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

Newcomers to the technical village pump are encouraged to read these guidelines prior to posting here. If you want to report a JavaScript error, please follow this guideline. Questions about MediaWiki in general should be posted at the MediaWiki support desk.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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WP:INTADMIN

Hi everyone. I'm just sending an FYI to let you know (per the requirements listed) that I've requested temporary interface administrator rights. You're welcome to comment, support, oppose, hate, etc my request by clicking here. ~Oshwah~^{(talk) (contribs)} 23:13, 30 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Piggybacking on Oshwah's request, I have also filed one directly below his. Input is requested. :-)—CYBERPOWER (Chat) 23:46, 30 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Piggyback #2 here. Please follow this anchored link to my request if you're interested in commenting. Deryck C. 10:02, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

~~Piggyback #3 here. Please follow this link to my request. --Dirk Beetstra ^{T C} 15:34, 3 September 2018 (UTC)~~[reply]

Please see an additional request from Ragesoss at Wikipedia_talk:Interface_administrators#IAdmin_temporary_access_request_for_User:Ragesoss. — xaosflux ^Talk 17:07, 4 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Rollback and revdel

University of Chicago Law School was recently full-protected due to an edit war, the subject then came up at WP:AN, and I happened upon it as a result. By that point, there was consensus at the talk page that some bits needed to be removed for copyright reasons, so I edited through full protection to remove things that were identified, and nobody objected. Someone else has since revdeleted the infringing revisions. To my surprise, however, I find that I don't have a rollback link — my latest edit is the latest edit to the page, so I have (current) in my contributions, but no rollback. Is this intentional? It seems to me that when an edit has been revdeleted, there should be a rollback link, and clicking it should have the effect of restoring the last visible edit by someone else. Nyttend (talk) 23:31, 30 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Nyttend, rollback isn't that smart. It looks at the last revision by someone else, whether or not it was revdel'd. Rollback cannot restore a revdel'd version of the page, so the option is not available. Nihlus 23:38, 30 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Nyttend, I can confirm the missing rollback link as well; note however that the Twinkle rollback links do appear. Obviously, as I'm not a sysop, triggering them generates an error. I'm not sure what they'd do for you. Home Lander (talk) 00:41, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Tested at test wiki. Trying to use Twinkle to rollback to a rev-delled edit still generates an error even with sysop rights because Twinkle can't find the revision to rollback to. Home Lander (talk) 00:49, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I'm the one that did the revdelete, I wasn't aware I might be causing a problem. Do you need me to fix something? Ivanvector (^Talk/_Edits) 14:00, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Ivanvector, I don't see that there is a problem, per se, it just caused a technical side effect that prompted the question. Home Lander (talk) 18:33, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, that's a good description: nothing wrong with the revdel, just a question about an undesirable-to-me aspect of rollback. Nyttend (talk) 11:47, 1 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Commons bleed for a non-commons image?

File:Wonder Woman.jpg is showing Commons:File:Wonder Woman.jpg (some non-notable person dressed up in a Wonder Woman Halloween costume), even though there is a (fair use) image of a comic book cover at that name locally. I have tried purging, refreshing, etc. --B (talk) 15:41, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

B, fixed. There was a redirect with the same name on commons. I don't even know the process to delete those, so I nominated it for deletion and removed the redirect. Nihlus 15:47, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Nihlus: So Wikipedia can't handle Commons having a redirect at the same name of one of our images? That seems like a pretty annoying bug. --B (talk) 16:51, 31 August 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@B and Nihlus: I just deleted it for you Ronhjones ^(Talk) 23:34, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Talk page notification not working?

Resolved

Notification re talking page messages seems to be not working today. In preferences, the web notification option for this is checked, but grayed out. — Maile (talk) 11:36, 1 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

It works for me. It's checked and grayed out because it's not optional. Are you saying you were not notified of [1]? Do you see it at Special:Notifications? PrimeHunter (talk) 13:53, 1 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Oops. I just realized it never notified me this morning ... because, it seems I looked at the last message before signing out last evening. My oversight. Disregard this thread, please. — Maile (talk) 16:26, 1 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Username or IP removed? Never seen this before

I just saw this on my watchlist: [2] What is it? Never seen anything like that, only the "Renamed user abcdefg123" what comes from Wikipedia:Courtesy vanishing. Is this is something the WMF has enforced without consulting the community? --Pudeo (talk) 22:17, 1 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The username or IP was oversighted. — JJMC89 (T·C) 22:20, 1 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) This can happen for any of three situations: WP:REVDEL, WP:OVERSIGHT, or both (in that order). In this case it was not the first one. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:22, 1 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Pretty curious. Thanks, it does mention oversighting usernames. But that makes evaluating the the user's actions as well as the administrative actions impossible for accountability. Reminds of removing "unpersons" from official pictures in the USSR (Censorship of images in the Soviet Union). --Pudeo (talk) 22:28, 1 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

IP addresses are often suppressed when someone accidentally edits while logged out and/or did not realize that their IP address would be published. Since IP addresses can reveal things like your location, Internet service provider, employer, etc., I think the oversight team regularly grants these types of requests as "non-public personal information". It does make accountability for the edits difficult, since there's no one we can communicate with about them. If you disagree with the edits, I suppose I would just apply WP:BRD and revert them; whoever it is, I'd imagine they'd create an account in order to discuss the issue if they were so motivated. Mz7 (talk) 23:56, 1 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Meaning of negative byte count on diff of oldest page edit?

