global preference.
Built a toggle for logged-in and logged-out users. The toggle is available on every page. Selecting the toggle increases the width of the page.
For logged-in users, it also controls the preference mentioned in 1 above. For example, if you click the toggle on the page and visit your preferences page, you will notice that the enable limited width mode checkbox is unchecked.
For logged-out users the toggle sets the width on a per-page basis, since preferences are not available for logged-out users. This means that after refreshing the page or opening a different page the width returns to the default state. (The lack of preferences for logged-out users doesn't only apply to this skin. You may learn more about the technical limitations.)
Note: the toggle is still missing a tooltip, which we will be adding next week. Much thanks to those of you that pointed this out!
We will measure how often this toggle is being used (T322772).
In addition, the team has also worked on improving the following areas of discussion and concern from the RfC:
Improving the communication for when pages are by design not connected with pages in other languages, such as talk pages (T316559) - to be completed by the end of the month
Icons in the sticky header
All icons in the sticky header have tooltips that can be used to identify what each link leads to. These tooltips are also useful for accessibility purposes, specifically for screen readers.
In our user testing, users did not experience issues with any of the available icons with the exception of the contributions icon in the user menu, which is accompanied by a text label. A/B testing of the sticky header further showed that the icons in the header are recognizable. (Use of the sticky header decreases scrolling by 15%. Edits from the edit icon have higher completion rates and lower revert rates than edits started with any other edit link or button on the page, even though the edit icon isn't accompanied by a text label.)
White space, table of contents, and page tools
Moving the page tools to the right side of the page. This change is focused on grouping the page tools clearly, and creating separation from the wiki-wide tools. It also addresses the concern for the location of the table of contents by making the sidebar (left menu) shorter and thus shifting the table of contents further up in the page. Additionally, it reduces the white space on the page by using more of the space for the display of tools.
For those who use Vector 2022, we hope to make the updated tools menu available by the end of December, 2022. If you want to follow the development by previewing how the feature works, add ?vectorpagetools=1 to the URL (if you're using Vector 2022 already) or ?useskin=vector-2022&vectorpagetools=1 (if you're not using Vector 2022).
People were more likely to complete the edits they start using the sticky header in comparison to the edits initiated using other edit buttons on the page
The edits people started by clicking the edit button in the sticky header, and ultimately published, were reverted less often than those initiated using other edit buttons on the page
For those who use Vector 2022, we will make the new edit button available later this week.
Next steps
Now we are ready to begin scheduling a date for the deployment of the new skin as the default on English Wikipedia. The team is currently considering January 18th as a date that will allow us enough time to sufficiently discuss the latest changes and address questions by those who have not been involved in the process so far.
As a reminder, logged-in users can opt out at any time. Those of you using a non-default skin (Timeless, Monobook, etc) will not see any changes.
As we get closer to deployment, we will be reaching out with more detailed information on deployment time and any other considerations. What other considerations should we make as we get closer to deployment? We're particularly interested in ideas that will help us spread the word across logged-in users. We will certainly run banners informing logged-out and logged-in users about the change.
Comment here or meet with us this Thursday at 19:30 UTC on Discord. In the first week of January, we will also have office hours on Zoom.
Thanks for the update. I may have missed it above, but I did not see a link to a list of pending bugs. Can you please point us to the list of pending bugs and feature requests so that those of us who want to try Vector 2022 again can see if little annoyances that sent us back to Vector are listed there? (Examples: I just switched temporarily, and the "More" menu and Twinkle's "TW" menu do not behave correctly for me, and the [ edit ] link for the lead section is still misplaced.) Thanks. – Jonesey95 (talk) 21:41, 12 December 2022 (UTC)
”do not behave correctly” in what way? (they seem to work fine for me). For open tasks, see its phabricator project https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/board/4281/ Vector 2022 annd the efforts surrounding it currently have some 250 open tasks, bugs, suggestions, complaints, upcoming changes, deployments etc. Note that this includes a multitude of problems that also exist in other kinds, or concern the skinning system in general. The list will never be 0. Vector legacy still has 70 open tickets after 12 years. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 00:02, 13 December 2022 (UTC)
Thank you for that link. After looking through the list, I have submitted three bug reports (T325038, T325037, and T325035) related to the upper-right corner of the page. I have not dug any farther than that, because I use those menus on well over half the pages that I edit. I look forward to using Vector 2022 when it is a bit more refined. Thanks for your hard work. – Jonesey95 (talk) 03:13, 13 December 2022 (UTC)
A follow-up to TheDJ, OVasileva (WMF), and SGrabarczuk (WMF): I decided to really try to use Vector 2022, and to work to improve it for a while, instead of my usual technique of seeing that something isn't ready and grumpily going back to my stodgy old ways (Visual Editor, I'm still looking at you...). I have been using Vector 2022 for a couple of days now as my daily editor, and while the new location of some features takes some getting used to, I find it quite usable, with no real blockers as far as I have seen. All of the frustrating problems I have had with it (and continue to have, to an extent) have to do with the fundamental problem that everyone identified early in this process and that has not been fully resolved: white space. In its default configuration, and even with "Enable limited width mode" disabled, the Vector 2022 skin simply wastes too much space for it to be useful to me as a regular editor. I have submitted a few more clear bugs to try to get some of these white space problems fixed, and I have worked around other problems by making a raft of customizations in my User:Jonesey95/common.css file. I have submitted bug reports about some of them, but based on the tenor of discussions here on en.WP and in the existing bug reports, I have not yet submitted requests to fix other white space problems because I do not think they will be taken seriously or addressed in a timely fashion. Anyone is welcome to look at my CSS file and offer enhancements or submit feature requests based on them. Thank you again for communicating, and I encourage you to do so again when there are new developments and bug fixes to share. – Jonesey95 (talk) 01:11, 15 December 2022 (UTC)
@Jonesey95 thanks for your continued feedback, and for filing specific tasks on Phabricator. Regarding "the Vector 2022 skin simply wastes too much space for it to be useful to me as a regular editor", I encourage you to be more specific (by providing annotated screenshots that point out specific issues, and maybe even comparisons with Legacy Vector, and by not generalizing...I'm not sure there is such a thing as a "regular editor"). Cheers, AHollender (WMF) (talk) 18:31, 15 December 2022 (UTC)
Sorry, the definition of "regular" can be ambiguous. By "regular editor", I meant "someone who edits frequently, dozens to hundreds of pages per day". As that sort of editor, anything that makes me perform extra clicks or extra scrolling wastes time that is multiplied by dozens or hundreds of times each day. I hope that clarifies what I meant, and why I (and others, like Thebiguglyalien below, who is better at being concise than I am) harp on endlessly about the excessive white space. As for specifics and screen shots, please see the multiple bug reports I have filed in Phabricator, like T325219 and T325099. For some of the other issues documented in my common.css file, I am confident that they would be declined, since someone deliberately provided a "full width" mode that still has tons of padding on the left and right sides and a sidebar menu that is too wide, and someone decided to put far too much vertical white space in the sidebar TOC and to make its vertical size too small. These are design decisions made by humans who are trying to do a good job, and I have no desire to criticize them personally. Their aesthetic choices interfere with my productivity, however, so I have had to work around those choices. I'll manage one way or another, and I think that there is probably a better forum than VPT for my ravings, since my issues are no longer technical in nature. Maybe we should set up a "how to customize Vector 2022 for better productivity" page somewhere. – Jonesey95 (talk) 05:31, 16 December 2022 (UTC)
The ability to toggle some of the white space is a significant improvement, but my fundamental criticism remains unchanged: reading an article in Vector 2022 provides less information in the same amount of space. In terms of screen real estate, it is effectively a downgrade. Thebiguglyalien (talk) 00:17, 13 December 2022 (UTC)
For logged-out users the toggle sets the width on a per-page basis, since preferences are not available for logged-out users. This means that after refreshing the page or opening a different page the width returns to the default state. I don't believe this meets the requirement of the RfC. If technical limitations prevent logged out users from setting the preference for all pages, then the default should be full width. BilledMammal (talk) 00:26, 13 December 2022 (UTC)
It should be possible to achieve a full-width experience using a WMF-maintained toggle, which is clearly visible and available to both logged-out and logged-in users.
By requiring logged out users to click a button every single time? I don't think that complies.
We can open another RfC on this single question - I believe a series of focused RfC's may be useful, including one on the name of the skin as there was considerable opposition to reusing Vector towards the end of the previous RfC. BilledMammal (talk) 00:59, 13 December 2022 (UTC)
By requiring logged out users to click a button every single time? I don't think that complies. My plain reading of both this implementation and their statement is that the implementation complies. If you would like clarification from the closers over a month away from the close, that's your prerogative. I do not think they will support your opinion.
We can open another RfC on this single question Sure, if you want. I think that's a waste of time, since I think you're going to still end up with what was said in the RFC we already had, with 50% down on the ship it side with a (for some, despite a) fixed width that most of that 50% supported and 50% don't ship it side because they opposed any fixed width anywhere for any reason. The fixed width was polarizing, and you clearly have a strong opinion on the matter, but it turns out the group did not support that specific suggestion in any great plurality else we would have a closer statement saying "the fixed width must be supported on every page once selected". Izno (talk) 01:10, 13 December 2022 (UTC)
Suggested wording: Should Vector 2022 allow logged out users to toggle the page width without requiring them to toggle it on every page?BilledMammal (talk) 01:16, 13 December 2022 (UTC)
I can already see the answer is "no" you are describing the technical limitation described above. If you want to make an RfC, based on your previous comment it would be on changing the default from limited width to the wide variation of v22. Terasail[✉️]01:20, 13 December 2022 (UTC)
There are two things I don't like about the new page tools (Using vectorpagetools=1): Why is the word "Tools" repeated twice? And the text wrap of "Edit interlanguage links" when there is enough whitespace to the right of the tools box to have it on a single line. Terasail[✉️]01:48, 13 December 2022 (UTC)
@Terasail - thanks for the question! We're still working on the styling of the page tools (hoping to wrap up by the end of the month. Both of these issues will be resolved in the final version. OVasileva (WMF) (talk) 17:14, 13 December 2022 (UTC)
@MusikAnimal: I've some 20 scripts under scriptManager but none of it shows up on appending ?useskin=vector-2022&vectorpagetools=1 , neither on the left nor on the right sidebar, and not in the Tools drop down menu either. Meanwhile, all other scripts are working fine. —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})17:18, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
Thank you for the width toggle! Obviously I'd like to have my preference "remembered" when I change pages, but I accept that there are many Nice Things which will never be available to IP users. Looks like two extra clicks per page will get me back to a style I like once the skin is implemented. Seems fair. 199.208.172.35 (talk) 15:27, 15 December 2022 (UTC)
There are ways but they have corresponding drawbacks. A cookie-based solution combined with Javascript could be used, but could result in a visible shift in layout after initial page load. In theory, the caching infrastructure could be modified to serve different pages based on a cookie; if we're going to invest in that, we should probably consider what are the highest priority features we'd want to offer to non-logged in users—maybe something else is more important. Cookie-based solutions are of course client-specific, so the option wouldn't persist across different browsers. isaacl (talk) 23:13, 15 December 2022 (UTC)
The TOC should stay where it is in Vector Legacy. Moving it upwards and moving the user tools to the right of the screen does not solve in any way the new TOC's basic problems which have been pointed out in the RfC, which seem to have been completely ignored. I propose the implementation of a hybrid TOC system like Song or Sushi, which preserves the legacy TOC along with the new one.--Æo (talk) 19:12, 19 December 2022 (UTC)
Discussion on protected edit request for new "sortable list" tool for the Special:WhatLinksHere page
Latest comment: 1 year ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Latest comment: 1 year ago5 comments3 people in discussion
Hello! I'm attempting to see if I can modify {{considering retirement}} to make the word "strongly" optional since you can be considering retirement but not be strongly considering it. You can see in the sandbox I've messed around a little bit to see if I can get it to do this, but I have absolutely no clue if I"m doing it right. If I'm not could I please be informed on how to do it correctly? ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#654519:02, 19 December 2022 (UTC)
You can use is{{#if:{{{strongly|}}}| strongly}} considering. When someone puts |strongly=[any string here], the word "strongly" shows up, otherwise it won't. Bold text is already supplied by font-weight: bold inside the <div> container, so no need to supply it again. —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})19:11, 19 December 2022 (UTC)
Ah! So I was basically doing it correctly. WOuld there be a way to make it so the parameters are "yes" or "no" with the default parameter being "Yes" (just to not screw up pre-existing uses of the template, of which there are many)? ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#654519:17, 19 December 2022 (UTC)
When I click through a talk page's section link in a revision history, the viewport no longer lands directly on that section in the talk page. It overshoots or undershoots and leaves me viewing some random section of the talk page; I need to reclick the section title in the TOC on the LHS in order to finally navigate there. Elizium23 (talk) 02:45, 11 December 2022 (UTC)
@Elizium23: Always include an example. There is probably collapsible content somewhere before the section heading and during page load your browser selects a location before collapsing or expanding something above it. Also mention your skin and browser for interface and layout issues. PrimeHunter (talk) 04:21, 11 December 2022 (UTC)
Vector 2022, Windows 10 Pro, Chrome Version 108.0.5359.73 (Official Build) (64-bit) (oh hell it's updating again now.)
This page causes the error; the only collapsible content is the customary stuff in the talk headers.
The same problem was also discovered in T325115. Navigation to sections on pages with collapsible content has always been fiddly, but I remember it working a lot more reliably until recently. I don't know right now if this is caused by a software change, or a template change. Matma Rextalk23:02, 13 December 2022 (UTC)
This is a problem with English Wikipedia's customization that extends the handling of collapsible content provided by MediaWiki.
MediaWiki supports basically two CSS classes: mw-collapsible to make something collapsible (but shown by default), and mw-collapsed to also make it hidden by default. (There are some other weird options that no one uses.) mw:Manual:Collapsible elements
English Wikipedia has custom JS code that adds some other options, notably innercollapse and outercollapse, which allow content with the first class to be hidden by default only if it is also wrapped in the second class. Help:Collapsing#"innercollapse" and "outercollapse"
This mechanism is used by the templates generating the talk page banners: Template:WPBannerMeta/core and Template:Banner holder. This way, each WikiProject banner is made collapsible if they're wrapped in the banner holder (e.g. on Talk:Paris), but not if they aren't (e.g. Talk:Azincourt).
Generally, collapsible content in MediaWiki causes issues like this, because it is only collapsed after the page loads and JavaScript executes (to remain accessible for no-JS users), which can be after the browser has already jumped to the target section. But the mw-collapsed class has some extremely clever styles to hide content using just CSS (T42812), which prevent the problem most of the time. innercollapse/outercollapse do not (the help page I linked above actually document this: "Using this technique causes the page to reflow/jump around and should generally be avoided.").
I don't really understand why this problem would pop up now. It seems that the templates and the custom JS code hasn't been changed in a while.
This could be fixed with CSS like this:
/* Avoid FOUC/reflows on collapsed elements. *//* This copies MediaWiki's solution for T42812 to apply to innercollapse/outercollapse (T325115). *//* Reference: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/g/mediawiki/core/+/ecda06cb2aef55b77c4b4d7ecda492d634419ead/resources/src/jquery/jquery.makeCollapsible.styles.less#75 */.client-js.outercollapse.innercollapse.mw-collapsible:not(.mw-made-collapsible)>p,.client-js.outercollapse.innercollapse.mw-collapsible:not(.mw-made-collapsible)>table,.client-js.outercollapse.innercollapse.mw-collapsible:not(.mw-made-collapsible)>thead+tbody,.client-js.outercollapse.innercollapse.mw-collapsible:not(.mw-made-collapsible)tr:not(:first-child),.client-js.outercollapse.innercollapse.mw-collapsible:not(.mw-made-collapsible).mw-collapsible-content{display:none;}
This could go either in MediaWiki:Common.css (maybe around here: MediaWiki:Common.css#L-40), or somewhere in TemplateStyles of the relevant templates.
I really want to put this in TemplateStyles as there are so few uses of the classes outside the couple of templates (innercollapse, outercollapse), and the uses in the mainspace smell funny per MOS:COLLAPSE, but I'd have to look at it closer.
If that feels bad, use of :is() might be ok to put in Common.css given how this depends on JavaScript and the rule shouldn't impact old systems, then it looks like:
We wouldn't be able put it in the same place as the other display: none rules either because they would flop over at the bad selector in older systems and invalidate the whole rule. Izno (talk) 00:38, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
:is() would be okay, but the rule you posted isn't exactly equivalent (in my version some items had the > combinator and some didn't), and as a result doesn't actually resolve the issue (testing on Talk:Paris). It probably could be tweaked, but I'd rather not mess with it.
Also, I just realized that if you use TemplateStyles, then you probably need to write body.client-js instead of just .client-js to work with the auto-prefixing. (You probably know this, but saying just in case.) Matma Rextalk01:24, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
Ah yes, I'm glad we have code review. ;)
Kinda waiting to see which way TheDJ wants to jump. Or if we just do it in the template and the people who aren't using a template can suffer jumpiness on their like 10 pages. Izno (talk) 19:48, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
@Matma Rex: "I don't really understand why this problem would pop up now" Browsers defend against this kind of banner instability these days (they have some sort of page stabilitization metric, before they apply the anchor navigation). But since the Vector 2022 it seems this algorithm in the browser has a harder time detecting this situation. I haven't figured out why yet. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 10:14, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
Oh, that's interesting… I wonder if it's because Vector 2022 moved the sidebar HTML to the top of the source (legacy Vector has it at the bottom). That causes less visual flashing while the page loads, but it could have caused this workaround to stop working. Matma Rextalk20:53, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
Since folks seem to be fine with my proposal but no one actually applied the fix, I applied it myself now: [2]. The issue with section links on those pages should be resolved. Matma Rextalk19:39, 19 December 2022 (UTC)
Image on Main Page displaying incorrectly on Firefox
Latest comment: 1 year ago10 comments5 people in discussion
Confirmed in FF 107.0.1. It's specific to the width of 246px - alter that to another value, like 244px or 248px , and it displays correctly. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 12:28, 18 December 2022 (UTC)
Opened the 247px version at 16:54, which is an known hack to regenerate the thumbnail one pixel below it. I am still seeing the black background tho. (I am in Europe) Snævar (talk) 21:15, 18 December 2022 (UTC)
Is there any logic behind the last four words (40b8:788f:357a:8571) being the same, but the last half of the first four words varying? Johnuniq (talk) 06:09, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
Originally, there was an idea that the lower 64 bits would be for a MAC address. That was quickly discarded for obvious privacy reasons. These days, it's more likely to indicate some spoofer or VPN. Izno (talk) 06:49, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
Actually, there are still assignment methods that would generate a stable 64-bit number for the Interface ID, as it is known. If the editor is using the same device then the Interface ID can be expected to remain stable. The varying bits in the network part can be explained by the ISP variously assigning prefixes to the same customer.
Interface ID is often randomized for privacy these days, so it is also common to see it changing up every time an editor comes back. Elizium23 (talk) 08:04, 14 December 2022 (UTC)
So this is more of a policy question than technical, but here's the thing: an IPv6 user just came back to a talk page to change their !vote. Their 64-bit interface ID has changed. If such an editor claims to be the same person, are they to be believed? If admins routinely block /64 networks then we are de facto treating all interface ID holders as the same person. Elizium23 (talk) 22:09, 19 December 2022 (UTC)
I don't think we have a policy; perhaps we should. A /64 IPv6 subnet has similarities to one IPv4 address, in that it's typically shared by all users of one connection. In other ways, it differs: we can only leave User_talk: messages for the individual addresses, not the subnet. Two different IPv6 addresses within the same /64 are likely but not guaranteed to be the same person, in the same way as two edits from the same IPv4 address. Certes (talk) 13:04, 20 December 2022 (UTC)
CS1 maint: unfit URL
Latest comment: 1 year ago5 comments3 people in discussion
Hi, two questions, apologies they if should be separate:
I came across this message just now at V. C. Bird International Airport. My adblocker blocks the original URL as badware. I simply deleted the |url-status=usurped in this edit [3], which I think was the right thing to do. Could someone please explain the purpose of |url-status= and the correct course of action when you find these messages?
My ref tooltips haven't been working for several days. I haven't made any changes to my Prefs→Gadgets, namely nav popups disabled and ref tooltips enabled. Any ideas, please? Cheers, MinorProphet (talk) 12:23, 20 December 2022 (UTC)
There have been no changes to cs1|2 that have anything to do with tooltips.
|url-status=usurped changes how a citation renders; cf:
{{cite book |title=Title |url=//example.com |archive-url=//archive.org |archive-date=2022-12-20}}
{{cite book |title=Title |url=//example.com |url-status=usurped |archive-url=//archive.org |archive-date=2022-12-20}}
Title. Archived from the original on 2022-12-20.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
The maintenance message tells interested editors why the citation renders differently from other citations.
Your edit summary: fix ref: rm |url-status=usurped as per CS1: maint suggests that somewhere you found some instruction or advice that told you to remove |url-status=usurped. Where did you find that instruction or advice? It is wrong and should be fixed.
Thanks for your revert. I don't remember where I got the idea of deleting the parameter, I must have misunderstood something, sorry. Could you please explain (or point to) the purpose of |url-status= and the correct course of action when you find these particular messages? Some CS1 maintenance messages I can and do fix when I randomly come across them, eg CS1 maint: uses authors parameter, CS1 maint: date and year : is there anything I can do with unfit URL? Thanks, MinorProphet (talk) 16:34, 20 December 2022 (UTC)
Unfit URL is not intended to be fixed actively, so no. I am not entirely sure why it is still a maintenance category, as it's much closer to a CS1 property, but was created much earlier than the scheme we use for general tracking. Izno (talk) 17:14, 20 December 2022 (UTC)
I shouldn't have to go in and add code to the infobox to make redlinked categories go away — the infobox isn't supposed to be making any redlinked categories for anybody to have to fix in the first place. Bearcat (talk) 05:50, 21 December 2022 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Tech News
Because of the holidays the next issue of Tech News will be sent out on 9 January 2023.
Recent changes
On a user's contributions page, you can filter it for edits with a tag like 'reverted'. Now, you can also filter for all edits that are not tagged like that. This was part of a Community Wishlist 2022 request. [4]
A new function has been used for gadget developers to add content underneath the title on article pages. This is considered a stable API that should work across all skins. Documentation is available. [5]
One of our test wikis is now being served from a new infrastructure powered by Kubernetes (read more). More Wikis will switch to this new infrastructure in early 2023. Please test and let us know of any issues. [6]
Problems
Last week, all wikis had no edit access for 9 minutes. This was caused by a database problem. [7]
Changes later this week
There is no new MediaWiki version this week or next week.
The word "Reply" is very short in some languages, such as Arabic ("ردّ"). This makes the Discussion tools button on talk pages difficult to use. An arrow icon will be added to those languages. This will only be visible to editors who have the Beta Feature turned on. [8][9]
Future changes
Edits can be automatically "tagged" by the system software or the Edit filter configuration system. Those tags link to a help page about the tags. Soon they will also link to Recent Changes to let you see other edits tagged this way. This was a Community Wishlist 2022 request. [10]
The Trust & Safety tools team have shared new plans for building the Private Incident Reporting System. The system will make it easier for editors to ask for help if they are harassed or abused.
Realtime Preview for Wikitext is coming out of beta as an enabled feature for every user of the 2010 Wikitext editor in the week of January 9, 2023. It will be available to use via the toolbar in the 2010 Wikitext editor. The feature was the 4th most popular wish of the Community Wishlist Survey 2021.
Attempting to delete File:KKNO logo.jpg (after having exported the file to Commons with Commons Helper) returns: Error deleting file: An unknown error occurred in storage backend "local-multiwrite".
