Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)

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« Archives, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217, 218

Display of contributions and "Current" label

When displaying contributions, a bold "Current" tag is added to the end of the edit when it is the latest edit to that article, talk page, etc. Is there a method or gadget to move it to a point where it is in a uniform column? I do a lot of wp:RCP and editor will often repeat their edits without correcting the problem. I will view the "Current" tag in my list of contributions to see if the article has been changed. Trying to determine if articles have been edited or not is rather cumbersome with just the list as the "current" tag is not in a uniform vertical column. I could add it to my watch list with a short expiration. I usually do a text search on my contributions page for "current" which highlights it. Highlighting makes it easier, but I'm looking for a better method. Example of listing in my contributions:

19:08, 6 March 2025 (diff hist) (−6) Iran men's national basketball team (Undid revision 1279103344 by 217.218.49.102 (talk) unexplained change of header) (current) (rollback: 1 edit) (Tag: Undo)

What I would like to see:

19:08, 6 March 2025 (diff hist) (C) (−6) Iran men's national basketball team (Undid revision 1279103344 by 217.218.49.102 (talk) unexplained change of header) (rollback: 1 edit) (Tag: Undo) --OR--
(C) 19:08, 6 March 2025 (diff hist) (−6) Iran men's national basketball team (Undid revision 1279103344 by 217.218.49.102 (talk) unexplained change of header) (rollback: 1 edit) (Tag: Undo)

Thank you, Adakiko (talk) 19:32, 6 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Adakiko: "Search for contributions" on a contributions page has the option "Only show edits that are latest revisions". User:Markhurd/hidetopcontrib can do the opposite. Does that work for your purpose? PrimeHunter (talk) 20:35, 6 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Adakiko: Here are two CSS rules:

/* For current rev in contribs, add "(C)" before the size change */
li.mw-contributions-current span.mw-changeslist-links+span.mw-changeslist-separator:after {
  content: "(C)";
  font-weight: bold;
}
/* For current rev in contribs, suppress the "(current)" marker */
li.mw-contributions-current span.mw-uctop {
  display: none;
}

The second rule is optional. They go in Special:MyPage/common.css, since it works in all skins. But personally I use a rule that I wrote some months ago:

/* highlight current edit in contribs */
li.mw-contributions-current {
  background-color: #eeffcc;
}

I created it at somebody's request, don't recall who for. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 21:07, 6 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Redrose64: Thank you. added it to my CSS and it works great! Now all I have to do is to look for the "C" on the left. I go into shock each time I look at my contributions page and don't see "current". Cheers Adakiko (talk) 19:10, 8 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Adakiko: As I mentioned, the second rule is optional - you can have both "(C)" and "(current)" displayed, by just using the first five lines, down to (and including) the first closing brace }. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 20:03, 8 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Redrose64: I prefer the lack of "Current". I need to retrain myself. Can I train an old dog a new trick? Thanks again! 20:05, 8 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I go into shock each time ...

There is an option Only show edits that are latest revisions. It would be really good if there was also the reverse option Only show edits that are not the latest revision — GhostInTheMachine ^{talk to me} 09:03, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I have a script that does this: User:JPxG/current-switcher.js (it's even a toggleable switch on the contribs page so you don't have to reload it). jp×g 🗯️ 11:21, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I have also added Redrose64's rule. Thanks for that. I did, however, adjust the colour. The lime green gave me indigestion — GhostInTheMachine ^{talk to me} 09:03, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

CAPTCHA Security check

adding a internal link on Double Dutch (jump rope) requires a CAPTCHA Security check

there are pages where adding external links does not require a CAPTCHA Security check

suprising....