What is the meaning of a negative byte count in the "diff" of the oldest edit of a page? Example: go to White supremacy, History, and click "oldest edit"; I see edit version 332270761 of 01:21, July 1, 2001‎ listed as "(436 bytes) (-12,385)": here. Mathglot (talk) 02:18, 2 September 2018 (UTC)‎[reply]

It means that I imported some edits from the Nostalgia Wikipedia to the article. This doesn't happen with imported edits anymore, but I can't find the Phabricator task about it. Graham87 02:54, 2 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Question for non en wiki

In this module, line 1352, is there some way to change date.getUTCMonthName and date.getUTCFullYear to local numerical and month names? For example September 2 should be ٢ی ئەیلوول in that wiki, the day coming before the month. Thanks in advance.--▸ ‎épine _talk♬ 16:03, 2 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

RfC: Creating abusefilter-manager global group

There's an RfC in meta about creating a new abusefilter-manager group. People are invited to participate in the discussion there. Thanks, Kaartic ^{correct me, if i'm wrong} 18:21, 2 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Headers within tables fail on mobile

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T203836

OK, I understand that placing section headings within tables is discouraged by some style guides, nevertheless it is a useful practice that exists at numerous articles. Examples: 2018 in spaceflight or List of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy launches. Our mobile browser (at least the iOS version) can't make sense of these tables, probably because it has a strict interpretation of what a section or subsection is. Could some kind soul point me to the appropriate people willing to discuss the issue and possibly craft a ticket to the relevant developer group? — JFG ^talk 23:43, 2 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

You can fix the problem here simply by ending the table before each section. I'd advise that regardless, since there's not really a reason to have a contiguous table in these cases. The tables are being used as presentation tables rather than as data tables, so you can't sort them, which is the only reason you might want to keep the tables like this. --Izno (talk) 00:19, 3 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Please don't confuse the term heading with header. Headings are the lines of text that go at the top of pages, sections and subsections - in HTML these are constructed using <h1>...</h1> through <h6>...</h6>. Headers are the first row or column of a table - in HTML these are constructed using <th>...</th>.

This is a heading

This is a header
followed by some data

Header may also refer to boxes shown below headings, such as the box at the top of this page that contains the text "The technical section of the village pump is used to discuss ...". --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 08:08, 3 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for the report JFG. And to the rest for the clarification. I filed a task for this one. I do agree that breaking up the tables per section would be a best practice, but I hope the engineers can take a look at this for us and ponder. CKoerner (WMF) (talk) 18:45, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Lint error in Bot2

{{Bot2}} is causing Lint errors:Bogus file options. Please discuss at Template talk:Bot2#Lint error. —Anomalocaris (talk) 01:02, 3 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Request to set up auto archiving WP:RMT page

Currently editors are simply deleting content from WP:RMT instead of marking as done and archive by bot. This is not normal. Pages like WP:RFPP and WP:PERM etc are archived for historical purposes. We have a consensus in support to do it here at Wikipedia_talk:Requested_moves#Proposal_to_start_auto_archiving_WP:RMT_page. So requesting someone to help set up the archive similar to WP:RFPP. --DBig Xrayᗙ 09:43, 3 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

On hold Please put this on hold for now, there has been some oppose from folks recently. --DBig Xrayᗙ 16:23, 3 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Multiple [hide] links

The article Palembang Light Rail Transit includes a route map in the infobox. There is a line at the top of it that says System map [hide] and a second [hide] at the bottom. If I click the top one, the map hides properly, and the [show] link can be used to view it again. If I click the bottom one, the map disappears, and there does not appear to be a way to get it back, except by leaving the page and returning to it. Is there any way to disable the bottom [hide] link, or to make it work properly? (I am using the Firefox browser). Bob1960evens (talk) 14:11, 3 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Bob1960evens: Fixed. Is that OK? –Ammarpad (talk) 20:40, 3 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Ammarpad: Thanks, that is great. I notice you have put a collapsible=no switch in the map. I'll remember that for next time. Bob1960evens (talk) 17:41, 4 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, that's because the main infobox has the functionality and likewise the embedded map, which is essentially a template itself. So you just need to disable that one. –Ammarpad (talk) 22:00, 4 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Tech News: 2018-36

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

There is a new user right for users who can edit CSS and JavaScript for the entire wiki. Before this all admins could edit CSS and JavaScript. This was a security risk. This group is called interface administrators. Administrators can delete user CSS and JavaScript pages. [3][4]
There will be an A/B test on the Wikipedia mobile website. It starts this week. It tests how we show templates that show information about an article. The test will last two weeks. [5][6]
You can now use different CSS rules for different skins when you edit templates. This is because of TemplateStyles. [7]
wp10 in ORES is now called articlequality. [8]
When you get a new message on your talk page you get a yellow message in the toolbar. The preference to show or not show this has been removed. [9]

Problems

UploadWizard had problems with campaigns. Users could not upload files. This has now been fixed. [10]
You can get a notification when a link is made to a page you created. This has not worked since June. It was fixed last week. [11]

Changes later this week

The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 4 September. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 5 September. It will be on all wikis from 6 September (calendar).