Wow, now I think I know why plainlist and other related templates when imported to other Wikimedia projects showed unexpected results even when all template dependencies were imported simultaneously. Probably because the sitewide css was never imported alongside? —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})07:11, 24 December 2022 (UTC)
You will need to ask the Wikidata developers. We aren't responsible for or knowledgeable about why watchlist integration works with Wikidata the way it does. Izno (talk) 17:19, 24 December 2022 (UTC)
Hello, I am unable to to use visual editor for creating or editing article, i have done the preference setting and all what i know to make it work but its not working out and the source editor is hard for me.
i am using mozilla firefox and using dell pc, i dont know about the javascript that you mentioned and also its visual that i am using to respond now but not working for article QDJ22 (talk) 06:47, 23 December 2022 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago4 comments2 people in discussion
Recently I noticed when switching to another language on Wiki that I get automatically logged out, which is tedious when editing an article for an international subject and checking translations. This happens across browsers, and I believe my account should be unified. Wiki also seems to think my IP is hundreds of miles away when logged out (it shows an IP ban message), but I'm not using a VPN. Anyone else noticing this or know what is happening? Thanks. - Indefensible (talk) 19:06, 18 December 2022 (UTC)
This is follow-up to Help talk:Logging in#Logged out upon switching languages? I believe that the reply Logged out to my question When you return to the Wiki that you started out from - presumably English Wikipedia - are you logged in or not? is significant. In my experience I often appear to be logged out when I go to Commons:, Meta: etc. but upon retuen to English Wikipedia, I'm still logged in. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:47, 18 December 2022 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago4 comments2 people in discussion
These three edits by one user [11][12][13] were reverted by another user (in reverse order) [14][15][16]. This should have resulted in all three edits being reverted but it didn't. Each revert in addition restored the previous revert. So only the final revert had any lasting effect. SpinningSpark20:56, 23 December 2022 (UTC)
Maybe Doug Weller clicked undo at all three edits before saving any of the three reverts. That would give a result like that when MediaWiki tries to undo the specific changes in an old edit without touching other parts of the page as it looked when the user clicked undo. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:59, 23 December 2022 (UTC)
Huh? Can you walk me through that. If you don't save the undo then nothing gets reverted and there would not be an entry in the page history at all. SpinningSpark17:58, 24 December 2022 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago4 comments3 people in discussion
Hello! Is there a way to see which articles were the most read during this year? Maybe a method to compile a list of the 10 most read articles or so? - Klein Muçi (talk) 10:27, 24 December 2022 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago6 comments6 people in discussion
Stop nagging Me for Money! Wikkipedia is now a very annoying site begging for money several times on each page. I could see once per session but every f-ing page and several times on each page? Give me a f**king break! I bet my posts will be in violation of something or other on Wikkipedia but i don't care! At this point I don't care if I can never use Wikkipedia again as long as they know these nags are driving users away! Buggeroff22 (talk) 19:23, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
I don't believe logged-in users even need to switch fundraising banners off; as far as I know they aren't been shown to logged-in users. isaacl (talk) 21:46, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
^-- this. The most recent campaign should only be showing to non-logged in users. There are a bunch of reasons why when a page loads it could think someone isn't logged in though. — xaosfluxTalk22:05, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
How nice to learn I can block fund-raising banners in preferences! The fund-raising banners aren't showing today, but they were decidedly showing recently. And yes I was logged in, but I didn't know about the banner preferences. -- M.boli (talk) 21:58, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
Font Readability
Latest comment: 1 year ago4 comments3 people in discussion
I am among the many millions of Babyboomers whose once excellent vision has declined with age. I have been using Wiki and making modest cash contributions since it began because I think Wiki is a fabulous idea.
I have accessed Wiki with many different devices and browsers over the years, but for many years now, I found it absolutely necessary to magnify the text.
If I just need a small amount of information, I can enlarge the entire screen's content and read the left side of a sentence, shift the screen to the right, then read the right side of the sentence, then shift the screen to the left and read the left side of the next sentence, then the right, etc..
If I want to do the deeper research that Wiki so skillfully enables then I have to remember where I left my reading glasses.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if I could simply select the font size as a preference and allow a word wrap function to automattically adjust text to my visual capacity when I log in? Boomerspop (talk) 12:52, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
@Boomerspop: In my browser (Chrome on MacOS), I can increase font size with cmd-+. I'm sure your browser has a similar option. Alternatively, you can use a custom CSS file (Special:MyPage/skin.css) to change font and font size. (I use a prettier font for Wikipedia, for example). See Help:User style for some information (possibly not enough if you are like me and don't speak CSS). —Kusma (talk) 13:04, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
Thanks for taking the time to reply to my ridiculous post. smh
I have routinely used that function for many years. It appears that in addition to the decline in my visual acuity, there has been a profound decline in my memory and cognitive acuity.
Wow. I expect that I will now spend a significant amount of time pondering that change.
Although it's quite sad, my personal problems are trivial in comparison to the much larger and very real problems of the world. Boomerspop (talk) 13:51, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
Or, for a solution affecting all applications (and available in multiple OSs), open your display/screen/monitor settings, and set your monitor to a lower resolution; this will automatically enlarge everything (probably) that is shown onscreen, while keeping the default windows and margins within the screen boundaries (so no side-scrolling). -- Verbarson talkedits23:01, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
TemplateStyles question
Latest comment: 1 year ago11 comments5 people in discussion
@CX Zoom on-wiki you are most likely to run across such as @media. See here, these can apply different rules depending on what the client (the browser) says it is using or is capable of. We don't use a lot of these, but you can see ones such as @media screen in use at MediaWiki:Common.css. — xaosfluxTalk12:22, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
The @media ... { ... } construct does much more than check the size of a viewport. Basically, it is used to test the characteristics of the user agent (browser, etc.) and only apply the enclosed CSS rules when the test is satisfied. These tests are primarily the type of device - screen, print, etc. but may also be more complex tests, such as the available display width - see Media Queries Level 3 for a full description.
For example, at meta:User:Redrose64/monobook.css, I use @media print { ... } so that two rules (one to hide an infobox and certain other boxes, the other to set a font for the text) are only applied when I print a page, they are ignored when viewing the page on screen, and would also be ignored if I used screen-reader software to speak the page to me. MediaWiki:Common.css has two instances of @media screen { ,,, } and the enclosed rules primarily relate to the backgrounds of galleries, to be displayed on screen but ignored when printed.
Neither of these example stylesheets tests the screen width, however. If you can link an actual example, we can explain it more fully. --Redrose64 🦌 (talk) 16:19, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
Good. So, in this example, CX Zoom, there are two @media at-rules - the first one, @media (min-width: 500px) { ... } applies two rules only when the display width is 500px or more; the second one, @media (min-width: 720px) { ... } applies three rules only when the display width is 720px or more (in addition to the two rules applied by the first at-rule). See min-width. --Redrose64 🦌 (talk) 18:08, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
@CX Zoom not exactly. @media is a set of rules, and a client will choose to execute them or not, if it supports that extension, based on if it thinks it meets the condition. @media rules can be things like viewport size, device size, orientation, resolution. — xaosfluxTalk16:23, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
Thank you everyone. You're amazing. I'm now confident that I know everything that I needed to know about @media to play with TemplateStyles. Thank you again! —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})07:48, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
Search bar doesn't always lead directly to the searched page
Latest comment: 1 year ago10 comments5 people in discussion
For at least a year (if my memory serves me right), I've noticed that if I leave a page "untouched" in my browser for a few minutes or so, then type another article's title in the search box, it wouldn't go directly to that article, but instead to the search results page with a big banner reading "There is a page called xxx". It doesn't happen all the time, but when it does, backing to the previous page and re-searching would fix it, although sometimes I have to reload the previous page in order for it to work. It happens both on my Mac running High Sierra and my iPad running iOS 10. 2001:4453:5C6:CB00:FD89:3263:7361:56DF (talk) 10:29, 19 December 2022 (UTC)
What do you do to submit the search? Do you press Return while the focus is on the textbox, click on the search button, click on a suggestion entry, or something else? And you're using Vector legacy, correct? Nardog (talk) 05:15, 20 December 2022 (UTC)
I can confirm that this happens to me too on desktop site on Android. Sometimes it goes to the Special:Search page for that search term and sometimes directly to the relevant page in an unpredictable pattern. I did not really notice the "length of time page is untouched" but it could be a factor in play. —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})17:48, 20 December 2022 (UTC)
Where is your mouse pointer located when you hit enter? I've noticed that the search suggestion under the pointer is selected when I press "enter" rather than the literal and exact search term I just typed in. If I move the pointer out of the danger zone so it's not pointing to any suggestions, then press enter, it works OK. Elizium23 (talk) 05:27, 24 December 2022 (UTC)
Hi, since its desktop site on Android, it doesn't have a pointer. Just that the search system doesn't have consistent result when used, due to whatever reasons. —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})07:05, 24 December 2022 (UTC)
How to print a parser function result after publishing the change?
Latest comment: 1 year ago18 comments5 people in discussion
Hi, is it possible to print (not render) a parser function result after publishing the change? For example, just an example, I want to insert {{#ifeq:{{Title year|page={{PAGENAME}}}}|2024|Yes|No}} into Brazil at the 2024 Summer Olympics and after publishing and revisiting the content page, I just see "Yes" as plain text, which is the result, instead of the whole code I provided above. If you still need more explanation, I will do it. Thanks! ⇒ AramTalk21:33, 24 December 2022 (UTC)
Assuming that you want to hardcode whatever result the parser function is giving at the moment, just use {{subst:#ifeq:{{Title year|page={{PAGENAME}}}}|2024|Yes|No}}. Notice the addition of subst: before #ifeq:. This will hardcode yes into the page and the parser function will be gone. See Help:Substitution for details. —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})22:15, 24 December 2022 (UTC)
I think Aram wants the source text to have the full code now but automatically transform at a later date to replace the code with "Yes" in the source text without making a new edit. That is not possible. Source text can only change when a page is edited. As far as I know we don't have a bot which can be asked to make a certain edit like a substitution when a condition is met in the future. It would sometimes be handy to automatically make the source text cleaner when a condition is met and is expected or certain to hold permanently, e.g. automatically avoiding an ifexist test after a specific target page has been created. Pages can be deleted so this use case would be expected to hold and not certain. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:52, 24 December 2022 (UTC)
@PrimeHunter: Actually, @CX Zoom: hit my target 95% with his arrow. But what I don't understand is why the result is always "No"! It should be "Yes" on Brazil at the 2024 Summer Olympics. @Qwerfjkl: We want to create too many articles around "Nation at the YEAR Summer Olympics" using Pywikibot script and for the purpose of past and present verbs (such as: "was" for those years before 2022 and "is" for those years after 2022) should be printed. And we can probably use it for many other purposes. ⇒ AramTalk13:35, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
You may need a subst: within the inner braces too, e.g. {{subst:#ifeq:{{subst:Title year|page={{subst:PAGENAME}}}}|2024|Yes|No}}. Certes (talk) 14:55, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
For your specific use case, I believe, {{subst:#ifexpr:{{subst:Title year}} < 2022 |was|is}} would be an easier code. Works only if the title has some year, or else returns error. < will be for "less than" and <= will be for "less than or equal to" depending on your requirement. —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})15:20, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
@Certes: Thank you so much for your reply and that was very useful to hit the target 100%!
@CX Zoom: Thank you very much. Yes, your last code is a better idea and gave me the same result perfectly!
As others show, you have to subst all parser functions and template calls (and invoked modules if you use that). Any called templates must themselves have code to subst any parser functions, templates and modules they call. It's annoying. {{Title year}} has the required subst code but many templates don't. Recursive substitution was requested in phab:T4777 in 2005. Special:ExpandTemplates does it but cannot be used in wikitext. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:05, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
I'm so sorry for rementioning you again, @CX Zoom:, @Certes: and @PrimeHunter:. Because of the difference in number format, I modified the code slightly to {{subst:#ifexpr:{{subst:formatnum:{{subst:Title year}}|R}} < {{subst:formatnum:2022|R}} | true | false }}, but I don't know why it produces Expression error: Unknown character "{" on ckbwiki. I tried it on Persian Wikipedia and it produced what I expected. Is there a problem with the ckbwiki system? ⇒ AramTalk18:13, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
@Qwerfjkl: How? Consider e.g. {{str number|1234abc}} which renders as 4. Special:ExpandTemplates shows the recursive expansion is simply the string "4". Can you do something in wikitext which saves the string "4"? {{subst:expand wikitext|{{str number|1234abc}}}} saves {{#invoke:Expand wikitext|main|{{str number|1234abc}}|unstrip=}}. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:46, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
It continues. I've wiped out my old profile for Chrome and created a clean version, gotten rid of almost all extensions. 18 tabs including 3 watchlists and I'm at almost 7000 mb. Doug Wellertalk14:01, 23 December 2022 (UTC)
Try reverting to an older version of Chrome or switching browsers. I'd check for driver versions, see if that's the cause of the issue, and whether the OS in combo with the browser is causing the issue. Maybe clean your Chrome cache or do a disk cleanup of your local disk storage space. I am just throwing ideas here.
Note: Chrome is known for chewing up a myriad of ram. I use Firefox and have never had Ram-related issues with Wiki or any other site, for that matter.
I have no idea whether watchlists have anything to do with Chrome memory usage... perhapsit's just having a large number of tabs open in Chrome, or it may be unrelated to that... but I appreciate hearing about other people's experiences. I seem to encounter problems at fairly random times, though more weirdly, it seems to happen when I've been inactive on my computer for a while, the computer becomes non-responsive, if I try to close tabs, focus seems to rotate through all the different windows. I'm very reluctant to switch to a different browser. Fabrickator (talk) 06:05, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
@Fabrickator, can never could until it tried. Mayhaps have it as a test-browser for a week to see if it performs any better and then if I like it switch to it or you can always revert to your old one later. I myself was a Chrome user for user, but after having found out about it's ram-appetite, I looked up other alternatives and chose Mozilla, which has more flexible keyboard shortcuts and can mute individual tabs on command which is a must-have, when an ad starts playing out of nowhere, but I digress. Long story short, try a new one even for a day. If that fails, then at least you tried. You can't know what browser would suit your needs best if you only stick to one. Qwerty284651 (talk) 07:02, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
Technically, since the category is also manually filed in Category:Political history of the Maldives in addition to the template-transcluded categories, its direct inclusion in Category:Politics of the Maldives would really be duplicate categorization that isn't necessary at all, but I can't make the template suppress that one category while including the others either -- but whether it's done by getting the template to add a "the" or by getting the template to suppress the category entirely, the redlink has to go away. Bearcat (talk) 17:26, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Three years ago I created {{Depicted logo}}. I would like to add additional parameters for from and to date.
So I appended {{date range}} to the end, but this doesn't exactly achieve the desired result
{{depicted logo|Q1|from=500|to=2000}} produces this awkward phrasing
The logo of universe – all of space and time and their contents reachable from the Earth in principle, possibly being part of a multiverse, distinct from parallel universes if they exist from 500 until 2000
when really what I want is
The logo of universe (from 500 until 2000) – all of space and time and their contents reachable from the Earth in principle, possibly being part of a multiverse, distinct from parallel universes if they exist
I was rather good with templates back in the day, but I'm afraid I'm lost with autotranslate and Lua.
Just a note to anyone starting down this rabbit hole, this appears to be a commonswiki set of translatable templates/modules. — xaosfluxTalk18:11, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
Gradient sigs
Latest comment: 1 year ago31 comments18 people in discussion
Hello! I'm attempting to create a signature for a user and I'm wanting to do a color gradient. Only issue is, I don't know how to create a color gradient without a crap ton of color tags which would quickly eat up the 255 character limit. Anyone know how? ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#654503:53, 21 December 2022 (UTC)
This was doubly difficult for me, as I wanted two gradients, but after some experimenting I came up with something, although I ultimately decided not to use it as my regular signature. Here's the code for the first half: [[User:Mandarax|<span style="color:white;background:linear-gradient(90deg,blue,red)">M<small>ANdARAX</small></span>]]MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM04:13, 21 December 2022 (UTC)
You're welcome. Also, since you probably only need one gradient, you could go with something more complex, such as [[User:Mandarax|<span style="color:white;background:linear-gradient(90deg,red,orange,yellow,green,blue,purple)">M<small>ANdARAX</small></span>]]. MANdARAX04:36, 21 December 2022 (UTC)
Ew reading[Joke]Would using 2 colors that are on complete opposite sides of the color spectrum be enough to make it accessible? ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#654504:40, 21 December 2022 (UTC)
"Opposite" colors is what makes it hard. Try finding a text color that can be placed against a gradient from black to white along the whole spectrum of that color range (good luck). OTOH, you can maybe find something between, say, purple and red (it's likely just white), or yellow and green (probably just black, depending on how dark a green). Izno (talk) 04:51, 21 December 2022 (UTC)
Ah ok. The user requested either tech blue or red on a black background, so I figured why not make it a gradient. ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#654515:34, 21 December 2022 (UTC)
I am an editor and administrator who works on Wikipedia 99% of the time on Android smartphones using the desktop site on my phone. To be honest, I simply do not understand why editors choose to use signatures that other editors cannot read or have trouble reading. Garish signatures that draw attention to me-me-me. I dislike signatures where the lower half is visible but the upper half is invisible to me. Or any other bizarre signature flourishes that are hard to read across multiple platforms. It is as if John Hancock had thrown his quill pen to the floor and signed his name to the Declaration of Independence using a lump of charcoal that he pulled out of a fireplace, making zigeddy zaggedy marks, instead of creating a beautiful signature that everyone can read and remember 250 years later. What's up with that affectation? Cullen328 (talk) 05:07, 21 December 2022 (UTC)
Ppl feel awfully attached to standing out. As an admin and also afterwards, I've asked ppl to adapt their sigs and make them more accessible to others, but ppl don't give a flying f about it. This includes enough senior editors and fellow admins that I could not effectively enforce such polices back then. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 09:52, 21 December 2022 (UTC)
Although I don't actually use the above signatures (except in this thread), I don't generally object to others using such sigs unless they're particularly obnoxious or difficult to read. MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM23:01, 21 December 2022 (UTC)
I'm sure I read a while back that the (then) new and upcoming talk page software wouldn't be able to do text effect sigs due to a technical limitation, meaning everyone would have to have a normal plain text sig. What ever happened to that software update? - X201 (talk) 15:47, 22 December 2022 (UTC)
@BD2412:, I would keep the golden bg with the red text, because it has the best text to background color contrast of the 5 versions. I would make the text color in the last version for both '2' and 2nd '!' from black to white to increase visibility and also meet WCAG standards, if not AAA, then at least AA level. Or brighten up the bg color so it's more discernible. Qwerty284651 (talk) 07:29, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
@BD2412: Did you actually manage to save that as a preference, or did you just manually add it here, inserting the timestamp as ~~~~~? If the former, I think it’s a bug that the software allowed you to do so. (By the way, the reply tool is not the only issue with this signature – it also hides text above and below, which should be forbidden.) —Tacsipacsi (talk) 12:04, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
Aside from the fact that it was a joke, transcluding templates in a signature should not be done to circumvent restrictions. In particular, limitations imposed by the MediaWiki software configuration should not be worked around, as various tools rely on those limitations being respected in order to recognize signatures. isaacl (talk) 22:57, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
WikiProject-wise edits
Latest comment: 1 year ago7 comments3 people in discussion
Would anyone be interested in creating a tool which displays user edits according to WikiProject (for example, "you've made 10 edits to WikiProject Plants, 5 edits to WikiProject Spiders, etc."). FacetsOfNonStickPans (talk) 09:40, 22 December 2022 (UTC)
Izno, thanks for the reply, but I don't think I phrased my comment accurately. Let me change the words of the example. For example, say I make two edits to Aiphanes, the requested tool will show that I have made two edits under WikiProject Plants. I am requesting a tool related to 'main/article namespace' edits and not the 'Wikipedia namespace' edits.FacetsOfNonStickPans (talk) 13:34, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
Wikipedia:WikiProject Directory shows a list of editors who are Active Subject-Area Editors with at least five edits. While this is useful and interesting, it isn't exactly what I was trying to find. FacetsOfNonStickPans (talk) 13:53, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago15 comments6 people in discussion
We can transclude Special:PrefixIndex on a page using the code {{Special:PrefixIndex/Wikipedia:Village pump}}, but it has a maximum limit of pages that are shown. We can remove redirects by |hideredirects=1 & strip prefixes by |stripprefix=1 but how do we transclude all the pages and not just the first few? Thanks! —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})09:18, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
You can't, because it would be problematic from a performance perspective if someone did like {{Special:PrefixIndex/S}} and it tried to list the 1.4 million matching titles. Anomie⚔12:00, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
Can it be done using multiple transclusions, each of which returns only 100 or so results. For example, transclusion 1 returns first 100 results, for transclusion 2 we put something like |startfrom=101 resulting in listing of pages 101-200 and so on? —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})12:26, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
I think it would require a user script (I'm not making it). A manual solution which currently includes all proposals but repeats some of them and will miss some if many more are added:
{{Special:PrefixIndex/Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/|hideredirects=1|stripprefix=1}}
Starting from H (may repeat or miss some entries from above):
{{Special:PrefixIndex/Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/|hideredirects=1|stripprefix=1|from=Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/H}}
Starting from S (may repeat or miss some entries from above):
{{Special:PrefixIndex/Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/|hideredirects=1|stripprefix=1|from=Wikipedia:WikiProject Council/Proposals/S}}
(may miss some entries at the end)
@CX Zoom: sorry to keep going back-and-forth, but that's still your intended solution, not the problem. A problem statement could be like: "People keep proposing too many duplicate projects" (I don't know if that's your problem, just an example), so you're working on creating an easily browsable index of them so people can find duplicates before they make a proposal.
The reason I'm focused on trying to identify the root solution is because everyone here is focused on PrefixIndex, when it's unclear why it's important that all of them are listed on one page. Based on my guessing of your actual problem, I'd say that usually the category system is used for this use case. Or if real-time updates aren't required, we could create a database report pretty trivially to generate a full list. Legoktm (talk) 21:41, 26 December 2022 (UTC)
Module error needs fixing for footer navbox
Latest comment: 1 year ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Do we have a template we can place in any section, that when clicked on would return the user to the top of a page? {{Back to top}} returns to the top of a page, but no matter where the template is placed on a page, it appears at the very bottom. — Maile (talk) 00:48, 27 December 2022 (UTC)
Did you try |abs=no as documented on the template's documentation page? I have placed it at the top of this section as an example. – Jonesey95 (talk) 01:17, 27 December 2022 (UTC)
@Kusma pretty sure the hack that template uses doesn't work in there, thus the template has the nomobile class added to suppress it in mobile view. As something not designed for articles it doesn't have as much time spent on it. — xaosfluxTalk12:38, 27 December 2022 (UTC)
Only a problem in Minerva, though (I don't know why anybody would use that), and not when using small browser windows on the desktop (why are these classed as "mobile" anyway?). It is a bit annoying how many things about using Wikipedia on my phone are broken and need hacks like User:Þjarkur/NeverUseMobileVersion.js to work tolerably well. Is there another hack that allows me to pretend small-screen monobook isn't "mobile" to ensure anything "nomobile" is still displayed? —Kusma (talk) 08:52, 28 December 2022 (UTC)
@Kusma, you could get rid of nomobile entirely, i.e.
Latest comment: 1 year ago10 comments5 people in discussion
When I see an external link or reference link containing an Accelerated Mobile Pages link (i.e., an AMP link, one of those ",amp" components that routes you through a Google-controlled shell URL to get to the linked webpage), I am always tempted to replace it with a link directly to the source article URL. Should we have a policy of preferring direct links over AMP links, and if so can we have a bot switch out the thousands of AMP links currently on found in articles for those direct links? BD2412T02:50, 28 December 2022 (UTC)
I think the more insidious AMP links are the ones that bypass the external content domain (e.g. www.google.com/amp/* or *.ampproject.org/*); I don't think we need a "technical" policy about this, perhaps list a proposal to replace these over at VPR? Not sure if a bot is the right solution though, as the output of an amp link and an original may not have the same content - which could change the validity of a reference. — xaosfluxTalk13:39, 28 December 2022 (UTC)
@Redrose64: Generally, yes. As far as I recall, some URLs also have a similar bit at the beginning, but most will be along those lines. @Xaosflux: There must be a way for a bot to test for identity of target content. BD2412T13:40, 28 December 2022 (UTC)
@BD2412 so for example on GSAT-7R, there is an AMP link https://m-economictimes-com.cdn.ampproject.org/v/s/m.economictimes.com/news/defence/navy-to-buy-rs-1589-crore-satellite-from-isro/amp_articleshow/70283927.cms?usqp=mq331AQCKAE=&_js_v=0.1 , that could possibly be replaced with https://m.economictimes.com/markets/stocks/news/5-smallcaps-from-infrastructure-space-with-strong-buy-and-buy-ratings-can-rise-up-to-42/articleshow/70283927.cms. Is that what you are thinking about? That seems like a good idea at first (though the link change is a bit complicated) - but it does seem to have a problem of the second link paywalling the reference. — xaosfluxTalk13:51, 28 December 2022 (UTC)
The paywall can often be circumvented by linking to an archival version on the Internet Archive, which is hopefully better still, as it is less at risk of disappearing. I would much rather we link to an IA link than an AMP link. BD2412T13:56, 28 December 2022 (UTC)
Yes, let's get rid of them. "Accelerated" is pure marketing; their purpose is to harvest web histories for Google. Certes (talk) 14:56, 28 December 2022 (UTC)
I treat these roughly the same as utm and the like. Ultimately, that's what they are, even though their reason for existence was the seemingly noble one of getting websites to stop being so slow. Izno (talk) 17:10, 28 December 2022 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago4 comments3 people in discussion
The article J. M. Robertson has acquired a couple of bright red error messages saying "TemplateStyles' src attribute must not be empty". I haven't got the faintest idea what this means, or how to fix it. Any help would be gratefully received. DuncanHill (talk) 18:45, 29 December 2022 (UTC)
Checklist for migrating MediaWiki:Common.css to TemplateStyles should be more visible
Latest comment: 1 year ago6 comments3 people in discussion
I have just updated my wiki from version 1.35.8 (LTS) to 1.39.1 (LTS). One of my efforts is to migrate the CSS in MediaWiki:Common.css to TemplateStyles. I use Wikipedia as my guide and was having some difficulty to follow the revision history comments.
The MediaWiki talk:Common.css page provides some insight, but what helped me the best is discovering the "to do" checklist subpage MediaWiki talk:Common.css/to do. The Description of work section is exactly what I was looking for, as it provides a clear explanation of the rationale behind this effort. I now understand completely and have a good incentive to complete the migration.
The checklist itself is very helpful, as it shows me where to look for changes.
Can the to do page be linked from Wikipedia:TemplateStyles, perhaps as an option for those with a technical background to understand why TemplateStyles should be used (and what should be changed if they're using Wikipedia as a guide)?
