Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)

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

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. Discussions are automatically archived after remaining inactive for five days.

« Archives, 193, 194, 195, 196, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213

Heading markup changes

The HTML used to render all headings is being changed to improve accessibility. It will change on 22 May in some skins (Timeless, Modern, CologneBlue, Nostalgia, and Monobook). Please test gadgets on your wiki on these skins and report any related problems so that they can be resolved before this change is made in all other skins. The developers are also considering the introduction of a Gadget API for adding buttons to section titles if that would be helpful to tool creators, and would appreciate any input you have on that.

MediaWiki message delivery 23:01, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

Based on a quick search, it looks like the heading change will affect almost 300 scripts, many of which have inactive maintainers. Some arbitrary highlights from the top of the list include:

• Awesome Aasim's User:Awesome Aasim/rcpatrol.js
• BrandonXLF's User:BrandonXLF/FFUHelper.js
• Cacycle's User:Cacycle/wikEd.js, User:Cacycle/wikEd dev.js, and User:Cacycle/wikEd.user.js
• DannyS712's User:DannyS712/DiscussionCloser.js, User:DannyS712/SectionRemover.js, and User:DannyS712/SectionMover.js
• Enterprisey's User:Enterprisey/reply-link.js, User:Enterprisey/copy-section-link.js, User:Enterprisey/archiver.js, User:Enterprisey/strike-archived.js, User:Enterprisey/section-watchlist.js, and User:Enterprisey/section-redir-note.js
• Equazcion's User:Equazcion/OneClickArchiver.js, User:Equazcion/TeahouseRespond.js, and User:Equazcion/NewSectionSummary.js
• Evad37's User:Evad37/OneClickArchiver.js and MediaWiki:Gadget-XFDcloser-core.js
• Mr. Stradivarius's User:Mr. Stradivarius/gadgets/SignpostTagger.js
• PhantomTech's User:PhantomTech/scripts/AFCRHS.js
• SD0001's User:SD0001/RFUD-helper.js
• Terasail's User:Terasail/COI Request Tool.js
• Technical 13's User:Technical 13/Scripts/OneClickArchiver.js
• The Earwig's User:The Earwig/permalink.js and User:The Earwig/afc-helper.js
• The Evil IP address's User:The Evil IP address/hdedit.js

Plus many, many more. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 19:22, 21 May 2024 (UTC)

A quick way to test these scripts right now, is to enable the Parsoid beta option (which already uses the new html structure) and to disable DiscussionTools, which uses a partial form of the new heading structure. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 08:39, 22 May 2024 (UTC)

Indeed, you can already see it in Parsoid mode (but note that there are other differences – e.g. Parsoid output has <section> tags around each section, which may require a separate set of updates in some scripts).

Disabling DiscussionTools doesn't actually change anything though. The HTML structure is the same whether it's enabled or disabled, only the styles are different. Also, note that it uses a "hybrid" heading structure currently when using the default parser, as you say, but it uses the new structure when using Parsoid.

So in short, you can just use Parsoid mode to test these scripts today here on English Wikipedia, but beware that there may be extra issues. But if they work with Parsoid, they will work with the new headings too. Matma Rex talk 11:25, 22 May 2024 (UTC)

The technical 13 script was blanked, so we don't have to worry about that one.

Will the fact that they're rolling this out for only some wikimedia-deployed skins at this time make the patch more complicated? If I'm reading it right, the scripts may temporarily have to support both heading styles. –Novem Linguae (talk) 09:16, 22 May 2024 (UTC)

Yes, it does, and they have to. Matma Rex talk 11:20, 22 May 2024 (UTC)

At a glance, it seems that User:Mr. Stradivarius/gadgets/SignpostTagger.js already supports the new style, as it uses $( '#bodyContent h2:first' ).text() as a backup if $( '#bodyContent h2:first span.mw-headline' ) doesn't exist (line 291). — Mr. Stradivarius ^{♪ talk ♪} 13:09, 22 May 2024 (UTC)

Fixed RFUD-helper. Thanks for the ping. – SD0001 (talk) 18:33, 22 May 2024 (UTC)

This is going to break both my edit request scripts, I will try to fix them at the weekend. Terasail^[✉️] 18:41, 22 May 2024 (UTC)

I've fixed my fork of the OneClickArchiver script (though now it only works with the new format; I don't care enough to get it working with both). Elli (talk | contribs) 02:09, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

And copy-section-link too (same caveat). Elli (talk | contribs) 02:16, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

Another one: User:Σ/Testing_facility/Archiver.js. Izno (talk) 00:45, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

And a couple other gadgets still remaining:

• MediaWiki:Gadget-PrintOptions.js
• MediaWiki:Gadget-ptoc.js
• MediaWiki:Gadget-teahouse/content.js

Izno (talk) 00:51, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

Gadget-teahouse is no longer used now that DiscussionTools has been rolled out. Pinging @Prtksxna and @TheDJ for the other two. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 15:54, 12 June 2024 (UTC)

Σ's Archiver script has been superseded by forks. See subsection just below: #Tech News – User:Enterprisey/archiver.js. —⁠andrybak (talk) 01:19, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

I had no idea that one had gotten forked. Izno (talk) 01:24, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

Gadget-autonum (Auto-number headings)

I'm assuming ~ and feel free to correct me if i'm wrong ~ that something about this deployment is why headings no longer have numbers (for me)? Will it be possible to go back to that at some point? I find long pages almost impossible to navigate around without numbered headings, so will have to learn a new way of working if it won't be possible. Thanks, Happy days, ~ Lindsay^Hello 16:24, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

@LindsayH: No, that was removed a while ago. You may try the "Auto-number headings" gadget here. Nardog (talk) 19:31, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

If you're speaking about the table of contents, Vector 22 does not provide numbering. Vector, Monobook, and Modern do.

If you are speaking about each actual heading, then indeed the preference is gone and indeed there is a gadget for it now. You have correctly identified that gadget as needing to be updated for this change. It looks like the necessary change to the snippet (documentation) has already been made, so someone needs to port that here. Izno (talk) 19:59, 27 May 2024 (UTC)

Thank you, Izno, helpful. I'd assumed it was a script/gadget, as so many appeared to be affected above. I shall patiently wait in hope Happy days, ~ Lindsay^Hello 11:51, 28 May 2024 (UTC)

@LindsayH. I think I fixed this gadget for monobook/timeless/modern with this update. But there is still a double number bug on some talk pages on vector/vector-2022. Will work on that next. –Novem Linguae (talk) 16:50, 1 June 2024 (UTC)

You star! Thanks for the notification (and, of course, for fixing it). Happy days, ~ Lindsay^Hello 06:14, 2 June 2024 (UTC)

Tech News – User:Enterprisey/archiver.js

I've been testing my fork of Enterprisey's script – User:Andrybak/Archiver. Example edits: 1226884323, 1227442551, 1227443165, 1227444165. So far, the script doesn't seem to be affected. —⁠andrybak (talk) 19:21, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

✅ Another successful test with random things (including cases, which were mentioned in bug reports): Special:Diff/1227451320. —⁠andrybak (talk) 21:33, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

Did you try all the old skins such as Timeless and Monobook? Vector isn't affected at all yet, and editing likely uses the API, but I can imagine the location of the header links this script places being possibly broken in old scripts. I fixed this kind of thing in 2 gadgets so far. –Novem Linguae (talk) 22:15, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

I know that Σ's User:Σ/Testing facility/Archiver supported at least Timeless: User talk:Σ/Archive/2021/January#Archy McArchface button caption in Timeless, so I expect Enterprisey's version to have remained compatible with other skins.

Good shout.  Checking... —⁠andrybak (talk) 22:28, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

Facepalm argh, I didn't read past the first sentence. My bad. Thank you, Novem Linguae, for pointing it out. —⁠andrybak (talk) 22:44, 5 June 2024 (UTC)

Novem Linguae, support for MonoBook and Timeless has been added: Special:Diff/1227543602. —⁠andrybak (talk) 11:22, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

Tests on real discussions: MonoBook, Timeless, Vector 2010, Vector 2022. —⁠andrybak (talk) 11:47, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

New h2 headings use serif font even when the "Vector classic typography" gadget is enabled

Vector classic typography is a gadget that forces all text to use sans-serif fonts, but even with the gadget enabled h2 headings on articles use a serif font. Incorrect behavior seen on both Firefox and Edge. TomatoFriesLAN (talk) 18:51, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

@TomatoFriesLAN Thanks for reporting, this is caused by the heading changes announced two weeks ago, which were deployed to legacy Vector as well this week. This edit should fix it: [1] – please try now. Matma Rex talk 20:27, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

Works, good job. TomatoFriesLAN (talk) 03:53, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

XFDcloser

I usually spend part of the day closing AFD discussions but none of the XFDcloser options are showing up. Not even the ability to relist. I've uninstalled every installation, unchecked the XFDcloser gadget, returned everything to normal but nothing works. Do I have to reboot my computer or something? Log out and log back in? This rarely happens so I'm not sure what happened today. I've posted a message on the XFDCloser talk page but it doesn't get much activity there. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 23:26, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

It's not an XFDC issue, it's a THURSDAY issue. Primefac (talk) 00:35, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

Izno, I see you've moved this section, and it does appear to be mentioned in the original post of this threading, but why would it only appear now? I seem to recall closing discussions earlier this week (and I suspect Liz has as well). Primefac (talk) 01:17, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

I mean, it could not be this, and you're welcome to move it back, it just has the smell. Izno (talk) 01:24, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

I patched xfdcloser a couple days ago, so a new bug today is probably something else. Will take a look. –Novem Linguae (talk) 02:52, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

Well, I thought this thread was deleted until I found it reposted up here.

It's odd because XFDCloser was working fine this morning and then this afternoon, it just didn't load at all. But I see other editors closing discussions so I hope it isn't just me. I've had ongoing problems with XFDCloser not loading on CFD pages but it hasn't been a problem on AFD daily logs until today. Thanks for checking Novem Linguae, there are usually over 100 AFD discussions daily so if this is happening for other closers, they could pile up pretty quickly. If it matters, I use a laptop with Windows. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 03:17, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

It's still working in Vector 2022, so changing your preferences temporarily is a workaround. Hopefully the issue will be fixed soon. Extraordinary Writ (talk) 03:39, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

I figured out the cause. I should have a fix deployed soon.