69.181.17.113 (talk) 11:53, 7 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Double Dutch (jump rope) hasn't been edited since 18 February. Your IP address has never edited it. Please always post a diff if you report a perceived issue with an edit. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:40, 7 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@PrimeHunter: Well, if you do a null edit on the page they linked as an IP you get a captcha, so I'm guessing it's some issue like Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 212#unwarranted captcha (though it doesn't appear there is a news: link in that page, even transcluded). I purged the page and it still happens so I don't think it's from a change in a template causing a new link to be added... though maybe it's still the fault of a template? What else could it be? – 2804:F1...90:4783 (::/32) (talk) 16:25, 9 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I triggered a filter log by removing the short description(Special:AbuseLog/40204494), seems the url http://worldjumprope.org/# (with the # at the end) is confounding some algorithm, it thinks the url without the # was removed and that one with the # was added... I tried removing just the #, and the problem did seem to stop, though I have now went and removed it completely since that's not how external links are supposed to be used.

Edit: Not sure what exactly is causing this bug, tried to reproduce it in the sandbox, didn't work.

– 2804:F1...90:4783 (::/32) (talk) 20:59, 9 March 2025 (UTC) *edited: 21:29, 9 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Privacy of sockpuppets and sockmasters

I have seen this in past but did not tell.

Check users are not allowed to disclose IP address of socks and sockmasters unless they do it themselves or long time offender or intentional IP socking.

But when I check administrator block log of check users, then check users often do this. First they block the large number of sockpuppets then after that sometimes they also block the IP range without mentioning the name of sockmaster in the IP block.

But those with experience can know that if the IP range is blocked immediately after blocking the sock accounts, then it belongs to the sockmaster.

I saw this when Mike V, Bbb23 used to block socks. 2409:40E1:100C:D174:78FA:B94D:2E28:A22A (talk) 07:33, 8 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

See the policy about this which explicitly excepts that. — xaosflux ^Talk 10:35, 8 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Locally, the relevant passage in WP:CheckUser is WP:CUIPDISCLOSE. Izno (talk) 05:18, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Removing copyrighted text

This probably isn't the right place to ask this, but I User:141.154.49.21 has been cutting-and-pasting huge pieces of text into articles. I ran two articles through "Earwig's Copyvio Detector" and it was a complete cut-and-paste.

I'm not sure how to "rev del" the additions. A bit of help would be great. Thank you! Magnolia677 (talk) 11:28, 9 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

You can always contact an admin at Category:Wikipedia administrators willing to handle RevisionDelete requests. I have started revdeling those edits, including one you hadn't caught, yet. I've also dropped a warning on the IP's talk page. - Donald Albury 13:38, 9 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you! Magnolia677 (talk) 14:06, 9 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I've revdeled copyvios in 6 articles. I don't see any other actionable copyvios. Donald Albury 14:09, 9 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Magnolia677, FTF the right place to ask for revision deletion is WP:ANI. Izno (talk) 05:21, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Izno: Er, it isn't. See WP:REVDELREQUEST - Donald Albury was correct. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 18:14, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Uh yes I apparently did not process what I was responding to fully. Izno (talk) 18:30, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Image not displaying in table header in mobile view

I am working a user-generated report on meta.

I want a sortable column header to display a single icon. The icon doesn't display at all on mobile view on my phone. It is possibly a screen width issue.

Re-creation:

Example 1 - seems to display icon in column six, is really small though.

Title	Talk page (# edits)	Status	Focus area	Order created

Example 2 - no heading visible for column six

Title	Talk page (# edits)	Status	Focus area	Order created
Blah	Talk:Blah	Number one	1	42

I am specifying image width in pixels ([File:Symbol support vote.svg|15px]), I am not sure of a better way.

Any workaround solutions would be appreciated. Thanks. Commander Keane (talk) 22:42, 9 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The responsiveness CSS for the mobile version makes the icon shrink to a minimum size that can be very small. You can add the noresize class to the header cell to prevent that. hgzh 09:23, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks hgzh. I wrapped the image in a div with class noresize...