Meetings

You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 5 September at 15:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

The Wikimedia Foundation Readers department will work on advanced mobile editing. You can read more about this and other things they plan to work on over the next year. You can also see the presentation.
The RelatedSites extension will be removed from Wikivoyage.
Unused projects on the Wikimedia Cloud virtual private server will be removed. This will happen in October. Projects can be marked if they are being used. [12]

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

16:47, 3 September 2018 (UTC)

Template problem

Please click [this] link. In that, how can I make "the civil war" in the next line? I mean the heading of that section?Adithyak1997 (talk) 03:12, 4 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Is this what you wanted to do, Adithyak1997. Next time try to find a place to ask over at ml.wikipedia, as this message board is only for en.wikipedia. – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 06:47, 4 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Finnusertop and Adithyak1997: this technical village pump is not only for English Wikipedia, it is for all Wikipedias and by extension all WMF projects. The pool of the editors who can readily provide such technical help largely are based here and I am not aware of a rule that forbid people from smaller projects to seek technical help here. –Ammarpad (talk) 20:18, 4 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Ammarpad: I disagree, this page in general is for the English Wikipedia. If you have a question about stuff on a different site, your best place to ask is at an equivalent on that site since people there are more likely to know that site's templates and other customizations. This page certainly isn't for general help with wikitext on any site anywhere. That said, questions about how to do make something work elsewhere that work here aren't necessarily out of place here.

You're right that there's no rule against asking such questions here, but such questions are less likely to get much attention and I'd expect a backlash (possibly including the creation of such a rule) if there were a massive influx of such questions. Anomie ⚔ 17:03, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Anomie: It's good you acknowledge currently there's no rule against that kind of questions/requests, so the status quo reigns until when the community decides otherwise. Your use of the word "site" creates ambiguity, because it could mean all the 1.9b+ sites in the world, and I didn't mean that. Intentionally, in that stead I used "Wikipedias" and "WMF projects." These WMF wikis have been and will always be dependent on English Wikipedia for many things and don't have any complex templates or intricate customizations that are beyond the knowledge of people who frequent this page (incidentally, including You).

In addition, a large number of them still use directly copy-pasted templates and codes from here English Wikipedia. In fact, if the template's problem cannot be fixed or identified here on enwiki I doubt if there's any other place in all WMF wikis where it'll be fixed. A quick search of the archives showed several requests of users from smaller WMF wikis and most of them were happily answered. I don't find deluge of meaningless questions or disruption in all the 22 sample requests that I examined dating back to 2008. So actually, I find it more undesirable to scare away editors requesting harmless technical help from smaller WMF wikis than the act of requesting the help itself. –Ammarpad (talk) 18:22, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Since this was an issue started from my side, I would like to say something. I am a wikipedia user who have started my account in 2016. I am trying to be active in my mother tongue malayalam as well as in English also. I don't have much interest in creating articles instead I am interested in removing backlog. In malayalam wikipedia, a total of 19 admins are present out of which only 9 are active. There is only 1 person(I guess) who used to deal with templates. But he is currently inactive. In such a case, I have started creating modules and templates. He as well as I have been importing modules as well as templates from english wikipedia only and doesn't know coding yet. In such a case, how do you think can our wikipedia move further without any edit in the backlog section and also without the help of this wikipedia?Adithyak1997 (talk) 05:07, 9 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Gmail "sent mail" goes only through August 30th

When I look at my "sent mail" file in gmail, it shows me what I sent through August 30, and nothing more recent. What's going on? Is there some way to see things I sent more recently? Michael Hardy (talk) 05:00, 4 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Michael Hardy: This page is for discussing technical issues with Wikipedia. For discussing issues with gmail, try https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!forum/gmail. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 15:28, 4 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

This can also be asked at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Computing. –Ammarpad (talk) 20:10, 4 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Ahecht: @Ammarpad: I had intended to post this at the "reference desk" and mistakenly put it here instead, so I deleted this section, but somebody restored it. Michael Hardy (talk) 01:02, 5 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Parser function / module to format number

Is there a parser function or module to call to pad a number like 12 or 9 to 012 or 009 respectively? For use in a template. Shyamal (talk) 10:07, 4 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Shyamal, there's a parser function for it, see Help:Magic_words#Formatting. Something like {{padleft:12|3}} gives what you want Galobtter (pingó mió) 10:12, 4 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks a ton. Shyamal (talk) 10:28, 4 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Text of tabs in MonoBook skin

If I view a talk page in MonoBook skin, and append ?uselang=qqx to the URL in order to view the interface message names, the tabs at the top of the page are shown as follows:

(nstab-main)(nstab-talk)(monobook-view-edit)(monobook-action-addsection)(monobook-view-history)(monobook-action-delete)(monobook-action-move)(monobook-action-protect)

