Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)

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

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

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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.

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'Wikidata item' link is moving, finally.

Hello everyone, I previously wrote on the 27th September to advise that the Wikidata item sitelink will change places in the sidebar menu, moving from the General section into the In Other Projects section. The scheduled rollout date of 04.10.2024 was delayed due to a necessary request for Mobile/MinervaNeue skin. I am happy to inform that the global rollout can now proceed and will occur later today, 22.10.2024 at 15:00 UTC-2. Please let us know if you notice any problems or bugs after this change. There should be no need for null-edits or purging cache for the changes to occur. Kind regards, -Danny Benjafield (WMDE) 11:29, 22 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I'm disappointed with this regression. I suppose many Wikipedians frequently use the "Wikidata item" hyperlink, which has been on the right side near the top for a long while. I was disappointed to see that has been moved, almost hidden away, closer to the bottom of the side bar. Now I have to scroll to see if there is an associated Wikidata item to an article. This is an essential tool for multilingual editing of Wikipedia. Is it possible to get it back near the top? Why has ut been moved?

A related question: The "contributions" button is super-useful, but has also been hidden away in a sub-menu at the top of the page for a long time now. I miss it. However, the "user" page sits there big and shining, easy to click. I almost never visit my user page, but the contributions page however is super-useful for editors to be able to continue our work on refining articles, which I guess is why most of us are here. My hypothesis is that these two changes have made Wikipedia less productive. Is there any thought that goes into the placement of these buttons? Surely, looking at some usage metrics before moving buttons would be helpful to make the user interface more useful? Sauer202 (talk) 08:35, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If we take "many editors" to mean "a large plurality or majority of active editors", then it has to be made clear that a supermajority of editors have never used Wikidata for anything. If any available data shows otherwise, I will apologize deeply. Your hypothesis seems untenable, since user space is more efficiently allocated for most editors: I'm more particular, but use of space is not value neutral: prominence has a cost even if it's not pushing anything else off the page. Remsense ‥ 论 09:10, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I use Wikidata all the time, and I think putting the link in "other projects" is the most logical and is still easily accessible — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 09:37, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Likewise. Remsense ‥ 论 09:38, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Without Wikidata readily accessible the amount of new articles will decrease. Why do we want to make it more cumbersome for article creators on Wikipedia? When the majoriity of readers never use the sidebar anyway, why do we care about them? The article contents is what is most important on the project. The link is not easily accessible when I have to scroll to the bottom of the sidebar to see if the Wikidata item EVEN EXISTS. All the other buttons I never use. Do we have any usage metric at all for the individual buttons? Why was this button "finally" moved? Finally according to who? Sauer202 (talk) 15:11, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

So place is at a premium.. While many of the other buttons are useful, none are near as useful as "Wikidata item"

Who downloads QR codes to Wikipedia when we can use URL links?
Who "Downloads as PDF"? Even so, this functionality is already integrated in all browsers, both on mobile and PC?
Why do we have "Printable version" of a page in 2024 (soon 2025), do many people print Wikipedia articles on paper nowadays? (did someone even do that at any time? The print may be outdated once it's out of the printer!)
Why do we have an own button to edit interlanguage links when that is one of the many features already covered by Wikidata? It is also accessible under the "Languages" bar and icon at the top, which would be the first logical place to look for anyone.
What the heck is "Related changes"? I could not deciper anything meaningful from it (not saying it is not useful, but I hold it is less so than "Wikidata item").
How often is "Cite this page" used? Could better be hidden in a sub-menu, if you ask me. It appears to just be different types of citation formats used academically, but how often do academics cite Wikipedia anyway?

It might be random why we have the buttons we have, and at the place they are, but the impression I get assuming they were placed deliberately is that the person(s) who decided it have a printer at home, they are not very good with computers, and they most certainly do not actively edit Wikipedia multilingually. Sauer202 (talk) 16:23, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

So you may be right about some of those other links. But the Wikidata link has not been removed, and it is now in a more consistent location, so that is a good move. Please be aware that your usage will match other people's. I use Related changes all the time, so don't touch it :) — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 19:34, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Edit filter graph links broken

Hey all. This was raised at Wikipedia:Edit_filter_noticeboard#graph_links_broken, but it appears the edit filter graphs, seen at [1], are not currently working and display an internal error. Would anyone happen to have an idea what happened to it? One idea that was raised over at EFN was that the log table may have been messed up by protected variables being introduced, but I'm not sure if that's the case or it's something else. — Preceding unsigned comment added by EggRoll97 (talk • contribs) 03:26, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@EggRoll97: I'm about to get on a flight, but a quick look at the tool's error logs shows:

Filters: 'raise errorclass(errno, errval): ProgrammingError: (1146, u"Table \'enwiki_p.abuse_filter_log\' doesn\'t exist")'