For the record, it looks like WMF deployed mw:Heading HTML changes to old skins (monobook, timeless, modern, cologneblue) last week, vector (2010) this week, and probably minerva and vector-2022 in the coming weeks. All breakages we see today will probably be vector (2010) only.

This staggered deployment has pros and cons. It means that if someone like me does fix a bunch of gadgets today, I'll just have to go fix them all again next week when they break on vector-2022.

It would be nice if there were an API for inserting header links. phab:T337286. APIs like mw.util.addPortlet(), mw.util.addPortletLink(), etc are great for multi-skin support and for keeping HTML changes from breaking gadgets and user scripts. –Novem Linguae (talk) 05:43, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

Yeah, I don't understand all of this jargon but I am FOREVER grateful that their are editors who do. Thanks for looking into this. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 06:33, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

Fix deployed for XFDcloser. Should be fixed within the next 15 minutes (gadget code is cached for up to 15 minutes). –Novem Linguae (talk) 06:35, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

I see I did use Vector Legacy 2010. I don't like for page formatting and white space of the updated Vector 2022. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 06:37, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

I also use Vector 2010. Best skin :) –Novem Linguae (talk) 06:38, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

I am looking forward to Vector 2034 — GhostInTheMachine ^{talk to me} 06:51, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

Yeah, and I don't like the left-side menu. But thanks Novem Linguae, it looks like things are now back to normal. I can go back to my old skin! Many thanks. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 07:24, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

Novem Linguae, XFDCloser disappeared again! I think you said this might happen. It came back when I changed to Vector 2022 but, ugh! I guess I'll use that skin when working in AFDLand and then change back when doing regular editing. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:15, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

I'm trying out Timeless. It's not as bad as Vector 2022. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 22:32, 8 June 2024 (UTC)

But it doesn't work with Twinkle. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 01:53, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

Well, XFDcloser returned to operational status. Thanks to whomever fixed that. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 03:13, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

Very strange. I haven't done any work on XFDcloser since the last deploy on Thursday, and I don't see any relevant backport patches at wikitech:Server Admin Log that might have changed MediaWiki behavior this weekend. This is all quite mysterious. –Novem Linguae (talk) 08:56, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

Novem Linguae, it's just happened again, over the span of the past hour! This is getting annoying to have to keep changing skins. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 23:31, 12 June 2024 (UTC)

@Liz. I deployed a fix related to the beta version of XFDcloser. Can you try Vector again and let me know if things are fixed? –Novem Linguae (talk) 00:48, 13 June 2024 (UTC)

User script that puts a ¶ symbol next to headings

What's the user script or gadget that puts a ¶ symbol next to headings, and when you click on it, it opens a modal with links to that section that you can copy/paste? It broke for me today and I want to fix it, but can't remember what it's called. Thanks. –Novem Linguae (talk) 03:35, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

Is it User:Enterprisey/copy-section-link? Sounds like what you described, but I don't see where you have it imported. – 2804:F14:809B:2701:19B4:583A:7C56:999F (talk) 04:22, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

Ah, it's in my global.js. No wonder I couldn't find it. Thank you very much for this link. –Novem Linguae (talk) 06:37, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

I wrote a script that provides links to user comments as well as headings, which I updated to support both the new and legacy methods of marking up headings. Its interface is a bit different though from the copy-section-link script. isaacl (talk) 06:23, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

I can't find where the script is putting the link(s) on Vector 2010. Any hints? –Novem Linguae (talk) 07:04, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

The function showCommentLinks() (starting on line 73) adds the links. The section of code starting at line 84 finds headings in the HTML document structure previously generated by MediaWiki (which I believe is the same across skins). The section of code starting at line 93 finds headings in the currently generated HTML document structure. isaacl (talk) 15:27, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

I was hoping you'd just tell me where the links are. lol. Anyway, I put a breakpoint on line 75 and the breakpoint is not getting hit when I refresh this page. I'm missing something. –Novem Linguae (talk) 20:33, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

I'm sorry, I didn't realize you were asking about the interface. As described in the documentation, you have to select the "Toggle link2clipboard" item in the tools menu (the location of the menu depends on your skin; for Vector 2010 it's in the left sidebar). </> is prepended to the start of each comment. For headings, <h/> is also prepended. Most of the time I don't want to see the links, so I chose to require an extra step to display them. Another difference from the other script is that for the major non-Safari browsers, the link text is automatically copied to the clipboard (always without surrounding square brackets; the other script can be configured not to do that if desired). isaacl (talk) 20:51, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

Nice, that worked. Thanks a lot. Feature idea: Add a way to copy it as an external link. I do this a lot when writing GitHub or Phabricator tickets, for example. –Novem Linguae (talk) 20:59, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

As my personal frequent use case is to link to comments or sections in wikitext, I wanted a way that would provide easy access to the link without underscores ;-) (And I chose to avoid square brackets as it's easier to add them when needed than delete them, and I like to use {{section link}} when feasible.) I'll take it under consideration, though; thanks for the feedback! isaacl (talk) 21:08, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

@Novem Linguae: I made a copy of Enterprisey's script with this fixed, if you'd like to switch to it: User:The Earwig/copy-section-link.js. — The Earwig (talk) 03:37, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

And I've just been informed that Enterprisey has replicated the fix to his version. — The Earwig (talk) 03:45, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

It seems that User:Enterprisey/copy-section-link.js and User:The Earwig/copy-section-link.js broke again after WP:THURSDAY. They put "undefined" after the hash (Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#undefined instead of Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Heading markup changes), and don't work on headings other than ==second level== (<h2>). —⁠andrybak (talk) 10:20, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

To fix the issue I described above, I re-used similar code for finding the section headings from User:Andrybak/Archiver.js (as described just above in #Tech News – User:Enterprisey/archiver.js). Enterprisey and The Earwig, please see Special:Diff/1230446524/1230449212. —⁠andrybak (talk) 19:31, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

More changes were necessary:

1. new CSS selectors needed because of the layout changes. <h3>, <h4>, <h5>, and <h6> no longer get CSS class .mw-heading. Hmm 🤔, is that intentional or a bug?
2. target.append instead of target.after to handle pages with non-conventional ways of adding headings, like Wikipedia:Community portal and Main Page
   Main Page is still a bit awkward because of the comma treatment (diff1, diff2). Though it seems better than in original version, which caused some glitches (pilcrow wrapping to a new line or something like that), requiring workarounds.
3. font-size: initial to counteract font-size: small of class .mw-editsection, which we now have to deal with because of #2.

—⁠andrybak (talk) 21:42, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

Section header typeface

I just noticed that section headers in articles are now using a serif typeface on both Vector and Vector legacy. Sorry I couldn't find information about this elsewhere but when and why was this change made? I do not like that it uses Oldstyle figures and would like to change it in my settings or .css page to be the same sans serif font used in other headers. Thanks! Reywas92^Talk 17:23, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

@Reywas92 Vector headers have actually been using serif fonts by default for a long time, but you have user CSS which was overriding that. It no longer works due to some changes to heading HTML. You can either change that part of your user CSS to:

h1, h2, .mw-heading1, .mw-heading2 {
    font-family: inherit !important;
}

Or alternatively just use the gadget "Vector classic typography" which has already been fixed. the wub "?!" 19:25, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

Thank you! Forgot they did that a decade ago, these numerals are awful. Reywas92^Talk 20:23, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

One click archiving not working?

I have been using User:Evad37/OneClickArchiver for some time, but I noticed the other day that the archiving links are no longer appearing for me. Anyone know why that might be? Just Step Sideways ^{from this world ..... today} 18:06, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

Just Step Sideways, see § Heading markup changes. I believe User:Andrybak/Archiver is a working fork. — Qwerfjkltalk 18:08, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for the pointer! I guess I'm off to install that. Just Step Sideways ^{from this world ..... today} 18:13, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

Well, that works, but it certainly isn't "one-click". Oh well. Just Step Sideways ^{from this world ..... today} 18:17, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

Just Step Sideways and Qwerfjkl, there are two kinds of scripts, which make semi-automatic archiving easier. Page Wikipedia:One click archiving lists User:Evad37/OneClickArchiver as the most recent script for "One click archiving". My User:Andrybak/Archiver is the latest for "Multi-section archiving". —⁠andrybak (talk) 18:28, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

I didn't mean to disparaige your script,it works just fine, while currently, the Evad one does not. Just Step Sideways ^{from this world ..... today} 18:44, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

No disparagement taken. From Qwerfjkl's reply it might seem like User:andrybak/Archiver is a fork of User:Evad37/OneClickArchiver, but it's not. I just wanted to ensure there's no confusion about that. —⁠andrybak (talk) 18:49, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

Apologies, my mistake. — Qwerfjkltalk 19:30, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

It looks like Elli and FlightTime have recently worked on their copies of OCA. Are yours functioning in the new structure? Izno (talk) 21:00, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

Yep, mine works :) Elli (talk | contribs) 21:05, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

Elli, please consider adding your script to Wikipedia:One click archiving and Wikipedia:User scripts/List#Discussions 3. —⁠andrybak (talk) 21:57, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

I've now done so. Elli (talk | contribs) 22:07, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

@Just Step Sideways ^ Izno (talk) 22:06, 9 June 2024 (UTC)

Nice, just installed it works great. Thanks all. Just Step Sideways ^{from this world ..... today} 17:19, 10 June 2024 (UTC)

Neat! I came to VPT just to browse, and not even 10 sections in, I learned of a script that deals with the new header markup. Rusty4321 ^{talk contribs} 01:34, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

OneClickArchiver disappeared...Answers found here

Very handy gadget for manual-archiving - User:Evad37/OneClickArchiver.js - but it isn't showing up today on any talk pages for me. Don't know why, the script is still sitting on my common.js page. Has it been disabled/usurped by a better gadget? Why isn't it showing up?... Help please & thanks, Shearonink (talk) 14:48, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

Ok so after posting the above query I have now read through some of the other threads about archiver scripts... Is there a present script or fork that works on individual sections/posts/threads like Evad37's used to do? Shearonink (talk) 14:54, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