@Lady G2016, are you primarily interested in boosting the signal for the rationale of the effort, or also how to do it, or also where to do it? I don't think linking to a to-do page is the best thing, but if the rationale is all you want, there's probably some way or another to make it more obvious on WP:TemplateStyles what the mostly-upside is to the use of TemplateStyles.
I am interested in boosting the signal for the rationale of the effort and to understand the mechanics of making these changes (where to do it). The to-do page is not the best approach, but it has the level of detail that I was looking for.
For context, I depend on Wikipedia for technical (and policy) guidance. My resources are limited and it is very challenging to untangle the never-ending cascade of template dependencies. The CSS migration effort adds to this complexity.
I've added a link in the see also, since I don't think it's reasonable to make it a permanent part of the page. Izno (talk) 01:58, 31 December 2022 (UTC)
Also, while we try to keep updating out local common.css; it has over a decade of creep in it - I don't suggest you copy it in to a new wiki. Ideally, it will be mostly empty! — xaosfluxTalk14:48, 30 December 2022 (UTC)
I would normally agree. Due to the complexities of untangling the never-ending cascade of Wikipedia templates, I imported dependent templates until the one I wanted started working.
The result is that I was being very cautious about removing CSS from my local common.css because I didn't want to risk breaking any formats. So, I simply imported the Wikipedia common.css and only removed entries which were specific to Wikipedia. Everything else was left intact (with some customization for my wiki).
Latest comment: 1 year ago5 comments3 people in discussion
If I search for a multi-word article title that doesn't exist in quotes , such as "Bar and foobar", the server tells me The pages "Bar and foobar" and '"Bar and foobar"' do not exist. Apparently, this is covering the possibility that I might have meant the quote marks literally. Is this new? I don't remember getting this response before. It seems a bit unnecessary and I was quite confused at first (I mean, more than I normally am!). SpinningSpark10:41, 31 December 2022 (UTC)
It's a common issue. Most browsers show borders around the extra cells. For narrow columns in long tables, it can be easier to spot if you preview the table with wide content added in an extra cell of the first row. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:32, 31 December 2022 (UTC)
Wikipedia hangs UI, part III
Latest comment: 1 year ago6 comments3 people in discussion
Following up from Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 201#Wikipedia still hangs UI, my Wikipedia sessions become like molasses over time. Each UI response could take 1-3 seconds to complete. (Down to routine and lightweight things such as mouseovers.) Restarting Chrome has returned it to a normal speed, but it's bogging down again after a few days' runtime. The CPU fan often engages, and the feel of it does seem CPU-bound, though Task Manager does not indicate a real stress on the cores.
I did keep the Watchlist in "safe mode" for a while, but I am unsure of how this would aid in troubleshooting. Since my workflow always involves opening new tabs and doing edits outside the watchlist, that is not going to happen in safe mode. Elizium23 (talk) 04:57, 30 December 2022 (UTC)
If restarting your browser fixes the problem then you want to bring this up in a support forum of your browser. It is up to your browser to interpret and render websites. --Malyacko (talk) 13:28, 30 December 2022 (UTC)
@Xaosflux: I've disabled almost everything, including some likely culprits. I'll see how this pans out for a while. If re-enabling, I'll use a binary-search method, right? Elizium23 (talk) 00:07, 1 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago8 comments3 people in discussion
Hello, Tech geniuses,
Some problem happened with today's AFD log pages when the UTC time clock went from Dec. 31 2022 to Jan. 1 2023. There is no problem with the individual AFD pages but today's log pages have had some strange effects happening. For example, I closed two discussions that appeared on Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Log/2022 December 25 (Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of kanji by stroke count and Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/List of kanji by concept) and although the AFDs are listed on the page's table of contents, they don't appear at the bottom of the page any longer. It's like they disappeared from view as soon as the discussions were closed. Also, Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/1994 NECBL season is listed on the page index as the first AFD discussion, it doesn't appear on the page any more. I've tried purging the page cache several times and the AFD discussions appear for a second but then disappear as the page loads. I checked the page history and there are no recent edits to the page. It's almost as if once the discussions hit the end of the 7 day listing period, they are hidden from view. The individual AFD pages are fine, it's just the daily log page that has this strange glitch.
My apologies if this is some problem with my browser. I've never run into this issue before. Thanks for any solution you can offer. LizRead!Talk!01:07, 1 January 2023 (UTC)
Okay, well, that is a better situation than if XFDCloser had returned to its problematic self. It now looks like this, hidden deletion discussions that are closed, on all XFD daily log pages I look at like RFD, too. I'm not sure what would cause this. Thanks for checking. Happy New Year! LizRead!Talk!04:48, 1 January 2023 (UTC)
Oh, brilliant, PrimeHunter, I'll try this. It's just weird that it started to happen right when the UTC time zone went from 2022 to 2023, that's why I thought it might be a system problem. Over the years, I have added a lot of scripts to my js pages, probably some of which contradict each other. I'll check on this and get back to you. Again, many thanks! LizRead!Talk!22:19, 1 January 2023 (UTC)
I didn't find importScript('User:Evad37/XFDcloser.js') on User:Liz/common.js but I uninstalled it at Wikipedia:XFDcloser. I had already had the gadget checked off in my Preferences. I also found I had User:Liz/closexfd.js, should I just delete this page? But the main problem seems to be that I don't see the box in the bottom right-hand corner of the screen on deletion daily log pages as described in Wikipedia:XFDcloser#Hide/Show closed sections. I think this is might be the problem...I don't remember unchecking a box but if it is close to the scroll bar, I could have easily accidentally unchecked it. I'm not sure how to get it back as it is not visible any longer on any daily log pages that I've checked. Thank you again for the practical suggestions. It's not the worst problem to have but lately I do a lot of work at AFD and it helps to have all of the discussions visible. LizRead!Talk!22:34, 1 January 2023 (UTC)
I rebooted my laptop, cleared my cache and cookies and the Hide/Show bar returned. I'm sure there is a better reason for why the bar disappeared from view and then returned but since everything is back to normal, I'm not asking any more questions! Thank you both for your help this New Years! LizRead!Talk!00:38, 2 January 2023 (UTC)
Why are transclusions failing on Template talk:Did you know/Approved?
Latest comment: 1 year ago4 comments4 people in discussion
A process-related option, aside from splitting the page, is to work to reduce the backlog of older nominations. That way involves a bunch of hard work instead of quick technical fixes, unfortunately. If the backlog is being managed in a timely manner, other process-related steps, like reducing the number of new nominations allowed per person, may be an option. – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:25, 2 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago9 comments4 people in discussion
I have some wikitext, for the sake of example, {{Redirect category shell}}. Is there any way to produce the wikitext which would be the result of substituting everything once, i.e. {{Subst:Redirect category shell}}, i.e. __NONEWSECTIONLINK__{{Mbox
| name = Redirect category shell
| type = move
| image = none
| style = margin-top: 1.1em; border: solid 1px darkblue; border-left-width: 0.5em;
| textstyle = padding-top: 0.9em; padding-bottom: 0.9em;
| text = '''This {{Talk other|talk page|page}} is a [[Wikipedia:Redirect|redirect]]. <small>The following [[Wikipedia:Categorizing redirects|categories]] are used to track and monitor this redirect:</small>'''{{#if:
|:: ''{{{h}}}''
}}<!--
Automatically detect protected redirects:
-->{{#switch: {{PROTECTIONLEVEL:move}}
|sysop|templateeditor|extendedconfirmed={{pp-move|small=yes}}
}}{{#switch: {{PROTECTIONLEVEL:edit}}
|sysop={{R protected|embed=yes}}
|templateeditor={{pp-protected|small=yes}}{{R template protected|embed=yes}}
|extendedconfirmed={{pp-protected|small=yes}}{{R extended-protected|embed=yes}}
|autoconfirmed={{pp-protected|small=yes}}{{R semi-protected|embed=yes}}
| <!--Not protected, or only semi-move-protected-->
}}{{#if: ||
* {{red|'''Important – Please Read! {{maroon|This template should {{em|not}} be applied without parameters by bot nor by any automated or semi-automated process. It should {{em|not}} be used without parameters {{em|unless you want to learn how to categorize redirects}}. For editors who want to learn how to categorize redirects, this template is a {{em|learning tool}}. {{em|Only}} those editors who intend to return to the redirect to learn which rcats to use should apply this template without parameters, or with an empty first parameter!}}'''}}
* '''Manifold sort''': If help is needed to determine appropriate categories, then this redirect populates '''{{Cat|Miscellaneous redirects}}'''. Monitors of that category will check this redirect and add or remove [[Wikipedia:Categorizing redirects|rcats]] as needed.{{#ifeq: {{lc:false}} | false |[[Category:Miscellaneous redirects]]}}
}}
{{#if: |{{{2}}}|}}{{#if: ||{{#ifeq: {{ROOTPAGENAME}}|Redirect category shell||[[Category:Redirect category shell without parameters]]}}}}
''<small>When appropriate, [[Wikipedia:Protection policy|protection levels]] are automatically sensed, described and categorized.</small>''
}}— Qwerfjkltalk07:56, 30 December 2022 (UTC)
Special:ExpandTemplates will expand templates recursively, it'll expand the call to {{Mbox}} and so on instead of giving back the wikitext Qwerfjkl quoted.
@Anomie, sorry, let me clarify. I need to do this through a template/module, i.e. {{onlypst|{{Redirect category shell}}}}, or more accurately, {{onlypst|{{#invoke:Page|getContent|as=raw}}}}. — Qwerfjkltalk20:12, 30 December 2022 (UTC)
I don't know of any straightforward way to do it from Lua. The built-in frame:expandTemplate expands recursively, and there's no PST function because it's generally not needed in the contexts where Lua runs. You might be able to get close enough by fetching the content of the template and then manually stripping <noinclude>...</noinclude> and such. Anomie⚔00:27, 31 December 2022 (UTC)
@Anomie, then perhaps there's a simpler way to achieve what I'm trying. Via a template transcluded on a page, I want to check if the page's text, expanded recursively, contains a string, the problem being that this creates a template loop, as the template checking will itself be expanded. Is there, for example, a way to remove a template when the page text is recursed? I've made some attempts with User:Qwerfjkl/sandbox/transclusion test/testcase2 and User:Qwerfjkl/sandbox/hasRcat, but not much luck. — Qwerfjkltalk03:35, 31 December 2022 (UTC)
Is Wikipedia slow on my end or is there problems with editing on servers?
Latest comment: 1 year ago5 comments2 people in discussion
I was editing my own user page when it seemed to be slow when using the source editor and visual editor. Is it a problem on my end or are Wikimedia servers acting up again? I already uploaded an image, purged cache, and nothing worked. So can someone take a look at what is going on on my page since it's problematic when I am trying to change userboxes, the misc stuff such as GoldenEye, Missile Launcher, and other pranks? Thanks! Wesoree (Talk) 23:03, 2 January 2023 (UTC)
nvm i found out, its that my wikipedia user page is i guess too long for my pc to handle, hope it doesn't blow up! Wesoree (Talk) 23:06, 2 January 2023 (UTC)
The page is too long i found out, I need to click the edit source button. Probably my hardware is not ok to handle it. Wesoree (Talk) 23:10, 2 January 2023 (UTC)
FWIW, your page isn't very big. I looked at the history; the biggest it had been was about 16 kb, which is really quite small. The visual editor is able to handle pages many times that size without problems, even on relatively modest hardware.
It's certainly possible you've got something on your page which is problematic. One way to figure that out would be to go back through your page history and see if you can find two adjacent versions where one works well and the other is slow. That should give you a hint if there's something specific you added which caused a problem. -- RoySmith(talk)17:17, 3 January 2023 (UTC)
Moving a page
Latest comment: 1 year ago3 comments2 people in discussion
I know page moves can be messy. Can I get input about whether this is likely to cause more problems that it solves? Thank you. Magnolia677 (talk) 08:32, 4 January 2023 (UTC)
WP:RM is the process. For a topic that has substantial tinges of current hyper-polarized politics, I think it should get a discussion that might bring in other eyes rather than assuming it will be uncontroversial. DMacks (talk) 08:36, 4 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago10 comments2 people in discussion
Today I was editing wikipedia then a dialog box opened automatically in which there was about a new feature so I thought to use that feature but now I don't want to use that new feature and I don't know the name of that new feature so can anyone please tell the name of that feature and tell the procedure to disable it. Thanks 𝐋𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐕𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐭𝟕𝟐𝟖🧙♂️Let's Talk !15:10, 3 January 2023 (UTC)
@LordVoldemort728 You certainly did not get a dialog box from mediawiki that would have led you to accidentally create that global.js page with content, but one of your many other personal userscripts may have done that for you. Blanking that page is all it should have taken, there may be a slight delay for caching to unload that. You have a ton of other personal userscripts loading here in User:LordVoldemort728/common.js; so if you are having any odd issues the first thing to do would be to blank that entire page; you can then try reloading functions and imports one at a time. — xaosfluxTalk10:16, 4 January 2023 (UTC)
@LordVoldemort728 I forced an update, then deleted that page on metawiki. Log off, clear your cache, and try again. Please note: you never should have gotten an automatic dialog on Wikipedia that forced you to create that page at metawiki from anything we manage; unless it was coming from some other userscript you were using. See also mw:Help:Locating broken scripts for help on this topic. — xaosfluxTalk14:47, 4 January 2023 (UTC)
Zooming in the interactive maps makes the blue pin go upwards
Latest comment: 1 year ago1 comment1 person in discussion
When zooming in the interactive maps (which I think has something to do with Kartographer) the blue pin invariably moves upwards. This is on all platforms and browsers that I have tried. Naturally, one would expect the maps to zoom in on the pin. Has this been mentioned before? Abductive (reasoning)02:55, 5 January 2023 (UTC)
Styling for the TW menu gone?
Latest comment: 1 year ago9 comments7 people in discussion
Is it just me or did the styling for the TW dropdown menu just randomly go away? When I click on it I just see the test for the options with the links I can click on to get the menu I need. Asking here first before I mention this on WT:TWINKLE to see if it's just me or if it's a WP:THURSDAY issue. ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#654520:15, 5 January 2023 (UTC)
The genius move was to require the "vector-dropdown" class to the parent element in order to have background color. In twinkles case this means that the outer div needs this to be added. Which would mean adding "vector-dropdown" to line 284 of MediaWiki:Gadget-Twinkle.js which should fix these issues until something is renamed again. Terasail[✉️]21:12, 5 January 2023 (UTC)
It may be that simple right now, but it probably won't later because Twinkle goes to the right of the "More" menu which is now a different container that is part of "Page tools". Anyway, I have deployed a hotfix for now. I'll let the active Twinkle maintainers handle it upstream. cc @Novem Linguae— MusikAnimaltalk21:51, 5 January 2023 (UTC)
Suggestions from infobox not including redirect which is *only* match.
Latest comment: 1 year ago2 comments2 people in discussion
If I type into the infobox "List of Alpha Pi Omega ch" , there is only *one* match on English language wikipedia the redirect List of Alpha Pi Omega chapters, however the suggestions for pages below it only include List of Alpha Phi Omega chapters. Why is the redirect *not* included in the suggestions? (Note, these links are for chapters of completely unrelated organizations, Alpha Pi Omega and Alpha Phi Omega.Naraht (talk) 15:03, 6 January 2023 (UTC)
The redirect was created three days ago. Search takes time to catch up with new pages, but normally hours rather than days. Certes (talk) 15:13, 6 January 2023 (UTC)
How to abuse your watchlist
Latest comment: 1 year ago24 comments15 people in discussion
My watchlist had managed to get to over 13,000 pages, mostly due to semi-automated edits at WP:SPI. I finally decided it was time to clean things out. It turns out that's not so easy. Special:EditWatchlist doesn't have any hard-wired size limit (that I'm aware of), but it's really not happy working with that much data. Javascript timeouts, database timeouts, all sorts of fun. I didn't want to just delete my entire watchlist, so it was a pain to get it back down to manageable size.
I've since gone into preferences and unclicked most of the options that add things to my watchlist automatically. No, I really don't need to be watching 5000 user talk pages of socks I've blocked. Anyway, just a heads up to folks with big watchlists that you might want to start doing something about the bloat before it gets too big to handle.
Good advice. I only have around 2,800 articles and talk pages on mine. As I'm on a phone only, not laptop, I'm wary of having too many so always do a spring clean. Always check red links and IP editor talk pages, you probably don't need them after 6 months or so. doktorbwordsdeeds15:22, 30 December 2022 (UTC)
I reached about 23,000 before deciding to cut down, not because of any performance issues but because of a nasty TfD in mid 2020, as a result of which I walked away from one of my primary editing topics and unwatched over 6,000 pages. I'm presently on 17,020: Special:EditWatchlist sometimes works, sometimes times out (when I was on 23,000 it always timed out). Special:EditWatchlist/raw works, but can take a while after clicking Update watchlist. Tip: use the relatively-new feature for setting an expiry for page watches. --Redrose64 🦌 (talk) 22:46, 30 December 2022 (UTC)
Yeah, I like the expiry-watch, For most pages I edit, continuing to watch it for a few weeks to see how a conversation winds down is about perfect, but you have to remember to use it each time. Is there some way to make that the default? -- RoySmith(talk)15:09, 31 December 2022 (UTC)
@RoySmith It's coming soon! You'll be able to set an expiry on all the existing watchlist preferences. I.e., watch pages you edit for only a week, watch pages you use rollback on for 1 day, etc. – this is in addition to being able to set a default expiry when manually watching pages, too. I'm going to guess we'll finish that work sometime this month, if not February. — MusikAnimaltalk23:14, 2 January 2023 (UTC)
Thirteen thousand sounds about right to me, although it depends how frequently they are updated, because you still want see the ones you are interested in before they scroll off the bottom. My main peeve with watchlist, is you can't check your own history (e.g., in chrono order). I once added about 2-3000 at one go (using the raw edit feature) because of one editor who was using AWB against the guideline; a couple of weeks later, I was ready to remove them from my list, but it was no longer easy to find them; they were all mixed in. They are all low-frequency, and a few still trickle onto my list from time to time years later. Having standard, page-like history metadata on my Watchlist operations (timestamp, item, even an edit summary) would be very handy. Mathglot (talk) 07:51, 31 December 2022 (UTC)
@Redrose64 and RoySmith: you wouldn't happen to be using Chrome would you? If so, that's your problem I think. Now I love "Who wrote that" so rather than give up Chrome I use Firefox for anything not Wikipedia related and One Tab Plus to manage my Chrome tabs. I still have to close and open Chrome from time to time but that's less often now. Doug Wellertalk14:42, 31 December 2022 (UTC)
I use Firefox, and have done since Netscape vanished. I occasionally use Opera or Chrome to see how different browsers render a given page. I used to use Safari for the same purpose, but gave up when they stopped producing versions for Windows. IE is a pile of crap, and on those grounds I won't use Edge either. I never tried Lynx. --Redrose64 🦌 (talk) 22:04, 31 December 2022 (UTC)
Perhaps the ones I watch are more busy; they don't take up too much of my time when I hold their number down to 6000. And 16000 pix and cats in Commons, and a few thousand in Simple, and WD and Meta and . . . So, when something comes up that seems to be getting adequate attention from other watchers, it's time for me to unwatch it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Jim.henderson (talk • contribs) 22:37, 31 December 2022 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago3 comments3 people in discussion
Hi! I noticed in the infobox in K-Lite_Codec_Pack that the "Stable release" date reads "... (December 28, 2022; 3 days ago)", which is not quite right.
Tried to chase it down to tell the whom-it-may-concern about it but got lost.
@Saintrain it says "10 days ago" when I look at it now. Dynamic content on pages is only updated during edits and purges, so if the page hasn't been touched by an editor in a while it stay at the old display to improve caching. — xaosfluxTalk22:47, 7 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago5 comments2 people in discussion
I don't know if this is happening to anyone else, but the search preview (the list of articles that pop up under the search bar as you type) is not coming up. I've purged the cache and the same thing continues. Odd. -- Veggies (talk) 21:07, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
Lots of issues happening right now...
For one, I had to manually create this section using the section above since the "new section" option kept returning 503 errors. In addition, the "Search Wikipedia" bar is not auto-populating with recommendations while typing. And also probably related, some gadgets like Twinkle are not working correctly right now: At the present time, the ability to use Twinkle to post XfD discussions is not working due to "API failures". Any idea what's going on? Steel1943 (talk) 21:11, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
@Veggies: Seems I'm also experiencing the search bar issue, but it seems there are also more issues than that right now ... but it could be possible all of these issues are related. Steel1943 (talk) 21:14, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago3 comments3 people in discussion
I am working on archiving an article's talk page that has posts on it from 2005... Anyway, a picture in this article was a POTD a year or two ago...is there a parameter within the Article history/Talk page header stuff to put in a notice about the POTD? I can't seem to find it, not even sure that a POTD notice is supposed to be there *but* it is part of the article history so...I come here to ask all you smart people what to do. Thanks, Shearonink (talk) 04:32, 6 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago1 comment1 person in discussion
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
You can use tags to filter edits in the recent changes feed or on your watchlist. You can now use tags to filter out edits you don't want to see. Previously you could only use tags to focus on the edits with those tags. [22]
You can now use the thanks function on your watchlist and the user contribution page. [23]
A wiki page can be moved to give it a new name. You can now get a dropdown menu with common reasons when you move a page. This is so you don't have to write the explanation every time. [24]
Matrix is a chat tool. You can now use matrix: to create Matrix links on wiki pages. [25]
You can filter out translations when you look at the recent changes on multilingual wikis. This didn't hide translation pages. You can now also hide subpages which are translation pages. [26]
Changes later this week
Realtime preview for wikitext is a tool which lets editors preview the page when they edit wikitext. It will be enabled for all users of the 2010 wikitext editor. You will find it in the editor toolbar.
Some wikis will be in read-only for a few minutes because of a switch of their main database. It will be performed on 10 January at 07:00 UTC (targeted wikis) and on 12 January at 07:00 UTC (targeted wikis).
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 10 January. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 11 January. It will be on all wikis from 12 January (calendar).
Latest comment: 1 year ago7 comments3 people in discussion
Does anyone know if someone might already be looking into this one? The bot has not been working for a few months now. It was a very useful tool to archive links in the past. Greatly appreciate any leads. Thanks. Ktin (talk) 00:47, 5 January 2023 (UTC)
@GreenC: Select any article -> View History -> Fix Dead Links. Select "Add archives to all non-dead references (Optional)". Click Analyze.
In the past it would add archives to all links and ensure that the IA archives each of those links. The bot has stopped doing that pretty much. Please can you check? Ktin (talk) 03:31, 5 January 2023 (UTC)
Hi, in the new Vector 2022, the space between left sidebar (also contains table of contents) and main article is unreasonably large. In the old vector this margin is much less, which in my opinion is enough and correct. So please modify related CSS style sheets to reduce this margin. Here are some screenshots that illustrate this problem:
Despite massive amounts of negative feedback, the WMF developers are determined to have a lot of white space in the new Vector 2022 skin. I submitted this one as a bug, but it has not been fixed yet. You are on your own to fix it for your own use. The tweaks in User:Jonesey95/common.css may be useful to you. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:40, 4 January 2023 (UTC)
We are also very unlikey to force it to the site CSS; and I think some of the latest vector-2022 changes broke the overrides in the test gadget "wide-vector-2022". If someone wants to write new selectors for that gadget, we can add it in there. — xaosfluxTalk14:50, 4 January 2023 (UTC)
Note: Gadget wide-vector-2022 does nothing after one of the latest vector grid redesigns, so is unregistered. We can always make a new one if there is a need; the primary goal of that has been taken over by an opt-out preference to turn off "narrow" mode. — xaosfluxTalk16:24, 4 January 2023 (UTC)
Turning off "narrow" mode in your preferences helps somewhat, but I found that many more tweaks were needed to reclaim various parts of the screen that were turned into whitespace by Vector 2022. I submitted and subscribed to bugs about some of them (see the comments in my .css file for links to some), and the developers appear to have put some of them on their work lists. We'll see how long these customizations are needed. I worry that, as with the perpetually-in-beta Visual Editor, that the WMF developers will decide that the fun part is over and the current version is "good enough", and they will wander off to work on some shiny new project that editors did not ask for and will have to kludge. Sorry, I'm grumpy today. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:57, 4 January 2023 (UTC)
@Hooman Mallahzadeh thanks for sharing this feedback. We have heard many opinions regarding the whitespace and general density of Vector 2022, and unfortunately (as with most design decisions) there is no solution that everyone likes. Editors seem to generally prefer more density, whereas readers prefer more whitespace. The general opinion from the designers who we've consulted has also been to lean towards more whitespace than less. We have looked for research regarding whitespace surrounding text, however we haven't found clear results or recommendations. A few things to consider:
Open some printed books and look at the margins surrounding the text. Each book might be a little different, but relative to the size of the text I've found that almost all books have more whitespace surrounding the text than Legacy Vector does. This is of course not a perfect guide, but I think it's a useful reference.
When discussing designs I think it's most helpful to think in terms of user value, and tradeoffs. So instead of saying "it's enough" or "it's correct", I think one should start with the question: why should we increase/decrease the margin? Is there any functional benefit? Does it improve the reading experience? Is just a matter of your personal preference (maybe because you are used to Legacy Vector)? What is the tradeoff...what gets better, what gets worse?
At smaller screen widths we decrease the margin so that there can be more room for the article, but at larger screen widths we have more than enough space, and based on the research we've read the additional whitespace give your eyes a larger resting point between lines. I think there is a bigger risk to readability if the margins are too small, rather than if they are too large.