And a check of the replicas does indeed confirm enwiki_p.abuse_filter_log does not exist. Courtesy ping to the tool's maintainer Danilo.mac — TheresNoTime (talk • they/them) 04:15, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The abuse_filter_log table was deliberately removed from the wiki replicas in gerrit:1077360, pointing to two Phabricator tasks I don't have access to. It's likely to remain broken unless Danilo.mac puts in an amount of effort that's basically rewriting the tool from scratch. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 04:30, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm oddly enough, the graphs for dewiki still work: https://ptwikis.toolforge.org/Filters:dewiki XXBlackburnXx (talk) 17:44, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I can not do anything while the abuse_filter_log tables are inaccessible. They were removed from replicas databases because some data in those tables are restricted, se T375751. Danilo.mac (talk) 19:49, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Seeking proper forum to start RfC to resolve dispute re most appropriate graph/chart format

I'm seeking the most proper forum for starting an RfC to resolve an ongoing dispute between charts of a more broadly accepted format (example: ) and charts of a relatively less experienced editor (example: ). The newer user is in good faith peppering various articles with what I think are unencyclopedically simplistic charts, sometimes bordering on cherry-picking, even replacing comprehensive charts with their simplistic charts. I can't seem to find the appropriate "Wikipedia:Wikiproject ___". Can an experienced editor please point me toward the most appropriate page to start an RfC? Thanks in advance. —RCraig09 (talk) 18:02, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]
(Note that I'm referring to SVG etc. charts generated outside Wikipedia; I am not talking about the ~inflexible charts/graphs that Wikipedia generates internally.) —RCraig09 (talk) 18:02, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Honestly, if you've already tried to resolve it directly I'd just skip the RFC and go straight to ANI, if your two examples are representative of the issue. Izno (talk) 20:01, 23 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Has a discussion occurred somewhere? Article talk or user talk? That needs to happen before ANI. Johnuniq (talk) 00:06, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Some discussion has occurred, for example here and here. I think User:Superb Owl is editing in good faith, and that ANI is probably premature. However, I think Superb Owl is enthusiastically favoring a personal graphical preference over Wikipedia standards and consensus. I'm still looking for a place to find a consensus that conclusively convinces Superb Owl how Wikipedia operates. —RCraig09 (talk) 04:15, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

User:RCraig09 has not convinced me that his preferred chart format is in any way due to a Wikipedia guideline (which I have asked about here and here) but just personal preference. He complained about maintaining his chart the last time I requested an update and so I took it on myself to replace it with an updated version after the September data release and remove the redundancies with another chart on the same articles that already covers Fiscal years 2020-2023. Also both the links shared by RCraig point to the same discussion, just fyi. Superb Owl (talk) 17:44, 24 October 2024 (UTC) Fixing link to second Talk Page discussion. —RCraig09 (talk) 04:56, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It is not about Wikipedia guidelines; it's about editor consensus arrived at in many discussions over years. It is not my "personal preference"; yours is your personal preference, which as we discussed is different from most Google images and Wikimedia charts. The linked edit comment is not my "complaint". And the substituted chart is not only simplistic, but (short-term) cherry-picked. In the absence of advice from seasoned editors here, within a day or two I will simply find a reasonable place to initiate what looks like must be a formal RfC. —RCraig09 (talk) 03:05, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@RCraig09, have you read through Wikipedia:Dispute resolution? There are options like third opinion, dispute resolution noticeboard and Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents. Commander Keane (talk) 03:19, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks to @Commander Keane: Your point is well taken, but this is such a graphics-specific issue and possibly topic-specific (immigration) that a targeted RfC is probably best. —RCraig09 (talk) 04:50, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@RCraig09: I think the new charts extension is coming soon, see mw:Extension:Chart/Project/Updates which could change the game. Wikipedia:Graphs_and_charts#Accuracy is the closest thing to a guideline I could find and on its talk page there is an 11 year old RfC, maybe you could start there? I don't know if it is topic specific, if someone cherry picked (accidentally or otherwise) File:Chunnel_traffic.svg freight stats from 1994 to 2006 it would indicate a massive growth trend which is misleading. Also if you updated the Chunnel graph with up-to-date data data for just passengers and simplified the graph by removing the other 3 lines it would be bad. Commander Keane (talk) 05:16, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks to all contributors. In the absence of a suitable "Wikipedia:Wikiproject ___", I've just opened a formal RfC at Talk:Illegal_immigration_to_the_United_States#Request_for_comment_on_chart_content_and_form. OK to archive.