Forgot to add...I am editing with Vector 2010 original/legacy if that make a difference. Shearonink (talk) 14:57, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

For anyone who is as much of a non-adept at code & tech stuff around here and has Evad37's one-click oneclick one click archive script installed, and wants the same functionality, do the following:

• go to the Wikipedia:One click archiving page.
• navigate to Wikipedia:One click archiving#One click archiving (1CA) section.
• See User:Elli/OneClickArchiver listed there? It is an updated 2024 script that is maintained and fixes some issues with Evad37's script (having to do with the 'Heading markup changes' mentioned at the top of this page.
• Follow the instructions at the User:Elli/OneClickArchiver page.
• Yay! You made it. - Shearonink (talk) 15:49, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

Broken template in Vector 2010

It would appear that these recent changes have broken Evad37's WP:Highlight duplicate links script in Vector 2010, which now no longer distinguishes between repeated links in the lead section and repeated links in the article body. ‑‑Neveselbert (talk · contribs · email) 18:20, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

Script works for me. What kind of skin are you using ? —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 18:41, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

Oh lol, it was in the title :) Anyway. works with vector 2010 for me. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 18:42, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

This seems unrelated. Should be moved out to its own section. Nothing has changed in Vector 2010 skin. 🐸 Jdlrobson (talk) 20:01, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

@TheDJ and Jdlrobson: On Elizabeth II, using Vector 2010, the script highlights links in the lead section which shouldn't be highlighted, as they're not repeated in the lead section, and highlights links (in red) that are the first instances of those links in the article body. This does not occur in Vector 2022. ‑‑Neveselbert (talk · contribs · email) 22:49, 14 June 2024 (UTC)

This is indeed caused by mw:Heading HTML changes. I think this needs to be fixed in User:Evad37/duplinks-alt.js. It should be sufficient to replace this line:

if (this.nodeName.toLowerCase() == 'h2') {

with this:

if ( $(this).is('h2, .mw-heading2') ) {

(cc @Evad37) Matma Rex talk 08:46, 15 June 2024 (UTC)

I made an edit request: User talk:Evad37/duplinks-alt.js#Update for mw:Heading HTML changes Matma Rex talk 17:03, 18 June 2024 (UTC)

help desired

Real life has kept me away for the better part of a fortnight; I really shouldn't be taking the time to write this...

I have a script User:Trappist the monk/HarvErrors.js that is a tweaked copy of User:Ucucha/HarvErrors.js. Some of those tweaks were my own to turn down the glare of the red error messages that Ucucha's script produced. At some point someone asked me for further tweaks. What I know about javascript can be put in a thimble so I had to rely on the expertise of other more javascript fluent editors.

My script may have become broken because of the mw:Heading HTML changes. I suspect that the broken code is at lines 46–48. The code is supposed to make three separate lists of references found in each of an article's §External links, §Further reading, and §Publications sections. The purpose of that is to suppress the error messaging that would occur if any reference in those sections duplicates or can be linked from a short-form reference ({{sfn}} and the like).

With my script installed for example, this version of Rudolf Roessler (permalink) shows Harv error: linked from CITEREF... for every reference in (§Bibliography (permalink)). Those were 'fixed' by renaming §Publications to §Works (diff).

Is there anyone out there who would be willing to show me how to fix the issue? Because I'm not really here for the time being, a post on my talk page will find me via an email notification from MediaWiki.

Thank you.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 17:05, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

@Trappist the monk I'm not sure if I understand exactly what the script should do, however, I think it may be enough to add .mw-heading2 to the selectors in those 3 lines, like this:

		var further_reading = $content.find('#Further_reading').parent().nextUntil('h2, .mw-heading2').find('.citation').get();	// get all cites inside a Further reading section
		var external_links = $content.find('#External_links').parent().nextUntil('h2, .mw-heading2').find('.citation').get();		// get all cites inside a External links section
		var publications = $content.find('#Publications').parent().nextUntil('h2, .mw-heading2').find('.citation').get();			// get all cites inside a Publications section

Matma Rex talk 17:25, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

@Matma Rex: Ding! Ding! Ding! That works though I don't understand why it works. Thank you.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 13:56, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

The HTML nesting of headings changed recently. The fix done above is to check for both the old and the new selector (h2, .mw-heading2), until all skins are switched over in a couple weeks, at which point just the new selector can be used. –Novem Linguae (talk) 21:02, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Heads-up: Diff colour

Hey everyone,

On the topic of accessibility: As you might know, the Wikimedia Foundation Web team is working on a night mode, which is currently available on mobile but continues to be developed. As part of the accessability work around this, the developers made some slight changes to the colour in the diff text, which will be visible on the wikis this week but didn't make it into Tech News until next week. You can read more in phab:T361717.

As part of the Tech News crew, I wanted to let you know since it didn't make it into this week's issue. /Johan (WMF) (talk) 15:07, 19 June 2024 (UTC)

Is having different colours between different modes such a hard thing to add? The colour look much worse now on the default/white mode and are too pale. Traumnovelle (talk) 10:17, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

I'm using the old Vector style, and I want to switch back to old diff colors. This is hurting my eyes...can someone help me with the css code needed? Jonatan Svensson Glad (talk) 11:56, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

I came here to ask the same, particularly the new yellow is painfully vivid due to light sensitivity. -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested «@» °∆t° 14:23, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

This should restore the old colors:

.diff-deletedline {
  border-color: #ffe49c;
}
.diff-addedline {
  border-color: #a3d3ff;
}
.diff-deletedline .diffchange,
.mw-diff-inline-deleted del, .mw-diff-inline-changed del, .mw-diff-inline-moved del {
  background: #ffebad;
}
.diff-addedline .diffchange,
.mw-diff-inline-added ins, .mw-diff-inline-changed ins, .mw-diff-inline-moved ins {
  background: #a3d3ff;
}

-- hgzh 14:31, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

Thanks hgzh that works perfectly. -- LCU ActivelyDisinterested «@» °∆t° 15:36, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

Before too many people copy this over to their user CSS, I strongly advise instead that you use the CSS I recommended in T361717#9910664 instead as diff HTML (and thus associated selectors) is not covered by the mw:Stable_interface_policy/Frontend. Jon (WMF) (talk) 16:21, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

I used the selectors because they work in all skins, while the changes to css variables will have no effect in timeless and monobook skin (don't know how many people are using these over here, in dewiki I think we have quite a lot of people that still use monobook and are not very keen on a changing interface). If you are only on Vector/Minerva skins, the variable override is better. hgzh 17:41, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

Ack. I forgot the old skins are not getting CSS variables right now. I'll update my comment with clearer advice by the end of the day. Thanks for pointing this out. Jon (WMF) (talk) 21:11, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

@Johan (WMF), Tech News is distributed to 700+ communities. So it is extremely weird (and a bit disheartening) to see WMF people inform only the English-speaking community if something was not relayed there.

(Though I am of the opinion that this strange diff colour change should not have been made at all, or should’ve been made with more care to keep the colours closer to the original.) stjn 16:32, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

Stjn: I absolutely understand that perspective, and this is not a substitute for a Tech News update – there will be a Tech News update – but I'd like to point out didn't only update the English-speaking community. I also posted on a mailing list for people who have signed up to spread technical information to their home communities. Where this quick update ended up doesn't reflect Foundation priorities, but language limitations – it's also been posted on Swedish Wikipedia, for example. Johan (WMF) (talk) 17:05, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for that hgzh! I think two of the colors are slightly off. I think this will restore the original colors:

/* restore old diff colors */
.diff-deletedline {
  border-color: #FFE49C;
}
.diff-addedline {
  border-color: #A3D3FF;
}
.diff-deletedline .diffchange,
.mw-diff-inline-deleted del, .mw-diff-inline-changed del, .mw-diff-inline-moved del {
  background: #FEEEC8;
}
.diff-addedline .diffchange,
.mw-diff-inline-added ins, .mw-diff-inline-changed ins, .mw-diff-inline-moved ins {
  background: #D8ECFF;
}

I did try the CSS that Jon (WMF) linked, but sadly it did not work. –Novem Linguae (talk) 16:59, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

What should be the previous colors can be found at Special:Permalink/1228175150 (old version of Help:Diff). The hex color codes in Novem Linguae's version look accurate to me. —⁠andrybak (talk) 22:38, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

The hex colour codes are correct and normally work fine; however, when one is comparing a diff with highlighted text such as [2] the colours are more bold and vivid than before.

Diffs where text is not highlighted such as [3] appear fine however. Traumnovelle (talk) 00:20, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Just wanted to remark that the colours are interfering with the ability to highlight text (for example, for copying and pasting)—the highlight can't be seen against the purple colour. — SGconlaw (talk) 02:33, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

The colours used when marking text for copy and paste are a feature of your browser and/or operating system, we have no control over them. There aren't even any CSS pseudo-classes, CSS background properties or CSS color properties that might provide any means of selection or setting. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 07:07, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Pseudo-element ::selection applies styles to the part of a document that has been highlighted by the user (such as clicking and dragging the mouse across text). —⁠andrybak (talk) 09:51, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

@Novem Linguae: thanks for that version. It worked with my monobook. I was fearing I'd have to stop editing here, it was that bad. My eyes hurt and watered. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 22:12, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for this. The new colors are awful and non-intuitive. Some1 (talk) 22:30, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Our interface admin switched our wiki back to the old colors, but on m.wikipedia I'm still seeing the new low-contrast backgrounds (purple and ochre). So there must be something else that needs to be fixed. Form over function - rarely a good thing! Ponor (talk) 14:36, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

Why isn't that a setting in preferences? I already have problems with my head hurting lately, and high contrast on my computer or phone screen doesn't help. LilianaUwU ^{(talk / contributions)} 03:07, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Speaking of which, there already is a gadget called "Display diffs with the old yellow-and-green colors and design". Time for another one? lol Nardog (talk) 03:15, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

I mean... why not. LilianaUwU ^{(talk / contributions)} 03:19, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Or you can paste the old diff color CSS code that NL made to your Meta global.css page. Codename Noreste 🤔 Talk 19:50, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Novem Linguae's version worked for me. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 22:13, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

This should be some type of setting one can easily toggle. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 22:15, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

New color for added text in diffs?