In the future we will be implementing a more complete CSS grid, and both the width of the table of contents and the width of the margin will be fluid/dynamic/responsive (i.e. will change with the width of the screen). You can see a work-in-progress prototype of that here, where the margin is already less: https://vector-2022.web.app/Moth.
@AHollender (WMF) biggest ask that could help editors, ensure that the layout is something that can be easily customized by userscripts. This used to be straight-forward, but the elements are getting harder and harder to target. — xaosfluxTalk17:43, 4 January 2023 (UTC)
@Xaosflux right, that makes sense. @Jdlrobson can speak to this better than I can, but I imagine most of the difficulty you're experiencing is because we've been actively developing/changing things. I think in another few weeks, once we're done with the main structural changes and have done some tech cleanup (renaming classes, etc.) I believe things will be much more stable. AHollender (WMF) (talk) 18:28, 4 January 2023 (UTC)
@AHollender (WMF) @Jdlrobson To add to this, one of the things I've found most frustrating (respectfully) with the Desktop Improvements project is the lack of communication about breaking changes. meta:MoreMenu has been around since 2008. It broke precisely zero times, until the Desktop Improvements project started. After that it's broken a few dozen times and rarely with a heads up. I have repeatedly pushed your team to use meta:Tech/News and it seems only when I step in to add the #user-notice tag to tasks does this actually happen :(
Sorry if I'm grumpy. I just hate to wake up to see my gadget yet again broken (which I hope to fix before the breakage lands here on enwiki today). Twinkle presumably will also break today.
The same version of MoreMenu is used on roughly ~40 wikis, so I also am faced with a problem where usually it will be broken on certain wikis and not others as the train rolls out. This is all the more reason to give gadget developers a heads up so that we can prepare accordingly. — MusikAnimaltalk18:07, 5 January 2023 (UTC)
Another idea might be to create mw.util.createDropDownMenu() and mw.util.createDropDownMenuItem() and add it to core. The upside is that this would be make user scripts and gadgets implementing a custom drop down menu next to the p-cactions menu a breeze. The downside is that the code for this would need to be added to a bunch of skins. Would be nice to get this kind of code out of Twinkle and MoreMenu though. And to reduce code duplication. –Novem Linguae (talk) 01:56, 7 January 2023 (UTC)
@Jdlrobson Yes, and let me be clear that I greatly appreciate you going out of your way to make that PR! By my recollection it wouldn't have prevented the other breakages, which is why I never ended up merging it, combined with it complicating the code (I find the DOM cloning to be somewhat hacky, but all things considered it's still a perfectly viable solution for copying over CSS classes). I was also kind of thinking it would be easy enough to fix MoreMenu as needed, assuming I'd have the necessary forewarning. Twinkle and MoreMenu are surely not the only scripts that touch this area, after all. Anyway, I can't be complaining too much here as you already did the work for me :) I will focus on getting that PR merged soon. Apologies if I was at all off-putting in my above comment. — MusikAnimaltalk04:23, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
InternetArchiveBot fixed
Latest comment: 1 year ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Hello! This is just a general notice that thanks to some fine work (tracked at Phabricator T321740), the Internet Archive Bot is now functional again and can be accessed here. It had been broken/working highly inconsistently since at least October. However, it may still have some performance issues, so be aware. —Ganesha811 (talk) 11:02, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
Recurring #if bug/lint error
Latest comment: 1 year ago6 comments4 people in discussion
@Qwerty284651: You apparently refer to the "Page statistics" link at top of page histories. Your example did contain #if before you removed it.[27] I still see it reported at your link so maybe the tool uses caching. I have tested many other pages which use section transclusion. None of them contain #if and none of them cite #if as a bug so I don't know where you got "every" from. Do you mean that you only tested pages which do contain #if and you wonder why it's called a bug? Parser functions like that are usually intended for templates and not articles. It's a hint that something may be wrong or "ugly" but it doesn't have to be an error. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:16, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
3,000+ articles that use template parameters, certain magic words, or conditional expressions are listed in Checkwiki error report 34. It looks like at least half of them are using PAGENAME, which a diligent AWB editor could subst (maybe after a BRFA, since it would not change the rendered page), but some of them are using #if and #switch in article space, which is generally frowned upon in article space. – Jonesey95 (talk) 01:16, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
@PrimeHunter, yes, I was wondering why does it list as a bug in the page statistics link. Yeah, that "every" claim was a bit of a stretch, unbeknowngst that not all pages with (sub)section transclusion, page stats link list it as being off. Qwerty284651 (talk) 10:14, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
Why is it frowned upon in article space? And, how would one tackle said errors with AWB? I would like to test the regex waters with AWB. Any hints on writing the code?
As some articles are transcluded, in whole or part, #if (and possibly PAGENAME) may be useful to vary the text between the included and including articles. See also <noinclude>, etc. Certes (talk) 11:04, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
Using template from French Wiki
Latest comment: 1 year ago8 comments5 people in discussion
I'm trying to make a new template in en.wikipedia based on this fr.wikipedia template. When I try to paste the code into Module:Color specification table, I get "Lua error at line 1: unexpected symbol near '<'." I assume it's the same coding language as French wikipedia, so why wouldn't it work? This is the first template I have worked with so my coding is not good. Not A Witty Fish 01:34, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
Ttm said the main thing, so here's the remainder: Module: namespace is for Lua, which is an actual programming language and not wikitext. Izno (talk) 01:45, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
Update: I've created the template and doc pages, but I'm still getting errors. The first is for the fr.wikipedia template {{Lien vers modèle|lien=Modèle:Tableau spécifications des couleurs}} which renders a small blue "i" with a link to the template. Do we have an en.wikipedia equivalent or should I just delete it? (See French template reference)
Second, I'm getting errors with the far left columns, rows 2 and below, which should be links to the different color spaces pages (e.g. the HTML cell should link to web colors. Now it's creating a "template loop" I guess though? Not A Witty Fish 13:46, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
I fixed it by creating the English sub-template equivalent {{Color specifications table/link}} (note updated pluralization and matching inside primary template). Still, I do not find this sub-template very useful. It is essentially a 3 column table, that does no business-logic on any of these. I would expected/hoped, that merely passing the RGB values would be enough to convert/generate the other values. Nonetheless, this is a useful template and good learning exercise in cross-language templates. I apologise for leading you on wrong path earlier with fr:Modele vs en:Module. ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 15:02, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
Done. It will probably take the job queue (or the bot that helps it along) a few days or weeks to recategorize all of the pages. – Jonesey95 (talk) 19:40, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
Timestamp sorting not working properly
Latest comment: 1 year ago4 comments4 people in discussion
On the Requests for Unblock page, under the Timestamp header of the block table, when clicking the sort button, it will sort Jan (2023) timestamps earlier than Dec (2022) timestamps. I suspect this issue is also present on any other page that uses a similar Timestamp format as opposed to the ISO time format in the other columns. Rob3512 (Talk·C) 13:24, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
It appears that the column, present at User:AmandaNP/unblock table, uses only the month and day instead of the month, day, and year to do date sorting, so this sort of behavior appears to be reasonable. The next step is probably to get in touch with the bot operator for the bot that operates that page, AmandaNP, to request that they add the year to the Timestamp column. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:58, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago13 comments6 people in discussion
[I hope this is the right area, I can't think where else.]
I thought I'd done same or similar some years ago, but I can't remember, maybe I hadn't really done it.
What I want is a way of returning from a junior template to a senior. (I try not to use the direction up or down.) What I would say if caller and callee.
What I want to do is like this: {{callee| a=85| b=38| c=41}}
What I'd do inside callee is split up a, b, c to get a1, a2, a3, b1, b2, b3, c1, c2, c3
Then I'd get them to Y1= a1, b1, c1 - Y2= a2, b2, c2 - Y3= a3, b3, c3. Then in the caller Y1, Y2, Y3 could be used as parameters to a different template. Is this easy or what?
This is a simple breakdown of a more complicated, but still simple:
there would be seven or more sets of numbers, a1 ... g7, and five (quintiles) Y1, Y2, Y3, Y4, Y5
Auntie Kathleen (talk) 13:06, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
I'm not sure what you are trying to do but maybe {{Array}} can be of help. It's currently unused, maybe for good reasons. It's not how we normally do things and there may be efficiency issues. I don't know whether your callee is intended for multiple calling templates with different circumstances but it would be better if the callee could call other templates directly instead of trying to return several parameters for calls of those templates. PrimeHunter (talk) 16:40, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
Templates aren't a function call mechanism and so can't return parameter values. They transform their arguments into text that is pasted into the location from where they are used. If you want to assign the text returned by a template to a parameter for another template, you have to explicitly do so: {{helper template|parm1={{parm1 template|some_parm={{{some parameter from the main template}}} }} | ... }} The main template uses the helper template, passing its parameter values through to the helper template as needed.
Personally, I'd prefer to use a Lua module, though, as I find it easier to work with function calls transforming variables than layering templates to achieve a similar effect. isaacl (talk) 21:37, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
I agree that a Lua module would be best, because a template to separate digits would end up doing something like {{str sub old|85|0|1}}{{str sub old|38|0|1}}{{str sub old|41|0|1}}; {{str sub old|85|1|1}}{{str sub old|38|1|1}}{{str sub old|41|1|1}} → 834; 581 (insert template parameters instead of the actual two-digit numbers, of course). If the OP is not asking for digit parsing, then they need to communicate better about what they want their template to do. Maybe mock up a simulated set of inputs and outputs on your sandbox page. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:26, 9 January 2023 (UTC)
I can make the 35 (7 × 5) (7 years × 5 quintiles, could later become 10 years) parts OK but I didn't know what to do when I have got them. I think I'll try to change so that the target will become further‑in nesting. Eg {{Graph:Chart}} – for a stackedrect there would be Y1 … Y5 parameters each with (here) seven parts each (X coordinate) so Y1 = a1, b1, c1, d1, e1, f1, g1 … Y5 = a5, b5, c5, d5, e5, f5, g5 It would be easier if each element could be addresses directly: Y1a=a1 Y1b=b1 Y1c=c1 Y1d=d1 Y1e=e1 Y1f=f1 Y1g=g1 … Y5g=g5 Auntie Kathleen (talk) 00:33, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
Like I said at help:template, you have to call the sub-template {{Y}} 35 times. So for your Y1 values, you'd have {{parent template|a={{y|a|1}}|b={{y|b|1}}|c={{y|c|1}}|d={{y|d|1}}|e={{y|e|1}}|f={{y|f|1}}|g={{y|g|1}}}}, and then for the Y2 values, {{parent template|a={{y|a|2}}|b={{y|b|2}}|c={{y|c|2}}|d={{y|d|2}}|e={{y|e|2}}|f={{y|f|2}}|g={{y|g|2}}}}, and up to Y5, with template Y returning the 5th values for a, b, c, d, e, f, and g. VanIsaac, GHTVcontWpWS00:38, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
I don't know why you are under the impression that it won't work, as it's just plain the way that templates do work. And if you need 35 pieces of data from wikidata, you are going to have to call wikidata 35 times no matter what. I can tell you from having run into the actual mediawiki hardcoded expansion limits, that 35 calls is nothing when it comes to server parsing resources. VanIsaac, GHTVcontWpWS01:13, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
If you want to deal with data tables of arbitrary lengths, again Lua will be a better choice since it has variables that can be indexed (including multiple dimensions) and it will be easier to write loops to process all the data. isaacl (talk) 02:00, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
Yes, any function needing to evaluate an arbitrarily large dataset will really only work with lua modules. However, lua is a whole other level of complexity in terms of syntax learning curve, so if you have a dataset of small, defined scope, mediawiki's template syntax will serve you well with a much lower barrier to entry. VanIsaac, GHTVcontWpWS03:10, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
Now I has set up the five sets of data eg y1= 99,99,99,99,99,99,99 to y5 but I don't know what to do with them. I thought that I could use them as input parameter but doesn't seem to work. (We had a blackout yesterday, and took awhile to get back to where I was). Auntie Kathleen (talk) 02:29, 11 January 2023 (UTC)
List of edits
Latest comment: 1 year ago5 comments5 people in discussion
How do I disable the new "other edits" buttons appearing on my watchlist, contributions page, etc. courtesy of T301063? I confess I don't see the purpose of scores of links to not-so-helpful pages like this one. Thanks in advance. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 21:05, 5 January 2023 (UTC)
If you want a css hack then adding the following to your common css will hide all the appearances of the link:
I must say I questioned the purpose of such links, or tagging the edits at all, myself; many thousands of edits are made with the reply tool, Twinkle, rollback etc and I can't imagine examining all of them being a useful workflow for anyone. But I do like the ability to thank from the watchlist. That's a nice addition and makes up for a bit more visual clutter. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts?21:41, 5 January 2023 (UTC)
I think that wikipedia would be a worse place if every edit made with the reply tool, source editor, visual editor a mobile edits (and others) didn't have a link to 500 more edits using the same tool. Who doesn't want 3 "other edits" links per diff on their watchlist?Terasail[✉️]21:52, 5 January 2023 (UTC)
OK, I take it back. It's more than just a little clutter: Tags: Reverted (other edits) Visual edit (other edits) Mobile edit (other edits) Mobile web edit (other edits) possible BLP issue or vandalism (other edits) nowiki added (other edits) on one edit is ridiculous. There have to better ways to track edits made using the mobile interfaces anyway but how many people want to see every edit made through a mobile interface anyway, and how many of them don't know you can filter recent changes? HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts?12:02, 6 January 2023 (UTC)
Thank you, Terasail. Another unwanted and undiscussed "enhancement" reverted! I wonder if we should start central repositories for CSS and JavaScript to revert such detrimental changes as and when they are forced upon us. Certes (talk) 12:20, 6 January 2023 (UTC)
While I think this change can be useful, in practice it adds visual distractions from reading the important information in my watchlist and in page histories. It nearly doubles the length of the Tags list, and because of the link color, catches the eye when it should be in the background. SWinxy (talk) 21:59, 5 January 2023 (UTC)
I think that this change could be incredibly useful. Just not when there is no way to turn it off for high use, low interest tags such as mobile edits. Having such a link for the BLP vio tags is great but I just don't want 2 links per mobile edit (mobile & mobile web/app) taking me to a recent changes page that moves at almost the same speed as unfiltered recent changes Terasail[✉️]22:24, 5 January 2023 (UTC)
I am also not a fan. Unlike some cosmetic changes that just take some getting used to, I see this being an issue persistently, potentially in subtle ways we can't track—namely, the consequences of editors being less able to parse diff metadata at a glance. What if we changed MediaWiki:Tag-link-other-edits to something like "Δs"? It would be a bit opaque, but people would learn the symbology pretty quickly. -- Tamzin[cetacean needed] (she|they|xe)22:43, 5 January 2023 (UTC)
Well, the smaller font size for the whole tag list is set in our Common.css, so I don't think it's a Phab matter. And I don't think the two issues are related closely enough to lump in one task (so I guess you can make it just about space). Nardog (talk) 01:51, 6 January 2023 (UTC)
The "(other edits)" text is being rendered at 81% (90% of 90%, apparently) in my browser. I don't see a size spec for .mw-tag-other-edits in our Common.css file, but I may have missed it. – Jonesey95 (talk) 02:40, 6 January 2023 (UTC)
I've resolved this locally. I might recommend, to spare us the line of CSS, to remove the line I've just added and bump mw-tag-markers up to 95%, which would also fix the font sizing issue. Izno (talk) 06:19, 6 January 2023 (UTC)
Thanks. The extra space looks a bit silly. For many of the tags ("reply", "source"), filtered recent changes is 100% useless so I have now hidden this in CSS. —Kusma (talk) 16:12, 6 January 2023 (UTC)
Δs to mean changes? Cute. Not really certain that's the direction to go but it's an interesting idea. Izno (talk) 06:22, 6 January 2023 (UTC)
I was discussing this on Discord earlier: I find this link to be unnecessary clutter. I can see how some people might find it useful, but I can't imagine how this should be the default setting. How many new users are going to need (or want) to search for all recent edits with a particular tag? Ideally, this setting should be toggleable in user preferences, instead of requiring custom CSS to hide. —k6ka🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 03:14, 6 January 2023 (UTC)
I have to imagine, if the tag list had been built with this feature from the beginning, the tag labels themselves would link to the recent changes and you couldn't put custom links in the labels. But the ability to link labels to pages that explain them is also obviously helpful. So I guess the ideal solution is to link labels to some sort of landing page that lists recent changes with the tag but also allows admins to put up a description. Nardog (talk) 11:08, 6 January 2023 (UTC)
In my opinion, we should just remove this link by requesting to undo this phab job. Or put a global css to block it. I'm yet to find anyone happy with this clutter-addition. The watchlist is full of useless blue links now, even as RecentChanges is right on my sidebar, giving me a quick access if I want edits sorted by tags. —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})13:01, 6 January 2023 (UTC)
Having just spent three hours tweaking my siteprefs and Twinkle’s prefs, trying to see what I accidentally clicked to make my watchlist almost completely unreadable on mobile, I’m pleased to find it was actually just another daft update to the software. I just wish I’d known that a tad earlier, but there we go. — Trey Maturin™00:00, 7 January 2023 (UTC)
I am not too sure about using a "+" symbol simply for the fact that users may think that they can add additional tags and then get sent to recent changes instead. Terasail[✉️]23:55, 6 January 2023 (UTC)
@Nardog, not too happy with any of the hacks. I did use (⇒), temporarily, on another wiki, here. Whoever wants to test this or other symbols, can use $("span.mw-tag-other-edits > a").text("⇒") (JQuery) in Firefox Developer Tools Console for the Recent Changes page. Ponor (talk) 13:10, 7 January 2023 (UTC)
With some well-thought-out mw hooks this could be a few-line javascript gadget for those few who really need it. I mean: RCs, page history, user contribs, logs... already have "filter by tag" drop down menu. Ever used it? Me neither ;) I think we're adding more complexity here just because we can. Ponor (talk) 21:18, 7 January 2023 (UTC)
Personally, I'd prefer to have a system that does what I mean, so that when I want to know what the thing is, it points to the explanation, and when I want to find more similar edits, it sends me to RecentChanges. But when I ask for things like this, the devs usually say something about not getting my hopes up. ¯\_ (ツ)_/¯ Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 17:39, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
I think "more" would be easier to understand than a character. I do agree, though, with questioning the need for this feature. I personally don't think the value of the user workflow is sufficiently high to warrant the amount of space it takes up and the additional cognitive load it imposes upon users. isaacl (talk) 23:08, 7 January 2023 (UTC)
I'm on board with removing these altogether. It really makes no sense to have all these links to the same place on the same page just because some edits are tagged, some edits even have multiple tags, and what's more, the link itself is not useful at all (it's literally right there just off to the left in the menu headed "Contribute", and it's not even relevant to the tags themselves). I know some of these points may have been raised, but I thought I'd help in forming a consensus. I am seeing suggestions for alternative, less intrusive labels, and to that I say no, all the other problems remain — it's not just an aesthetic issue, I assure you. It's functionally useless. I would rather the WMF turn their attention to actual pressing issues and not dream up things that aren't really problems that they'd rather solve instead. Zeke, the Mad Horrorist(Speak quickly)(Follow my trail)05:41, 11 January 2023 (UTC)
When I create a new section on a talk page, especially when I create new headings, it automatically adds my signature when it is not really necessary. I would like to disable it so that I would like to manually sign when I create a new section. If you could help me with that, that would be great. Thanks, Interstellarity (talk) 20:59, 11 January 2023 (UTC)
How to fix replacement character in Lua table/array?
Latest comment: 1 year ago6 comments4 people in discussion
Replacement character
Hello, on my wiki, I wanted to change "," in this line with "٬", but a question mark will appeared instead. For testing, please use {{wikidata|property|normal+|Q55|P1082}} which produces "17,942,942". According to Specials (Unicode block), U+FFFD�REPLACEMENT CHARACTER used to replace an unknown, unrecognized, or unrepresentable character". I think if it was a variable, I could handle it, but it is not. Thank you in advance! ⇒ AramTalk13:06, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
At line 111 that module uses string.reverse(). The problem is that '٬' is a two-byte unicode character and string.reverse() operates on bytes so the two bytes that make up that character get byte-wise swapped which results in an unknown character. Unfortunately (and surprisingly) there isn't an mw.ustring.reverse() function. Perhaps as a workaround you might replace ',' with '٬' after the string has been reversed. This, I think, will require a rewrite of some or all of the reversing code. The author couldn't be bothered to document that code so why it was written as it was written is unclear. Shame, that...
Reversing a Unicode string is trickier than you think, since it would have to take into account combining characters, and maybe ties, bidi characters, and so on. When I looked into it back in 2015 it seemed it would have required an additional large data table to be able to properly handle all that, which didn't seem worthwhile. As for what's going on there, it looks like it's expecting a string-encoded number as input which it then reverses to group by thousands. It could probably be written (maybe less efficiently) without reversing at all. Anomie⚔03:23, 11 January 2023 (UTC)
@BentSm: Thanks, that was a good solution too, but in this case we also need to replace the decimal separators. Anyway, you gave me a solution for future issues. :) ⇒ AramTalk12:25, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
Adding text to the beginning of a page using JavaScript Wiki Browser
Latest comment: 1 year ago5 comments4 people in discussion
The default setup for JWB always adds new text to the end of the page. I mainly use it for short descriptions, so this sometimes results in unknowingly adding a duplicate short description. Is there any way to add text to the beginning instead? Partofthemachine (talk) 00:57, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
@Partofthemachine, or you could replace ^ with whatever you want to add to the beginning (^ is an anchor character meaning the start of a string). I.e. ^ → {{Short description|Write your short description here}}\n — Qwerfjkltalk07:12, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
Yes: ^ is what I replace when adding short descriptions; it feels more efficient than slurping (.*). You can use the Skip tab to skip pages which already contain "{{short description|" (or a regex that admits spaces, uppercase S, etc.) Don't forget to remove the hidden Skip criterion before doing something else, or you may get frustrated when your next task skips half its pages! (Been there.) Certes (talk) 12:06, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
Also, as I expect you know, some templates such as infoboxes generate short descriptions automatically without needing an explicit "{{short description|..." in the article's wikitext. If you generate your lists with Cirrus search, adding -incategory:"Articles with short description" should exclude them without needing a Skip entry. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Certes (talk • contribs) 12:28, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
Search not working when 120% Zoomed in
Latest comment: 1 year ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Not sure whether to make Phab ticket or report here. I am using the 2022 Modern Vector skin on Firefox browser. When Zoomed in at 110%, 130% the Search icon works, but right at 120% it is not working properly. Perhaps doesn't matter, but I Zoomed in to reduce eyestrain. ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 14:09, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
"not working" what does that mean. What do you see, what do you expect, what is it not doing. Screenshots would be handy perhaps. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 14:14, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
Highlighting, limit turned off?