Resolved

—RCraig09 (talk) 03:20, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Contribs not working

The Special:Contributions page is not showing any contributions. Who am I? / Talk to me! / What have I done? 12:25, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Browser: Duckduckgo Who am I? / Talk to me! / What have I done? 12:25, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Just to be clear, Special:Contributions/Anonymous1261 isn't showing any contributions? There were some server issues not long ago, so maybe give it another go now? — TheresNoTime (talk • they/them) 12:31, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Still not working Who am I? / Talk to me! / What have I done? 12:32, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Try this link - also check in filters/ "Search for contributions" - you may have turned on a filter that is excluding all results. — xaosflux ^Talk 12:39, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There were some server issues earlier today, might have impacted this. Sjoerd de Bruin (talk) 14:09, 24 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Something's definitely changed in contributions (WP:THURSDAY). The <li> tag for each entry no longer has any classes, it used to have several, including mw-contributions-current if the edit concerned is the most recent for the page. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 22:26, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The issue you describe is phab:T378132. Izno (talk) 22:35, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

How to block part of page from Wikipedia search engine

Please see: Template:Table help. It is a box list of table help pages at the top of the 9 main table help pages:

Help:Table.

It has a search form ("Search all") to search those 9 pages, and other help pages with "table" in the title.

But I don't want the search results to show all the table help page titles (which it does). Because that causes there to be no room for the actual search results from elsewhere on the page. It almost makes the "Search all" form useless. Here it is below. Try it to see what I mean.

Template:Navbox. Are navboxes blocked from search results? If so, how? Is it classes like these?: hlist or list, etc.. I don't see anything in Help:Searching about any of this. --Timeshifter (talk) 03:35, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Timeshifter: I'm not sure what you mean. The page name will always be shown and linked in search results. A part of the page content is also shown for me. Example search on rowspan: [2] Is your concern that some of the results only show the context of "table" in the page content and not "rowspan"? You could avoid that with intitle:/table/i:

Search on rowspan: [3]. I don't think you can prevent it from bolding "table" in the page name.

I wasn't aware of issues with navboxes but you are right that something is going on. For example "solinas" finds no templates but insource:"solinas" finds three navboxes, and all of them have "solinas" in the rendered content. It also fails for group names in navboxes. "By integer sequence" finds nothing. insource:"By integer sequence" finds {{Prime number classes}}. I wondered whether it's deliberate since navbox hits in articles would rarely be helpful for a searcher (especially on mobile where the navbox isn't shown), but then I tried a mainspace search and 19 articles with {{Prime number classes}} show up on "By integer sequence". However, there are also many articles which don't show up, e.g. Quartan prime. I noticed a possible pattern: If the navbox is expanded by default then it does not show up, the opposite of what I would have guessed if there was a connection. I tested it on a navbox which is collapsed on its template page and {{Davis Cup}} does indeed show up on "World Groups play-offs". This is weird. Maybe somebody tried to hide navboxes in general but accidentally made code which only hides expanded navboxes. If they are hidden deliberately then it would be nice if template space was excluded from the hiding. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:55, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

PrimeHunter. Thanks! It looks like this works:

<inputbox>
id=style-searchbox
width=18
break=no
type=fulltext
searchbuttonlabel=Search all
searchfilter=intitle:/table/i
namespaces=Help
</inputbox>

I added it to Template:Table help. I did a search for a common word ("sandbox") and the results are much better.

I wish there was a way to limit the results to stuff found in the pages listed in the template. --Timeshifter (talk) 12:14, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Timeshifter: It's annoying that MediaWiki's search doesn't have linkedfrom: (phab:T253642). hastemplate:"Table help" will only search pages which transclude {{Table help}}. Then you don't need intitle. You could also make a new template for the purpose and add it to exactly the wanted pages. It doesn't have to display anything but its template page should explain the purpose. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:12, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@PrimeHunter The issue with navboxes could be due to Phab:T73562? In https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/c/mediawiki/extensions/CirrusSearch/+/164404 They marked elements with .autocollapse selectors as excluded from search indexing, but content marked as autocollapsed can either be expanded or collapsed dependent upon how many items are on the page. The articles that show up in the "by interger sequence" search use |state=collapsed in their template calls, so they use .collapsed instead, which for some reason is not excluded from indexing.

@Timeshifter Alternately you could make sure all the pages you want to search are in Category:Wikipedia tables, then use the incategory: search parameter. 86.23.109.101 (talk) 13:43, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@PrimeHunter: Thanks again. Combining the 2 works perfectly! I added it to the template. Search for "sandbox". Compare options and results:

User:Timeshifter/Sandbox276

hastemplate:"Table help"
intitle:/table/i

<inputbox>
id=style-searchbox
width=18
break=no
type=fulltext
searchbuttonlabel=Search all
searchfilter=hastemplate:"Table help" intitle:/table/i
namespaces=Help
</inputbox>

This prevents getting results from minor table help found in help pages not dedicated to tables. That minor table help is not as good, or as vetted. See:

Special:WhatLinksHere/Template:Table help

--Timeshifter (talk) 22:05, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Recent changes on mobile