Is it just me, or has --background-color-content-added changed to a lilac #afb6e9 from the previous blue? The color contrast's awful now. Aaron Liu (talk) 17:39, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

see #Heads-up: Diff colour above. Nthep (talk) 17:49, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Recent change to colors in "Difference between revisions" window?

When I look at the "Difference between revisions", the colors have been changed. When did this happen? It is now more difficult for me to read the text. The previous version worked fine. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 21:47, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Heads-up:_Diff_colour -- GreenC 21:51, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Thank you! I'll check it out. I hope it isn't a permanent change, as it's really disturbing to my eyes. -- Valjean (talk) (PING me) 21:57, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Bugs persisting after last week

Hello! Ever since the infobox bugs last week, I've been experiencing some issues. Just wanted to let you know.

1. The search bar at the top of the page disappears if I zoom in on the page too far. I usually read and edit WP zoomed-in, and this doesn't usually happen.
2. On Talk pages, the WikiProject headers have lost their icons.
3. When I'm in the visual editor and I click the number for an inline citation, the full citation pops up in a box like usual, but sometimes I am unable to click links in the citation.

Thanks! Wafflewombat (talk) 16:19, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

@Wafflewombat: Regarding no. 1: the search bar does not disappear, it collapses into a magnifying glass icon - try clicking that. No. 2 doesn't happen for me. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 18:27, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

Do you know if the search bar is supposed to collapse, or if the collapsing is a glitch? Wafflewombat (talk) 21:16, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

@Wafflewombat Re: 1 - If you zoom-in far enough using your browser's settings, the page will eventually switch into the layout that it uses for everyone if their browser-window is less than 1120pixels wide (which doesn't use the sticky header)

Re: 2 - It might help if you could link to an example page, and describe what icons you used to see at that example, but no longer see. E.g. I don't see any missing icons at Talk:Cat. (It might also help if you clear your browser cache with a hard-refresh, cf. WP:REFRESH.)

Re: 3 - Matma Rex has covered below. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 01:10, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

I figured out the icons issue, but I still find the search bar issue strange, because it's disappearing at a zoom level that I always use, and it didn't disappear at that zoom level before. Not a big deal, though. I can live with it, if it's not a problem for anyone else. Wafflewombat (talk) 01:22, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

When I'm in the visual editor and I click the number for an inline citation, the full citation pops up in a box like usual, but sometimes I am unable to click links in the citation.

This is now filed as T368119. Matma Rex talk 01:09, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Just a heads-up, this clicking problem in the VE is now happening with other buttons in addition to the inline citations. Wafflewombat (talk) 06:22, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

@Wafflewombat Hi, please could you describe which specific other buttons you are experiencing problems with? (I tried opening an article in VE and clicking random things, but everything else worked as expected.) Thanks. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 17:39, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for the message. The other buttons are working properly now, but the links within citations I mentioned above are still not functioning. Wafflewombat (talk) 17:48, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Category:Wikipedia requested photographs of

This page, which redirects and seems completely redundant to Category:Wikipedia requested photographs, has been created three times since November 2023 (twice so far this month). The first two creations were misplaced userspace drafts. As I type, it's slowly being populated with talk pages, with the corresponding redirect link being left behind on each talk page. I've just switched it from a "hard" to a soft redirect in line with WP:R#CATEGORY.

Does anyone know why this category is continuing to be populated? Also, considering its recreations, has there been some kind of template documentation change somewhere on en.wiki which keeps leading users to this page?

I'm not sure the category must be deleted, but seeing as the category title is longer than the one it redirects to, keeping it seems rather pointless to me.

I'm in half a mind to just G6-delete and re-salt on account of the technical issues from the category population, but I'm intrigued... SuperMarioMan (Talk) 20:51, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

I am pretty sure this is due to |image-needed= not being set up correctly or there being something not quite working in Module:WikiProject banner. @MSGJ? Izno (talk) 20:58, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

• Soft-redirecting appears to have stopped the category population. When it was a hard redirect, the category seemed to be accumulating talk pages at a rate of ~10 a minute. SuperMarioMan (Talk) 21:10, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

Correction: the category is still populating, but more slowly. SuperMarioMan (Talk) 21:57, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

The code is in Module:WikiProject banner/auxiliary. I see it looks whether a category of the form Category:Wikipedia requested photographs of {{{topic}}} exists. If it does then it uses that category, otherwise it will use the default, which for biographies is Category:Wikipedia requested photographs of people. So creating Category:Wikipedia requested photographs of has actually caused this problem. But I obviously need to update the code so that a blank topic parameter will be considered. — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 22:34, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

I posted a similar query at the module's talk page. – Jonesey95 (talk) 23:09, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

I think that the main problem is that Category:Wikipedia requested photographs of got created - this occurred yesterday, and was done by The Sharpest Lives (talk · contribs). The code in Module:WikiProject banner/auxiliary relies on the non-existence of that category page. We may need to delete it, and then WP:NULLEDIT every page in the category. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 07:16, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

I assume it got created because it already contained some pages, which I don't understand. But anyway I have updated the module code so this should no longer happen — Martin (MSGJ · talk) 07:31, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Apologies – I created the redirect because I noticed it was on Special:WantedPages with thousands of links. I thought that making the category a redirect would "move" the pages into the correct category, but I'm sure now that that's not how all this works. Sorry for any trouble. – The Sharpest Lives (💬•✏️•ℹ️) 12:53, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

@The Sharpest Lives: If a page uses mw:Help:Extension:ParserFunctions##ifexist then it causes an entry in WhatLinksHere for the tested page, and probably also counts in Special:WantedPages. A template may make thousands of ifexist checks of the same page. It doesn't imply somebody wants the page to exist, or that anything actually links to the page. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:42, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

A null edit isn't needed, a purge with forcelinkupdate works. Eventually the job queue should get around to doing that due to the module edit, but I don't know how long that might take or if there's job queue breakage of some sort at the moment. Anomie⚔ 14:57, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Getting a list/count of values of a parameter.

(not real example). Template Infobox:Guinea Pig has a parameter called "Tail color". I'd like to be able to see what values this parameter has over all articles that use the infobox. (I asked on the help desk and got no response)Naraht (talk) 21:46, 20 June 2024 (UTC)

Bambots TemplateParam supports it for templates that have TemplateData. Izno (talk) 00:14, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Any template that has a TemplateData section filled out in its documentation should also have a {{TemplateData header}} template. That header template contains a link to a report, generated monthly, of parameter usage. If the template you are interested in does not have a TemplateData section yet, one will have to be added. After that, the bot runs sometime around the 10th of each month and generates a report. – Jonesey95 (talk) 01:42, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

thank you both very much. While only running monthly, the Bambots TemplateParam for Infobox Fraternity is proving very useful at Wikipedia:WikiProject Fraternities and Sororities.Naraht (talk) 03:18, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

The time allocated for running scripts has expired

Hello, appear to get red messages of "The time allocated for running scripts has expired." As an example there is 3 messages at end of Bridlington and The Wolds (UK Parliament constituency). The page does not display the templates at the end of the article. I have tried a dummy edit on page to see if that will clear the problem. The page is OK when viewed in edit preview, wikitext editor. Keith D (talk) 12:26, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

A purge seemes to have fixed it. — xaosflux ^Talk 13:20, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

@Keith D: This has been affecting random pages at random times for some weeks, all you need to do is WP:PURGE. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 16:06, 21 June 2024 (UTC)

Blue rectangle when clicking images

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T368137

The glitch in Firefox on the page Wikipedia:Community portal

The glitch is more easily visible after middle-clicking any image, i.e. any <img> tag, but it also appears on the left mouse button down. All images are affected, e.g. it's also visible when clicking on the image on any file page, like File:Example.jpg. I think this started appearing yesterday.

Reproduced both logged in and logged out. Only Vector 2022 is affected. Monobook and Legacy Vector (2010) are not affected.

The issue is more prominent in Firefox, where the blue rectangle intersects the image.

In Chromium, the blue rectangle follows the border of the image, however, the blue border in Chromium seems to be less visible for <img> tags of smaller size. E.g. lynx image in Template:In the news (currently on the Main Page) only shows the border at the bottom of the image. —⁠andrybak (talk) 09:51, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

Any clickable object has a hotspot, the area within which a click will fire the associated event (for example, for a link in running text the hotspot is the word or phrase enclosed by the link, and the event is the browser taking you to the link target). In Firefox, if you click a link in text, come back to the same page, and then press the Tab ↹ key, the next link in sequence will gain a blue border - this indicates the extent of the hotspot. I first noticed this some jobs ago, waaaay back in 1998, when my browser at work was Netscape 4, so it's not really a new feature. Clickable images also have a hotspot, which normally corresponds to the image outline, but when you tab into a clickable image in Firefox 127, for some reason it draws the blue border smaller than the true extent of the hotspot. I think that you're seeing this border. In the days before style sheets, this border appeared by default, even when you weren't tabbing between links, but could be suppressed by using the border=0 attribute on the <img /> tag. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 12:59, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

It appears that the "focus ring" is appearing around the bounds of the <a> tag, which has the width of the image but the height of the line. At a quick check I'm not seeing any MediaWiki-specific styles for the :focus-visible pseudo-class, and a test HTML page with no styles has the same behavior, so this is coming from the browser's default behavior. Anomie⚔ 21:07, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

This is probably worth a bug report. Izno (talk) 16:09, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

Created phab:T368205. —⁠andrybak (talk) 20:06, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

I'm experiencing a this same issue, and another not mentioned by OP. When I visit a page with a non-existent talk page, the talk page link is blue. When I click to confirm that the talk page does not exist and go back to the previous page, the link becomes red. This started three or four days ago for me. Could this be related? ✗plicit 00:23, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Can reproduce – most noticeable for file pages on Commons, which rarely have talk pages. This seems like a separate bug to me. —⁠andrybak (talk) 06:59, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

See phab:T367982 for that issue. Sjoerd de Bruin (talk) 09:08, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

And also see section #Blue link to non-existent user page below. —⁠andrybak (talk) 19:33, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Blue link to non-existent user page