This to me indicates that the messages should be found at:

but all of these, except the first, are redlinks. Where do the messages really come from? In particular, the fourth one. I should be able to write "{{int:monobook-action-addsection}}" in order to emit "new section", but instead I get "+". --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 19:12, 4 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The "nstab" ones are special, (see phab:T153867) and can use the associated MediaWiki:Main and MediaWiki:Talk messages; the others are even more special - they are in core and also appear linked to i18n, but they can be overwritten with local messages. See that first phab link for why int doesn't work here. — xaosflux ^Talk 19:43, 4 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

In some cases there are multiple messages that can be used, starting with more-specific messages and falling back to more general messages if the specific message doesn't exist. The skin elements you've mentioned here work that way: the talk tab specifies MediaWiki:talk as a fallback after the namespace-specific message (MediaWiki:nstab-talk, MediaWiki:nstab-project_talk, etc.), the view history tab specifies the generic MediaWiki:history_short as a fallback for MediaWiki:monobook-view-history, and so on.

I don't know of any way to determine these fallback chains besides finding the PHP code that generates the element. The fallback chains aren't a property of the messages themselves, which is why the int: magic word can't fall back. Since the qqx language "defines" all messages, it shows only the first message in the chain. Anomie ⚔ 17:17, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The problem that I'm trying to address here is one where I'm advising various users (there have been several) on how to use discussion pages. These users all have a common factor: they are starting new discussions on talk pages in a manner that is not advised by WP:TPG. They add their new posting either (i) at the very top, above the banners; (ii) below the banners but before the first section; (iii) in some random existing discussion part-way down the page (not necessarily at the bottom of that discussion); (iv) at the bottom of the page but without adding a new heading so that the new post appears to be part of an unrelated thread. What I want to do is describe the tab that they should be using to start a new discussion, unfortunately these users could have any skin selected (out of five or six), and any language set (out of well over 100). The language problem is normally sorted by using {{int:messagename}} but I know of no way for customising for skin. A few years ago (for a few years from mid-2010 on), we could assume that all newbies were using Vector; but with mobile devices on the increase. this is no longer the case. Not all are newbies: indeed, there are also a few long-standing admins (one I could name, but won't, has been an admin for longer than I've been registered, which is nine years) who start new threads by adding to the last existing section (I can tell by the grey part of the edit summary). Accordingly, I want to suggest the internationalised form for two or three of the more common skins - Vector, Monobook, MinervaNeue. So, I find the message names for a given skin by appending ?uselang=qqx&useskin=monobook (or whichever skin I wish to inspect) to the URL. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 20:23, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion notice

I have placed an idea at Wikipedia:Village pump (idea lab)#Discussion for feasibility of a two password system which also poses questions of technical feasibility for those that monitor this board. Editors are invited to participate.
— Berean Hunter (talk) 16:44, 5 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Log/2018 August 31 is in Category:AfD debates (Fiction and the arts)

Somehow the entire deletion log for August 31 is showing up under the Fiction and the Arts category. Ps: Please ping me if this gets replied as I'm not watching this page. --Tyw7 (🗣️ Talk) — If (reply) then (ping me) 23:20, 5 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

It is not there now, but perhaps one of the transcluded AFDs temporarily had that category. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 04:14, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

A couple of POTD contains File:Deleted photo.png

These POTD templates is hosting File:Deleted photo.png

Ps: Please ping me if this gets replied as I'm not watching this page.

--Tyw7 (🗣️ Talk) — If (reply) then (ping me) 23:20, 5 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Tyw7: Various users have substituted in the deleted photo pic rather than leaving the red link to the deleted file. In this case I think it is more useful to see the redlink so you can see what the file was called before, and why it was deleted. The reasons for delete seem to be for copyright infringement, where someone in the chain of copying has assumed a wrong license, normally public domain for US government, but the image was not actually made by them. for example commons:Commons:Deletion requests/Files in Category:US Antarctic Program photo library images. The POTC templates are transcluded on the Wikipedia:Picture of the day pages so you are double listing. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 04:07, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

How to permanently and globally disable mobile wikitext editor without disabling mobile wiki skin.

Reposting from helpdesk according to suggestion

I have repeatedly encountered the problem and tried to searched and asked for solution but still can't find anything that can help me.

On mobile devices, due to the limited amount of memory, it's easy for browser tabs to be clear out of memory when user opened too much other tabs to look for information when from other sites.

Normally, when browser reload those tabs when user switch into the tab after the tab being cleared out if the memory, it would still be possible for original text in editor field to be loaded back.

However, since that wikitext mobile editor was dynamically pulled in the page, this browser text field recovery process could not work, and thus hours and hours of edits that would have been made via mobile browsers have all go into vain thanks to that completely counterproductive design.

How to permanently disable that?