Example 3 - noresize class applied

Title	Talk page (# edits)	Status	Focus area	Order created
Blah	Talk:Blah	Number one	1	42

I assume that is the way to do it. It seems to work.--Commander Keane (talk) 11:34, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Adding it directly to the cell should have worked as well: ! class="noresize" | [[File:Symbol support vote.svg|15px]]. hgzh 07:41, 11 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Redirect to section not working

I'm currently fixing broken redirects and i noticed this redirect[1]. I tried to correct it with this link, which would be the obvious solution, but it goes one heading down to Structure and properties. Has anybody any ideas why this is happening and how i can fix it? Thanks in advance for any help. Synonimany (talk) 22:52, 9 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

It works for me. It goes to the correct section using Chrome browser. – Ammarpad (talk) 17:02, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

section links

Is it just me or are section links suddenly working differently? I think that it used to be that when linking to a section mid-page, the whole section heading was visible at the top of the browser page window. Now it seems that the title portion of the section heading is scrolled off the top so that only the horizontal rule portion of the heading shows.

Try this link: Technical research ship#Environmental research ship (AGER).

windows 10, chrome (a new version is available but I haven't yet got round to allowing it to update so that suggests that it isn't me ...)

—Trappist the monk (talk) 00:15, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Works fine for me logged out on Brave and Safari for Mac OS, and logged in (Vector 2022 with a lot of customization) in Firefox for Mac OS. Depending on the browser, I see "Belmont class (Victory ship type)" at the top of the window, or one to three lines above that. – Jonesey95 (talk) 01:59, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I guess I should have said that I use the old vector skin. With an incognito window (Vector 2022 without any customization), the above link puts the line with USS Belmont • 1964–1970 at the top of the window. That, to me, also seems like a mispositioning – since I don't use Vector 2022, I don't know what is 'normal' for that skin.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 02:57, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I can confirm that this happens not just on Trappist the monk's computer. Polygnotus (talk) 05:24, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Not happening for me in Firefox 136 or Chromium 133 on Linux with Monobook, Vector, or Vector 2022. Monobook and Vector put the section heading at the top. Vector 2022 puts the header a few lines lower; when logged in there's a floating header that it seems to be making room for. It would probably help if people specify their browser, OS, and skin. Anomie ⚔ 11:49, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This doesn't happen for me, but #Redirect to section not working above may be the same problem too. Matma Rex talk 13:37, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

For me that looks like the same issue. The top of the visible page is below the linked heading.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 13:43, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The anomaly is not confined to section links. Here is a link to reference number 178 at an older version of Erasmus: ref 178 (permalink). For me, sometimes I see the page load and breifly display at the top of the page. It then repositions to the highlighted reference but then repositions again so that reference 180 is at the top of the page. It doesn't always flash the top of the page but always (so far) flashes the highlighted reference before repositioning to reference 180.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 15:35, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I can reproduce this, but only when using Vector 2022. For all other skins, the expected target (be it section heading or entry in a ref list) is at the top of the window as expected. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 20:58, 11 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Email watchlist

I haven't received a watchlist email in two days. Is anyone else experiencing this, or is it a local problem? C F A 23:38, 9 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Frankentemplate in visual editor at Lace tell

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T388356

In the Flemish tells subsection of the Content section of Lace tell, VisualEditor interprets the ordinary article text as being some parameter in a conglomerate of templates including Lang and Verse translation. Why? ꧁Zanahary꧂ 23:40, 9 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Usually this means some template somewhere is producing invalid markup. But I have no idea what the culprit is here - this sounds like a bug that should be reported on Phabricator to me. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 23:46, 9 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There is a link in the editor to "Editing multi-part template content" on the MediaWiki site's "Help:VisualEditor/User guide" page. I don't see any further links that explain how such content is detected or defined. – Jonesey95 (talk) 01:57, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I added a blank line before {{Verse translation}} to help VisualEditor separate it from the preceding paragraph.[2] That works for me. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:27, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Search text box on Timeless doesn't format correctly

So on timeless the search bar doesn't format correctly, when on the search bar specifically:

Vector works correctly however, and the search bar is correct when typing in top, only on while on a search page does the bug occurs. Des Vallee (talk) 07:18, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I was 95% this has a task but it seems not to. Izno (talk) 05:26, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hide Patrolled for Special:Newfiles not working

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T388428

Special:Newfiles has a checkbox option to hide patrolled files. Previously, I've used this as filter so I look only at unpatrolled files. Now when I use it, the list of files generated is empty. I have checked and there are definitely unpatrolled files, and really it would be a shock if all the files really were patrolled. -- Whpq (talk) 14:44, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I was able to reproduce this and opened phab:T388428. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:59, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you! Whpq (talk) 16:33, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

If IP and similar templates saying I am not logged in?