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T378142

On mobile - Starting a few days ago, When I go to “recent changes” on my watchlist tab and click on an article, I no longer get sent to a page with the changes highlighted Instead, I just see the current version (without changes highlighted) and must take the additional step of clicking the history button to see the changes highlighted. Is this intentional, or has something glitched? Blueboar (talk) 16:42, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Oh I thought that was just me (Sony mobile using most recent chrome on Android) Red Fiona (talk) 17:17, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I’m on an iPhone… so it’s something that has changed at the WP side of things… not our devices. Blueboar (talk) 18:03, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think I see what happened here. If you can report this on Phab I can point the relevant people to it. 🐸 Jdlrobson (talk) 20:55, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I can not report it on Phab, because I have no clue what Phab is. Sorry. Blueboar (talk) 11:53, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Blueboar: Phab, or phab:, is Phabricator, which is where all MediaWiki bug reports and feature requests are filed. A ticket has already been raised (by Danbloch at 21:02, 24 October 2024 (UTC)) - it's phab:T378142, as shown at the top right of this section. It's public, so is available to read without logging in there, but Phab doesn't accept anon editing so you need to log in to Phab if you want to comment. Fortunately, this is easy: there's a "Log in" button at the top of the page, and also a "log in to comment" button after the last post; your login and password are the same as for Wikipedia. If you do comment, you're added as a subscriber, and you get an email every time somebody else comments or updates the status. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 15:07, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not only on "Recent changes", but also on the mobile version of "Watchlist". And this also happens at the mobile "Watchlist" of Wikivoyage. --FredTC (talk) 10:28, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

So… is this going to be fixed? Or is it an intentional change in the way our watchlist works? Blueboar (talk) 12:51, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It has been fixed already, it will be deployed here this week. – Ammarpad (talk) 05:05, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I can't speak for anyone else but it's working for me now. Thank you. Red Fiona (talk) 01:18, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

For me it is also back to normal. FredTC (talk) 01:22, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

mw-reverted tag is slowly showing

Hello everyone,

I'm noticing that the reverted tag is showing up slowly. When an edit is reverted, the edit has the "reverted" tag. However, I'm noticing that today it takes some time for it to show up. For example, I reverted two of an IP's edits, but the reverted tag is still not showing up. It will after a couple of minutes. Does anyone know why this is happening? Myrealnamm (💬pros · 📜cons) 22:23, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

(I think this is a MediaWiki issue. I have to go.) Myrealnamm (💬pros · 📜cons) 22:26, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Myrealnamm: A delay is normal. See mw:Manual:Reverts#Reverted tag. I don't know whether the delay is currently longer than usual but a couple of minutes doesn't sound bad. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:51, 25 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@PrimeHunter It's been 30 minutes since Special:Diff/1254153601 and the "reverted" tag is still not showing. Where should I take this? Myrealnamm's Alternate Account (talk) 17:58, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Just want to report I am having the same exact issue; I cannot see the reverted tag anywhere, and it's pretty annoying... win8x (talking | spying) 20:51, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Win8x It will come up in ~45 minutes from the time of the revert. Perhaps the “job queue” for this tag is getting “backlogged”, if that’s how it works? Myrealnamm (💬pros · 📜cons) 20:55, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wow. Yeah. For someone who likes to revert vandalism in Recent Changes this isn't quite useful 😅 win8x (talking | spying) 20:58, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Well as soon as I complain about it, it looks fine again. Nice! win8x (talking | spying) 21:20, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The issue was https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T378385, fwiw. KHarlan (WMF) (talk) 16:00, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I use this CSS rule to make the "Reverted" tag stand out a bit:

/* mark edits tagged as reverted */
span.mw-tag-marker-mw-reverted {
  text-decoration: wavy red underline;
}

If you want to try it out, it goes in your CSS. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 23:19, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

How's that going to help when the tag itself isn't showing up quickly enough? Nardog (talk) 00:01, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I find that it helps me to notice them when they *do* show up. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 00:03, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It has nothing to do with the OP then. Nardog (talk) 00:21, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Redrose64 I'm trying it, it's not working, am I doing something wrong? User:Myrealnamm/common.css Myrealnamm (💬pros · 📜cons) 00:06, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Myrealnamm You have a typo in your css file. It should be span not spam. 86.23.109.101 (talk) 00:16, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks! Myrealnamm (💬pros · 📜cons) 00:17, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Well spam is usually reverted 😅. – 2804:F1...88:7F3B (talk) 01:04, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Mapframe seems to be glitching out with raw GeoJSON data

I created raw GeoJSON data for the mapframe in the article Lithodes aotearoa, and it doesn't seem to be cooperating. I see no logical or semantic issue with the map data itself, and I think the way I've used the 'maplink' template in the article is correct. I've been looking at the map data for 'Bristol West (UK Parliament constituency)' for comparison, and despite being structured exactly as mine is, it demonstrably works as intended (even if I transclude it within my own maplink template). I'm extremely confused; for the life of me, I can't figure out any difference here. It seems like I should be drawing a 4-sided polygon off the coast of North Island, but instead it just points to Null Island during the preview and then to Ceará, Brazil once the page is live. It doesn't even draw the polygon on the mapframe. TheTechnician27 (Talk page) 00:55, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Through testing I found out it's your second values (178...) that aren't correct. If I am reading the GeoJSON standard correctly[4], then the problem is that that second value is limited to a value between or equal to -90 and 90 degrees and you used a value higher than 90.