C933103 (talk) 03:08, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

C933103, which of the multiple mobile-editing systems is being used here? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 17:59, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Whatamidoing (WMF): The one with "#/editor/0" appear in URL when used. C933103 (talk) 18:02, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

accessdate v. access-date

It seems that templates like {{cite news}} no longer support the accessdate parameter. Instead of changing the parameter to the new one there is a genius bot GreenC bot running around removing accessdate content.--TonyTheTiger (T / C / WP:FOUR / WP:CHICAGO / WP:WAWARD) 04:40, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@TonyTheTiger: No, it's still supported. The bot is only removing it from pages in this category because it's not needed there. –Ammarpad (talk) 05:58, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Sorry about the misunderstanding.-TonyTheTiger (T / C / WP:FOUR / WP:CHICAGO / WP:WAWARD) 12:24, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Edit links not appearing next to section titles in user page

For some reason the edit links are not appearing next to the section titles in my user page (for example there are no "edit" or "edit source" links next to "Basic information"). I tried fiddling with it to try to solve it to no avail. Help! Thinker78 (talk) 07:12, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Thinker78: It's a side-effect of using Portal:Physics/box-header to style your "Progress" box. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:45, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed. By default, section editing is suppressed in {{Box-header}} and until now, Portal:Physics/box-header which uses that template didn't contain the parameter that allows overriding that. –Ammarpad (talk) 10:49, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Broken infobox in Tor (anonymity network)

Hello, could someone have a look at the infobox in Tor (anonymity network) please? It displays raw parameter data like "{LSR| article = Tor | latest_release ➔ Back to article "Tor (anonymity network)" </noinclude>". I am guessing, one of the embedded templates related to release display broke (?), but am not quite sure which one and how. GermanJoe (talk) 09:57, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Fixed..that took quite a bit of time to track down Galobtter (pingó mió) 10:12, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Another category/template problem

Template:User WP Mexico City is populating Category:WikiProject Mexico members instead of Category:WikiProject Mexico participants but seems to do so via some convoluted constructions making it hard to find what to change to fix this. Can anyone amend it correctly? Timrollpickering 11:12, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I did some testing (see the last couple of diffs of my user page), and I think I know what the issue is. {{uir}} needs to get the parameter |member=participant passed to it. I added it in {{User WP Mexico City/sandbox}}, but {{User in Mexico City}} doesn't pass it on to {{uir}}. Either {{User in Mexico City}} needs to pass it through if it gets it, or it needs to always add it. I'm not sure how to do either of those things without breaking stuff, but someone more knowledgeable in template editing probably does. rchard2scout (talk) 13:08, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

No edit conflict message

See [13], User_talk:Pkbwcgs#Why_did_I_delete_all_the_other_nominations?, and User_talk:Evad37/XFDcloser.js#Silent_edit_conflict?. I opened Wikipedia:Redirects for discussion/Log/2018 September 4 for editing, during which time two edits were made by XFDcloser, then when I saved, the edits by XFDcloser were overwritten by my edit, but no edit conflict message came up. SilkTork (talk) 14:11, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@SilkTork: Judging by your edit summary, you edited the whole page instead of just the "September 4" section. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 19:34, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

My edit summary indicates I edited in the same manner as others on that page, including Galobtter who used XFDcloser, and whose edits my edit removed. While I do not have a 100% recall of the incident, I do remember following the instructions (Wikipedia:Redirects_for_discussion#How_to_list_a_redirect_for_discussion} and clicking on the link offered, because I am not familiar with listing redirects for discussion. I do recall that the link delivered me to the appropriate section, and that at the time I started editing I was below the subtitle September 4, and above the 4-digit redirects entry. SilkTork (talk) 23:43, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

See below: "#Small typo fix altered other paragraphs". An edit-merge formerly would combine edits when separated by another line. However, an edit by wp:VE visual editor would overwrite all intermediate edits since the VE session began. Perhaps run "Show changes" before saving a tedious edit, just in case the longer edit might not merge with nearby changes. -Wikid77 (talk) 23:15, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

In this instance I do recall that I used Show preview, because I recall that when I looked at my edit, there was an error of a missing "}} ~~~~" that I had presumably deleted after copying and pasting {{subst:rfd2|redirect=RedirectName|target=TargetArticle|text=The action you would like to occur (deletion, re-targeting, etc.) and the rationale for that action.}} ~~~~ from the instruction page, and then deleting the existing text section ("The action you would like...") in order to write my own text. I do not recall if Galobtter's XFDcloser edits where then present. SilkTork (talk) 23:43, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The visual editor does not overwrite intermediate changes. If it did, then I wouldn't have had to manually resolve a complicated edit conflict yesterday. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 17:47, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Big uh-oh with uw-unsourced1

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T203583
Resolved

So I left a warning for a user here via Twinkle which identified me as DPL bot. I tested here on Bradv's talk and it seems to have identified me as Bradv. I suspect this is just taking the last username of the last person to sign an edit on a talk page but I can see no changes to the warning template itself. So...help? CHRISSYMAD ❯❯❯¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 15:36, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Yup, it's definitely taking the last username from the last same comment. See Bradv's test here. CHRISSYMAD ❯❯❯¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 15:42, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The template uses REVISIONUSER - I guess it's picking up the previous revision instead of the new one somehow? --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 15:43, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) And I left a reciprocal warning for Chrissymad here and it identified me as the last person to edit her page. Is there a problem with {{subst:REVISIONUSER}}? Brad v 15:43, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