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T388525

Whenever the {{If IP}}, {{If autoconfirmed}}, or similar templates are used, they say I'm not registered or autoconfirmed when I am a part of said user groups. This was a problem that happened more recently as it used to work before.

I don't believe this is because I edit on a blocked school IP address? I've tried it at home and it still says such, so I'm not sure why it could be doing this. Thanks in advance for any assistance. / RemoveRedSky ^{[talk] [gb]} 15:17, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@RemoveRedSky: It works for me. I see "You are currently logged in." at top of {{If IP}}, and "You are autoconfirmed." at {{If autoconfirmed}}. Please quote the full strings you see when you are logged in. Have you enabled "Always enable safe mode" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering? That breaks the feature. Try to bypass your cache. Use Ctrl+F5 in Windows browsers, not F5 alone. What is your browser? What is your skin at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering? Are you by any chance referring to what a screen reader reads out to you and not what you visibly see? Do you have any ad blocker or other browser feature which may block CSS? PrimeHunter (talk) 18:11, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hello PrimeHunter.

"Always enable safe mode" - I have not tried it. After trying, that could be one possible solution.
"Bypassing cache" - Doesn't do anything.
"Browser" - I'm sure I have the problem both on Opera GX and Google Chrome.
"Skin" - I am using Vector 2022.
"Screen reader" - No.
"Ad blocker" - I will have to test this whenever possible since I'm unsure if my school uses hidden ad blockers or other features. This might be the case.

Thank you. / RemoveRedSky ^{[talk] [gb]} 18:55, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Note, these are all evaluated client-side by scripts, ensure you are not blocking any script processing from our domains. — xaosflux ^Talk 18:22, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I was not aware of this, and I'll check to see if things such as ad blockers are doing this whenever I have the proper time. / RemoveRedSky ^{[talk] [gb]} 18:56, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@RemoveRedSky: User:RemoveRedSky/common.css has a comment start /* without a matching end */. Either remove /* if you want the script, or add */ to the end if you don't (or remove the whole line). If that doesn't solve it then please quote the full strings you see at top of {{If IP}} and {{If autoconfirmed}} when you are logged in and not in safemode. The feature works by sending both versions to your browser together with CSS rules to first hide both versions and then unhide one of them. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:58, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Nevermind, that solved the issue ;-;' I'm not that experienced with CSS code, thanks for your help / RemoveRedSky ^{[talk] [gb]} 02:10, 11 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I have reported it at phab:T388525. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:49, 11 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Edit summary notice: "changing height or weight"

In Special:Diff/1092464781/1095126194 it says: changing height and/or weight, Mobile edit. This is useful, IP vandals frequently change height numbers. But in this edit Special:Diff/1264321134/1279765644 there is no warning. So mostly these days I see vandals of this class messing with the {{convert}} template, perhaps because there is no edit summary that shines light on them. Not sure who detects and issues these edit summary notices. -- GreenC 15:38, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That is Special:AbuseFilter/391. It only targets parameters in infoboxes. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 15:39, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Great thanks, looks like I could make a Wikipedia:Edit filter/Requested for {{convert}} -- GreenC 15:48, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

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MediaWiki message delivery 23:06, 10 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Redirect that should have been created in "Wikipedia:" namespace was created in mainspace

Continuation of phab:T388423 (reported by @Sebbog13) which was closed by @Sohom Datta and redirected here. Basically, the "search in" advanced search function doesn't append the namespace in the redlink it displays, instead creating a mainspace redlink.

A bugfix might involve adding the namespace in which the search is made to the redlink. However we should bear in mind that it is possible to search in several namespaces at the same time, and isn't obvious how we should generalize this fix to the case of multiple namespaces with none of them being mainspace.