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T367982

Recently (past week or two?) when I go to a new(ish) user's talk page, the link to their user page is shown in blue, but when I go to take a look, there's nothing there. When I return to the talk page, the same link is now red. Is this a bug or a 'feature'? (I've not noticed it anywhere else other than the user namespace, either because it's unique to that, or it's just not that often one comes across a talk page with no corresponding main page.) Happened loads of times, so not limited to any one user's pages, but just as an example: User talk:Daksh kochar. -- DoubleGrazing (talk) 06:50, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

I've seen it happen in mainspace too, mostly because I do a lot of G8 tagging. A reliable way to test this is to go to any talk page archive, since the corresponding main page won't exist. Try Talk:Giraffe/Archive 1 for example. Also quite notable is that once you've clicked on to the main page, the link will stay red forever, even if the talk page is reloaded or closed outright and reopened. Liu1126 (talk) 07:24, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

This sounds a lot like phab:T367982. —⁠andrybak (talk) 07:45, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Thanks, most likely is the same bug. Liu1126 (talk) 07:58, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Thanks @Andrybak, it does indeed sound the same (actually, the reverse, but I reckon reverse is the same!), thanks for flagging that up. -- DoubleGrazing (talk) 08:10, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

I've also seen this happen in mainspace, with nonexistent talk pages seeming blue until I click on them and they don't exist, and only then becoming red. Bearcat (talk) 10:45, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

There is a CSS rule saying:

a.new {
	color: var(--color-link-red,#d73333);
}

That works in red wikilinks but the tab links in Vector 2022 swap the order of a and new. Fix for your CSS:

.new a {
	color: var(--color-link-red,#d73333);
}

PrimeHunter (talk) 11:16, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Thanks, works splendidly. Liu1126 (talk) 11:23, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Thanks @PrimeHunter, that works! :) DoubleGrazing (talk) 11:24, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Citing Wikipedia Library sources

Not sure where to ask this but a few times I've tried to cite a source found through the Wikipedia Library but all I get is this rather than the article I'm citing from. See Niccolò Paganini and Manuel de Falla for examples. Is this a technical issue with the cite tool? Or am I doing something wrong? — Iadmc♫^talk  10:36, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

Well you should not be pasting in the url that you use for the Wikipedia library to the cite tool. The tool will be asked to logon and that will be why you get the wrong link. You can use the doi or other permanent link that the pages show. Or the url that would be used if not using Wikipedia library. I get close to 100% success with dois. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 12:16, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

Ah that could be it! Thanks I'll try that next time. — Iadmc♫^talk  12:45, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

Feverfew – A new link checker tool

Hello everyone, today I'd like to introduce a tool that I've just finished developing called Feverfew. This application is designed to check links within an article and determine whether they are working or broken.

The idea for Feverfew stems from Dispenser's Checklinks tool, which has been intermittently accessible via IP and is now unreachable since 2020. With Dispenser's absence, Checklinks has had reliability issues, prompting the development of Feverfew in hopes of reviving some of Checklinks' functionality.

You can access the tool at this website: https://feverfew.toolforge.org/, and learn how to use it by visiting: User:Plantaest/Feverfew.

While I acknowledge that InternetArchiveBot has done a commendable job archiving links, I believe a tool similar to Dispenser's Checklinks remains valuable for certain needs. Further perspectives on this can be explored in the "Feverfew and InternetArchiveBot" section.

I plan to add a feature for previewing web pages via iframe, though this may take some time.

This tool has been open-sourced on GitHub: feverfew repo. You can star it to show support if you have a GitHub account.

You can leave comments, give feedback, or report bugs about this tool on the following page: User talk:Plantaest/Feverfew; or directly here. Thank you very much :D

Plantaest (talk) 16:58, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

You might want to take a look at a similar tool I wrote a while ago at https://link-dispenser.toolforge.org :) Sohom (talk) 17:15, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

Is this an appropriate place to plug these tools? I assume they are free? — Iadmc♫^talk  17:17, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

Sure, seems fine to plug Wikipedia-related tools here. –Novem Linguae (talk) 14:39, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

OK. Thanks — Iadmc♫^talk  14:40, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

toolforge:link-dispenser is free and hosted completely on toolforge. I think feverfew is also free, but uses AWS infrastructure (which has it's own downsides and upsides imho). Sohom (talk) 17:20, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

@Sohom Datta: Good tool. I wasn't aware of it, probably because I don't frequent enwiki. Initially, I hosted the entire Feverfew on Toolforge, but realized that Toolforge IPs could potentially be blocked if there were too many requests from this tool to websites. Therefore, I moved a small portion of the code to an AWS Lambda Function to take advantage of their extensive IP pool. Overall, this tool is free, as the cost for AWS Lambda Function is negligible (I still have quite a long time left on their free tier). Plantaest (talk) 17:35, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

@Plantaest AFAIK, a lot more URLs are blocked from AWS/GCP/Hetzner like cloud providers than smaller ones like Toolforge https://gitlab.wikimedia.org/toolforge-repos/link-dispenser/-/blob/main/blocked.json?ref_type=heads is the entire list for my tool (along with archive.org). Btw, maybe you could add a check for spammy links? Sohom (talk) 17:48, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

@Sohom Datta: I think what you're saying is possible, but in reality, I don't see the blocking situation; the tool still accesses archive.org. The purpose of hiding Toolforge IP addresses is to avoid impacting tools developed by other developers, as Toolforge is a shared server. Regarding the issue of spam links, I have another project to handle (Citron), but it's only for Vietnamese Wikipedia because I think this issue requires significant infrastructure resources to address, which is not suitable for a large wiki like English Wikipedia. Plantaest (talk) 17:58, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

Internet Archive Reference Explorer is similar. Early public release. One development feature, not in this release, is the ability to switch the dead link checker method - currently the IABot method, or the Wayback Machine method - to be able to compare results. Neither method use machine learning like Feverfew, would be interesting to compare. The version posted here is using the IABot method. -- GreenC 00:39, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

@GreenC: A good tool with a bright UI. I noticed that the Internet Archive Reference Explorer allows for PDF file analysis, so it is a larger-scale project compared to Feverfew. I will share my machine learning model method when I have time, although this model is not entirely accurate, and I am not an expert in machine learning. However, I think this could be helpful for those interested in this topic in developing a better model in the future. Plantaest (talk) 01:49, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Connexion problems

I've had a few "Original error: upstream connect error or disconnect/reset before headers. reset reason: connection failure, transport failure reason: delayed connect error: 111" errors tonight, also one or two "unable to load your Twinkle preferences". DuncanHill (talk) 22:45, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

Probably related to the ongoing outage. —⁠andrybak (talk) 22:51, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

I had the same error message repeatedly, when trying to go from the Main Page (which loaded fine), to the login page. Seems to be getting back to normal now. --Tryptofish (talk) 23:16, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

A report, once ready, will appear on the landing page for incidents – wikitech:Incident status. It will be published as a subpage, most probably for the date 2024-06-22, but maybe for 2024-06-23, depending on how it is be counted. —⁠andrybak (talk) 13:51, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Category problems

Using the template "{{Month events in country category header}}" it does not always generate the three categories needed see Category:June 1943 events in Australia it has not generated Category:June 1943 events in Oceania; likewise for Category:June 1943 events in the United States it has not generated Category:June 1943 events in North America

Hugo999 (talk) 23:11, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

@Hugo999: Most templates aren't supposed to add non-existing categories. It uses mw:Help:Extension:ParserFunctions##ifexist to test whether the category exists and only adds it in that case. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:44, 22 June 2024 (UTC)

What happens when you turn off pending changes?

Domestic duck has had pending changes turned on for the past 10 years. I assume whatever was going on at the time has stopped happening so PC can be turned off. What I'm not clear about is what will happen when I turn it off. Will 10 years of unapproved changes go away? Will they get automatically applied? RoySmith (talk) 13:44, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Which unapproved changes might those be? --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 13:51, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Unclear. I don't actually understand how PC works, so I'm just assuming there might be some. For example, looking at the history list, I see most of the entries are highlighted in blue with the annotation "[automatically accepted]". But some, such as Special:Diff/1211852479 are not, and when I click on that diff I get a dialog offering to let me accept the revision. Is that not a PC which was never approved? RoySmith (talk) 13:56, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

PS, I assume if I was running for WP:RfA today, my nomination would get shot down with "Too soon, apply again in 6 months when you understand how things work better". :-) RoySmith (talk) 13:58, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

(edit conflict) To clarify, as of 13:58, 23 June 2024 (UTC) the latest manually reviewed/accepted/approved version is Special:Permalink/1227191547, published at at 08:36, 4 June 2024. It was reviewed on the same day at 09:22, 4 June 2024. The later three edits (Special:Diff/1227607510, Special:Diff/1227609667, Special:Diff/1227610060) were automatically accepted, because the edits – Rallekralle11 and Chiswick Chap are autoconfirmed. —⁠andrybak (talk) 13:58, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Page Wikipedia:Pending changes#Effect of various protection levels doesn't mention autoconfirmed users explicitly. Instead, it says Edits by unregistered or new editors (and any subsequent edits by anyone) are hidden [...], until reviewed (emphasis in the original). "unregistered or new editors" means editors who aren't autoconfirmed.

On the other hand, page Wikipedia:User access levels#Autoconfirmed and confirmed users does mention pending changes explicitly: Edits that [autoconfirmed users] make to a page that is under pending changes protection will be accepted [...] without requiring review or approval (unless there are prior pending changes awaiting approval [...]).

Similarly, on page Wikipedia:Protection policy#Pending changes protection: When a page under pending changes protection is edited by an autoconfirmed user, the edit will be immediately visible to Wikipedia readers, unless there are pending edits waiting to be reviewed. —⁠andrybak (talk) 14:05, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

To find the link to the log of review:

1. go to Domestic duck
2. hover the mouse over the arrow in the box
   Accepted (latest)
3. click on "reviewed"

Hope this helps. —⁠andrybak (talk) 14:21, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Added the above to Wikipedia:Pending changes#Frequently asked questions as "How can I see the details of review?" —⁠andrybak (talk) 21:07, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Yes. Unreviewed changes should become visible if you turn off pending changes protection. –Novem Linguae (talk) 04:06, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

table scrollbar suggestion?