SarekOfVulcan I'm not great with templates but I don't see any changes that are immediately obvious that would be messing this up. Seems like a kind of big issue...CHRISSYMAD ❯❯❯¯\_(ツ)_/¯ 15:44, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict × 3)It's related to phab:T203583 according to the discussion on Wikipedia talk:Twinkle#mis-attribution stwalkerster (talk) 15:44, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict)Everyone, see phab:T203583. Looks like it just got deployed to enwiki (thursday..) since at every fora this is being raised at the same time. I removed that subst:revisionuser from {{uw-vandalism1}} and am working on removing from other templates.. Galobtter (pingó mió) 15:46, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, I've removed uses of subst:REVISIONUSER from all templates listed at Wikipedia:Template_messages/User_talk_namespace/Multi-level_templates, until the issue is resolved.. Galobtter (pingó mió) 16:18, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

(@Galobtter: WP:ITSTHURSDAY. --Izno (talk) 20:24, 6 September 2018 (UTC))[reply]

Just a note, this has been fixed. –Ammarpad (talk) 07:04, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:RefToolbar modification

Is it possible to change Wikipedia:RefToolbar so that it can output a {{sfn}} template (or relative) along with the citation template, instead of solely the ref tags? Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 20:09, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

A couple of questions to clarify: do you want sfn as another template in the "Templates" menu, as another entry in the top-level menu (alongside "Error check"), or something else? And when you say along with the citation template, looking at the sfn docs, it doesn't look like sfn goes with another template. I don't use sfn at all, so should the new menu option add something else besides just the sfn template? Enterprisey (talk!) 07:41, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Currently the output of RefToolbar is basically <ref>{{Citation template|parameters}}</ref> or <ref name="Somename">{{Citation template|parameters}}. I wonder if it's possible to make it do something like {{Citation template|parameters}}</ref>{{sfn|parameters}} instead. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 14:38, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

That seems like a rather strange usage. Normally (see Shortened footnotes) the {{sfn}} template goes inline, at a position where the <ref>...</ref> pair would have been added, and the long-form {{cite xxx}} template goes in a section near the bottom of the article. They don't go together, although if properly used they do link together. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:52, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

No, that was just a typo. There was an additional "ref" tag that I didn't remove. Yes, the issue is that as is the RefToolbar has no good function for sfn users. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 07:16, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Now you have one unbalanced <ref> and one unbalanced </ref>. But that wasn't my point: the implication of your 14:38, 7 September 2018 (UTC) post is that you want to put the two separate components side-by-side, which is not how they are intended for use. See a recent TFA for an example of the proper usage of {{sfn}} in conjunction with {{cite xxx}} templates. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 12:32, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

OK, seems like I did write my post incorrectly. What I wanted to ask for is an output like {{Citation template|parameters}}{{sfn|parameters}}. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 12:45, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

It won't work. The tool inserts its output at a single place in the edit window, but what you are asking for is the insertion of two templates simultaneously. The problem is that these are intended to be placed at different parts of the article, like this so somehow we would need all the browser vendors to modify their browsers to allow for a second text cursor and thus a second insertion point. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 15:58, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Huh. Generally when I use the ref toolbar I modify the output so that I can make a list, I don't simply insert the output and leave it. Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 20:32, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Small typo fix altered other paragraphs

Beware: A glitch-edit, which altered several paragraphs when changing cite "date=" to "author=", has been reverted now in page "Lawyer Milloy" (former U.S. football player), but here is the large diff: [14]. I had no idea all that text was being altered when I replaced cite "|date=" as "|author= Shipnuck, Alan" in revision 858386469 diff.

The page has been fixed now, so this is just a log of a bizarre glitch-edit when changing 1 word on a page, as if edit-merge overwrote the entire page, not just the one line I had changed. I think all recent revisions were made via mobile phones (in "desktop" view?). -Wikid77 (talk) 22:11, 6 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Wikid77: You edited an old version, I suspect that you were on this version at the time that you clicked the "Edit" tab at the top, since this diff matches what you describe as your intent. The edit summary that you used has no section name in grey, which indicates that you edited the whole page and not a single section. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 10:52, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Panorama shots

I took a pano shot using an iPhone and uploaded the image to Facebook. Much to my surprise, FB has an auto feature that allows panning the pano, and you can do so using a mouse, touch, or tilting your iPhone or iPad while viewing. What are the chances of getting such a feature on WP? ^{Atsme📞📧} 04:43, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Atsme, It reached 11th in last years community wishlist, so I'd say try again this year and it might have a shot. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 07:49, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Template changes do not take effect

Hello.

I just change a template, fixing two redirects: here.

But when I view the template, nothing appears to have changed. When I hover the mouse pointer over the links, they still show, and lead to, the redirects. The history shows the changes, but still no effect.

When I check "What links here" to the articles to which the redirects lead, it also show no changes; articles linked in the template still link to the redirect instead of the "real" article.

I tried clearing the cache by purging, but nothing happened.

What's wrong? Is there something wrong with my eyes?