Also alerting @AKlapper (WMF) (who followed the Phab task) and @Jlwoodwa (who was involved in fixing the original redirect). Chaotic Enby (talk · contribs) 01:31, 11 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

From a discussion on Discord: the problem could be (mostly) solved locally by having {{no article text}} (called by MediaWiki:Noarticletext) generate a link like Special:Search/Wikipedia:THISDOESNTEXIST, rather than the current link, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?search=THISDOESNTEXIST&title=Special%3ASearch&fulltext=1&ns4=1. But I'm not sure why it does the latter in the first place, so by Chesterton's fence I'm hesitant to suggest making that change immediately. jlwoodwa (talk) 02:03, 11 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Chaotic Enby: I think you are understanding it wrongly again. The issue wasn't me searching in a namespace, and it's possible to search in multiple at the same time, which means fixing it would be difficult. The problem is that I went to Wikipedia:UBXGALLERY and clicked the "Search for "UBXGALLERY" in existing pages within the Wikipedia namespace." which redirected me to searching for UBXGALLERY (in mainspace, instead of "Wikipedia:" space) and searching for pages within the Wikipedia namespace. When I clicked to create a redirect from the search page, the redirect was from mainspace UBXGALLERY to "Wikipedia:" space Wikipedia:Userboxes/Galleries, which is wrong. Thankfully User:jlwoodwa moved the page to the correct namespace. Sorry for the yapping. - Sebbog13 (talk) 15:10, 11 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Mw-Reverted tag on newest revision

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T387838

Is it just me, but the newest revision of Nagueshi has the reverted tag on it? Myrealnamm (💬Let's talk · 📜My work) 14:08, 11 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

No, it has the tag, weird. - Sebbog13 (talk) 15:11, 11 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

This is already reported at phab:T387838. – Ammarpad (talk) 16:48, 11 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Something broke map overlays in Infoboxes

Some recent change (last few days) broke map overlays in Infoboxes. In 2020 I wrote an article that uses an overlay on a map in an Infobox to outline an area. As of a few days ago, the outline is rendered but is shifted to N of where it should be on the Infobox map. The same outline's position is correct on other maps in the article that aren't in an infobox. There have been no changes to the map data since 2020.

The particular article is Walls of Lisbon; compare the infobox outline of the walls with the third map (Cerca Fernandina). The infobox overlay is shifted N of its proper position.

I should also add that this happened once before. I did not report it, and after six months or so it got fixed. Now it is broken again, but this time I'm being more proactive in seeking a remedy. Osoraku (talk) 18:55, 11 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Can we format all Internet Archive links as external links?

As of right now, [[iarchive:newlettersofdavi0000hume|New Letters of David Hume]] displays like a wikilink: New Letters of David Hume. Can we format these links so that they appear the same as: New Letters of David Hume? There is not much oversight on IA for uploads. Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk) 21:48, 11 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

@Rjjiii: [[iarchive:...]] uses the IArchive entry at meta:Interwiki map. Wikilink syntax [[...]] does not produce an external links icon. If we wanted to, we could make a template so {{iarchive|newlettersofdavi0000hume|New Letters of David Hume}} produces external link syntax like [https://archive.org/details/newlettersofdavi0000hume New Letters of David Hume]. A bot could change all current [[iarchive:...]] to use the template. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:37, 11 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Hmm, a template and bot is probably overkill. A bot could just replace Interwiki links with regular links. But now that I'm looking at the list, it's not clear why we should format many of these sites as wikilinks. A lot of them are wikis about very unrelated things like Pokémon, Linux distributions, and Final Fantasy. I might raise the issue over there, and see what the response is, Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk) 02:04, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I'm pretty much the sole maintainer of meta:Interwiki map, so I might as well reply here. No, you won't get me to remove the iarchive: interwiki prefix. Both because I don't find "some projects want this with an icon" convincing as a reason to remove, and also there are more than 10,000 uses across hundreds of projects (slow link) affected by this and wrangling a bot to fix all of them exceeds my willingness to care even if everyone agreed it should be done. I don't think anything I can do there has any control over whether an icon is displayed, although maybe some local CSS hack could. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 02:08, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That would indeed be theoretically possible:

.mw-parser-output a.extiw[href^="//archive.org"] {
    background-image: url(/w/skins/Vector/resources/skins.vector.styles/images/link-external-small-ltr-progressive.svg?fb64d);
    background-position: center right;
    background-repeat: no-repeat;
    background-size: 0.857em;
    padding-right: 1em;
}

However it's indeed very hacky - it unnecessarily duplicates code, and will break if theme internals change. So probably not a good idea to use on enwp. novov talk edits 10:56, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I can accept it if the answer is just that the cat is already out of the bag. I thought this was something new because I have only seen it in a few recent edits, but it looks like it was added over 10 years ago. To be clear though, the concern isn't about icons in general or aesthetics. If Wikipedia consistently formats wikilinks one way and external links another way, it's inherently confusing to randomly format something like "Windows XP". Rjjⁱⁱⁱ (talk) 02:43, 13 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There is an old 2009 request at phab:T20562: "Indicate in output whether an interwiki link is marked local". PrimeHunter (talk) 10:50, 13 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

ParserFunction errors

I'm just terrible at tracking down the cause of ParserFunction errors. Can anyone fix whatever's causing the problem in Template:Data world#Derived data? Whatever it is, its causing similar errors in the same place in other template pages of the form "Template:Data [country]". The error message says that it's an error in Template:Nts; but that template hasn't been edited in nearly five years, and these errors have popped up only recently. Deor (talk) 00:53, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Use "Related changes" for stuff like this. I reverted a recent edit at Template:Order of magnitude with a grumpy edit summary. Johnuniq (talk) 08:54, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

As a template editor with almost 20 years' experience, I don't appreciate the grumpy revert summary. The issue here (as Snævar explained) wasn't with my edit to {{Order of magnitude}}, but with other templates attempting to pass it non-numeric input, which may be buried deeply in template call stacks (see User talk:Pppery#Template:Order of magnitude). {{Order of magnitude}} has over 200 thousand transclusions, as its documentation states, and these breakages cannot be reasonably tested for (if you disagree, feel free to add example testcases to the testcases page - for the record, my change passed all current testcases without issue). 「ディノ奴千？！」^{☎ Dinoguy1000} 17:58, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Agreed with Dinoguy1000 here. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 19:30, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

land area is text, not a variable
Template:Data world returns three curly brackets on each side, which can not be used for calculation
You are doing an calculation with the total area and land area numbers, so you need mw:Help:Extension:ParserFunctions##expr. It does not calculate without you asking it to.

So once that data world no longer gives curly brackets, you end up with this: {{ppm|{{sigfig|{{#expr:({{{total area}}}/{{data world|pst2|{{{land area}}}}})}}|3}}}}. Snævar (talk) 09:07, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I have installed User:Anomie/previewtemplatelastmod. After installation, the technique is to go to the problem page, click the "Edit" tab for the whole page, and scroll down to the part after the edit box, publish/preview/etc. buttons, below which there is a line reading "Pages transcluded onto the current version of this page" - if this is preceded by a right-pointing triangle, click that to expand the list. The topmost entry (or entries) should be the most likely candidate for the problem. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 19:25, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Technical error

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T388646

I get this when I try to edit a section.

[a4f116d8-d17e-4d45-abf2-d1a337557eff] 2025-03-12 11:19:03: Fatal exception of type "Wikimedia\Rdbms\DBUnexpectedError" HandsomeFella (talk) 11:21, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There are some ongoing issues, people are investigating. Follow T388646 for updates. Matma Rex talk 11:32, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Internal error on Preview

Trying to preview my edit at Lemon dove, I get "[e0a059cb-fd01-4dd0-a254-f278b1d56ebf] 2025-03-13 11:54:10: Fatal exception of type "Wikimedia\Rdbms\DBUnexpectedError"" Happened repeatedly. Has now cleared, but thought I should mention it here, I don't recall ever having anything like it in years of editing. DuncanHill (talk) 11:57, 13 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

There are ongoing server issues, not related to your action, and seemingly the same thing as this yesterday. See T388646. Matma Rex talk 13:05, 13 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Forming a request at Wikipedia:RefToolbar

Hello everyone, after a bunch of back-and-forth about what the proper venue is for making an addition to the RefToolbar, I think I finally know the correct procedure. I'm to make a formal {{Edit interface-protected}} request there (after testing my proposed changes). I have the edit request ready to go. The specific page I need modified is MediaWiki:RefToolbarConfig.js and my request will look something like this:

The purpose of this request is adding the url-status field to to cite-news, cite-book, and cite-journal, matching what is already present at cite-web.