Latest comment: 1 year ago19 comments5 people in discussion
In the past, when I have gone onto pages with complicated highlighting, the highlighting has often gone something like "Can't do highlighting in X ms, stopped trying". However now, I think I have been running into problems where it just doesn't stop. I can edit some articles, but ones like Chi Upsilon Sigma that would require compliated highlighting have frozen and in many cases crashed by browser. I turned off the replacement highlighting in preferences, but that doesn't appear to make a difference. Is there any way to either restore the limit for how long it will work on highlighting or turn it completely off? I'm working on chrome, but I've seen the same effects on other browsers, but Firefox seems just fine. Any suggestions on getting things working other than changing browsers to FF? Naraht (talk) 21:00, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
I have to turn it off because I have a habit of having multiple edit pages open at the same time, which can cause my browser to freeze. It started happening to me a few weeks ago, it is a real shame since I found the feature useful. But I don't find freezing my browser regularly that useful. Terasail[✉️]16:52, 11 January 2023 (UTC)
Terasail How do I turn it completely off? I'm currently using FF on pages that are having large amount of syntax highlighting, but would like to go back to Chrome.Naraht (talk) 14:47, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
xaosflux no change to the light grey highlighting when I click the highlighter icon above (the one to the immediate right of the puzzle piece) Note, it isn't really working that well anyway. Everything in this section that is indented with colons is highlighted, which I don't think it is desired.Naraht (talk) 15:14, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
xaosflux EDITING mode (reading mode has never been a problem). I had the gadget-based highlighter set on until about a week ago until I started trying to diagnose this, but it has been turned off since, and I'm still have the problem.Naraht (talk) 15:34, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
Xaosflux In safe mode it does not show the highlighting. I'm *not* using the Visual Editor (I've used it a bit over the previous months, it is useful for a few things, but I'm using source editor entirely now). Skin is the Vector Legacy.Naraht (talk) 20:25, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
Xaosflux I only get that about 10%(?) of the time, most of the time I only get the two rows of icons, is there any way to force that to appear?Naraht (talk) 15:31, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
Xaosflux I've commented out everything in all 7 files and I'm still only getting the two rows of icons. (and I tested on a file in my sandbox (with reload and reload while holding down each of the "shift type" keys respecitively) Is a brand new user supposed to get the part that says advanced or do I need to click on something in the two rows of icons to see it? Also, I had "Enable the legacy (2006) editing toolbar." turned on.Naraht (talk) 15:51, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
I was trying to use the image with the highlighter to turn it off, but the image in the small box of icons on the right (orangish shape with lines through it appears to turn it on and off. While that will turn things off, it still doesn't help with the overriding issue , but if I'm concerned on a file, I'll quickly edit something small to turn it off. (This at least helps with *that* part) (and if you'd like to move this conversation to my talk page, I'm fine with that. Also, do you know what I set that vies me the double link of icons above the edit window rather than the single line that starts out B I ? I'd like to have *both* things above, since the "B I" has access to special characters and the double line of icons has find/replace.Naraht (talk) 16:05, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
OK. So I can turn the highlighter off, and I guess that takes care of things *for now*. I do still wonder how to get both of the choices above the edit window as I mentioned just above. I'll periodically check to see if they have the highlight fixed, but I guess it isn't as serious as before since I can do that before I access complicated scripts.Naraht (talk) 18:45, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
I experience no such problem. Can you try in private mode (logged out), and report the Chrome version you are using ? (I'm using 108.0.5359.124 ) —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 20:47, 11 January 2023 (UTC)
Removal of hlist from global styles
Latest comment: 1 year ago5 comments4 people in discussion
I was away for a week and now I notice that gallery mode="slideshow" is broken. See, for example, 117th United States Congress#Party summary. Same issue for 118th Congress page as well. The gallery syntax of the articles has never been changed, so it must be happening due to something else in the background. Does anyone know what went wrong, and what can be done to fix it? Thanks! —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})21:21, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
@CX Zoom: It appears to only fail when both slideshow and caption are used. Simplified example:
I tried doing that, see Special:Diff/1133460411#Party summary, and while the resultant is better than current situation, it continues to be buggy relative to its prior behaviour. For one, the first image is huge and all others are the older size, even though they are all the equally sized svgs. A few moments ago, there appeared a vertical scrollbar for no reason. I haven't seen it before. —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})22:43, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
I saw this and checked the gallery I use on WP:ERT and it is also beyond broken with overflow. Its just as broken on test2 so it isn't just an enwiki issue... Terasail[✉️]23:19, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
Cannot find interlanguage for links for Categories
Latest comment: 1 year ago5 comments5 people in discussion
@Jona This is a bug that seems to affect the language selection button on non-article (category, template, project...) pages on wikis using the Vector 2022 style - so English works OK but French is broken, German works OK but Danish is broken, etc. It was reported as phab:T326788; there has been a patch put out and so hopefully it should be fixed soon. Andrew Gray (talk) 18:31, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
Wikidata interlanguage linked templates not working
There are 3 other language equivalent templates linked with Template:Diplomatic missions of Norway on Wikidata, but from en Wikipedia I get an error when selecting the language menu on top right (Vector skin 2020) Page contents not supported in other languages.. Any idea why? ~ 🦝 Shushugah (he/him • talk) 02:52, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
This is from a decision to make language switching unavailable for anything other than article space. See the phab ticket for more info. Terasail[✉️]02:58, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago4 comments4 people in discussion
Projectspace categories like Category:Lists based on Wikidata, Category:CSS image crop using invalid parameters or Category:Chem-molar-mass both hardcoded and calculated are automatically generated by maintenance templates, meaning that they're impossible to empty of draft or userspace pages that are using those maintenance templates -- so to avoid the database reports for categories with draft or userspace pages in them becoming cluttered up with permanent kludge that was impossible to resolve, Wikipedia has long had the {{polluted category}} template to flag certain categories as not of concern to category cleanup projects so that they would not get detected or listed by the cleanup reports.
However, something seems to have happened, and some categories that are tagged as "polluted category" are getting detected and listed at Wikipedia:Database reports/Polluted categories (2)despite the tag. All three of the categories I listed above, for example, are tagged as "polluted" categories, yet are listed in the current run. Could somebody investigate why this is happening, and apply whatever fixes are necessary to get these categories out of the way? Thanks. Bearcat (talk) 03:25, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
Since yesterday, section edit links in mobile web has disappeared from File namespace. Issue exists even when logged out and tried in Opera and Chrome browser Android 10 OS smartphone. I did not find this problem in other namespaces and in desktop view. The only edit button visible is the one at the top of page, which for most part is useless since it only opens the "lead section" which will be empty for most files. This has made editing file pages impossible in mobile web. The button is visible in commons and other language Wikipedias, so this seems to be something specific to English Wikipedia. ಮಲ್ನಾಡಾಚ್ ಕೊಂಕ್ಣೊ (talk) 06:47, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
@ಮಲ್ನಾಡಾಚ್ ಕೊಂಕ್ಣೊ: When you click the edit button at top, the end of url contains #/editor/0. Change that to #/editor/all. This will open the entire page in editing views. A long process for a much smaller task, but until fixed, this is the workaround. —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})08:22, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago4 comments4 people in discussion
In all my years of editing Wikipedia, I am still not sure how to produce tables. I have been to the help pages for table construction, and that says that to produce a table, one needs to go to the Edit toolbar and select "Insert Table". This does say that this is available on Google Chrome, the search engine that got me here, but I am not sure where the Edit toolbar is. Would someone like to explain to me where one can find it? Many thanks in advance for any help. YTKJ (talk) 18:13, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
@YTKJ: We have several help pages mentioning tables and several toolbars. Please link pages you refer to. See Help:Table for general help about making tables in the source editor. In the desktop version of the site, the default toolbar for the source editor is right above the edit area and has an "Advanced" option. You can click it and then a table icon to the right to insert a table. You can also copy an existing table and modify it, or write the table code from scratch. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:44, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
There's a button on the far side of the toolbars that looks like a pencil, and that will let you switch back and forth between wikitext and visual editing (unless you've disabled that in your prefs). Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 20:47, 16 January 2023 (UTC)
Tech News: 2023-03
Latest comment: 1 year ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Problems
The URLs in "prev" links on page history now contain diff=prev&oldid=[revision ID] in place of diff=[revision ID]&oldid=[revision ID]. This is to fix a problem with links pointing to incorrect diffs when history was filtered by a tag. Some user scripts may break as a result of this change. [29]
Changes later this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 17 January. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 18 January. It will be on all wikis from 19 January (calendar).
Some changes to the appearance of talk pages have only been available on Talk: and User talk: namespaces. These will be extended to other talk namespaces, such as Wikipedia talk:. They will continue to be unavailable in non-talk namespaces, including Wikipedia: pages (e.g., at the Village Pump). You can change your preferences (beta feature). [30]
On Wikisources, when an image is zoomed or panned in the Page: namespace, the same zoom and pan settings will be remembered for all Page: namespace pages that are linked to a particular Index: namespace page. [31]
The Vector 2022 skin will become the default for the English Wikipedia desktop users. The change will take place on January 18 at 15:00 UTC. Learn more.
Future changes
The 2023 edition of the Community Wishlist Survey, which invites contributors to make technical proposals and vote for tools and improvements, starts next week on 23 January 2023 at 18:00 UTC. You can start drafting your proposals in the CWS sandbox.
Broken WikiProject banner when viewing as wiki page
WikiProject banners visible in preview window
The above screenshots are taken from page Talk:Sharad Yadav in mobile web view, Opera browser, Android 10 OS. There are two WikiProject banners between {{Talk header}} and {{ITN talk}}. They are broken when viewing it as a normal wiki page and appear as two thick lines. However they render fine in the preview window. It is strange that we have software that works fine in preview but is broken in the actual page. I know there was some work on talk page banners recently before which they were completely hidden in mobile web, can something be done to fix this? ಮಲ್ನಾಡಾಚ್ ಕೊಂಕ್ಣೊ (talk) 04:39, 16 January 2023 (UTC)
Thanks for the bug report, this is interesting. The issue also happens on other pages with other templates (e.g. Talk:Search coil magnetometer is another example).
I tracked down this behavior to the code that displays the "About this page" section on mobile. It (unintentionally I think) also removes some content from the "Read as wiki page" view. This happens in the code here: [32]. That's definitely a bug. I filed phab:T327047 about this.
However, that code hasn't changed in a couple of months, and I am pretty sure the templates displayed correctly before. I suspect some recent change in the templates broke some assumptions in the mobile code.
There was recent work on talk page banners, but those changes are not enabled on English Wikipedia yet. I am hoping we'll do that within a few weeks (I'm one of the developers). You can preview how the page will appear after these changes here: [33] – it doesn't suffer from this issue. Matma Rextalk06:14, 16 January 2023 (UTC)
I've noticed that since my article on Émile Reutlinger, some of the article's I have created have not been showing up in seach results (unless you type in its exact name). This also applies to the articles for Johann Eustach von Westernach, Johann Kaspar von Stadion, and Death and funeral of Pope Benedict XVI. All of them are articles that I have made that fail to appear in search results even when linking to them in other articles. There doesn't seem to be an corelary between any of them, besides that I made them and all of them, with the exception of the article on Johann Eustach von Westernach, had the under construction template on them. Is this a known issue and what can I do to combat this? Knightoftheswords281 (talk) 00:26, 3 January 2023 (UTC)
I think this is a bigger issue than just your articles. Articles that I've created after the first week in December don't show up in search results via autocomplete, until I type the complete name. – Muboshgu (talk) 20:35, 15 January 2023 (UTC)
The internal search provider. From my experience, if you type out the full name of the article, it will appear below the search bar, however, if you even subtract or add a character, said article disappears from the search bar. Knightoftheswords281 (talk) 21:51, 15 January 2023 (UTC)
In the past, I've seen a delay for even autopatrolled articles to appear in the search bar, but it seems to be much longer now - Macks Creek Law was created in December, and Steele's Greenville expedition at the very beginning of this month, and neither is showing up for me in the autocomplete, and both would have been autopatrolled. Hog FarmTalk22:05, 15 January 2023 (UTC)
@Xaosflux: If I type the exact title into the search bar it finds it and search otherwise works as expected, but the article does not appear in the suggestions below the search box unless I type the exact title perfectly. HJ Mitchell | Penny for your thoughts?19:14, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
Here's a trivial, but mysterious problem. Yesterday, with no warning, my desktop computer and 34-inch monitor decreased the size of the print on the display of all wikipedia pages from approximately 14 point print to 10 point. All other webpages remained unchanged. On my second computer, the size of the print displayed also remained unchanged. So, given that this sudden change occurred on only one computer and only on wikipedia, what do you think the problem is? My old and tired eyes don't like small print. How do I increase the size of the display of print for wikipedia pages? Smallchief (talk) 13:35, 18 January 2023 (UTC)
@Smallchief: I guess you accidentally changed zoom in your browser and the browser treats it as your preference for the website you were on at the time. In most Windows browsers: Ctrl++ for larger, Ctrl+- for smaller, Ctrl+0 for default size. Holding Ctrl while scrolling your mouse wheel may also change size and is easier to do by accident. If this doesn't help then name your browser. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:52, 18 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago5 comments3 people in discussion
Hi, is there a way to reset my preferences to factory defaults across all projects without having to go into every project manually? Thanks, Interstellarity (talk) 12:33, 18 January 2023 (UTC)
@Interstellarity to answer your question, no - you would have to click reset on each project. You can get a list of all the projects you are attached to here: Special:CentralAuth/Interstellarity. You may not have ever changed preferences at some of the projects you never edited on, so you may only need to look at the ones with edits (you can sort that output). — xaosfluxTalk14:34, 18 January 2023 (UTC)
Hello! So I helped out User:Moops by adding the archive bot to their talk page, however for whatever reason the archive box isn't appearing on their talk apge. Any idea what coudl be causing this? ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#654516:31, 18 January 2023 (UTC)
@Blaze Wolf That is only for clue bot, you are using lowecasesigma bot in this case. Also you set up the bot with a counter of 8, so I moved the archive from /Archive 8 to /Archive 1 Terasail[✉️]16:39, 18 January 2023 (UTC)
Hey @Doug Weller, thanks for reporting this. Could you add &safemode=1 to the URL in the editing mode, and write back if you still see this issue? For me, Safari on iPad works fine but I see we're using different gadgets. SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 21:36, 16 January 2023 (UTC)
iOS 15.6 is supported at both Modern and Basic levels in mw:Compatibility#Browser support matrix. At a minimum, it shouldn't look like that, so if it's still an issue in safe mode, it's something for WMF to look into. :) I'd have guessed it was display: grid that was the issue, but that looks more or less supported since iOS 10.3, so it is apparently Something Else. Izno (talk) 02:20, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
@Jdlrobson I’m hoping that was the problem as things seem to be working, although something weird happened today with just error messages but I’m guessing that was Wikipedia. Doug Wellertalk20:05, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
You said it wasn't an issue with safe mode. You will need to troubleshoot the scripts and CSS you have. You can either disable/remove everything out of your CSS/JS and then re-add this content until the issue resurfaces, or do a binary search with the same process, where you do half, and if it's not in that half it's in the other half, etc. Izno (talk) 21:56, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
I worded that badly perhaps. Sometimes safemode works, but then sometimes it works without safemode. But it's not a change caused by anything I did, so I think I'll wait a bit to see if it goes away with some other change. Binary search sounds a great idea if I decide to go that way. Thanks for that. Doug Wellertalk09:13, 18 January 2023 (UTC)
Does it work reliably when safe mode is activated? If so and it sometimes works without safe mode, then it sounds like there is one or more race conditions with some of your customizations that causes the problem to manifest some of the time without safe mode. isaacl (talk) 17:22, 18 January 2023 (UTC)
References appear wrongly
Latest comment: 1 year ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Resolved
– Page wikitext updated
Screenshot of Wikipedia at 06:35:22 UTC on 19 January 2023
I went ahead and made a few changes so that the references appear at the bottom (full width of the page). I had a look in old vector and the page formatting wasn't much better there either so it was more of a formatting issue than a skin issue. Terasail[✉️]07:17, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
My search has suddenly become case-sensitive; no longer sends me to an article title with different capitalization.
Latest comment: 1 year ago5 comments3 people in discussion
I don't know what I changed, but suddenly all my searches are case-sensitive. (See: WP:Case sensitivity: they shouldn't be, and they also weren't earlier). This also happens to me while I'm signed out. BhamBoi (talk) 23:52, 18 January 2023 (UTC)
Okay so, it works now. The rattles always stop when you go to the mechanic, I guess. (I hope I wasn't just crazy...) BhamBoi (talk) 00:17, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago5 comments4 people in discussion
I noticed that User:UBX has interlanguage links. Is there a way to add these on other users such as me? I couldn't find wikidata entries for users Aaron Liu (talk) 02:33, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
That means adding [[zh:User:Aaron Liu]] to User:Aaron Liu, and also adding [[en:User:Aaron Liu]] to zh:User:Aaron Liu if you want a link the other way. If you want n wikis to link eachother then all n must add n−1 links to the others. Wikidata isn't always popular but it was good to get rid of that system for articles. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:47, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago2 comments2 people in discussion
I'm trying to edit a copy of {{Bilateral relations}} to make a box that shows the context for international agreements. I'd like to make the table include previous and subsequent treaties, year of establishment of relations, and etc., but I'm having trouble with my code. Would someone be able to look at it and tell me where I went wrong?
I have tidied up the template code and the example in the documentation. The pages still contain a lot of leftover documentation and examples that do not match the parameters that are actually used in your template code. Ask me for more help on my talk page if you need it. – Jonesey95 (talk) 21:32, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
Talk page not created but has message
Latest comment: 1 year ago10 comments5 people in discussion
Somehow I got signed out (on private browsing) but when I click on "Talk" it has a "Welcome to this talk page" message. I never saw that before. I don't even remember what happened when I was signed out when I went to that page, but with any other talk page that has not been created, when signed in, I am told to create it.
And this is probably for one of the above topics: I got to the talk page from an article I already saw in private browsing when signed out. When I went to a new article, I didn't even get a link to "Talk".— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 00:15, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
Actually, I don't have to do that. When signed in, if I copy the URL of the talk page for my IP, I see
No messages have been posted for this user yet.
Post a message to <redacted>.
Other reasons this message may be displayed:
If a page was recently created here, it may not be visible yet because of a delay in updating the database; wait a few minutes or try the purge function.
Titles on Wikipedia are case sensitive except for the first character; please check alternative capitalizations and consider adding a redirect here to the correct title.
If the page has been deleted, check the deletion log, and see Why was the page I created deleted?.
If I'm not signed in I see:
User talk:<redacted>
User page Talk Create Add topic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Welcome to this talk page
People on Wikipedia can use this talk page to post a public message about edits made from the IP address you are currently using.
Many IP addresses change periodically, and are often shared by several people. You may create an account or log in to avoid future confusion with other logged out users. Creating an account also hides your IP address.
Technically, the page doesn't exist. It's just something displayed by the software, the same way that if you visit a redlinked article you'll see the software displaying a big box that begins with "Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name." Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 20:50, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
@Vchimpanzee you never gave the page example that I asked for above. It is possible that the default shown to logged in users differs from whatever preferences you are personally opted in to or out of when logged in. — xaosfluxTalk22:05, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago10 comments6 people in discussion
I have the article assessment class displayed at the top of articles. The class is now being preceded by "undefinedA" (actually "undefined" with "A" appended to it). Has someone had an accident with a template, module or some other bit of code? Nurg (talk) 01:16, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
@Nurg Is this with the XTools gadget or Metadata gadget or something else, and do you have a link to the page that is showing this error? Terasail[✉️]01:22, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
Erroneous addition of empty ref tags in many recent edits
Latest comment: 1 year ago4 comments3 people in discussion
I've been patrolling through some recent changes lately, and one trend I have noticed is that more often than not, there are constructive (or rather, good faith looking) edits that seem to add some random empty <ref> tag somewhere in the article.
The addition of empty reg tags causes the "extraneous markup" edit filter to be tripped.
I feel like this is an issue that only recently has started occurring a lot. I don't think I've seen it happen a week ago before.
I'm seeing it from a wide variety of IP and account user editors.
Do those edits have something in common, like what interface/app (mobile web, Android app, visual editor...) they're made through? Nardog (talk) 09:02, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
Well, I have wasted a lot of time collecting diffs and shortening their links, only to realise the vast majority of these incidents seem to be coming from users who don't know how to make a reference or how the system works (as there's a ref tag button on the source editor that inserts opening and closing tag without content in it in an article). I have also been seeing a lot of "Bold text" and "Italic text" (exactly as written here) randomly in recent edits as well, but I also realised those come from when you click the bold or italic buttons (in source editor) without selecting some text first.
Anyways, still though, here are three interesting diffs: 1, 2, 3
I look at them, and they make me think, hmm, how did these empty ref tags pop up out of nowhere? It kind of made me think it's a software fault for quite a while, made me think nearly all the other incidents were caused by this.
Side note, I think it might be good to just remove that confusing ref tag insertion button entirely instead. There's already a "Cite" menu at the top of the editing window with properly and automatically formatted templates you can choose from.
This sort of thing has been happening forever. Here's a search for "Italic text" wrapped in markup. Some of them are legitimate parts of table legends, but many are caused by a slip of the finger on a toolbar button. – Jonesey95 (talk) 14:26, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
Scripts that add additional buttons to the header no longer work
Latest comment: 1 year ago5 comments5 people in discussion
Resolved
– This is expected; if a userscript doesn't work with a specific skin please contact the script owner. The specific one brought up here was resolved by the script owner. — xaosfluxTalk14:36, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
Scripts like User:DannyS712/errors.js, which adds an "Errors" button alongside "Talk" and "Main Page" at the top of Main Page, don't seem to render properly with Vector 2022. Currently, "Errors" just becomes a normal hyperlink wedged underneath the native buttons but above the black line that indicates the top of the article. Anarchyte (talk) 08:03, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago4 comments3 people in discussion
In Vector22, at the top of the watchlist, you now have four menu items, with the rightmost one being "clear the watchlist". I presume this simply removes all entries from your watchlist? This option isn't mentioned at Help:Watchlist. Please, please, can someone confirm that there is some "are you very very sure" intermediate screen when one clicks this? It seems like a terrible thing to have so prominent anyway, but it would be rather disastrous if it worked instantaneously. (Oh, and I get a timeout when I try "View and edit watchlist", not good...). By the way, the "help" button at the right of Watchlist doesn't take you to "Help:Watchlist", a bit weird that, but that's the same in the good Vector. Fram (talk) 09:51, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
Yes, there is an interstitial "Are you really sure?". This link has also been present at Special:EditWatchlist for some time.
Not actually a Vector 22-specific change surprisingly, it also applies in Minerva and was done firstly to enable advanced mobile editing. See phab:T316818 for discussion.
The timeout is common for large watchlists and there's a batch of other tasks hanging out about how to resolve that longterm if you want to go Phabricator diving (you probably don't).
Thanks. A very rarely needed option which doesn't belong there but in some dropdown probably, but at least it has the safety built-in. And no, I try to stay away from phabricator at all costs, a toxic environment if ever I saw one (the treatment of non-incrowd members is terrible). Fram (talk) 10:25, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
For what it's worth the non-javascript watchlist in monobook and vector also has these links, when the javascript watchlist was rolled out they were put behind the edit button; as there is a confirm prompt required to clear the watchlist I don't think we need to do anything now. @Fram: I added some documentation to Help:Watchlist#Clearing the watchlist. If your watchlist is very large, I suggest you try to trim it using the /raw mode; load that - copy everything to a local file, sort, trim, paste back in to replace everything in there. (Note - there is no server history accessible for watchlists, so any changes you commit can not be undone). Anything else you need on this? — xaosfluxTalk15:31, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
See also section
Latest comment: 1 year ago3 comments2 people in discussion
Guys is it just me? After the recent changes on how WP appears, I feel that letters at see also section appear a little blur. I dont know why. Do you get the same feeling? Thanks, (pls ping). Cinadon3616:01, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
@Cinadon36 It may be that you're feeling this because the text in the new skin doesn't use subpixel rendering (if you're using Chrome or a related browser, and have unhidden the table of contents), an issue I filed yesterday as T327460. This affects the whole page, though. Or it may be just a feeling. Matma Rextalk16:35, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
What's this? A post on this page that's not about Vector 2022? Sorry to break up the party, but I'd like to propose that the edit filter log should be able to show log entries for an IP range. Currently it seems to only work on individual IPs, which hinders abuse investigations involving an IPv6 /64 range (which is normally one end-user but could be something like 18 quintillion individual addresses). Maybe this is already possible and I'm just missing it? Ivanvector (Talk/Edits) 18:28, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
I don't know, line breaks in wikitext work in mysterious ways. I just checked and it behaves the same with the version of the template before our changes, so at least it's not my fault. Matma Rextalk18:40, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
Apparently there's a new tag for "Mass pronoun changes" which I saw on this edit. I'm curious, when was this tag implemented (or has it been aroudn for a while and I"ve just never seen it until now) ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#654519:50, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
Ah. It would appear I haven't seen it until now because the threshold was only recently lowered to 5 pronoun changes. Oh well, thanks anyway! ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#654520:00, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
Infobox generating strange text string which doesn't belong
Latest comment: 1 year ago5 comments3 people in discussion
Hello! On Prince Mateen of Brunei at the top of the article there's a string of text that reads "Sports career" and I have no clue why it's there. Going into the visual editor tells me it's being created by the infobox, however I'm not seeing anything in the infobox that should be creating this. Anyone know what's going on here? ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#654520:51, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
The sportsperson infobox had not been properly embedded into the main infobox. I should have fixed it now.Tvx1 21:10, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
Sweet! Thanks Tvx! Dunno why it not being properly embedded would jsut cause that text string to appear but at least it's fixed now. ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#654521:12, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
Log out
Latest comment: 1 year ago23 comments9 people in discussion
Right now, if you happen to click "log out", it does just that. It was also like that quite some time ago (not sure when), when I came here (I believe) to ask about a delay of some sort. I was given a solution that made it so when you clicked on "log out", a small pop-up would appear asking: "confirm you want to log out" (or something like that). It was just what I was looking for and it worked well. But I noticed today that it no longer seems to be working. I inadvertantly clicked "log out" and was immediatetly booted out. Did something change? Is it possible to still have this... fix, in place? If so, pleaae let me know what I need to do. Thank you - wolf07:07, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
Nah as a screen reader user, I prefer the prompt type that WK's script uses. A screen reader doesn't automatically focus on the confirmation prompt in the script by @Guywan:; there may well be ways to fix that on the JavaScript end but I don't know what they might be. Graham8710:25, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
Thanks for the replies so far guys. I'll keep an eye on this thread to see if a solution comes along. Cheers - wolf10:30, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
I expect there will be a lot of issues like this moving forward with Vector 2022, and updates will be needed. I'll be looking at my own; I'm always looking at my own; updating code is a constant and often tiresome need. Can we have a show of hands for folks in this thread currently using Vector 2022? Fred Gandt · talk · contribs15:00, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
I can confirm (no pun intended) that my script is working as expected with both the Vector legacy and 2022 skins. Mine works by literally replacing the html element containing the "log out" link rather than trying to change the original's behaviour and that's what it's doing. Clicking the default link should take the user to a confirmation page anyway (something that didn't happen when I built the script back in the dark ages), so users should never get booted out by an accidental click even if they're not using one of these scripts. All that previously striked-through is rubbish. Fred Gandt · talk · contribs15:19, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
Seems I'm using the same skin and the same script, but it stopped working for me. 🤷 Don't know what to say. (Except that I do appreciate you writing that script in the first place, as well as the help it provided me for the last couple years. Thank you for that). Other than that, I hope a fix comes along soon. Cheers - wolf15:55, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
I just rewrote the script to use the default confirmation of Special:UserLogout. By default, Wikipedia has code in place to ignore the normal confirmation process and blast users straight out the door with a hardly noticeable wave. The way I solved this problem was to completely scrap the bizarre code by replacing the log out link, then offer the "Are you sure?" confirmation. I just removed the need for the confirmation since it's already built into the default interface thus removing a step for users who actually want to log out. You should see, with my script active, when clicking the log out link, that you land on Special:UserLogout and are asked to confirm. If you don't want to log out, just go back a page in your browser history and it's like it never happened; if you want to log out, hit the big blue button and you're gone. Fred Gandt · talk · contribs16:09, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
@Thewolfchild: you may not be aware that user scripts are not loaded on user preference pages and as such, any user script (including these log out jammers) will not function on those pages. Please confirm if User:Fred Gandt/confirmLogout.js is not functioning as described in my previous comment on non Special:Preferences pages. Cheers Fred Gandt · talk · contribs16:27, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
When I first got booted out, I was on an article page. But anyway, I just clicked "log out" from my talk page and it worked just as you described. Thank you Fred, it's appreciated. Cheers - wolf16:46, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
In re logging yourself out: One of the things I'm liking about Vector 2022 is that the logout button is hidden in a dropdown menu. I have not ever (yet?) accidentally logged myself out while using that skin. Usually, for me, it happens when I'm clicking on Special:MyContributions just as the UTC clock gadget loads, but this isn't a problem in the new design. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 20:53, 16 January 2023 (UTC)
I use a completely different method. I remove the logout link entirely (add #p-personal li#pt-logout {display: none;} to your common.css). Then, if you want to logout, you can go to your preferences and use the link there. (What I actually do is add a logout link to my toolbox. I used to frequently accidentally logout when the link was in the default location, but in many years, I've never done so from my toolbox link. And there's a confirmation dialog if I ever do misclick.) MANdARAX • XAЯAbИAM17:14, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
For anyone interested in having a logout link in their toolbox, add the following to your common.js. For more info on adding links, see Help:Customizing toolbars.
mw.util.addPortletLink('p-tb',mw.config.get('wgScript')+'?title=Special:UserLogout&returnto='+mw.config.get('wgPageName'),'Logout'// text to display in toolbox);
@Graham87 et al.: Sorry, I've known that my logout confirm script hasn't been working for a while, but just haven't gotten around to look into it. It should be fixed now! Writ Keeper⚇♔17:23, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
I guess I'm a little late to this conversation. Do I understand that, currently, a 2-click logout is a feature, not a bug? I don't recall experiencing this on any other website I've ever been to. Strongly recommend 1-click logout as default, and, if there is a demand for it, 2-click logout as a preferences option. Cheers. Phil wink (talk) 19:40, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
This initial issue was that the "log out" link, as default, was at the top corner every page, and if you happen to click it accidentally, you were immediately logged out, unsaved work was lost and you also had to go through the hassle of logging back in. It seems many users found this to be sub-optimal, and created scripts to help. Some of these scripts created a pop-up asking for confirmation of the log out, others moved the "log out" link to a different location.