HandsomeFella (talk) 09:06, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

HandsomeFella, fixed - there are multiple versions of the navbox, one when |expand=yes, one when it is set to no, one when it isn't set at all - and you only changed one Galobtter (pingó mió) 09:13, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Ok, thanks. There was something wrong with my eyes after all. ;-) HandsomeFella (talk) 09:21, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

The template had a very poor system where a huge part of the code had to be duplicated but wasn't always. I have changed it to avoid the duplication.[15] PrimeHunter (talk) 09:55, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Special:Log

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T201125

I expect this has already been mentioned, but I don't see where: There seems to be a problem with Special:Log, where the "From date (and earlier):" field is pre-filled with "0000-00-00". When I attempt any search, that spontaneously changes to "-0001-11-30", and thus inevitably yields no result. Is this affecting just me? Does this search yield any result for other users? Justlettersandnumbers (talk) 10:38, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I see it too. Created a bug report. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 11:17, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I have already reported this at T201125, so T203782 has been merged as a duplicate. GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 01:34, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Seems like an easy fix, both from server or user side. For developers, it is trivial enough to convert it to new date widget used in special:contributions (e.g. phabricator.wikimedia.org/T117737). Users can easily clear that initial text using js $("#mw-input-wpdate").val("");. Generally speaking though, it seems more like it is related to a browser issue. Internet explorer <=11 doesn't support the html5 date input, nor do older versions of safari or firefox. So the server shouldn't be setting the default date as 0000 ... 13:59, 9 September 2018 (UTC)

Editnotices in 2017 wikitext editor and VisualEditor

In 2017 wikitext editor and VisualEditor, editnotices are displayed rather like pop-ups - they are shown and hidden using a toggle icon at the top of the edit-window. In the older wikitext editor, they were displayed above the edit-window, and IMO that's how they should be shown.

These pop-up-style editnotices are really annoying, as they open automatically when the editing interface loads, and need to closed the way you close an ad. Also, on pages with lots of editnotices, the lower ones are hidden and you need to scroll down within the element to see them.

Some confusing editnotices cause new editors to freak off [16] due to the way they apppear - like warnings on doing something wrong.

The old way of showing editnotices was hence much better. Is there any software update planned that will fix this issue? SD0001 (talk) 11:20, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Confusing edit notices are tangential to your other comments here.

As for where edit notices show up, previews also require a much different workflow for WTE2017, which is frustrating to me. Page-related logs will also show up in that flyout, which is also crap, but it's better than what it was before (which was not at all). OTOH, if it requires you to close it, maybe it is a good thing--that way people are acknowledging that they have seen what is in the flyout (whether they understand the consequences of that action). That's a good thing, IMO, rather than the banner blindness which affects many still with the old editors. (Clicking through something without reading it is of course its own issue....) --Izno (talk) 13:19, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Esc closes the box with edit notices, and Ctrl+⌥ Option+p (using your web browser's meta keys) opens the preview in the 2017WTE. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 17:51, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Izno: I just discovered that clicking anywhere on the edit window dismisses the editnotice, you don't have to click on the close button. So that makes your point about getting people to acknowledge the notice moot. "Confusing edit notices are tangential to your other comments here." - huh? I was saying that confusing editnotices are less likely to be perceived by new editors as warnings if they show up above edit-window rather than as pop-ups. SD0001 (talk) 11:46, 9 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Page patrolling

When I would click the "mark this page as patrolled" link on new pages, I would get the message "<pagename> has been marked as patrolled". Now it get the message "This change to <pagename> has been marked as patrolled". Is this to mean that every change to new articles has to be patrolled? L293D (☎ • ✎) 13:44, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@L293D: it looks like you are getting MediaWiki:Markedaspatrollednotify , we only "patrol" for "new pages" - not for each version (but other projects may) we could tweak that message a little, feel free to leave an edit request with proposed new text on its talk page. — xaosflux ^Talk 14:08, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Xaosflux: I was going to see if someone changed MediaWiki:Markedaspatrollednotify, but it apparently has no history. Is this normal? L293D (☎ • ✎) 14:12, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

It is using "mediawiki default" so the change would be in the codebases, not here on a project - I think it may be related to work on phab:T10697. — xaosflux ^Talk 14:19, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Keep in mind we (enwiki) don't really use "patrol" we use "page triage" - but the interfaces share many components. — xaosflux ^Talk 14:21, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

script

Are any of you aware of a script that can automatically update all uses of a file after renaming the file? A similar script exist on commons for filemovers & admins but that doesn't work on wiki. আফতাবুজ্জামান (talk) 19:43, 7 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@আফতাবুজ্জামান: scripts are normally easy to port over, do you know where the script is? — xaosflux ^Talk 02:01, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Could be one of the abilities of Commons delinker - see c:User:CommonsDelinker/commands. Nthep (talk) 13:19, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Xaosflux: here (Move & Replace function). --আফতাবুজ্জামান (talk) 15:35, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Perhelion: are you the maintainer for that gadget on commons? — xaosflux ^Talk 01:14, 9 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

A little clean-up on the lede at Special:Tags

The lede there currently reads:

This page lists the tags that the software may mark an edit or logged action with, and their meaning. See Wikipedia:Tags. Administrators are able to perform different actions in respect to tags, including deleting some of them; please refer to the section on tag management in the documentation for indications.

Bringing over text from Wikipedia:Tags and inserting links:

This page lists tags automatically placed by the MediaWiki software to mark certain edits (or logged actions), together with their meaning. Administrators are able to perform different actions with respect to tags, including deleting some of them; please refer to the section on tag management in the documentation for indications.