Now if I use my brain for a second: You just swapped your latitude and longitude values around. That's the issue. – 2804:F1...DE:554A (talk) 01:43, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I have swapped the values in your data(diff), it seems to be where you wanted it now if I try using it in the page (in preview). – 2804:F1...DE:554A (talk) 01:55, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@2804:F14:80F1:A901:999E:CEEF:24DE:554A: Oooooh, that makes so much sense. Hugely appreciated! TheTechnician27 (Talk page) 02:25, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikidata interlanguage links not automatically updating after page moves

With two page moves, which I performed in the past two hours or so (Office of the Council of State (Thailand) to Office of the Council of State and 2024 Thai school bus fire to 2024 Thailand school bus fire), the Wikidata items have not been automatically updated. Not sure where the cause of the issue lies? --Paul_012 (talk) 08:52, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Changing the name and title of article

Hello dear Wikipedians, I request the users who have access to change the name and title of the article to change the title of the article Najmeddin Shariati (TV presenter) to Najmeddin Shariati. Because there is no other person with this name and there is no existing article with this name. thanks 4ipid (talk) 09:29, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Done - You can make such requests at Wikipedia:Requested moves. William Avery (talk) 09:39, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Note: this page was deleted as "Duplication of draftspace submission by editor with a paid COI". --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 20:11, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This template must be substituted.

Hello! When looking at Template:Single-purpose account, the page doesn't actually show what the template looks like, it just shows: This template must be substituted.

I looked at other templates that should be substituted and they show up as you'd expect them to. Even the (very similar) Template:AfD new user.

I assume there must be a way around that so we can show what the template outputs on the Template: page while still producing the warning elsewhere. Polygnotus (talk) 14:10, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Polygnotus

Fixed here. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 20:09, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Redlinks that are actually two (or more) links

In my recent quest to fix certain punctuation spacing errors throughout the project, I have coincidentally stumbled upon an inordinate number of situations where a link will occur along the lines of: "Bob speaks English, Spanish, and French"; or "Bob received degrees from Princeton University and the University of Texas". Now, obviously, we are not going to have an article on the combined topics of either redlink, but I am wondering if it is possible to generate a list of redlinks that are in fact combinations of what would be two (or more) blue links. BD2412 T 20:16, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Media Viewer can't be disabled - gear is gone

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T378400

The gear symbol that you click on to disable Media Viewer has disappeared from all the pages I tested. Is that intentional and if so where do I file a complaint? Media Viewer forces me to go through dozens of clicks in order to get to what I need every time I go to an image page and is a colossal headache as I do this daily. Logging in to save the setting isn't an option for my situation for various reasons (i.e. for daily use of image pages separate from logging in to post this message) and even if it was it shouldn't be required

Please note that the Wikipedia help pages still tell you to use the gear as they always have. Auenwald (talk) 22:47, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Auenwald: There's a direct setting at Preferences → Appearance, it's "Enable Media Viewer". --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 23:22, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Read my message again. I said logging in isn't an option. Auenwald (talk) 23:25, 26 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

How do I get rid of something I don't care about?

In my notifications, I got one telling me that a page I visited has data connected to Wikidata, where some relevant stuff can help or whatever. I do not care one single bit about that stuff. How do I stop these notifications and how can I delete a notification that I marked as read? Is Wikipedia tracking me? Nearly but not perfect (talk) 00:58, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-echo Izno (talk) 01:32, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Left side of table at Seaborgium is cut off on vertical mobile view

In vertical mobile view in Safari on iOS, I discovered a side table in the article Seaborgium that is cut off on the left-hand side, making the leftmost column impossible to read. This table is built using the {{Isotopes summary}} template system. –LaundryPizza03 (d c̄) 01:14, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Should be fixed. Izno (talk) 01:31, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Notices not working

So when I click on Notices a little popup show up and tells my notifications. According to it I have 7 new notifications.