So, problem solved... until the new skin vector was released, causing issues with these scripts. Then, (eg; in my case) people found themselves again being accidentally logged out with no confirmation pop-up to prevent it. This issue has, (at least in my case), been resolved as the script is now working again. To my understanding, the default remains the same as you recommend, but many users don't like or want it that way. - wolf20:04, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
That's not my experience, if I'm understanding you correctly. I've never had, nor wanted, any pop-up or warning, but now in the new Vector skin, when I log out, I'm taken to a page where I'm forced to click an additional "submit" button to log out. This must be the new default currently, as I have almost no special settings anywhere, and wouldn't know how to add such a script. So really (for clarity) I'm currently experiencing a 3-click logout: 1 click to find the log out, a 2nd click to choose the log out, and a 3rd click to confirm the log out. Too many for my taste. Cheers. Phil wink (talk) 21:12, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
Don't know what to tell ya... you probably need one of the editors here that is familiar with this coding to help you out. Good luck - wolf21:28, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
ConfigException
Latest comment: 1 year ago26 comments17 people in discussion
Within the last hour, both of the browsers on which I'm logged in (as User:Naraht) (Chrome & FF) are giving errors that look like
MediaWiki internal error.
Original exception: [bde13a11-c59e-4e46-8642-640488f9c898] 2023-01-17 18:35:14: Fatal exception of type "ConfigException"
Exception caught inside exception handler.
Set $wgShowExceptionDetails = true; at the bottom of LocalSettings.php to show detailed debugging information.
.
It isn't doing it on my Edge browser, but I'm not logged in there. I can't even get to the button on Chrome and FF to log out, so I'm guessing it is logged in vs. logged out, but I'm not sure.161.107.18.136 (talk) 18:44, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
I tried it incognito, same deal. Not sure what's causing it. Not sure why wikimediastatus.net insists we're still fully up, despite there being 2600 errors per second in the last few minutes. But as we can see it seems to be fixed now? --Golbez (talk) 18:45, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
I can confirm this was happening to me until just a minute ago, I could view special pages, lists of deleted revisions, and article histories, but couldn't view pages in any namespaces. I'm on Safari for iPhone. The Blade of the Northern Lights (話して下さい) 18:45, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
I'm having this smae issue. The "original exception" seems to change with each reload. Did the hamsters get tired for a moment?[Joke] ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#654518:46, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
I have changed my preferences to the new vector skin and it is working just fine in Firefox after getting that bug page before. Daniel Case (talk) 18:47, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
(ec) Have been having same problem both on desktop and mobile, and have confirmation from other users (off wiki communication) that they are also having it . Seems to be resolved atm. DuncanHill (talk) 18:48, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
Same, I was getting it intermittently for the last ~10 minutes. If I refresh a few times I get the page to load successfully. Firefox. Just tried refreshing a few pages 10 times to recapitulate the issue, but now it seems to be working for me all the time. Ajpolino (talk) 18:46, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
I mean.. people can fake DownDetector as evidenced when Elon Musk took over Twitter and the reports there went up even tho Twitter was just fine. ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#654518:56, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
if this was geared towards the many vandals on Wikipedia, then we could just have a long awaited break from rvv's. This seemed to last ~5 mins, as i was refreshing the page. The error msg's original exception would change each reload. Wesoree (Talk) 19:23, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
Apologies to all the affected people. There is an explanation at phab:T327196#8532474. Basically, the Editing team deployed two related changes, and the servers didn't process them in the logical order. The length of time that this was visible depended on which server you were reaching. It appears to all be fixed now. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 21:03, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
Does this new skin fix the issue with Wikipedia crashing Chromium based browsers, by eating up all memory and crashing the browser, or even the OS? -- 64.229.90.199 (talk) 06:00, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
Except that this issue only affects Wikipedia and not other websites (as reported by several other users over various VP forums over several years now). Therefore there is something in the coding of Wikipedia that is breaking Chromium-based browsers (ie. the majority of browsers in use), by triggering some bug in Chromium. So there should be something that can be done to fix the issue (like many other website workarounds over the years that go to fix other browser specific issues; ie. different code triggered for NS/IE/basic etc) -- 64.229.90.199 (talk) 21:44, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
WMF would need a lot more information to even start attempting to debug that experience. If you want to discuss directly with them and have either sufficient experience or sufficient patience to walk them through what's happening in your console, phab: is the appropriate place to discuss.
And triggering bugs in browsers really isn't the concern of designers these days, unless what they're shooting for is a consistent appearance/behavior (and even then, the browsers have been fixing compatibility differences with focused efforts these past few years). "Memory leaking" isn't in that set. Izno (talk) 22:28, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
I believe this problem is documented in Phab T205127. I looked into this some time ago, both on Phab and at Google, and the situation was a standoff, with each pointing fingers at the other, since "It only occurs with Wikipedia" and "It only occurs with Chrome". - R. S. Shaw (talk) 02:31, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
Feedback request for labeled section transclusion issue
Latest comment: 1 year ago2 comments1 person in discussion
Latest comment: 1 year ago3 comments3 people in discussion
Since three days ago, the pages become bigger than before – I guess it's the font-text is bigger. This makes the infobox is wider than before, so the text gets longer. Even longer, the pics inside a section no longer fit where they are supposed to fit. How can I get it smaller, like before. Also sections, before they were in a special place (?? TOC), then they became just another section after the lede. Now they have disappeared.
I worked 35 years as a computer programmer and systems analyst. Always we tried out changes before making then live. Maybe they should doing again like before.
BTW I see that familysearch.org is setting out a new way of showing items. They do everything without asking, because they are adults and we are only children. It would be OK except the underlying data was set up badly 15 or so years ago. For instance approximately half have women with the husbands' name, not their own. And dates are wrong - for instance United Kingdom started in 1801, so before that, dates are wrong. Ditto USA with states joining in USA in different dates depending which state. Ditto Canada from about 1850. Much better to fix the underlying data rather changing the colour.
If this is about the skin change, you can always change it to an older one at Preferences → Appearance → Skins. If you think the font is bigger, you can reduce it through your browser (usually by pressing Ctrl+-). —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 03:23, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
Cap on number of notifications viewed at once?
Latest comment: 1 year ago3 comments2 people in discussion
Technically this is more of a question aimed for the Mediawiki software, but I figured I should ask here first as there's more traffic on this page.
Now that I've subscribed to the Vector 2022 RfC, my is blowing up with unread notifications, even amassing over 99 at one point. When I clicked on it it showed me an item stating that there were 25 unread notifications on the RfC. After clicking on it my unread count was reduced by 25, but bringing up the dropdown list from displays another batch of 25 from the RfC. I can get rid of all of them by clicking Mark all as read, but is this a limitation of the software, or is there a way to alter this seemingly arbitrary number? —Tenryuu 🐲 ( 💬 • 📝 ) 02:30, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
It is an arbitrary number and currently there's no way for you to increase it, although it should be possible to change it with a bit of developer effort. There's some discussion at T317365. Matma Rextalk04:55, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago18 comments11 people in discussion
Just a quick note so y'all can apportion blame properly:
The Editing team is planning some changes. These will only be visible to people who have enabled the "DiscussionTools" Beta Feature. If you see them, and don't like them, they can all be turned off in Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing-discussion (last item, "Show discussion activity").
The upcoming changes that you should blame on the Editing team, rather than on the Web team, are:
The discussion activity items that are currently visible in Talk: and User_talk: namespaces only will finally be enabled in other talk namespaces, but not in any even-numbered namespaces (e.g., the namespace this page is in).
The old [reply] button will become a Reply button. This is because it's easier for brand-new editors to figure out what a button is. You'll still be able to re-style it, but if you're using the old script to change it, it'll probably need to be updated.
[Later] They're going to add an extra "Add topic" button, so you don't have to scroll all the way back up to the top of the page to start a new section. For Vector 2022 only, this will be in its sticky header. (For all the other skins, I believe it will be at the very bottom of the page, which I guess doesn't help much if you're exactly in the middle.)
[Later] They're going to add a line at the top of the page, under the =Page title=, that says how long it's been since the last signed comment ("Yesterday, in the kitchen with the knife, by WhatamIdoing"). This may not be helpful on this page (and won't appear here), but it should make it easier to spot whether there are any recent conversations on a more average talk page.
Pretty much all the other visible changes this month should be blamed on my teammate Szymon. ;-)
What might be useful for Editing to hear from this group in particular is:
How should the software detect whether a talk page in a non-talk namespace (e.g., Help: or Wikipedia:) is the right sort of place for a discussion? If you have ideas about a reliable heuristic, I'm sure that they would be happy to hear them.
Is it just me or is the way that this message is worded crazy? It reads a bit like something I might post and I had to read it twice. First time I was being overwhelmed by who is blaming who? And then once to realise that this is just an annoucement of changes being made as part of mw:Talk pages project... Bit of a wild message and not the most constructive way to ask for feedback if you ask me. Terasail[✉️]13:00, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
WMF accounts should avoid inserting humour into valid updates for communities. It will often miss and come off as some "in joke" between staff. Being clear and concise is the best way to inform people of changes but insering humour both extends the message making it less concise as well as making it less clear what the goal of posting the message is. Terasail[✉️]15:42, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
@Terasail: It's about an upcoming interface change. Such changes always provoke posts on this (and other) pages along the lines of "I don't like it, change it back at once. Then fire the developers who foisted this on us without asking first." --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 14:43, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
@Redrose64 While true, I run into the issue that this reads more like a "Go ahead and start complaining now at the editing team but just make sure you don't towards the web team" rather than anything particularly constructive. If the message trimmed all this finger pointing (Insert spiderman meme) that would be one thing, but it just doesn't read well for me. This would also be better if the message linked to the actual mediawiki pages which contain the explanations of each feature rather than giving long descriptions here along with coordinating some update through tech news. Terasail[✉️]15:40, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
Unfortunately for Whatamidoing (WMF), most of us view the WMF as one big entity and do not distinguish among the teams. I can't remember ever singling out one person at WMF for criticism (if I have done so, I was probably wrong to do it), but I have leveled plenty of criticism at the organization as a whole. I know from working in large bureaucracies that many well-meaning, helpful, intelligent, and dedicated individuals can exist within an organization that often makes large errors on a regular basis. Although I think the above inter-departmental jabs were intended as humor, WMF employees would do well to remember that when the WMF does something, the WMF as a whole gets the credit or the blame, and Wikipedians generally don't care about the internal politics. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:01, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
The regulars on this page usually care about getting their feedback, in the most efficient manner possible, to the people who can fix the problems. These are the upcoming changes that folks should complain to the Editing team about (or ping me). If it's not on this list, you probably need to contact the Web team (or ping Szymon).
I'd hoped that these changes would go out last month, to avoid this potential for confusion, but there were delays on our end, so here we are. This is your cheatsheet for which team is causing which change.
And Redrose is right, at least about someone disliking any given change and someone saying that nobody was ever asked (e.g., in the multi-month massive consultation that started this project) or informed (e.g., in Tech/News and here). There are 121,692 registered editors here at the moment. Of course some people aren't going to see these announcements. (In 2013, my team ran high-volume CentralNotice banners for two weeks about the deployment of the visual editor, and I remember someone saying that they'd missed all the banners due to being on holiday for those exact 14 days.) Of course someone's going to dislike some of these changes. Of course someone's going to dislike all of these changes. It would be patently unreasonable of me to expect that many people to agree on any UI or design point. This is normal and expected. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:46, 12 January 2023 (UTC)
I also wanted to note I liked the humour and appreciated Whatamidoing (WMF)'s post. The "add topic" will be nice, other than my non-use of V22, so perhaps will be nice for others? I will endeavour to make sure WAID is the last up against the wall when the mob comes. Nosebagbear (talk) 09:44, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
@Whatamidoing (WMF): The first book and the first radio series (six episodes) were written at the same time, there is a lot of discrepancy between the two. A number of plot elements that only appeared in the book did go on to appear in the later radio series, and vice versa. The last three radio series were made much later than the last of the five books, and do serve to clear up some of the discrepancies. It's probably best to read the books first, then listen to all 26 radio episodes, then read the books again. Repeat as necessary. Do not use our articles as a preview for either, except perhaps to look up the cast. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 11:34, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
Since it's been really wet here for the last few weeks, "always in the muck" might be a little on the nose this month. It's all sunshine today, though, and the water districts are reminding us that there's still plenty of opportunity to end up with a drought and water restrictions come summer. (My own neighborhood's fine, but I know people who have a mess to clean up. The only mess I have to clean up is washing my rainboots. I decided last week to give up on that until it was over.) Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 20:39, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
Reply link now a link without square brackets on talk pages
Try using the direct link. The error is with the file served by the server, so it's reproducible on every Wikimedia site. I haven't asked at Commons VP as I believe it's less frequented. But if no one here knows what's going I guess it'd need to be reported at Phabricator. --Paul_012 (talk) 14:31, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
I still see the difference here and also via the direct link (but not via a 320px direct link, for example). The middle image is showing more-saturated colors, i.e. the previous version of the file. The file was updated on 28 November 2022 and again on 29 November 2022. Is there something that can be done to purge a cache somewhere? – Jonesey95 (talk) 21:53, 13 January 2023 (UTC)
I see the correct image in all three examples now as well, and in the direct link. It looks like some sort of cache was cleared, either by an automated process, or by a gnome who read this discussion. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:31, 17 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago4 comments3 people in discussion
There are two talk pages being filed in the nonexistent Category:Sia-Class Myanmar articles by a WikiProject template; the problem here is that there's already a correctly-capitalized version of the same category at Category:SIA-Class Myanmar articles, but it's empty and I can't figure out where to apply any corrections to get the pages moved from "Sia" to "SIA" -- applying what I thought would be the correct edit, changing sia=yes to SIA=yes in {{WikiProject Myanmar/class}}, turned the category into the entirely nonsensical Category:Yes-Class Myanmar articles instead of correcting the capitalization.
So can somebody with more knowledge about WikiProject class rating templates than I have figure out how to get these two pages moved to the correct category? Thanks. Bearcat (talk) 17:56, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago7 comments4 people in discussion
I've been developing several film articles up to FA status, and recently the last two I worked on, Starship Troopers and Saving Private Ryan, different editors, IPs and sockpuppets so potentially the same person, have come in as I've finished my drafts and copied it into the main article. It's not a huge deal but if they actually managed to do so without screwing it up, it robs me of my credit and work. Darkwarriorblake / Vote for something that matters20:30, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
A number of editors, including myself, develop new material away from Wikipedia entirely (I use a simple Notepad file on my computer). When it's ready – after days or weeks of work, however long it takes – you copy/paste it into a new or existing Wikipedia article. You have to be good at writing the text and markup and cites without being able to see a preview, but if you've been doing this long enough, it's definitely possible. Any glitches that do get in, you can fix up immediately after committing the big addition. Wasted Time R (talk) 23:14, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
You can preview it – no need to hope your markup is correct. Open a new (or existing) article and paste your draft text in and click "preview". Continue working on the text and previewing it, then copy it out to the text file on your computer, and close the draft article without saving it. Nurg (talk) 01:27, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
The GFDL/CC-BY-SA licenses require you to attribute reproduced works that are not yours, so if they copied your work without attribution, you could request revision deletion. Nardog (talk) 06:39, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
I'm giving the new skin a college try but one thing that's non-negotiable is removing the direct link to My Contributions in the top-right corner. I used that as a quick way to reach my active/recent discussions so hiding it in the sub-menu is an extra click for no reason. Is there any way to customize which buttons appear directly (currently, it's Userpage, alerts, notices, watchlist) and which ones get hidden in the sub-menu? Slightly less important but still annoying is that I have the UTCLiveClock gadget active (Preferences > Gadgets > Appearance, 2nd one in the list) and that's getting hidden in the sub-menu as well. Is there any way to change this? I don't mind having extra buttons on the top-right of my screen. Axem Titanium (talk) 01:36, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
Thanks xaosflux for pointing me to those two threads. Since it seems there's no option to change it at the moment and quick access to contribs is too important for my UX, I'll be switching back to Vector 2010 for now. I look forward to trying the new Vector 2022 when these two features are (re)implemented. Axem Titanium (talk) 04:01, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
I also found the contributions link quite handy at times, but for me an extra click is no big deal. Being able to customise the buttons as suggested above would be nice, though probably only a few would use the feature, However the power users tend to be set in our ways and do not like useful features to be removed so we waste our time complaining when there is useful work to be done. · · · Peter Southwood(talk): 10:05, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
I've managed to move it with this code: $("#pt-mycontris").insertAfter("#pt-watchlist-2"); (added to your skin.js file). It doesn't work with the magical mystical appearing/disappearing toolbar, but that seems pretty useless anyway. As such, it restores the contribs link to the top of the page and is at least no worse than the old style. -- zzuuzz(talk)21:17, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
@Xaosflux: I haven't looked very closely. There is another element #pt-mycontris-sticky-header, but I'm not sure what that is. Anyway, you can use $("#pt-mycontris").clone().insertAfter("#pt-watchlist-2"); to create a clone. To change IDs, you probably need 3 lines - a first draft looks like this: var contrib_clone = $("#pt-mycontris").clone(); contrib_clone.attr("id", "pt-mycontris-copy"); $("#pt-watchlist-2").after(contrib_clone); -- zzuuzz(talk)02:09, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
@Zzuuzz: thanks for the note. Building from that, got this that may help User:Axem Titanium and others:
/* Hide menu icon from Contributions link that has been moved in my vector-2022.js file */.mw-ui-icon-userContributions{display:none;}
There is still a little too much padding around that element, but it is using flex layout so is a pain to deal with consistently and probably not worth it (such as using negative margins, recalculating the width, etc). Anyone else got improvements for this? — xaosfluxTalk14:17, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
Nice job! If contribs could be added to the magical floating toolbar as well, that would be the first big workflow improvement over Vector 2010 for me. Axem Titanium (talk) 21:17, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
@Axem Titanium you could use the same and insert it after #ca-watchstar-sticky-header to put it there, but it's prob better if this gets improved and "clones" the element to those places instead of just "moving" it. — xaosfluxTalk01:09, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
Thanks for this, xaosflux. Would it be possible to hide the "Contributions" text and keep the icon in the header instead? I think it'd look cleaner, given everything else is iconified now. Anarchyte (talk) 01:34, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
@Anarchyte not as reliably, perhaps with some more javascript. The element with the word on it doesn't have an id to just target with css. I expect this can be done, basically by using javascript to not just "move" the link as we did above, but instead to create and insert an entirely novel element for it. — xaosfluxTalk02:46, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
Maybe a "experiment" gadget?
The 'move' idea works, but just creating a new object seems to be better for this. Perhaps we can put up a gadget demo to add the popular "(MY) Contributions" and (MY Usertalk)" links back to the top. It won't be future proof if the skin people keep moving things, but shouldn't be too hard. Started messing around in Special:PermaLink/1134871225. — xaosfluxTalk15:37, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
It's probably a good idea. Personally I'll be slowly working towards restoring all the text links I had before, and removing all the picture icons. -- zzuuzz(talk)20:03, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
Turning off Realtime Preview notice
Latest comment: 1 year ago6 comments3 people in discussion
When I go into the edit screen, there is an icon labeled "Preview" at the top right corner of the screen ([34]). It's for Realtime Preview. Each day when I first log in and start editing, there is a blue dot hovering over the icon, as a sort-of new function notification. If I click on the preview, and click the box that acknowledges that I'm aware of it, the blue dot goes away for the rest of the day, but it comes back the next day, over and over. (I'm using Firefox on desktop and it happens in both Vector 2022 and Vector Legacy.) Is there a way I can turn off the blue dot for good? --Tryptofish (talk) 19:36, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
@Tryptofish We track whether you've seen this onboarding popup using local storage, so it sounds like you're doing something that clears that. Do you clear your cookies, browse in "private" mode, or frequently switch devices/browsers? If so, that would explain it. We are discussing whether we can instead use a hidden user preference, which would make it persist across devices and sessions. MusikAnimal (WMF) (talk) 20:18, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
Yes, I clear my cookies every time I close my browser, so that must be it. It occurs to me that my doing so will actually be giving you faulty data for your tracking. I certainly do encourage you to pursue the idea of being able to set a user preference. An alternative fix would be a user preference that turns Realtime Preview itself on or off. --Tryptofish (talk) 20:26, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
I use uBlock Origin as an add-on for Firefox, and I've used it to block the blue dot, which resolves the problem for me (although it probably isn't what the technical folks wanted). --Tryptofish (talk) 19:48, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
The dot disappears when you insert .mw-pulsating-dot.ext-WikiEditor-realtimepreview-onboarding-dot { display:none !important; } in your common.css. Wutsje06:36, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
Vector 2022 bug: Interlanguage links misuse the 'lang' attribute
Latest comment: 1 year ago7 comments4 people in discussion
Screenshot showing incorrect fonts used in Firefox
Hi, I'd like to report a bug with interlanguage links in Vector 2022. In the new skin, each of the links includes a 'lang' attribute indicating the language of the link's destination (e.g. the HTML for a link to Chinese Wikipedia looks like this: <a class="autonym" dir="ltr" href="https://zh.wiki.x.io/wiki/..." title="... – 中文" lang="zh">Chinese</a>).
This is incorrect use of the 'lang' attribute. The 'lang' attribute is for indicating the language of the element's contents (i.e. the link text), not for indicating the language of a link target. Because the link text is written in English (e.g. the links are labeled "Spanish" and "Chinese", not "español" and "中文"), the 'lang' attribute should not be present. There is sadly no standardized way to indicate the language of a link target (although this W3C post suggests the 'hreflang' attribute as a possibility).
This incorrect use causes display issues, as some browsers use the 'lang' attribute to decide which font to use. I've included a screenshot showing how the words "Chinese" and "Korean" are in a different font to the rest of the page. This is because my browser (Firefox 109.0 on Ubuntu 22.04.1) uses a different font to render Chinese and Korean text, and the 'lang' attribute is causing my browser to incorrectly believe those words are written in Chinese and Korean respectively.
but this does not work, as %2 returns the contents between first instances of < & > instead of what is between > & </ What am I doing wrong here? —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})21:15, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
Lua does not support regex.
If what you want to do is remove html-like tags:
localfunctionstrip_html_like_tags(str)localstripped_string=str:gsub("%b<>","");-- so we don't return gsub() replacement countreturnstripped_string;end
Latest comment: 1 year ago12 comments6 people in discussion
A long time ago I installed User:Alex Smotrov/histcomb.js in vector.js. Several days ago, an important part of it stopped working properly. Unfortunately, the author hasn't edited since 2012, so I can't discuss the problem with them.