Instructions:

Add a comma to the end of current lines 93, 124, and 163, and add a new row beneath each reading: {"field": "url-status", "tooltip":"cite-urlstatus-tooltip"}

Same instructions, line by line:

Line 93: change {"field": "quote"} to {"field": "quote"},

New added line beneath: {"field": "url-status", "tooltip":"cite-urlstatus-tooltip"}

Current line 124: change {"field": "quote"} to {"field": "quote"},

New added line beneath: {"field": "url-status", "tooltip":"cite-urlstatus-tooltip"}

Current line 163: change {"field": "postscript", "tooltip":"cite-postscript-tooltip"} to {"field": "postscript", "tooltip":"cite-postscript-tooltip"},

New added line beneath: {"field": "url-status", "tooltip":"cite-urlstatus-tooltip"}

I'm nearly certain this will fix the issue. I however don't know the first thing about testing these changes in my sandbox. Could someone help point me in the right direction? I don't want to make the request and have it rejected for being untested. Thank you. The Savage Norwegian 16:37, 12 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

LinkSearch across multiple projects

Is there a tool that works like Special:LinkSearch, but across all the Wikipedias and sibling projects? Or do I need to post a request for someone to search the database dumps for me? Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 17:08, 13 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

https://spamcheck.toolforge.org/ and https://global-search.toolforge.org/ – DreamRimmer (talk) 17:29, 13 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Stopped receiving email notifications of changes to an article on my watchlist

In late 2024, I expanded someone else’s Start-class article called Bombardment of Greytown, which after some extensive changes was declared a B Level article by Hawkeye7. In the course of the run-up to that B level bestowment, I had received, thanks to my watchlist, no less than 13 email notifications alerting me to changes made, ending on 7 December 2024.

Having received the B Level imprimatur and having ceased to receive any more email alerts as to further activity, I assumed no more changes were being made. But, recently, I glanced at the article, and I noticed substantial additions have been made to it in 2025 by Historyguy1138 and a warning template added to the top by Grutness that, “This article's tone or style may not reflect the encyclopedic tone used on Wikipedia. etc.” (I am now in contact with both these Wikipedians.)

My watchlist never alerted me that any of this was happening. I checked my watchlist settings recently and it said: “Your watchlist has 11 pages (and their talk pages). Email notification is enabled.” My watchlist list included the Bombardment of Greytown page.

Why do you suppose I stopped receiving email notifications after 7 December 2024 when changes continue to be made after that date? Will-DubDub (talk) 20:54, 13 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Because you failed to visit the page after receiving the 7 December 2024 email notification. Watchlist email notifications only get sent if you visit the page after each email. Graham87 (talk) 21:54, 13 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for telling me this! I asked Grutness this question and he had no idea and referred me to Village Pump. And he’s one of the longest serving administrators on Wikipedia. Can you refer me to where this is written? Thanks! Will-DubDub (talk) 22:50, 13 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

The mail should be based on MediaWiki:Enotif body which says: "There will be no other notifications in case of further activity unless you visit this page while logged in." PrimeHunter (talk) 23:05, 13 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I went to the link above, MediaWiki:Enotif body, and at the top it says: “This page does not exist. The deletion, protection, and move log for the page are provided below for reference.” But below that seems to be some solid information.

I went to my preferences and changed my watchlist and notifications. I said: Email me when a page or a file on my watchlist is changed. And increased the “Days to show in watchlist” from 3 to 30.