But if I press on it says I have no notifications. If I click on all notices it shows an error message: 7ab4ef4a-e38b-462a-ab56-edfdc2d62732] 2024-10-27 04:43:21: Fatal exception of type "InvalidArgumentException"

I am not sure what is going on, does anyone have any idea's? User Page Talk Contributions Sheriff U3 04:55, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I've also noticed that the hexadecimal changes every time I reload the page, although I don't know if that means anything. Procyon117 (talk) 14:32, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This has been fixed, but the fix may take some days to arrive here. – Ammarpad (talk) 16:20, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

it is working for me now. Thank you to whoever fixed it!!! User Page Talk Contributions Sheriff U3 06:49, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It worked once, now it is not showing them on the popup window.

They do show up when I click All notifications. User Page Talk Contributions Sheriff U3 06:55, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Weird. I have this problem, but they don't work when I click "all notifications". (If you reply to this, ping me - I still get those, for some reason.) -- asilvering (talk) 16:44, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Same now for me too. Procyon117 (talk) 16:46, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Problem with my alerts bell

Hello, when I click on my alerts bell at the top, it says "There are no notifications", even thought I can see there are. When I then click on "all notifications", I get the following: "[5aff3dcb-50f3-4b16-9566-60ba693bfa63] 2024-10-27 21:50:42: Fatal exception of type "InvalidArgumentException". Any help would be appreciated. Thank you. Magnolia677 (talk) 21:54, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds just like my problem, just the other notification system.

I have been unable to test that one since I have no new Alerts. It does show my previous Alerts.

Hope that the fix gets released soon @Ammarpad.

User Page Talk Contributions Sheriff U3 03:53, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a technical page to report this?

I'm experiencing it as well. -- Very Polite Person (talk) 17:33, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not notified of reversion on Wikimedia Commons

I have my global settings to give me a web notification on edit reversions, as well as to show notifications cross-wiki. Indeed, I received a notification for a reversion on Wikipedia on October 1, 2024. However, an edit of mine on Wikimedia Commons was reverted on October 25, and I did not receive a notification. Would this be a bug I need to report on Phabricator or have notifications stopped being sent since October 21, my last notification? The number of notifications are the same on both platforms, which implies that particular cross-wiki setting is working. Thisisnotatest (talk) 08:15, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Was it [5]? Is it listed at commons:Special:Notifications? PrimeHunter (talk) 21:20, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It was, and I see the notification is there, but I wasn't getting cross-wiki notifications and I rarely go to the commons site so I missed it. After some investigation, it appears to be related to my surfing Wikipedia with JavaScript off. But I also get some email notifications and that didn't happen. Thisisnotatest (talk) 06:52, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Thisisnotatest: If you disable JavaScript then many things will not work as intended. Is there an Email checkmark for "Edit revert" at commons:Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-echo? If so then what does the top say under "Send me:"? PrimeHunter (talk) 10:39, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@PrimeHunter: Yes, there is a checkmark. And the Send me reads A daily summary of notifications. Thisisnotatest (talk) 06:53, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Mexican peso N$ in Template:Dollar sign

The article on Mexican peso uses the symbol $ or Mex$ in the lede. The template output for Mexican peso is N$ which I haven't encountered before. Is this something to be rectified or there's some rationale for N$? Dora the Axe-plorer (explore) 11:48, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like, when they introduced the nuevo peso in 1993, they used "N$" as the symbol to differentiate it from the old peso that had used "$". But it also seems they may have dropped the N in 1996 or so once they got rid of all the old pesos. Special:Diff/307360806 that changed the template's output from Mex$ to N$ has no edit summary to indicate why it was changed, the user hasn't edited since 2010, and I don't see any contemporary discussion about it. Anomie ⚔ 13:46, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Bug in "birth date and age" template?

The Walton Empey article has this template in the infobox:

which renders as "26 October 1934 (age 89)" for me here in Ireland where it's 27 October 2024. But his age should be shown as 90, not 89, unless I'm missing something. (Am wondering if it's due to the clocks changing (here in Europe at least)).--A bit iffy (talk)` A bit iffy (talk) 12:38, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@A bit iffy: Template calculations are cached to improve performance. I have purged the page to force the calculation to be done from scratch, and it is now displaying "age 90". -- John of Reading (talk) 12:43, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. A bit iffy (talk) 13:16, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

importer identification

Monkbot has been accused of making this edit at de:Reichman University. Monkbot does not, cannot, make interwiki edits. In that diff, the edit attribution is 'en>Monkbot'. That form of edit attribution indicates, as I understand it, that the edit was an import from en.wiki of text last edited by Monkbot. Since Monkbot did not do the import, is there a way to determine who or what did the import?