Lads and gents, I present an incessantly wide table.

Caption text

Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text
Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example
Legend: Old version Older version, still maintained Latest version Latest preview version Future release	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example
Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example

Under limited-width Vector 2022 and mobile devices, the table will break our world's barriers, cause mass panic, and apparate a scrollbar onto the entire page. The following is a blocky table, complete with scrollbar.

Caption text

Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text	Header text
Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example
Legend: Old version Older version, still maintained Latest version Latest preview version Future release	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example
Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example	Example

.wikitable {
	display: block;
	overflow-x: auto;
	border: none; /* otherwise we'd have a surrounding border */
	background-color: inherit; /* else we'd have background on the caption */
}
.wikitable tbody {
	background-color: var(--background-color-neutral-subtle,#f8f9fa);
}

Stackoverflow claims that this will bring about "cells not filling the entire table". I don't see that though. Is there any reason we may not want to add this to our CSS styles? Aaron Liu (talk) 14:58, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

You can create a template that calls to load a styles.css file with the CSS for a class widetable. Then just place the template before the table and add the appropriate class to the table. This approach is used with {{static row numbers}} to add a automatic row number to a table.  —  Jts1882 | talk  15:43, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

I think it'd be very hard to find every table that's too wide for mobile devices. Aaron Liu (talk) 16:14, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

I usually prefer the first type of wide table. Some of it may depend on browser or device. You can scroll with arrows without first clicking inside the table. You can see more of the table in the whole window width while scrolling. If there are related wide tables then you can scroll all at the same time. You don't have to scroll down to find the horizontal scrollbar if you scroll with the mouse. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:53, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

I dunno about you, but in these days I use the mouse a lot. Having it just overflow and cover the toolbar on the right also seems very unclean and sloppy. If users prefer, they could also load CSS for the legacy behavior, or we could even make that a gadget. Aaron Liu (talk) 16:11, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

One advantage of having the entire table shown is that the viewer can use their zoom level (including pinch-zoom on a touch device) to manage the amount of table they can see at once, rather than being constrained to a fixed window of the table. (Note that at narrow window widths, the default styling already adds a horizontal scroll bar to the table.) isaacl (talk) 16:34, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

1. Stackoverflow is correct. That issue can indeed be caused with something like this. There are other similar issues caused when you set a table to display block also.
2. Accessibility agents are known to remove the table semantics when display: block is assigned. That's categorically bad.
3. This is being worked on and you don't need to futz around with your own solution. See phab:T366314 and related.

Izno (talk) 16:49, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Oops. Well, that settles it. Aaron Liu (talk) 17:50, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

@Izno I wonder if 2 is still the case btw. That used to be for presentational tables, but accessibility agents are not really supposed to look at the display style for interpreting the elements. 'googling' Apparently, this already worked in Firefox, was fixed in Chrome 80 in Feb 2020, and fixed for Safari in October 2023 (see the various update notes at [4]). —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 21:04, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Oh, that's actually exciting. His linked post is probably more useful for an eyeball's-worth of knowing what's working and what's not. Izno (talk) 01:06, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Weird ghost category redlinks

Yesterday's run of Special:WantedCategories featured a full 185 weird ghost redlinks that had somehow been populated by {{WikiProject Military history}}, each with somewhere between one and 437 pages in them yet without actually appearing on any of those pages — and further, they were largely at abbreviated forms like CAT-class or RED-class or IMG-class, that aren't how real WikiProject class-rating categories would ever actually be named. But neither the template nor its class-mask subtemplate appear to have been edited recently, so I couldn't find any obvious root cause.

Accordingly, I just patiently gnomed my way through by visiting each category and smashing the "Null edit category members" link to clean them all out, which worked at the time. (Luckily, since many of the pages were "in" several of them at the same time, nulling one category often had the benefit of partially or fully depopulating others at the same time, so while it was still a boring drudge it wasn't actually as horrific a job as it sounds.)

However, since editors sometimes try to put articles back into redlinked categories again after they've been removed, I regularly check the WantedCategories report a couple of times a day between updates, and have noticed that some of these ghost categories are also becoming repopulated again, though still without actually appearing on any of the pages that are "populating" them, and still clearing back out if I null the pages.

I'd really rather this not become a regular feature of the report, however, so I was wondering if somebody could look into why the template keeps somehow "populating" improperly-named categories that it isn't even coded to generate in the first place, and aren't actually showing up on the pages that are "in" them, before the next update spits 185 more of them out. Bearcat (talk) 17:11, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

I examined around 50 military history categories at Special:WantedCategories and they were all empty. Please give an example of a page which is or was listed in a red category. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:33, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

PrimeHunter, Category:Red-Class military history articles contains Talk:Reverse osmosis water purification unit currently. — Qwerfjkltalk 20:31, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Thanks. It was caused by this edit to Module:WikiProject banner. The module is used in 10 million pages. It takes a long time to render so many pages again and update link tables like those used in categories. It may still have been ongoing with categories gradually populating when the edit was reverted 23:28, 21 June 2024 (UTC).[5] After that time, I don't think any new pages should be added to categories, but it may take a long time to remove all the old additions. Or can an old waiting link table update be made after the edit which caused it has been reverted?

Template and module edits can cause the rendering of a page to be updated and change the category list at the bottom before the category pages are updated to change whether the page is listed. This is similar to how a purge will update the category list but it requiews a null edit to also update the category pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:19, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Record of thanks given

Is there any way that I can demonstrate to another editor that a third editor has thanked me for a particular edit? I am trying to make clear that I have a level of support for an issue that I raised on a talk page. ThoughtIdRetired _TIR 19:29, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

This is less a technical question, and more a question of whether or not the use of the "thanks for the edit" function can be used to imply a specific reason for thanking you. I presume others are like me - thanks does not always, or even most of the time, mean "I agree with this and support it". It can mean something as simple as "I appreciate your participation in this discussion", or even "while I disagree with you, you haven't flamed me or become toxic, so here's thanks". -bɜ:ʳkənhɪmez (User/say hi!) 19:49, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Special:Log/thanks can show that user A thanked user B at time C. It doesn't reveal which edit was thanked. This is deliberately non-public. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:00, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

And I have had editors thank me for reverting their unconstructive edits. Context matters. Donald Albury 20:36, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

How this works seems strange when, on thanking another editor, you are asked to confirm that you wish to publicly thank them. Whatever the intended design, it seems only to benefit those who might wish to misrepresent being thanked. If the record simply showed the edit that was thanked, then it would take very little effort to see the context in which that edit was made. Should this move over to the policy section? ThoughtIdRetired _TIR 21:01, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

This is covered at Help:Notifications/Thanks#How do I see the thanks I've received and Help:Notifications/Thanks#How do I see the thanks I've given out. In short: anybody can find out if John has thanked Jane, and when that was done; but nobody except Jane can see what the thanks was actually for. There is plenty of previous discussion in the archives of its talk page. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 21:46, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

I have never seen someone use thanks as evidence of support, and I wouldn't encourage it. Some users may want to keep it private that they follow edits to a page or liked a particular edit. Thanks are meant to show an editor that you appreciated their edit. If the edit was public then thanks would be used for other purposes and maybe less for the intended purpose. There is probably a Phabricator request somewhere but all Phabricator searches are currently down for me. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:48, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

That seems strange to me – other editors can see that editor A is thanking editor B, but not what for. So editor C might infer that two others were ganging up on them, when actually the "thank" was for an edit in an article unknown to editor C. The solution for those who really want to keep what they are doing private (unlike just about everything on Wikipedia – you can even work out when an editor probably goes to bed at night!) – the solution is don't thank anyone. OK, not the biggest problem on Wikipedia, but it is one of the few poor bits of system analysis that I have seen here. ThoughtIdRetired _TIR 22:05, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Phabricator search is still down for me but I found a 2013 request with Google: phab:T51087. There is no sign Wikimedia wikis will make the thanked edit public but there was discussion about a MediaWiki option for other wikis so the task hasn't been closed as declined. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:40, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Honestly for WP/related projects I don’t see why individual thanks need to be published at all. Just publish “user has received X thanks” if anything, and keep the actual thanks logged in the back end visible to admins/CUOS/whatever is deemed to be useful. -bɜ:ʳkənhɪmez (User/say hi!) 20:46, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

more efficient watching

Each day I download my watchlist page, filter it for the "mw-changeslist-watchedunseen" tag, open the histories for the unseen pages; I have scripts for these steps. But then, on each of these history pages, I have to click by hand to get the diffs from the last "seen" version to the current version. Is there a more automatic way to get those diffs? (The links I want are in the mail notices, if I choose to receive them, but again that's a couple of clicks for each.) —Tamfang (talk) 21:18, 23 June 2024 (UTC)

Link to existing script? Figuring out what language it's in and what it's doing will help with figuring out if you can just add code to it or need to explore a different option. What do you mean by "mail notice"? I assume you just want the diff of last time you viewed it compared to the newest revision, right? –Novem Linguae (talk) 04:04, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

The scripts are on my own computer, in Vim and Python. I could in principle write a script to combine these and then curl the history pages and then examine these for the last unseen version; but I'd rather use an existing script native to WP, if possible!

I used to get a notice by mail whenever a watched page was changed, if I had seen it since the previous change. (I turned that off; now I cannot find it in Preferences.) That notice included the link I want, but again only one at a time. —Tamfang (talk) 03:42, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

The grouping mode has "n since last visit" links. Nardog (talk) 01:43, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

What is this grouping mode of which you speak? n what? —Tamfang (talk) 03:43, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

Click "n changes, n days" and check "Group results by page", or check "Group changes by page in recent changes and watchlist" in Preferences. But it seems the links only appear when there are seen and unseen edits made within the same day, so it might not totally satisfy your needs. Nardog (talk) 03:53, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

Seems to do nothing but show tags. Can't see how it helps me, thanks anyway. —Tamfang (talk) 21:09, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

Ongoing Phabricator request to remove the spamblacklistlog right from the edit filter helper right

There is an ongoing Phabricator request about this, and the section title is explanatory; see phab:T367683. Codename Noreste 🤔 Talk 04:24, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Short description error

Despite the {{short description}} being set, the article at Ayub Khan shows an entirely different local description of (see): "Template of famous historical Pakistani figure/president/field marshal."