Thoughts? Humanengr (talk) 14:42, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Number of Page Watchers

Page/History on any article or user page, generally will have an option about the number of watchers it has. That one feature has a tendency to come and go, and I've never figured out why. Firefox or Chrome, any skin, same thing. For instance, right now, it's missing. And, yet, it's working on Wikisource and Commons. Why does it keep appearing and disappearing on English Wikipedia? — Maile (talk) 16:58, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

I was coming here to ask the same question. As Maile points out, it's missing from the list of "external tools" at the top of the page. Anyone know what gives - or who maintains it? --MelanieN (talk) 17:58, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@MelanieN: see below, and note it's not really an "external tool" at all. — xaosflux ^Talk 18:47, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Each wiki can choose to add links in MediaWiki:Histlegend. There are no links by default. The message was edited yesterday [17] after a discussion on the talk page. The "Number of watchers" link was removed. It went to the same page as "Page information" under "Tools" in the left pane. This link is both on wiki, history and edit pages, and it has much other information than watchers. It's an internal page made automatically by MediaWiki so it was both misleading to list it under "External tools" and to only label it "Number of watchers", although it did use an anchor to highlight that field like Example. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:19, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

PrimeHunter Thank you for the quick reply, but it looks like only English Wikipedia had it taken away (as far as we know). That page provides a lot of useful information besides the number of watchers. So, a handful of whoever gets to decide whether or not we get that option. Geez Louize. Seems to me things like this should be universal and not subject to the whims of a few. — Maile (talk) 18:28, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Maile66: the default for "external tools" there is nothing - for example the history views on : ptwiki, dewiki, eswiki. The "number of watchers" is included in the "Page information" link on the sidebar of every page (for example, the link on the left column of this very page) that is available in every view, including history view. If you want to discuss putting it back on MediaWiki:Histlegend (which only impacts the English Wikipedia) please drop a note and edit request at MediaWiki talk:Histlegend. — xaosflux ^Talk 18:45, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. — Maile (talk) 18:47, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) As I said, the page is already linked in the left pane with the more informative name "Page information", also when you view or edit the wiki page. The English Wikipedia decided to stop duplicating the link with another name at the top of history pages. Most wikis make fewer customized MediaWiki messages like MediaWiki:Histlegend than us and the link isn't in page histories by default (except in the left pane as always) so I guess most wikis have never shown the link at top of page histories. You can suggest to restore the duplication at MediaWiki talk:Histlegend. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:48, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

PrimeHunter Thank you for helping us understand all this. — Maile (talk) 18:54, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you both. Glad to see it is still available. --MelanieN (talk) 19:51, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Article with Class= completed, stuck in Unassessed category

Greetings, Article Talk:John Savage (soldier) has correct class=start. It remains in Category:Unassessed biography (military) articles. I have done "Purge" to both article & category. Added WP MIL HIST, added bannershell. Have now run out of ideas of how to fix, so I'm asking for help here. Regards, — JoeHebda • (talk) 17:15, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Solved - there was "Unassessed" category coded at bottom of article, which I removed. Cheers! — JoeHebda • (talk) 17:35, 8 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Thumb attribute

I would like to know the usage of attribute thumb in case of images. Is it supported now-a-days in wikipedia?Adithyak1997 (talk) 05:11, 9 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Adithyak1997: It's used for most thumbnail images. See Wikipedia:Extended image syntax for complete documentation. ―Mandruss ☎ 06:02, 9 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

Do you have small tasks for new contributors? It's Google Code-in time again

Hi everybody! Google Code-in (GCI) will soon take place again - a seven week long contest for 13-17 year old students to contribute to free software projects. Tasks should take an experienced contributed about two-three hours and can be of the categories Code, Documentation/Training, Outreach/Research, Quality Assurance, and User Interface/Design. Do you have an idea for a task and could you imagine mentoring that task? For example, do you have something on mind that needs documentation, research, some gadget or template issues on your "To do" list but you never had the time, and can imagine enjoying mentoring such a task to help a new contributor? If yes, please check out mw:Google Code-in/2018 and become a mentor! Thanks in advance! --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 13:51, 9 September 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@@ Line 349: / Line 349: @@
 :I see it too. Created a bug report. —[[User:TheDJ|Th<span style="color: green">e</span>DJ]] ([[User talk:TheDJ|talk]] • [[Special:Contributions/TheDJ|contribs]]) 11:17, 7 September 2018 (UTC)
 ::I have already reported this at [[phab:T201125|T201125]], so [[phab:T203782|T203782]] has been merged as a duplicate. [[User:GeoffreyT2000|GeoffreyT2000]] ([[User talk:GeoffreyT2000|talk]]) 01:34, 8 September 2018 (UTC)
+Seems like an easy fix, both from server or user side. For developers, it is trivial enough to convert it to new date widget used in special:contributions (e.g. phabricator.wikimedia.org/T117737). Users can easily  clear that initial text using js <code>$("#mw-input-wpdate").val("");</code>. Generally speaking though, it seems more like it is related to a browser issue. Internet explorer <=11 doesn't support the html5 date input, nor do older versions of safari or firefox. So the server shouldn't be setting the default date as 0000 ... 13:59, 9 September 2018 (UTC)
 == Editnotices in 2017 wikitext editor and VisualEditor ==