—Trappist the monk (talk) 13:22, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Special:Log shows the import log entry. Anomie ⚔ 13:49, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 13:59, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

"View logs for this page" at top of page histories includes the import log. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:28, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Check the notablity of this article and after approval then delete the speedy delete template

Hello dear Wikipedians. This article (Najmeddin Shariati) was created once before in an unprincipled manner and without citing reliable references. For this reason, it was deleted under the title of not notablity and fame with the Wikipedia:Articles for deletion. But this time I created it with basic editing and citing more than 20 reliable references from official Iranian news agencies (Because this person is Iranian) that independently covered the news of this person. Please review this article and its references and after approval, delete the speedy deletion template. This person's article is available in Persian Wikipedia, and its notablity and fame was confirmed by the administrators and editors of Persian Wikipedia according to the reliable sources mentioned in it. If you think this is a stub article. Add the stub template to it and let it stay. The final decision is yours. very thanks 4ipid (talk) 19:51, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@4ipid, I do not see how any of that is part of a technical question or concern. Please feel free to request assistance at WP:VPM or elsewhere, perhaps WP:Peer review. Izno (talk) 21:55, 27 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What happened to the display of diffs in the article history?

In the Article History, "Compare selected revisions" brings up the Diff page. It used to be in two columns (as shown at Help:Diff#how it looks). Now for me in the last few days it has started showing just one column with the changes shown only by color. I don't like this, how can I change it back? I didn't change any preferences or anything. I fooled around with my preferences but nothing helped.

Help. Herostratus (talk) 00:49, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sounds like you turned on the "Inline" toggle above the diff. Nardog (talk) 02:16, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Server lag

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T378320

All day long my bots have been complaining

Login failed (3) : Server has reported lag above the configured max_lag value of 5 value after 5 attempt(s). Last reported lag was - Waiting for 10.64.32.13: 33996.650783 seconds lagged

Any idea what is going on? Hawkeye7 (discuss) 04:23, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I reported the same problem earlier Special:Diff/1253816940/1253822334, then deleted it because the problem resolved, and now its back. It appears to be Enwiki specific with lag times of 6+ hours (normal should be 0-10 seconds). It looks like a DDOS or misconfig or something. The immediate solution is to simply remove &maxlag from your API requests. -- GreenC 04:39, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This is also causing my bot which updates the case table at WP:SPI to go down starting around 18:40 Oct 27: CRITICAL: Exiting due to uncaught exception MaxlagTimeoutError: Maximum retries attempted due to maxlag without success. Is there a phab ticket for this yet? Mz7 (talk) 05:42, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Should be better now that I removed a broken replica from the calculations. Taavi (talk!) 06:08, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Taavi: Nice, looks good! [6] Waiting for 10.64.16.89: 0.378559 seconds lagged. Was just about to open a phab ticket when I noticed things were working now. :D Thanks so much! Mz7 (talk) 06:15, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Change user name to camelCaps?

My username Thisisnotatest is pronounced incorrectly by screen readers. Is there any way for me to change it to ThisIsNotATest, capitalizing each word "This Is Not A Test" so it will be pronounced correctly? Thisisnotatest (talk) 07:29, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

WP:CHU. You can request whatever name doesn't already exist, which you can check at Special:CentralAuth. I might suggest spaces, which I suspect will be more likely to be pronounced correctly.... Izno (talk) 07:35, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I say what the admin says, read Changing Username. Should give info on changing your username. The Master of Hedgehogs ^(converse) ^(hedgehogs) 16:02, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Many screen readers, including the two most common ones for Windows, JAWS and NVDA pronounce each capitalised word in a CamelCase phrase separately. Screen reader users get used to all sorts of things being mispronounced; I don't think a single username on a website is that high a priority (I'd give it practically a 0 out of 10, honestly). Graham87 (talk) 02:48, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Conditions for WP:MOVEOVERREDIRECT

Hi friends, do we know if there are any additional conditions to allow a WP:MOVEOVERREDIRECT, beyond the stated "single line in the page history"? In the last 24 hours I've tried to move three articles: two from draftspace to mainspace, and one within mainspace. All moves were to usurp redirects that only had one single line in their respective page history, however they all resulted in an error.

The functionality seems pretty inconsistent, wondering if there is any rhyme or reason RachelTensions (talk) 17:17, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@RachelTensions: You probably need the Wikipedia:Page mover user right. Per WP:Page mover#delete-redirect, if that page is a single revision redirect with a different target, the delete-redirect right may be used to eliminate the need for round-robin page moves by allowing page movers to delete the redirect, regardless of the redirect's target. – wbm1058 (talk) 18:06, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ah ok that makes sense, single line in the page history and the redirect must already be pointing to the article attempting to be moved. Re-reading WP:MOVEOVERREDIRECT I must've overlooked that. Thank you! RachelTensions (talk) 18:13, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

(edit conflict) It states there is a redirect to the old title with a single line in the page history. Was that the case for the moves you attempted, or were the redirects you were trying to overwrite pointing elsewhere? Anomie ⚔ 18:11, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Template parameters question