I'll first describe the way it's supposed to work when reviewing the contribution history of a page. If there are consecutive edits by the same user, instead of showing each entry, it collapses them and shows the number of consecutive edits in brackets to the left, e.g., [3]. If you click on Prev when collapsed, it shows the changes made by all 3 edits; if you uncollapse the 3 edits, you can see each diff separately. Now the display is the same, but if you click on Prev when collapsed, it shows the diff of the first edit in the series.
Although I don't think it has anything to do with vector (2022), I am using the legacy vector skin, not the new one.
@Bbb23 perhaps someone should fork that if they want to maintain it, relying on a personal script of someone who hasn't been here in a decade is a recipe for trouble. If someone does have a syntax fix they can open an edit request at the associated talk page and an int-admin will likely process it due to the account being so dormant. — xaosfluxTalk16:15, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
@Xaosflux:perhaps someone should fork that if they want to maintain it... I'm not sure I understand. Do you mean that someone else would grab the code and create their own script? If that's what you mean, how would I, uh, inspire someone to do that?--Bbb23 (talk) 16:29, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
@Terasail: I looked at the board, and it looks like it's only supposed to be used for brand new scripts (or gadgets), whereas what I'm looking for is someone who will fix the old script, even if they do so by creating a new one that hopefully they will maintain. With that in mind, is it okay for me to post to the board?--Bbb23 (talk) 19:23, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
@Bbb23 Its the only place that I can think of which is focused on user script development. It is perfectly fine to request someone to port a userscript there. It just depends if any users who monitor the board are willing to do so. Terasail[✉️]19:56, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
I'm also a big user of this script, I looked at it for a few minutes and we've probably reached the point where it's worth rewriting this to be more modern and maintainable... Legoktm (talk) 07:55, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
@Legoktm: Does that mean that you will rewrite it? I've posted a request at Wikipedia:User scripts/Requests as Terasail suggested, but I have no idea how likely it is that anyone will undertake the task. I suppose it depends on how many editors use the script and how difficult it is to rewrite. For the moment, I've uninstalled the script because the fact that it didn't function correctly anymore was annoying.--Bbb23 (talk) 15:09, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
@Bbb23: I have too many things on my plate to commit to it, but I will eventually give it a try if no one else is interested. I'm sure for some of the user script wizards it'll be easier to just fix it instead of rewriting; I tried stepping through it with the console debugger and got totally lost, JavaScript really isn't my thing. Legoktm (talk) 07:55, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
I've forked the script with a fix at User:Nardog/histcomb.js. One caveat is that the undo link is now simply a link to editing the preceding revision, so the edit summary is not prefilled. If it works, I suggest we request an interface-protected edit. Nardog (talk) 07:58, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
Proposals open for Community Wishlist 2023
Latest comment: 1 year ago1 comment1 person in discussion
At Special:PermaLink/1135137654#User:EchidnaLives I granted indefinite PGM rights to EchidnaLives. I thought I had put a typo in the diff so I went to check their UserRights page and saw that the granting had not gone through. Curious if the script borked somewhere, I checked their talk page and found this discussion where Salvio giuliano also indicated issues with granting. I couldn't even manually change the expiry from the stated date to "does not expire", so I ended up having to cancel the PERM and re-add it to their account. I am too tired (this was literally the last thing I was planning on doing before bed) to figure out why this is going wrong, but clearly something is weird. Does this need a phab? (please do notping on reply) Primefac (talk) 21:39, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
Log extract
2023-01-22T21:35:54
Primefac
changed group membership for
EchidnaLives
from
IP block exempt (temporary, until 2023-05-19T18:27:37), extended confirmed user, new page reviewer, pending changes reviewer and rollbacker
to
IP block exempt (temporary, until 2023-05-19T18:27:37), extended confirmed user, new page reviewer, pending changes reviewer, rollbacker and page mover
(requested at WP:PERM/PM, Special:PermaLink/1135137654#User:EchidnaLives) (thank)
2023-01-22T21:35:33
Primefac
changed group membership for
EchidnaLives
from
page mover (temporary, until 2023-01-28T00:00:00), IP block exempt (temporary, until 2023-05-19T18:27:37), extended confirmed user, new page reviewer, pending changes reviewer and rollbacker
to
IP block exempt (temporary, until 2023-05-19T18:27:37), extended confirmed user, new page reviewer, pending changes reviewer and rollbacker
(rmv to see about glitch)
According to the log, you revoked a temporary pagemover access, then granted a perm pagemover access. As a test I just added a temp pagemove to one of my test accounts, and then successfully was able to change it to non-expiring in one action. Were you doing all of this via the Special:UserRights interface? If so, it may need a phab - but we need the steps to reproduce the problem if it is still occurring. If you are only having these problems when using User:MusikAnimal/userRightsManager, you should raise that at User talk:MusikAnimal. — xaosfluxTalk22:33, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
I've experienced a similar issue several times today, hours apart. Trying to extend an existing (soon-to-be expiring) IPBE to a (custom) period of 3 years. The little popup thing tells me the changes were saved, but they weren't. If you want to try that (here), or try to reproduce it elsewhere @Xaosflux:, you'd be welcome to.... -- zzuuzz(talk)22:54, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
Looks like there have been past phab tickets of a simliar nature. If you have the exact times you tried things won't hurt to open a new one. — xaosfluxTalk23:16, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
My testing indicates that attempting to modify any existing temporary perm, except to remove it, will fail. I'm unable to navigate phab at this time. It might also be worth posting something to AN or WT:PERM if it's not a quick fix, because there's no real indication of failure. -- zzuuzz(talk)01:13, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
My steps followed the same ones as Salvio gives above, just with the added log entries you list; neither script-based nor manual change would work on the account, so I had to improvise. Primefac (talk) 09:11, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago8 comments3 people in discussion
I'm not sure what to do with the history section at Ingleside, Texas. It is completely unsourced, and is nearly identical to the history on the city website. The section was added by an IP back in 2010, and the original edit included a promo for a book. I'm not sure if the section needs to be removed and nuked. Thanks! Magnolia677 (talk) 12:44, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
I have to apologise. I see I was using the wrong url. Or maybe not, running the url again through Wayback now says "Saved 5 times between June 28, 2022 and January 14, 2023." which is NOT what it said the first time I ran it. This is worrying as we often depend upon Wayback for copyvio issues. Doug Wellertalk08:41, 18 January 2023 (UTC)
@Doug Weller: The inglesidetx.gov site changed the URL which held their history page one or more times before the URL version that you fed to Wayback to tell you about Wayback save history and got "5 times". Sites do that sort of thing. What we knew was that inglesidetx now has content substantially matching current WP Ingleside, Texas#History, suggesting it could be a source for that text (thus copyvio). So what I did was go to Wayback asking about unqualified "http://www.inglesidetx.gov/" saves (I could also have used a wildcard *). I found it had saves going way back, so I chose one just before the date of IP's text insertion in 2010. When Wayback displayed the save of that base/main page, I could see it had a link for "History" similar to what that main page has now. Clicking that in Wayback took it to the saved Wayback target (with a different, similar URL), showing that the text had been on the website before the IP added it. Because of the possibility (almost probability) of URL changes, one has to do investigations like that to root out copyvio's. --R. S. Shaw (talk) 18:47, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
question re formatting for display on mobile phones
Latest comment: 1 year ago3 comments3 people in discussion
hi there everyone. I did a bit of tweaking to my user page recently. I managed to use collapsible boxes to fix up a few things, moved some user boxes, and got it looking relatively nice. what's the relevance here, you ask? well.... and then I happened to view my own user page again.... using my phone. in a word.... auuugggh!!
can anyone here please offer possible methods, on some ways to configure some of the formatting items mentioned above, to look at least passable on a phone? I realize that yes, some things are not meant for display on phones, but there should be some result other than taking a perfectly good formatted item, and displaying it e.g. as an unreadably narrow column of text, or else items getting garbled and being displayed on top of other items, etc etc
I decided to ask this here, rather than at the Help Desk, since this item seems to have some relevance as a larger technical question, for some general consideration. I appreciate any help. thanks! Sm8900 (talk) 16:00, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
@Sm8900 one thing to consider: Do you really want all that content on the page when looking at it in mobile? You can hide sections with the nomobile class. — xaosfluxTalk16:09, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
Making your page not use tables is fundamentally the first step. Fundamental technology for replacement is CSS flex or CSS grid plus CSS media queries. "Mobile friendly tabs" I have been less-than-seriously thinking about, because our tab templates aren't friendly. I can make a user subpage with WP:TemplateStyles content model for you to experiment with the media queries.
More or less the thing to know is that the web is fundamentally responsive. So removing all the structure you don't "need" to start is one thing you can try and then gradually build up from. Izno (talk) 18:52, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
class="toccolours" does not render formatting in Vector 2022
Latest comment: 1 year ago19 comments3 people in discussion
(Not a particularly good use of the class, but that's an aside; one should not put galleries in tables to style them.) Izno (talk) 05:31, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
Given how heavy Commons is on templates, I think those uses can be fixed with TemplateStyles easily enough. You just have to convince a Commoner to do it. And also, the display without them isn't terrible, so that's good. "Not deleterious" indeed! Izno (talk) 05:46, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
(I'm happy to be consulted with for what Commons might do on the point if someone wants to know what kind of work is necessary to get colors back without upstream adding it back, which as I have said there, I think should be declined in favor of removal or changing to another class like wikitable for the general use, or TemplateStyles for template use. But let's move any detailed Commons consultation to my talk page.) Izno (talk) 06:45, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
@Neveselbert, no, it's inappropriate to use a cell there as opposed to the caption now in place per WP:ACCESS. I can make the styles similar if actually desired, but it will not be the same as the old version regardless. Izno (talk) 04:43, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
Sorry, I shouldn't have used RedWarn, it was a reflex and I apologise if I implied anything through my use of that. I had to revert as I just can't bear to look at the altered header(s) formatting. I don't feel these changes are worth undertaking if we can't implement as little visible change as possible. Maybe TheDJ might know another way of going about this? ‑‑Neveselbert (talk·contribs·email) 19:04, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
It is entirely possible to do it and preserve the old formatting, it is simply not accessible. The "full width table header" should be a caption, and this is an error in the current version, not just the proposed version. Preserving the exact display from there is not possible. This is what I meant when I said but it will not be the same as the old version regardless. Izno (talk) 19:08, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago3 comments2 people in discussion
Another assistance, I needed was to call templates from module. In one case, I need to call a distinct template from within the module. I tried concatenation like
Latest comment: 1 year ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Problems
Last week, for ~15 minutes, all wikis were unreachable for logged-in users and non-cached pages. This was caused by a timing issue. [37]
Changes later this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 24 January. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 25 January. It will be on all wikis from 26 January (calendar).
If you have the Beta Feature for DiscussionTools enabled, the appearance of talk pages will add more information about discussion activity. [38][39]
The 2023 edition of the Community Wishlist Survey (CWS), which invites contributors to make technical proposals and vote for tools and improvements, starts on Monday 23 January 2023 at 18:00 UTC.
@Knightoftheswords281 you need to rewrite the file information to show the file is PD before export. The export wizard, correctly, rejects files where the information contains non-free rationales. Nthep (talk) 09:32, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
Action done using Reply tool not showing immediately
Latest comment: 1 year ago23 comments6 people in discussion
Is it me or is actions done using Reply tool (replying using it, adding topic using it) not showing immediately without page refresh using F5/browser's reload button? A few days ago, actions done using Reply tool would show immediately once published without the need to refresh the page manually. —Paper9oll(🔔 • 📝)05:30, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
I came here to report the same thing. The reply tool, in both vector legacy & vector 2022, and both in oldstyle (WP:VPT), & newstyle (talkspace) talk pages, is showing this issue. Earlier, comments made using reply tool would be printed directly onto the screen, it would also show a message "1 new comment" when anyone else made a comment(this part seems to be working). Now you have to refresh the page in order to view them, and it is very painful to use. —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})11:45, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
It was working fine for me earlier today, although the reloading is slower on village pump pages, since for some reason they have reached extreme sizes over the last few days. Posting this with the reply tool too, let's see if it works. Matma Rextalk12:56, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
Okay so I'm not the only one experiencing it then. Not sure, why it suddenly became slow to reflect the replies/new topic, is there any background changes past few days? (Waited more than 5 mins for it to appear automatically without manually refreshing the page, my internet isn't tortoise speed nor is my computer potato lol, certainly something under the hood changed causing such)— 🍊 Paper9oll 🍊 (🔔 • 📝)06:34, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
@Whatamidoing (WMF) I'm using Firefox 109.0 and Windows 11. It doesn't happens on my talk page but on VPT here and other similarly sized talk pages. Working fine with when replied using safemode enabled. — 🍊 Paper9oll 🍊 (🔔 • 📝)07:33, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
Had also checked if any scripts that I had installed is updated recently (1–3 days ago) but none of them are, the last time all of the installed scripts were updated is back in 2020–2022. For gadgets side, other than those enabled by default, I only have Twinkle, HotCat, Shortdesc helper, Xtools, and Enterprisey's scripts-installer ticked. — 🍊 Paper9oll 🍊 (🔔 • 📝)11:06, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
Oh yes, it works fine with safemode. But I have not installed any script or gadget in the past few days, yet outside of safemode, this issue occurs, on all 100% pages, including my talkpage. I am on MS Edge, Windows 11. —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})07:53, 22 January 2023 (UTC)
If it works in safemode, and doesn't work without safemode, then the problem is somewhere in a gadget or user script. You can identify which one by going through the process described at mw:safemode (i.e., most of the rest of that page, not the part about testing in safemode itself). Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 22:13, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
For what it's worth, I did not experience the problem just now (my reply showed up as expected), so it could actually be something different. Maybe it's just an inconsistent issue, or maybe it's a combination of that script with something else. Matma Rextalk09:51, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
Testing with every single gadgets mentioned above disabled plus every single scripts disabled. (this works but no differences to safemode enabled so basically is nothing is resolved ... back to square one ... furthermore none of the scripts were updated recently hence why all of a sudden, reply-tool stop working when the scripts are enabled is suspicious.— 🍊 Paper9oll 🍊 (🔔 • 📝)11:31, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
@Whatamidoing (WMF) Have tested above, not related to gadgets but user's scripts instead. However, this still doesn't answers why reply-tool suddenly "stop" working on huge pages when user's scripts were enabled, furthermore as mentioned earlier, none of the user's scripts nor gadgets I had installed were actually updated recently by their maintainers prior to reply-tool starting to act up. Was there any under-the-hood updates recently that causes this? — 🍊 Paper9oll 🍊 (🔔 • 📝)11:38, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
Can't login
Latest comment: 1 year ago12 comments8 people in discussion
Trying to login to my account but it keeps saying “There seems to be a problem with your login session; this action has been canceled as a precaution against session hijacking. Please resubmit the form. You may receive this message if you are blocking cookies.” It keeps showing that message every time I try to login. Have I been banned? :( 2A02:C7F:601A:5800:1C48:CB39:4648:C63F (talk) 21:07, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
I had this for a few minutes as well. It is fixed after quitting my web browser entirely and starting it back up again, and then logging in again (probably a coincidence, but worth a try). – Jonesey95 (talk) 21:11, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
I also had this problem a few minutes ago. I thought it could be a no JavaScript issue since I use NoScript and had to temporarily disable it to log in, which is not usual, but I don't know if that is a sign of a bigger server-side problem? Cross-wiki authentication still seems to be problematic for me right now. Update: Cross-wiki authentication seems to be working for me. Biogeographist (talk) 21:18, 24 January 2023 (UTC) & 21:21, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
I experienced the same problem about twenty minutes ago and I seriously feared that my account had been hijacked. I was automatically logged out and the same message on red background ("There seems to be a problem with your login session; this action has been canceled as a precaution against session hijacking. Please resubmit the form. You may receive this message if you are blocking cookies") appeared every time I tried to log in.--Æo (talk) 21:23, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
To be more specific: about 3-4 times among the 6-7 I tried to log in again, the log-in actually worked but I was logged out automatically again in a matter of seconds. In the other 3-4 cases I received the red alert. Æo (talk) 21:55, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
Editing window on Windows 11 now obscured
Latest comment: 1 year ago12 comments5 people in discussion
@Doug Weller, you will need to provide browser information as well. Also, I do not experience this problem on Windows 10, which leads me to believe that one of your scripts is again interfering. Please try safe mode, as has been discussed with you before, before reporting issues. Izno (talk) 19:02, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
One of the scripts could have changed. :) safemode helps to isolate whether it was a script change or a skin change. And if safemode reveals no issues, then we know it was either a script change, or a skin change that interacts badly with one of your scripts. Izno (talk) 19:39, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
All gadgets and scripts are unofficial code. They can break at any time and regularly do, especially those without active maintainers. When they do break, they often take other stuff with them (because there is no isolation being the parts). This is why you generally can't run scripts on OTHER websites, only on wikimedia websites, as it is very unstable and hard to maintain. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 21:04, 23 January 2023 (UTC)
I tried to connect Posterior_vitreous_detachment to the Swedish article Glaskroppsavlossning, but failed. There seem to be two incompatible ways of linking languages, leading to two different lists of articles. Just posting this here, in case anyone cares to connect the two. Star Lord - 星爵 (talk) 21:44, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
There's a user sandbox page, User:Newklear007/Barbora Piešová, that's somehow appearing in Category:Living people without actually being categorized. What happened was that the creator did add categories to it slightly prematurely, but then moved it into mainspace literally one minute later so that the title now exists only as a redirect to the mainspace article.
But the userspace redirect itself doesn't have inappropriate categories on it anymore, and yet it won't clear from an incategory search of the Living people category no matter how many times I try to null it -- and I've even tried temporarily deleting and then restoring the redirect, only to find that it left the category while deleted but then came back as soon as it was restored, and even while it was deleted the incategory search did not give me the "There were no results matching the query." response that I'm supposed to get if there are no user or draft pages in the category, but instead just gave me a blank list. And even the redirect itself, if you look at it, features a strange amount of whitespace between the page headers and the "From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia" line that's supposed to be directly under the page headers, despite there being no obvious coding error in the page itself.
So something's clearly wrong with this page, but I can't figure out what the problem is. Can somebody look into this and resolve it so that the page isn't inappropriately displaying in a category it isn't actually in? Thanks. Bearcat (talk) 16:13, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
It doesn't take this long to update. There were eight other pages in the incategory search at the same time as I ran it 45 minutes ago; all of them have already cleared out of the search within 30 to 45 seconds on a refresh, and one other new page got added to the category since that time which also cleared out of the search within 30 to 45 seconds on a refresh. This is not just a "the job queue can take some time to update" issue, because it takes less than a minute for the job queue to do that and the job queue hasn't been failing to update in less than a minute on any other page — this is a problem that's particular to this one specific title, because it's acting differently than numerous other pages I resolved at the same time. Bearcat (talk) 16:38, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
I'm not manually searching through over a million pages to find one recalcitrant entry. The fact that it is in the incategory search, and isn't leaving the incategory search despite ten other pages having been cleared from the incategory search at the same time, is in and of itself sufficient evidence that there's a problem of some sort — even if the page isn't displaying in the category at all, there's still a problem if the incategory search still thinks it is. Bearcat (talk) 16:56, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
@Bearcat ok so to be clear, you are not seeing this category on the page, you can't point to it in the category, but the search results are showing it? (This could be a problem with search - why I'm asking). Is this a good example of what you are reporting: [40] ? — xaosfluxTalk17:03, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
I already provided a link to the results I was seeing from the incategory search in my original post, and I explained the situation: yes, the search results are showing the user sandbox redirect despite the category declaration not actually being on the page at all, and it's not clearing from a refresh of the search despite the refreshes having successfully cleared at least ten other pages I processed both before and after trying to deal with that one. My guess would be that it's some sort of artifact of the fact that the category was added to the page before it was moved into articlespace, but that's just a guess. Bearcat (talk) 17:11, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
OK, just making sure there weren't multiple things going on. This appears to be known issue phab:T259599, not specific to the English Wikipedia; I added a note to this report there. — xaosfluxTalk17:56, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
The reported incategory search searches a cached version and isn't specific to use of incategory. The search result says "8 KB (578 words) - 14:13, 24 January 2023". That's this version which was at User:Newklear007/Barbora Piešová at the time and contains the category. A search [41] on random text from the page without incategory returns both User:Newklear007/Barbora Piešová at 14:13, 24 January 2023 (the cached version) and Barbora Piešová at 20:32, 24 January 2023 (the current version). I don't know how to force search to stop using the cached version. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:38, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
The page in User: space was categorised into Living people with its last edit prior to being moved to mainspace. These two events should have occurred the other way about. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:53, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
In light of what's been said above about a cached version, I just tried another way to fix this by moving the page back to the original sandbox title, wrapping the categories in the draft categories template, and then waiting to see if the page dropped from the incategory search results after a couple of refreshes. It did, so I then restored the page back to articlespace again and so far the redirect has not returned. So for the moment it looks like this has now been resolved, but since I do that search at least once or twice a day to clean out any DRAFTNOCAT and USERNOCAT violations it'll be monitored if it does come back on a later search. Bearcat (talk) 15:29, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
Planning to more widely advertise the vector 2022 RFC
Latest comment: 1 year ago1 comment1 person in discussion
They may have got the "sticky" part of the expand button (the square in the very lower right corner) working - if you see that trying clicking it once. — xaosfluxTalk14:25, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
@Xaosflux I think I'm going to have to stop asking questions here as it looks as though I did do something. I zoomed my window somehow. If I reduce it I see what I thought had disappeared. For some reason I had assumed that a slider appeared at the bottom of my window so I could see any text that was in another part of the window. I'm not sure where I've seen that in the past. And I was so hopeful it wasn't me! Doug Wellertalk17:21, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
If you're using a touchpad, some touchpads/OSs support pinch-zoom gestures on the touchpad. I find that's an easy way to accidentally zoom my browser window. isaacl (talk) 18:11, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago8 comments3 people in discussion
Hello! Can someone explain me why the table in this template is rendered like it does? Why the space between columns is not the same and why is there so extra padding on the right side? Is there any way whatsoever how I can make all the entries in there appear equally spaced with the same padding on both sides? Maybe by utilizing CSS somehow?
I'm sorry for asking a question related to a foreign project but I have no one to ask at my homewiki. I generally despise table editing because of how clunky the whole process feels. Maybe that's a wish for the tech-wishlist... - Klein Muçi (talk) 21:36, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
You did not set widths for the cells. The table algorithm gets to choose, accordingly.
@Klein Muçi: Table rendering can depend on browser, window size and other factors. It looks normal to me. If you want the three text columns to render with the same width instead of letting the browser choose widths based on cell contents then you can write style="width: 33%;" | in a cell in each of the columns (widths are usually specified in the first row). You have protected the template so I cannot do it for you. There are also three image columns so the text columns cannot actually use 33% of the table width but it should work if you just give the same number. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:06, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
@PrimeHunter, @Izno, thank you very much for the provided help! I chose to go on with the template at Commons given that it had been a while I wanted to "get rid of" the table. Everything went fine beside the fact that when I set sq (for Albanian) as the lang code the table gets rendered as it would if the selected language was RTL. Albanian is LTR. What is going on? Also, only tangentially related to the matter but how do I actually connect this to the Wikisource entry without hardwiring it? And what has happened to the Wikispecies main page?! — Klein Muçi (talk) 02:50, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
<div class="sister-projects mw-content-{{dir|{{{lang|}}}}}" lang="{{{lang|}}}" dir="{{dir|{{{lang|}}}}}">. You have sq:Template:Dir but you should ensure that it is up-to-date with wherever you prefer. Since this case came from Commons.... Or you can just remove the relevant template values to something like <div class="sister-projects"> since you do not operate on a multilingual wiki like Commons is, so those have no local value for you. That's up to you. Izno (talk) 03:01, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
Izno, thank you! That solved it. In regard to what you wrote about protection, I'm sorry. The thing is I'm the only active admin at that project currently and I protected all main-page-only related templates worrying of vandalism. Basically, if something happens and I'm not online, that thing will persist on the main page until I'm back. Thank you one more time! — Klein Muçi (talk) 03:18, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago4 comments3 people in discussion
The latest run of Special:WantedCategories is somehow cluttered with over 100 redlinked categories of the "User [code]" variety. These all stem from the use of {{User iso15924}}, because they're coming entirely from just four pages — {{User iso15924/testcases}}, {{User Tibt-3}}, User talk:Le Deluge/Archive 15 and User:Spc10K/UBX/lists — that are using the codes in question inside invocations of that template. The thing is that none of these redlinks ever turned up at WantedCategories in any other recent runs, but none of the pages that they're coming from have been edited anytime recently to add any new usages that hadn't already been on the pages for months or years, which means that somehow the User iso15924 template is suddenly generating a bunch of redlinked categories it never generated before this week.
And furthermore, most of the usages seem to include "nocat=true" or "nocat=yes" code in them, which certainly seems like it should mean "don't generate a category here", but that flag isn't documented in the template documentation for me to be sure whether I'm correct in interpreting it that way. And the only one that doesn't contain that flag, the one on Le Deluge's talk archive, is specifically in an almost-three-year-old discussion about getting a page moved from the nonexistent Category:User cyrl-1 (which is itself one of the new redlinks) to the actually-existing but differently capitalized Category:User Cyrl-1 — but since that discussion is almost three years old, and the issue at that time related to a user typo rather than to an error in this template per se, this reinforces my suspicion that the template is suddenly behaving differently this week than it has for the past three years.