Bottom line: Once I missed that email notification on 7 December 2024 did that mean I can now never get another email notification again about changes to that article? It seems there should be a workaround to restart those email notifications after a single lapse. Will-DubDub (talk) 00:27, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

In Special:Preferences do you have your language (in the Internationalization section) set to anything other than 'en - English'? — xaosflux ^Talk 00:32, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah that isn't a good idea, as you'll miss custom messages like that. There's also relevant information at Help:Email notification; as it says there, watchlist email notifications weren't enabled here until April 2012, by which time most experienced editors (including Grutness and I) had gotten used to checking our watchlist manually. I think most experienced English Wikipedia editors only use the email notification system for non-English wikis or places like Wikimedia Commons. Graham87 (talk) 01:22, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Ignore the red box at MediaWiki:Enotif body. Do you not see the text I quoted below the box and in the mail? After visiting Bombardment of Greytown while logged in, you get an email about the next edit. It doesn't matter whether you made earlier visits. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:30, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

How to rename a page without moving it

Hello, sorry if this isn't the right place, but after hours of searching, I can't find anywhere else to ask this. I want to change the name of the Infigen Energy page to Iberdrola Australia, because Infigen Energy was acquired by Iberdrola Australia and the company now operates under this brand.

The page is updated and is 100% about Iberdrola Australia, but the name is Infigen Energy. I don't want to move it to a new page, just rename it, but all the codes I can find are for moving and renaming at the same time.

Is there a place where I can request this action, or can someone help me do this rename correctly? Thank you very much. LaboniyAngel (talk) 09:15, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

A rename is accomplished via a page move. You can request a move at Requested Moves. I would suggest that you see WP:COMMONNAME, though. We don't necessarily use official or legal names as titles- but the most commonly used name(and it certainly could be that the official name is the most common, just be aware). 331dot (talk) 09:20, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Redlink in Special:Preferences

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T388880

At the bottom of the User Profile menu of Preferences, there is a link to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Extension:CampaignEvents/Invitation_lists, which reads as 'invitation lists" in plain text. This appears to be a redlink on MediaWiki, with the correct link being https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Campaigns/Foundation_Product_Team/Invitation_list. I don't have global IPBE, so I have no idea if this is just en-wiki or others. JarJarInks_{٩(◕_◕)۶}^{Tones essay} 13:02, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

phab:T388880 is open on this now. — xaosflux ^Talk 13:14, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]
Someone just closed it as duplicate of "Write documentation for Invitation lists", but we have the correct link. It's not documentation, but it has information about what the extension is, which is all you need for this specific link. Could probably be solved with a redirect if someone is willing (I've got a global IP block, so I can't). JarJarInks_{٩(◕_◕)۶}^{Tones essay} 14:28, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

I have created MediaWiki:Campaignevents-invitationlist-preference to change our link from invitation lists to invitation lists. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:18, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

That seems to work! Thanks! JarJarInks_{٩(◕_◕)۶}^{Tones essay} 16:57, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Semi-protected talk pages crash

Whenever I press Add topic on a semi-protected talk page(the talk page itself is protected, not the origin page) the browser crashes with error code Aw Snap SIGSEGV. This implies that the page was trying to edit a part of restricted memory. This does not happen on non-protected pages. I am using a Chromebook model name CR1104CGA updated to the latest version, and with browser version 126.0.6478.265 It seems that the computer that you are doing this on matters a lot as other computers, and even other Chromebooks do not give the same outcome. Caleb's World11 (talk) 19:39, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]

Tofu boxes even with fonts installed?

Per various talk page complaints, some users seem to be having trouble viewing special characters on Anatolian hieroglyphs, even when they have the requisite fonts installed. It’s not clear to me that this is a Wikipedia-specific problem, but is there perhaps a Wikipedia-specific workaround?

At least for me, the symbols appear correctly in Chrome but appear as tofu boxes in Firefox and Safari. This is so both in the normal page view and in the editing interface, though the characters appear correctly in reader view, even in Safari. When I copy-paste the tofu boxes from Wikipedia into a text document, they appear correctly as Anatolian hieroglyphs. Other special characters and ancient scripts are working fine. Botterweg (talk) 19:45, 14 March 2025 (UTC)[reply]