Please see if this can be fixed. Thanks. Gotitbro (talk) 20:43, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

@Gotitbro: It was in a used template as hinted by the text. Fixed by [6]. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:49, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Some users unable to email blocked users?

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T341908

Is there a prohibition for newer users from being able to email another user? I'm trying to assist a newer wiki user (autoconfirmed, but not yet extended confirmed) who can email some users but not someone who is blocked. I can email blocked users, though. There is nothing in WP:Emailing users describing restrictions. So I'm wondering if the newer user is [undocumented] unable to email a temporarily blocked user. Any insights?   ▶ I am Grorp ◀ 21:34, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

(If this is a known feature, not a bug, can someone please add it to the documentation?)   ▶ I am Grorp ◀ 21:34, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Are you able to confirm that the blocked user's account can be emailed? (I'm thinking unauthenticated email or just no email)

The API documentation lists some possible errors (for the API, no idea what the UI says) and links to various generic ones (mw:API:Emailuser#Possible errors), but I didn't notice any that seemed like what you described.

Also, are you able to ask what message they got when they tried? – 2804:F1...13:F724 (talk) 22:05, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Yes, it was the first thing I checked. I also see "Email this user" on the left margin under "Tools" for those users, and was able to successfully send a test email to one of them. The error message they had gotten was something like "You cannot email users on this Wikipedia (or en.wikipedia)", which made no sense, especially when they just turned around and successfully emailed someone else (who was not a blocked user). Users with their emails turned off, or without an email in the wiki system, don't display the "email this user" option under "Tools". However, I am an extended confirmed user (they are not), which is the only thing I could think of as an explanation for the fact they could email me (I'm not blocked), and one other not-blocked user, but could not email those other two users (one is indef blocked, the other is temp blocked). 500 edits would be a steep quota for a new user just to send an email (they have less than 100 so far) especially if there's no error message telling them that's what they need.   ▶ I am Grorp ◀ 23:46, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Grorp, the other users might have "Allow emails from brand-new users" off in settings? I can't tell if brand-new means autoconfirmed or extended confirmed. — Qwerfjkltalk 15:23, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

WP:Emailing users says "You can also prevent users without the autoconfirmed permissions level from emailing you by un-ticking the 'Allow emails from brand-new users' option", so that's not it because this user is autoconfirmed. I'm beginning to think 'blocked' and 'not yet extended confirmed' might be the reality of the situation. It would just be nice if someone could confirm and then fix the documentation. I think I'll post the issue to the talk page of WP:Emailing users and hope someone familiar with the behind-the-scenes-code will be able to confirm.   ▶ I am Grorp ◀ 16:52, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

The only similar message I can find is MediaWiki:usermaildisabledtext which says "You cannot send email to other users on this wiki". Based on a very quick look at the source ([7][8]) that message should only appear on a wiki where email is disabled entirely. Can you double-check that your emailer is using a WMF site, and not some third-party wiki? Suffusion of Yellow (talk) 00:01, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

They were on en.wikipedia.org, and yes that is the error message they told me. But then they turned right around and emailed me thru wiki. So yes, they can send emails, just not to someone who was blocked.   ▶ I am Grorp ◀ 00:11, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

Their description may be inaccurate. That happens a lot with new users. PrimeHunter3 isn't even autoconfirmed but gets an email form at Special:EmailUser/Quiubennt, and that user is blocked. PrimeHunter (talk) 00:56, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

+2 that. I expect this is a bad report. They can open a WP:BUG and include screenshots if it is unexpected behavior. — xaosflux ^Talk 01:10, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

PrimeHunter: The form shows just fine, but they get the error when they click to send the email.   ▶ I am Grorp ◀ 01:13, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

This could be many reasons, like hitting a throttle, an underlying IP block of some sort, etc. Troubleshooting by having you provide somewhat vague information isn't very useful. At this point, advise the third party to engage the larger community directly. — xaosflux ^Talk 10:40, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

"The form shows" wasn't mentioned before and I didn't want to mail a random blocked user. I have blocked my alternative accont PrimeHunter2 for a week and can reproduce the issue. PrimeHunter3 can mail my main account PrimeHunter normally but cannot mail the blocked PrimeHunter2, and it has "Allow emails from brand-new users" enabled. PrimeHunter3 gets an "Email this user" interface link on User:PrimeHunter2 and a mail form on Special:EmailUser/PrimeHunter2, but clicking "Send" gives a page which still shows the mail form and in red "You cannot send email to other users on this wiki". PrimeHunter can mail the account. Others may try for testing but I may not read the mails. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:02, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

@PrimeHunter this seems to be "unexpected" behavior, would you open a bug on it with the details? — xaosflux ^Talk 14:42, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

@Xaosflux: Matma Rex later said below that it's caused by T341908 and he will make a note there. I don't have permission to view T341908 and will not open a bug without knowing what is happening. PrimeHunter (talk) 02:35, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

FYI, I don't think it is the same user story, but phab:T361481 appears to be at least closely related. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:54, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

Primehunter: Thank you for reproducing this error. It didn't occur to me to create some alt-accounts (properly declared to avoid socking claims) in order to test this. I think I will for future instances.   ▶ I am Grorp ◀ 17:20, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

@Grorp: Do you mind asking permission of this user to share their username here? It might be helpful. Suffusion of Yellow (talk) 21:32, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

I asked. They said they would prefer not to be mentioned. I think with two other users having reproduced the problem, their username is not really needed.   ▶ I am Grorp ◀ 23:16, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

xaosflux: In that report the user wasn't yet autoconfirmed (they only had one edit), and it's not the same user as I'm working with.   ▶ I am Grorp ◀ 17:20, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

Oh certainly, but it could be related to a root cause. Someone should create this bug in phab with all the documentations, screenshots, etc. This doesn't appear to be an "English Wikipedia" problem, but something in software. (i.e. we can't fix it here). — xaosflux ^Talk 19:51, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

I can reproduce this too. I was able to email PrimeHunter2 from my main account, but not from Suffusion of Yellow alt 7. I was also able to email Suffusion of Yellow alt 8 from Suffusion of Yellow alt 7. Using WP:QQX shows that the error message is, in fact, MediaWiki:usermaildisabledtext. Suffusion of Yellow (talk) 19:21, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

This is caused by private WMF config added to mitigate email abuse (T341908). I will make a note on that task that it's affecting legitimate users. Matma Rex talk 00:23, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

I have a feeling that if the message were more accurate ("You cannot send email to this user" rather than "You cannot send email to other users on this wiki") then we'd document the restriction and move on. Anomie⚔ 02:02, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Perhaps, but why would an autoconfirmed user not be allowed to email a blocked user when an extendedconfirmed user can? Why the difference? If you display a generic message like "You cannot send email to this user", it is inadequate for the sender to understand why he cannot, or how to solve his problem. Either provide a better message ("You cannot send email to blocked users until you reach extended confirmed status") or simply allow them the ability to send such emails.   ▶ I am Grorp ◀ 02:08, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

It's a confusing message but the restriction is apparently specific to Wikimedia wikis and not coded in the general MediaWiki software so maybe they didn't have a good way to make a new message. I don't have permission to view T341908 so I don't know exactly what the restriction actually is. I wonder whether it also caused Wikipedia:Help desk/Archives/2024 January 22#Email where we never found an answer. We could make a localized version of MediaWiki:Usermaildisabledtext but what would it say when we don't know why the message is served to a user? PrimeHunter (talk) 02:54, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Presumably the same reason we protect pages to autoconfirmed and if that's not enough to extended confirmed, i.e. it's more time consuming to reach extended confirmed without scrutiny so abuse with extended confirmed accounts happens less often.

I honestly wouldn't have thought anyone would have the need to email blocked users before this - and seeing as this phab has been a thing for almost a year now without major complaints it's probably actually a rare occurrence. – 2804:F1...2D:8B49 (talk) 03:59, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

• OK - so there is a temporary measure that may be causing this upstream in phab:T341908, the devs/security teams are reviewing some options. We are not able to share the details of the situation. No additional user troubleshooting is needed at this time. — xaosflux ^Talk 08:29, 27 June 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-26

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

• Editors will notice that there have been some changes to the background color of text in the diff view, and the color of the byte-change numbers, last week. These changes are intended to make text more readable in both light mode and dark mode, and are part of a larger effort to increase accessibility. You can share your comments or questions on the project talkpage. [9]
• The text colors that are used for visited-links, hovered-links, and active-links, were also slightly changed last week to improve their accessibility in both light mode and dark mode. [10]

Problems

• You can copy permanent links to talk page comments by clicking on a comment's timestamp. This feature did not always work when the topic title was very long and the link was used as a wikitext link. This has been fixed. Thanks to Lofhi for submitting the bug. [11]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 25 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 26 June. It will be on all wikis from 27 June (calendar). [12][13]
• Starting 26 June, all talk pages messages' timestamps will become a link at English Wikipedia, making this feature available for you to use at all wikis. This link is a permanent link to the comment. It allows users to find the comment they were linked to, even if this comment has since been moved elsewhere. You can read more about this feature on Diff or on Mediawiki.org. [14]

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

MediaWiki message delivery 22:30, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

Invalid certificate?

This started a few days ago I think. My browser (Opera on iPhone, latest version as far as I know) is telling me (I think) that the signed certificates for Wikipedia pages are invalid? The 'https' in the URL is red with a line through it and a red warning sign. When this started I got redirected to a different page, telling me that the URL wasn't safe or something, and I had to click 'proceed anyway' a few times. I'm in the UK, in case that makes a difference. Thecolonpagesaretoocomplicated (talk) 18:23, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

@Thecolonpagesaretoocomplicated first, make sure the date on time on your device are current. Second, you would need to examine the certificate chain - perhaps your connection is being manipulated. — xaosflux ^Talk 20:20, 25 June 2024 (UTC)

Space aliens ate my map icons.