Sorry if this has no value, but I've recently (yesterday?) discovered that things like {{AIV|=p}} transclude into (which is just {{p}}). Upon some investigation I've found that it appears to be that a |= parameter replaces all {{{|safesubst:}}} instances in the template being transcluded with the provided parameter (that's why it expanded as the emoji template).
Why does this happen? Is this documented anywhere/does it have an use? I've had trouble searching. – 2804:F1...F0:9FE8 (talk) 19:47, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

{{{x|y}}} means "the value of parameter x, otherwise 'y'". Therefore {{{|safesubst:}}} means "the value of the parameter with a blank name, otherwise 'safesubst:', and |=p is setting the value of the parameter with the blank name to "p". This is why you should use safesubst<noinclude />: instead to break up the substitution. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 19:55, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ah, I see. I guess the noinclude thing is mentioned at Help:Substitution#Recursive substitution? Thank you for the detailed response. – 2804:F1...F0:9FE8 (talk) 20:32, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Tech News: 2024-44

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

Updates for editors

Later in November, the Charts extension will be deployed to the test wikis in order to help identify and fix any issue. A security review is underway to then enable deployment to pilot wikis for broader testing. You can read the October project update and see the latest documentation and examples on Beta Wikipedia.
View all 32 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, Pediapress.com, an external service that creates books from Wikipedia, can now use Wikimedia Maps to include existing pre-rendered infobox map images in their printed books on Wikipedia. [7]

Updates for technical contributors

Wikis can use the Guided Tour extension to help newcomers understand how to edit. The Guided Tours extension now works with dark mode. Guided Tour maintainers can check their tours to see that nothing looks odd. They can also set emitTransitionOnStep to true to fix an old bug. They can use the new flag allowAutomaticBack to avoid back-buttons they don't want. [8]
Administrators in the Wikimedia projects who use the Nuke Extension will notice that mass deletions done with this tool have the "Nuke" tag. This change will make reviewing and analyzing deletions performed with the tool easier. [9]

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

MediaWiki message delivery 20:53, 28 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Gadget/js to force me to ping

I want a gadget or custom js that forces me to ping at least one person everytime I reply to a message.

This is because I reply on help desks and patrol newcomer comments a lot and I feel they really need a notification from me as they are new. But I keep forgetting.

In its simplest form the script would check for the "@" symbol anywhere in my reply and if missing prompt me to add one. Of course the option to dismiss would be great. More complicated forms could use regex to check for at least one userpage link.

I would need it for en.wiki, commons and meta. Let me know if it's possible. I am mainly on a mobile device, using mobile and desktop interfaces interchangeably, if that makes a difference. Commander Keane (talk) 11:11, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Request to Move Draft for AfC Review

Hello, I'd like assistance moving my draft from my user sandbox (User:Abuibrahim100/sandbox) to Draft:Admas Pee for AfC review. My account isn’t autoconfirmed yet, so I’m unable to move it myself. Thank you for your help!

Abuibrahim100 (talk) 19:25, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Abuibrahim100 Your sandbox is already is the queue for review. There's no need to move it to Draft:Admas Pee yourself -- the reviewer will do that for you if necessary. That being said, your draft cannot be approved in its current state because it needs citations to significant coverage in reliable sources that are independent of the subject of the article. All the sources cited are either to companies writing about themselves (which is not independent) or to Wikipedia articles (which are not considered reliable sources since anyone can edit them). --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 20:08, 29 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Searching for pages by category and talk page content

Does anyone know how you would search for all of the pages in a certain category whose associated talk page contains a certain string in its source? So, for instance, what search would return all of the pages in Category:Princesses in Greek mythology which contain "WikiProject Classical Greece and Rome" in their talk page's source? – Michael Aurel (talk) 07:18, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Can be done in PetScan. Put that category name in "Categories", then go to "Templates&links" tab, put that template name there with " Use talk pages instead" checked. – SD0001 (talk) 08:25, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks. – Michael Aurel (talk) 08:35, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Persistent snackbar

I'm on Firefox 131.0.3 on Android 14. I have User:SD0001/find-archived-section enabled in my gadgets (and also mw:Extension:DiscussionTools in my Beta features, which has no effect on mobile).

As of recently (probably last Thursday), the snackbar popup I get from an archived / missing section link has stopped unpopping-up until I navigate away from the page.

Can anyone replicate / report to phab? Folly Mox (talk) 11:59, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

For clarity, my other snackbars (e.g. "Redirected from Wikipedia:vpt") pop away normally. It's just the archived section one that persists. Folly Mox (talk) 13:03, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Folly Mox: User:SD0001/find-archived-section makes a message starting with "Looks like the discussion". Your screenshot is from a newer MediaWiki feature which starts with "This topic". The box goes away when I tap it outside the link in iOS on an iPhone, e.g. at User talk:Citation bot#Bot does nothing. Are you saying the tap doesn't work for you, or did you expect the box to disappear by itself? I don't have an Android device for testing. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:53, 30 October 2024 (UTC)[reply]