And given the nature of what the contents are, being test cases and archived talk page discussions rather than true userpages actually using these codes in infoboxes to facilitate collaboration, it really doesn't seem like actually creating all of these new categories would be of any benefit to Wikipedia at this time.
Obviously we can't just leave 115 categories sitting on WantedCategories as permanent kludge, so could somebody look into what happened here and figure out how to fix it? Thanks. Bearcat (talk) 16:40, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
Weird: wrong HTML <title> on idle (Safari, iOS15.1)?
Latest comment: 1 year ago4 comments3 people in discussion
Very odd, very strange thing: Yesterday, perhaps in the early afternoon, I visited Avicii Arena on my iPad, and left the tab open, then did other things (including opening and closing at least 30 more different Wikipedia articles). Now, the next morning, like 5 minutes ago, i reopened Safari, which was in another tab by now, and looked at my open tabs. One of them said "(Wikipedia Favicon) NHL Global ..." which startled me a tiny bit, as I don't know what that is, so I tapped on the tab. It instantly reloaded and the tab name changed to "(Wikipedia Favicon) Avicii Arena". - I checked the article, it doesn't mention "NHL" at all (tho the arena used to be called "Globe"), I searched Wikipedia, there is no article starting with "NHL Global", I have zero idea how this could have happened (and am a bit annoyed at myself I didn't screenshot it).
Can someone even start to explain or have a wild guess what happened here? I have some knowledge of and experience with HTML, but I am flabbergasted in the truest sense of the word. --Lommes (talk) 10:10, 26 January 2023 (UTC)
@PrimeHunter, @Anomie - Well, that explains it very well. Apologies for not getting this myself, i should have just checked the images....well.. This is
Evernote web clipper doesn't work with Chrome based browsers on Wikipedia anymore
Latest comment: 1 year ago2 comments2 people in discussion
This one has nothing to do with individual scripts, it's being discussed on the Evernote discussion forum. When you try to use it on a Chrome based browser it just won't load, no problem in Opera. Deleting Wikipedia cookies works, but of course who wants to have to login after every time you use Evernote? I use it to grab useful pages with templates. So who do I talk to try to get them to talk to Evernote about this Doug Wellertalk15:31, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
The web clipper throws a JS error.
commons.js:2 Uncaught (in promise) TypeError: Cannot read properties of undefined (reading '_count__containers')
at i.getContent__findInPage (commons.js:2:185917)
at commons.js:2:188303
at new Promise (<anonymous>)
at i.start (commons.js:2:188238)
at p._executeGetArticle (commons.js:2:96879)
at p._getArticle (commons.js:2:96776)
at p.detectArticle (commons.js:2:95593)
at K.detectArticle (commons.js:2:1154921)
at K.updateArticle (commons.js:2:1156206)
at ce (commons.js:2:2469197)
Probably can't handle our landmark complexity or something. Testing it on other websites, it seems to get rather confused on html5 webpages and often extracts text for the preview that is completely unrelated to the main block. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 15:32, 26 January 2023 (UTC)
Select Wikidata fields that has a qualified equal to the subclass of something
Latest comment: 1 year ago1 comment1 person in discussion
Latest comment: 1 year ago14 comments6 people in discussion
A number of users, both here and at WP:HD, have reported that the rumoured toggle button in the bottom right hand corner for article width is not visible, but there still doesn't seem to be a coherent explanation for this absence. Some replies have suggested that it's dependent on zoom level, but I've tried up to 500% and down to 25% and still no sign of the elusive toggle. At WP:HD I said "I too don't see such a button at the bottom right. Perhaps someone in the know can explain what settings you and I may have which disables the visibility of that button? Something which may or may not be connected is that the edit button for each section is only half-visible. I see only the bottom half of each [edit] link. The [subscribe] link to the right of (and half a line below) each edit link is completely visible." - David Biddulph (talk) 08:52, 26 January 2023 (UTC)
Hi @David Biddulph, thank you for your feedback. Concerning the toggle, this issue is pointed out in this task on Phabricator which has high-priority for the Web Team, they are working on it. At the link you can find some explanation. As a temporary solution, while waiting for the problem to be solved, logged-in users can use the preference for the full width instead. Patafisik (WMF) (talk) 10:19, 26 January 2023 (UTC)
About I see only the bottom half of each [edit] link as you were already asking here: to understand the issue can you give us more details? E.g. operating system, browser, narrow screen/width, a screenshot if possible? Patafisik (WMF) (talk) 10:33, 26 January 2023 (UTC)
David Biddulph, do you see the toggle if you add ?safemode=1 to the end of the URL, like https://en.wiki.x.io/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)?safemode=1 ? For what it's worth, I never see it while logged in, even at a zoom of 50% and using safemode with "limited width" disabled. If I log out and zoom out, I can see it. This says to me that one of my preferences is causing it, but it could be something else. Many of us have asked for the limited width to be disabled by default, or for the toggle to be visible at all times, due to the many problems with it, but we haven't gotten any traction thus far. – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:52, 26 January 2023 (UTC)
@David Biddulph, I can make the toggle appear only if I make the window wider than my actual screen (which is 1440x900). I accomplished this by sliding the window (I tested in Safari) halfway off the screen, and then dragging it wider. I don't know how to find out what the minimum width was, but there was a point that was wider than my screen and didn't show the subtle little toggle, and another point just slightly wider that made it appear. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:47, 26 January 2023 (UTC)
Thank you. Obviously the new software doesn't work and hasn't been properly tested. I've given it the benefit of the doubt up until now, but I'll go back to the legacy version. - David Biddulph (talk) 18:51, 26 January 2023 (UTC)
The misalignment of the [edit] link happens in both Vector 2010 and Vector 2022. It is described in T311539 and is related to the gadget called "Move section [edit] links to the right side of the screen". If anyone knows where the code to that gadget lives, maybe we can fix it ourselves. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:10, 26 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago9 comments6 people in discussion
I'm trying to hide the thanks link on my watchlist and other editor's contributions pages.
.mw-thanks-thank-link{display:none;}
works to hide the link but I can't work out how to hide the pipe symbol that appears before the link or the empty brackets in those cases where there isn't a rollback link. Nthep (talk) 21:28, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
It should be something along the lines of span:has(.mw-thanks-thank-link)::before{content:normal!important;}. :has() is very new. Most evergreen browsers support it since the past 6ish months, but Firefox still requires that you turn on a preference on your machine. See MDN. Otherwise, this needs to be done in JavaScript. Izno (talk) 23:06, 25 January 2023 (UTC)
@Izno: Thanks, :has() was new one to me. It sort of works but as .mw-thanks-thank-link is contained within the span .mw-changeslist-links.mw-pager-tools the command removes both instances of ::before in the span as there's one preceding .mw-rollback-link as well. Not that his bothers me, I added a line to remove the ::after bracket from the span and I have a solution that suits me. Nthep (talk) 12:20, 26 January 2023 (UTC)
The :has(...) pseudo-class was introduced to CSS Selectors Level 4 on 1 February 2018 (slightly less than five years ago), the document has been through several revisions since (current rev is dated 11 November 2022) but it has never moved out of the W3C Working Draft stage, so don't rely on it being present in future revisions - even if it is present, it might not have the same behaviour. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 21:44, 26 January 2023 (UTC)
Yeah, I was shooting for sufficient. Being more precise with which span has the mw-thanks-thank-link would maybe have prevented that. Izno (talk) 22:17, 26 January 2023 (UTC)
Note that .mw-thanks-thank-link{display:none;} is not enough to hide the thank button in mobile web. Since a recent change, it is more obtrusive as a large button and is easy to accidentally thank vandals in mobile watchlist and Recent changes. To hide it everywhere in both desktop and mobile along with empty brackets, use
a.mw-thanks-thank-link{/* Hide thank button in watchlist, RC, page history. Overqualify for hiding in mobile as well */display:none;}span:has(.mw-thanks-thank-link)::before{/* Hide open bracket, slash before hidden thank button */content:normal!important;}span:has(.mw-thanks-thank-link)::after{/* Hide open bracket, slash after hidden thank button */content:normal!important;}.mw-diff-tool{/* Remove empty brackets around hidden thank button in diff window */display:none;}.mw-ui-button.mw-ui-progressive.mw-mf-action-button{/* Hide thank button in mobile diff */display:none;}
It does require it everywhere except in Mobile diff, I had a javascript hack to skip that step. As far as I remember, the confirmation step was never a part of mobile diff. However the reason I have chosen to globally hide it is because of the large amount of screen space it occupies. I doubt many mobile users check Recent changes in enwiki, but it is essential in less busy wikis. The thank button is bad in many other language wikis where it occupies half the screen width and 7-8% of screen height, pushing it to a seperate line. Where previously I could see 6 entries in Recent changes and watchlist, now only 3 or 4 is visible. ಮಲ್ನಾಡಾಚ್ ಕೊಂಕ್ಣೊ (talk) 16:56, 26 January 2023 (UTC)
To enable :has() for Firefox, go to about:config, accept the risk if asked, search for layout.css.has-selector.enabled, then toggle from false to true.If your watchlist still has () on entries where a "thank" wouldn't be present (edits by IPs, bots, and yourself), it's presumably from hidden rollback links. To hide those too, add
Latest comment: 1 year ago6 comments4 people in discussion
@JJMC89 @TheDJ A few months ago I opened T318568, which described "NULL" showing up in search autocompletions. It was just closed as "invalid" with the comment "this is intentional", and cited Special:Diff/1060688496 as evidence. What's the full story here? One way or another, we shouldn't be putting "NULL" in search autocompletions. I don't know if the bug is in Vector 2022, or in the usage of {{SHORTDESC:NULL}}, or somewhere else, but somewhere along the line we're doing it wrong and it should be fixed. -- RoySmith(talk)21:58, 26 January 2023 (UTC)
(copied from JJMC89's talk page): TheDJ: The supported way to force no description is {{short description|none}}. Because {{user page}} sets |2=noreplace, a local (lack of) description should override that template. Unfortunately, this does not work, because a short description of "none" produces a nowiki tag instead of an actual empty short description. See this discussion and this previous discussion. – Jonesey95 (talk) 22:40, 26 January 2023 (UTC)
Issues moving images atop an article
Latest comment: 1 year ago3 comments2 people in discussion
I'm trying to affix the evolution of the Arabic digit for 9 image to the left. However, when I try to do this on the new skin V2022, it bugs and the image is transported to the section below in the middle of text. How can I solve this? I had to remove one image (of the seven-segment display of 9) since it was disorienting. Thank you for your help! Radlrb (talk) 08:22, 27 January 2023 (UTC)
It's because of the wiktionary sidebar. You cannot alternate left and right floating content like that. The one element will push down the other element. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 09:59, 27 January 2023 (UTC)
Thank you! I was a bit bewildered, I knew it had to have an easy fix. And it makes complete sense, I actually had forgotten about the wikitionary bar that I moved myself too. Radlrb (talk) 10:06, 27 January 2023 (UTC)
Is there a problem with this font (the only one available) that prevents browsers from using it?
Latest comment: 1 year ago3 comments2 people in discussion
I largely wrote the article Kaktovik_numerals, and had to use graphic workarounds for the characters. There is one font available, but it doesn't appear to work with browsers. Can you tell if it's incomplete?
At Kaktovik_numerals#External_links, there is a "free Kaktovik font". However, installing it does not allow my browser (FF) to display the characters. In Kaktovik_numerals#In Unicode, there are two tables, raw Unicode at top and graphics at bottom. I see only boxes with numbers in the top table.
This is the only Unicode Kaktovik font there currently is. Is it badly designed? It works fine in a word-processor, but does it need some additional code to allow a browser to recognize that it can be used for this code range? If so, please advise and I can fix it and submit it to the external site. If users have an option for a functional font, we could remove the bulk of the graphics in this article -- currently the characters are not searchable unless you go into the edit window or paste the text somewhere else. — kwami (talk) 19:40, 27 January 2023 (UTC)
This external article mentions this a little bit. As these are new unicode symbols it may be a while before they are widely available - it appears Google may be working to add them in the near future. — xaosfluxTalk19:53, 27 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago8 comments3 people in discussion
I find that many Wikipedia tables are useless, because as I scroll down, I cannot see how the data in a table relates to the heading. This issue was discussed 13 years ago, but nothing was ever done. Since then times have changed, and freezing of headings has become common at many websites. Wikipedia tables have also become larger and more complicated, such as Comparison_of_accounting_software#Free_and_open_source_software. I would have to copy the data into a spreadsheet in order to understand it. Why do I have to use external tools to view Wikipedia tables?
Comfr (talk) 09:31, 27 January 2023 (UTC)
As with any editor, you are free to edit the tables to make what you think is an improvement. If someone else disagrees, they can revert the change and then it is something that should be discussed on the talk page. Personally I wouldn't update the help page until the frozen header had become established on a few pages.
There is one problem when using borders via class wikitable. The position:sticky causes some of the borders in the header to disappear.
Have you tried enabling the "Make headers of tables display as long as the table is in view" gadget in your preferences? – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:01, 27 January 2023 (UTC)
I enabled "Make headers of tables display as long as the table is in view", and it had no effect in chrome Version 109.0.5414.119, however ";position: sticky; top: 0" did work. Comfr (talk) 03:08, 28 January 2023 (UTC)
I hadn't seen that gadget and it works for me in Firefox (latest for Windows). It says it should work in Chrome v91+. The behaviour is the same as the CSS in the examples above: the the borders between cells in the header row are lost as is the border between the header row on the next row. It looks like the right and bottom border have an issue as top and left still show. Why would using a sticky position change the borders? — Jts1882 | talk08:11, 28 January 2023 (UTC)
@CX Zoom When parsing a page LUA modules are allowed to run for a maximum of 10 seconds, if the total time to run all the modules on a page takes longer than that the run is aborted and the module just outputs this error. To fix it you either need to reduce the number of modules used on a page or optimise their code. If you look at the HTML source of a page you will see a HTML comment starting with "pp limit report" which tells you how much of the time and memory limits the page is currently using. 163.1.15.238 (talk) 13:40, 27 January 2023 (UTC)
I'll add that the time varies so when borderline, the page might load successfully most of the time. In addition, when editing a section it could work fine in edit preview (as not all modules called by the whole page are run), but then fail when saved and the whole page viewed. — Jts1882 | talk13:52, 27 January 2023 (UTC)
The bottom of preview pages show "Parser profiling data" which includes Lua time usage if a module was used, e.g. saying "5.000/10.000 seconds" if half the limit was used. PrimeHunter (talk) 14:02, 27 January 2023 (UTC)
On what basis is this time alloted? I had three loops (1 was "for loop", 2 were "while loop", where number of repetitions were equal) , and it took 10.004 seconds. Now, I merged it into one "for loop" and it is taking 0.006 seconds. —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})16:02, 27 January 2023 (UTC)
@CX Zoom It's just the processor time used - each time a page runs a script the time taken is measured to the nearest 20ms, when the total goes over 10s the running script is cancelled and it and all subsequent modules are replaced with an error. The most likely explanation is that the module got stuck in an infinite loop somehow, is it possible that one of the while loops could have been in a situation where it would never have exited? 163.1.15.238 (talk) 17:30, 27 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago2 comments2 people in discussion
Double-clicking on a word should (and usually does) select a whole word, regardless of where that word is. But here's the odd case. Double-clicking on the first word of body-text after a first-level (==) header selects the word and the whole text of that header. No problem for double-clicking on the last (or any other) word of the header, or any other word of the body. And no problem for lower-level headers. Good (I guess) news, this is true on both Vector2022 and Vector2010, and logged out, using Firefox/Mac. Using Chrome, it doesn't happen (double-clicking behaves normally) even on V2022. DMacks (talk) 22:40, 27 January 2023 (UTC)
Has anyone here hacked up a Javascript to make the Vector 2022 sticky header appear on pages in all namespaces? I keep expecting it to appear on pages that I am visiting, but it just doesn't. It's frustrating. According to this MW page about it, At time of writing it is only enabled on namespaces: Main, Main talk, User, User talk, Wikipedia, Template, Help, Category, Portal, Module but not old revisions, diffs, history or edit pages. An example of a specific page where I was looking for the sticky header but did not find it was Template talk:Infobox election. Thanks in advance for any tips! – Jonesey95 (talk) 01:34, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
It shouldn't be too difficult, it exists on those pages. To make it appear you would need js / css to set
transform:translateY(0);opacity:1;
for the element style of #vector-sticky-header when the page is scrolled. It will also require a bit of fine tuning since all icons will appear Talk / Main page and edit / view source. Terasail[✉️]02:03, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
Thanks. I tried it in my common.css, but it shows the sticky header even before scrolling, which covers the main header (which, of course, has different contents from the sticky header, frustratingly). Also, this perma-sticky header is missing the User menu (the torso icon), which is mystifying. – Jonesey95 (talk) 03:03, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
Yeah, you would use javascript to active the css when you scroll, but I didn't even notice that the user menu was missing. I can't comprehend why the basic functions: watchlist, talk, userpage, preferences and log out are not just built in considering all wikimedia wikis have these links... Terasail[✉️]03:12, 20 January 2023 (UTC)
@Jonesey95 It seems that the namespace-specific sticky header is a mistake, a configuration change was forgotten. It should be fixed next week to work in all namespaces. Please follow T328133 for updates. Thanks for reporting this! Matma Rextalk14:39, 27 January 2023 (UTC)
That ticket says "all talk pages", not "all pages". To be clear: the request was for the sticky header to be enabled on ALL pages, not just all talk namespace pages. It should show on File:Wrocław MuzeumNarodowe.jpg. It should also show when I scroll down a diff page like this one. It should show on my Watchlist. If it is going to be useful, it needs to appear where it is needed, which is pretty much everywhere. – Jonesey95 (talk) 16:59, 27 January 2023 (UTC)
@Jonesey95 Both Szymon na Olga said that it was intentional that not all pages have this. They also made it smaller then the normal header intentionally. But good luck ;). I personally prefer to have the header with me everywhere too. Hence created my own fixed header style. Nux (talk) 10:11, 28 January 2023 (UTC)
@Jonesey95 Oops, I misunderstood you, I thought you were only complaining about talk pages, since that's all I think about these days and you brought up Template talk as an example. Well, I hope you at least find this change to be an improvement, if not a resolution. Matma Rextalk15:06, 28 January 2023 (UTC)
@Jonesey95 @Nux When it comes to the non-talk namespaces, I found "paper trail" of the decision about which ones get the sticky header at T290347. It doesn't really explain why, as far as I can see, but it does state "we will iterate on this in the future", so maybe this could be changed as well. Matma Rextalk15:06, 28 January 2023 (UTC)
I tried to be as clear as possible by writing "in all namespaces" in the section header and "pages in all namespaces" in my lead sentence. There is no reason to hide the sticky header on File pages (to cite just one example; please do not add only File space to the list). – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:23, 28 January 2023 (UTC)
Get un-nowikied parameter through module
Latest comment: 1 year ago3 comments3 people in discussion
If you pass a parameter through a template containing another template, e.g. {{foo|{{bar}}}}, and {{foo}} calls {{#invoke:foo|main}}, then when you access the argument in Module:Foo, it will contain the expanded version of {{bar}}. How would you get the string {{bar}} without it being expanded, short of calling {{foo|<nowiki>{{bar}}</nowiki>}} and then calling mw.text.UnstripNoWiki() in the module? — Qwerfjkltalk13:44, 28 January 2023 (UTC)
Latest comment: 1 year ago2 comments2 people in discussion
If ruwiki community want to run a certain voting through SecurePoll (it isn't admin/bur/arbcom election), what should we do? How to send request to stewards (or who manages it) to create a voting? MBH (talk) 10:54, 29 January 2023 (UTC)
Thanks for the heads up! Answering some of the concerns above, Synchronizer acts on behalf of the user, so if a user doesn't have the necessary permission to edit a protected module, the edit will fail and the user will get a "No permission" error. That being said, I'll improve the tool to mark protected pages with some kind of icon, to warn stewards and others not to abuse their special permissions. As to the problem in Wikispecies, it seems like the kind of issue that Synchronizer may help avoid, since Synchronizer marks as "Forked" the modules with code not matching any in the history of the "master" module. Cheers! Sophivorus (talk) 00:00, 29 January 2023 (UTC)
Since the switch to Vector 22 (which I generally like) I have been having some problems with the search box.
I have been in the habit of going to pages I frequent (such as WP:TH, WP:HD and WP:RDH by typing ctr-alt-F WP:TH (return) all in one go, and it usually got me there. (Occasionally, for reasons I've never quite worked out, it would put me on the Search page, but whatever I was going for was always the first choice).
Since Vector 22, I end up on all sorts of pages. What seems to be happening is that the generation of suggested matches is interfering with what I've typed, in an unpredictable way. When I try to go to WP:TH I end up on all sorts of pages in the WP space, usually starting with Th.
I've now learnt to wait until it's generated its search suggestions before typing Return; but I'm not 100% sure that it always gets it right even then.
OK, I just typed WP:TH in the search box, waited until the suggestions had apparently settled down, with the Teahouse at the top, and typed Return ... and was taken to WP:The duck test. (which is not even the next item in the suggestions after the Teahouse). ColinFine (talk) 18:16, 29 January 2023 (UTC)
It appears that if the mouse cursor is on one of the suggested entries, hitting Enter opens that entry rather than the search query, even if you haven't moved the cursor a pixel since you started typing in the search box. This is indeed annoying and should be fixed. Nardog (talk) 18:18, 29 January 2023 (UTC)
@Xaosflux: This page is on my watchlist forever. I remember that earlier the page will shrink such that the table takes the whole screen but the rest of article content and diff view would remain inside the white box area (white box as in vector legacy). —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})12:55, 28 January 2023 (UTC)
This problem is quite bad on some pages, including Wikipedia:Catalogue of CSS classes. Disabling Enabling the "limited width mode" in Preferences -> Appearance resolves this problem for me until this bug can be fixed. I checked to ensure that it is not happening when I am logged out, even if I click the limited-width toggle. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:17, 28 January 2023 (UTC) [Edited to add: Enabling the limited width mode made this problem go away for almost all pages, but I'm still seeing it on about one out of 50 pages instead of 1 out of 10. Is it really a good idea for developers to roll out software changes on Friday and then take two days off? When I worked in IT, we never changed anything on Friday. – Jonesey95 (talk) 22:02, 29 January 2023 (UTC)]
Thanks, I can also replicate this case when logged-in on Windows 11, MS Edge, even with safemode enabled. Otoh, when logged-out in incognito mode, things work out as they should, the text in the table line-wraps; when logged-in it refuses to wrap. —CX Zoom[he/him](let's talk • {C•X})15:36, 28 January 2023 (UTC)
Next-to-last editor button doesn't work with IPv6 IPs
Latest comment: 1 year ago11 comments3 people in discussion
As the title describes, the button that says "next-to-last editor" doesn't work if the editor is an IPv6 IP, instead it simply just states that there are no differences between revisions as if it is basically comparing the current revision to itself. It works just fine on IPv4 so it's an IPv6 exclusive issue. ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#654518:11, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
It should be underneath the "previous Edit" and "Changes since my last edit button". If this is a userscript or gadget that shouldn't be addressed here feel free to send me to the right place. ― Blaze WolfTalkBlaze Wolf#654518:18, 24 January 2023 (UTC)
Done with Special:Diff/1128362471, using {{Yesno-yes}}. — Qwerfjkltalk 19:19, 19 December 2022 (UTC)
- alter that to another value, like 244px 
or 248px 
, and it displays correctly. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 12:28, 18 December 2022 (UTC)
.png){kind=spacer}
A new function has been used for gadget developers to add content underneath the title on article pages. This is considered a stable API that should work across all skins. Documentation is available. [5]
— Klein Muçi (talk) 12:15, 25 December 2022 (UTC)
Some wikis will be in read-only for a few minutes because of a switch of their main database. It will be performed on 10 January at 07:00 UTC (targeted wikis) and on 12 January at 07:00 UTC (targeted wikis).
Correct margin in the old vector
Wrong large margin in the new vector 2022
Done. It will probably take the job queue (or the bot that helps it along) a few days or weeks to recategorize all of the pages. – Jonesey95 (talk) 19:40, 10 January 2023 (UTC)
Moved from Wikipedia:Village pump (miscellaneous)
Resolved
Works for me @BhamBoi I'm not seeing this, for example searching for Lincolnville, pennsylvania got me right to Lincolnville, Pennsylvania. Can you give some reproducible examples? — xaosflux Talk 00:05, 19 January 2023 (UTC)
Resolved, thanks! Mathglot (talk) 02:43, 21 January 2023 (UTC)
is blowing up with unread notifications, even amassing over 99 at one point. When I clicked on it it showed me an item stating that there were 25 unread notifications on the RfC. After clicking on it my unread count was reduced by 25, but bringing up the dropdown list from displays another batch of 25 from the RfC. I can get rid of all of them by clicking 
Fixed! Thanks to Xaosflux for this css edit, which made my editing life a little bit nicer. – Jonesey95 (talk) 17:40, 26 January 2023 (UTC)
wikimedia.org to get someone assigned. — xaosflux Talk 11:48, 29 January 2023 (UTC)
.jpg){kind=link}