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T368546

Big Duck Screenshot with house icon

Big Duck Screenshot with building icon

In Big Duck, I've got a mapframe in the infobox. There's a building icon on the map, but sometimes it shows up as a home icon. I've been noticing this for at least a few days and a few cycles of going back and forth, but now I've finally captured screen shots in both states. It's quasi-stable, but I can't pin down exactly what's going on. Right now, Special:Permalink/1231017752 has the home and Special:Permalink/1231002261 has the building. Viewing the pages in an incognito window makes no difference. Viewing them in a different browser (Firefox vs Chrome) makes no difference. Special:Purge doesn't change anything. Force reloading the browser window doesn't change anything. Clearing my browser cache doesn't change anything. I'm into serious WTF territory here, but it smells like some kind of cache botch at a lower level than what Special:Purge touches. Anybody have any ideas? RoySmith (talk) 00:42, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

I always get the building icon . If I change mapframe-marker = building to mapframe-marker = home in Big Duck then I get a different home icon which is listed at mw:Help:Extension:Kartographer/Icons. The icon in your screenshot is not listed there. If I remove mapframe-marker then I get a pin with no icon. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:42, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

More weirdness... Special:Permalink/1231017752 shows the home icon. If I click on the map, I get to the full-size version at https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=1231017752#/map/0, which shows the building icon. RoySmith (talk) 13:54, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

styles.css

Good morning! I need a little assistance. Currently I created the page User:ToadetteEdit/styles.css for use in my userpage; however the content model is CSS and not sanitized CSS which is somewhat required to use TemplateStyles. Can someone change the content model to "sanitized-css"? Thank you! Toadette^Edit! 09:24, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

@ToadetteEdit: You can use {{Edit interface-protected}} on the talk page, or see Template:TemplateStyles sandbox for what you could do by yourself. PrimeHunter (talk) 10:01, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

Understood. Toadette^Edit! 10:12, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

@ToadetteEdit:  Done — xaosflux ^Talk 10:35, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

What links here not listing a redirect

If I do "What links here" for 2025 Formula One World Championship, the resulting list includes the redirect 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix. However, if I select "Hide links", 2025 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix is not listed. Does anyone know why? Is it because of the RfD template? DH85868993 (talk) 10:04, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

Yes, the RfD template causes the page to stop being a redirect right now, which is why it's listed as a regular link instead of a redirect. If you compare it to for example F1 2025 in the same list, it says "(redirect page)" after the link, showing that that link is an actual redirect. --rchard2scout (talk) 10:09, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification. DH85868993 (talk)

Module:RfD has code to display "This title is currently a redirect to ...", but use of the module deactivates the redirect code so it's currently not an actual redirect. That's admittedly confusing and maybe the module should change the wording. PrimeHunter (talk) 15:42, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

For a page to be a redirect, the #REDIRECT must appear at the start of the first non-blank line. Even a HTML comment <!--...--> on that blank line will break it. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 15:47, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

Not getting the curly apostrophe message at page creation

Hello, ran into an issue at Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard#Help creating a redirect where when viewing Muñoa’s Pampas cat and Draft:Muñoa’s Pampas cat I do not see MediaWiki:Titleblacklist-custom-curly-quote. This occurs both logged in and logged out, so I thought it worth raising here. Best, CMD (talk) 11:27, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

Some observations. Draft:Muñoa’s Pampas cat produces the link https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Draft:Mu%C3%B1oa%E2%80%99s_Pampas_cat&action=edit&redlink=1. I can create it in my admin account but if I log out then it redirects to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Mu%C3%B1oa%E2%80%99s_Pampas_cat with no action=edit&redlink=1. I thought that's only supposed to happen if the page exists but I may be wrong. Draft:Bingus cat exists so it produces the link https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Bingus_cat as expected. If it had been a red link then it would have produced https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Draft:Bingus_cat&action=edit&redlink=1 which as expected redirects to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Draft:Bingus_cat. Draft:Muñoa's Pampas cat has an allowed straight quote instead of a curly quote and produces https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Draft:Mu%C3%B1oa%27s_Pampas_cat&action=edit&redlink=1 which doesn't redirect. So it appears the system is: redlink=1 on an edit link to a blacklisted title you cannot create will cause a redirect to a non-edit page. I don't know whether this is intentional or a bug. It also happens for more normal entries at MediaWiki:Titleblacklist like Draft:Epic fail which isn't coded to display a custom MediaWiki message. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:24, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

I forgot to mention that Draft:Muñoa’s Pampas cat has a "Create" tab which links to https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Draft:Mu%C3%B1oa%E2%80%99s_Pampas_cat&action=edit with action=edit but no redlink=1, and this displays MediaWiki:Titleblacklist-custom-curly-quote without redirecting. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:42, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

Dark mode for logged-out users coming soon!

Hi everyone, for the past year, the Web team at the Wikimedia Foundation has been working on dark mode. This work is part of the Accessibility for Reading initiative that introduces changes to the Vector 2022 and Minerva skins. It improves readability, and allows everyone, both logged-out and logged-in users, to customize reading-focused settings.

Since early this year, dark mode has been available as a beta feature on both the mobile and the desktop website. We have been collaborating with template editors and other technical contributors to prepare wikis for this feature. This work included fixing templates and ensuring that many pages can appear with dark mode without any accessibility issues. We would like to express immense gratitude to everyone involved in this. Because so much has been done, over the next three weeks, we will be releasing the feature to all Wikipedias!

Deployment configuration and timeline

• Tier 1 and 2 Wikipedias: wikis where the number of issues in dark mode when compared to light mode is not significant. These wikis will receive dark mode for both logged-in and logged-out users. Some small issues might still exist within templates, though. We will be adding ways to report these issues so that we can continue fixing templates together with editors.
• Tier 3 Wikipedias: wikis where the number of issues in dark mode when compared to light mode is significant. These wikis will only receive dark mode for logged-in users. We would like to make dark mode available to all users. However, some wikis still require work from communities to adapt templates. Similar to the group above, these wikis will also receive a link for reporting issues that will help identify remaining issues.
• Week of July 1: mobile website (Minerva skin) on the Tier 1 Wikipedias (including English Wikipedia)
• Week of July 15: desktop website (Vector 2022 skin) on all Wikipedias; mobile website: logged-in and logged-out on the Tier 2 Wikipedias, logged-in only on the Tier 3 Wikipedias

How to turn on dark mode

The feature will appear in the Appearance menu alongside the options for text and width. Depending on compatibility and technical architecture, some pages might not be available in dark mode. For these pages, a notice will appear in the menu providing more information.

How to make dark mode even better!

If you would like to help to make more pages dark-mode friendly, go to our previous message and see the section "What we would like you to do (template editors, interface admins, technical editors)".

Thank you everyone. We're looking forward to your questions, opinions, and comments! SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 12:28, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

From IP editors everywhere, thank you very much! Looking forward to our new dark mode overlord. 57.140.16.8 (talk) 14:47, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

Wonky archiving on Talk:Said_Nursî

On Talk:Said Nursî something has gone wrong with the archiving bot: only two archives exist for the page, Archive 1 and Archive 7. No archives between them exist, which means the list of archives at the top of the page does not show the most recent archive. Meluiel (talk) 18:32, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

Looks like when the auto-archiving template was added in revision 605280857, presumably copied and edited from some other talk page, that the current archive counter was set to 7 - the person who added then manually archived all the talk page comments into archive 1 in the next edit.

To make things worse in the very next edit someone restored it all by reverting and didn't remove the restored threads from archive 1, and in the edit after that the bot archived half of the talk page again into archive 7 - so basically the first archive is just full of duplicates.

I feel like the correct course of action would be to delete the first archive and move archive 7 in its place without creating a redirect, and also change the template so it starts counting from 1 again. I or anyone could fix the template, but I'm not going to risk doing that until the rest of the problem is fixed. – 2804:F1...2D:8B49 (talk) 19:10, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

 Doing... --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 20:36, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

@Meluiel:  Done but I suspect that some threads were removed from the main talk page and somehow didn't make it to the archives. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 20:59, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

I fixed what I was able to spot, what a mess. – 2804:F1...2D:8B49 (talk) 22:06, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

Thank you very much, both of you! Meluiel (talk) 22:22, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

Salt loophole?

An LTA seems to have discovered a loophole to WP:SALTING as in the following example:

• Devi Movement was deleted and indef salted by me in Aug 2023, requiring EC access for recreation.
• Yet, the LTA's sock Vinuraj Solanki (talk · contribs) was able to effectively recreate the article in Jun 2024 by moving the completely unrelated redirect Annexationist Movement to the Devi Movement title and then over-writing its contents. The sock was not extended confirmed at that, or any, point.
• This LTA has used this strategy numerous times; see this for a small fraction of affected articles.

Am I missing something or this indeed a way to overcome salting? And is there a way to counter it?

PS: As this question raises obvious WP:BEANS concerns, any admin is welcome to revdel it and point me to a better venue to raise the issue. Abecedare (talk) 23:02, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

They moved it to the unnecessarily-disambiguated and not salted Devi Movement (Gujarat). SafariScribe, who is extended confirmed, moved it over the salting, likely without realizing they were doing so. This is phab:T85393. At one point I was tricked into performing this exact trick on behalf of a different LTA (User talk:Pppery/Archive 18#Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Billy Cranston) * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 23:10, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

Aha, I had missed that two-step. So it's social engineering rather than a purely technical loophole. I'll start salting this LTA's recreations at admin level to make it less likely to be overlooked. Other than that, I don't believe there is anything to be done here for the moment and so we can consider this resolved. Thanks. Abecedare (talk) 23:21, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

I didn't know it was salted . @Pppery, is there any way of getting a pop up message regarding a page that is salted before moving (just like blacklist reminder does)? Safari Scribe^{Edits! Talk!} 23:33, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

Not aware of any. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 23:33, 26 June 2024 (UTC)

This is a fairly frequent issue, not just with creation-protected pages but blacklisted titles. Since the lack of a warning isn't going to get fixed anytime soon, maybe it should get stuck into Mediawiki:Movepagetext. It would do a lot more good than the warning about not suppressing the redirect breaking links to the page; I doubt any admin or pagemover has read that without thinking "Duh?", but the only time silently overriding salting and blacklisting doesn't take you by surprise is when you never notice you've done it. —Cryptic 08:53, 27 June 2024 (UTC)