Misplaced Pages

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view · edit Frequently asked questions (see also: Misplaced Pages:Technical FAQ) Click "" next to each point to see more details. If something looks wrong, purge the server's cache, then bypass your browser's cache. This tends to solve most issues, including improper display of images, user-preferences not loading, and old versions of pages being shown. No, we will not use JavaScript to set focus on the search box. This would interfere with usability, accessibility, keyboard navigation and standard forms. See task 3864. There is an accesskey property on it (default to accesskey="f" in English). Logged-in users can enable the "Focus the cursor in the search bar on loading the Main Page" gadget in their preferences. No, we will not add a spell-checker, or spell-checking bot. You can use a web browser such as Firefox, which has a spell checker. If you have problems making your fancy signature work, check Help:How to fix your signature. If you changed to another skin and cannot change back, use this link. Alternatively, you can press Tab until the "Save" button is highlighted, and press Enter. Using Mozilla Firefox also seems to solve the problem. If an image thumbnail is not showing, try purging its image description page. If the image is from Wikimedia Commons, you might have to purge there too. If it doesn't work, try again before doing anything else. Some ad blockers, proxies, or firewalls block URLs containing /ad/ or ending in common executable suffixes. This can cause some images or articles to not appear. For server or network status, please see Wikimedia Status. If you cannot reach Misplaced Pages services, see Reporting a connectivity issue.

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What the heck is going on with the single edit tab?!?

Tech News says the Single edit tab is about to be enabled. When I go to the test server to try it, it still dumps me directly into Visual Editor by default, both when I'm logged out and when I make a new account. When I test it without javascript enabled then it completely blocks be from editing at all! And is the WMF still intending for there to be a pop up menu asking new users a question they obviously have no idea how to answer? And if so, do we really want to tell new users to blindly click to make the pop-up go away, and get chaotically dropped into a random default mode? We know from the May 2015 Visual Editor test that there was zero benefit when new users were offered two editor links, but we don't know if people randomly defaulted into VE mode will be more likely to quit before they ever figure out the extremely obscure button inside VE to activate the Wikitext editor.

Opposed to deployment until these issues get sorted out. Alsee (talk) 10:49, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

Ugh, I am strongly opposed to the visual editor, I think it adds nothing of value to a wiki, and that it actually has overall harmful elements to it. If it were up to me, I'd virtually burn the visual editor and crypto-shred the drives it used to live on! Is there anything remotely close to community consensus for further trying to ram an unnecessary editor down people's throats? --Murph9000 (talk) 12:21, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

@Alsee: If I understand correctly, then if you disabled VE for yourself, then you can ignore that message - it will be the same as it always have been. --Edgars2007 (talk/contribs) 13:44, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

Edgars2007, you seem to have misunderstood. If the test server is an accurate demonstration of what they plan to deploy, then the code is broken and deployment must be halted until this is resolved. If we assume it's just the test server that's screwed up, if we assume the WMF plan to deploy a bug-free-version of what they said it was going to be, then I strongly argue deployment should still be halted until it has a sane implementation. Alsee (talk) 14:29, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

@Alsee: Ok, yes I misunderstood. But editing at test2.wikipedia.org is as I expected. As I haven't disabled VE there, editing mode opens as VE, not wiki mode. Then I can switch to wikitext by pressing those ] at the top op page, which says "Switch to source editing". OK, I just know, that I have such option and I know where to look, so it could be made more clear to those, who doesn't know that. And I also can choose some preferences (look at that combobox). --Edgars2007 (talk/contribs) 14:49, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

Actually, there are a few tasks which are rendered more easily in Visual Editor (e.g. mass changes to text formatting), so I'm not a total hater of VE anymore. That said, I would strongly prefer that it would be an editor's personal preference as to whether a single "Edit" tab dumps you into "Edit source" or VE first... --IJBall (contribs • talk) 21:37, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

IJBall, this is, indeed, the plan. If you have disabled VisualEditor, then nothing will change for your account at all. But if you have it enabled, then you will see this the next time you edit:

If you choose "Always give me the wikitext editor" (the first option), then it will always open in wikitext. Whatever you choose, you will be able to change your preferences at any time, by going to Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing and choosing whatever you want from the drop-down menu:

The main goal is to give people what they want, regardless of whether they want one or two buttons, or wikitext or the visual editor first. Personally, I'll be choosing two buttons, because I'm used to it and I regularly use both editing systems (different tools, different strengths). But I know that many experienced editors will choose "always wikitext", and only use the visual editor for things like adding and removing columns from a table in a single click. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:39, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

Alsee, I believe that I have explained in other discussions, more than once, that IPs at the English Misplaced Pages will not see the page open in the visual editor. IPs at the English Misplaced Pages do not have access to the visual editor by default.

Also, as I have also explained to you elsewhere, more than once, Test2 is not "an accurate demonstration of what they plan to deploy" at the English Misplaced Pages. Nothing's being deployed anywhere until a few bugs are resolved (e.g., using NoScript in a Javascript-capable web browser), and even when those critical bugs are fixed, the setup at test2.wikipedia is not the setup that will be used here at the English Misplaced Pages. (It is probably the setup that will be used at some other Wikipedias, such as Catalan, Hungarian, and Portuguese.)

Edgars, you are correct: if you disabled the visual editor in Special:Preferences, then this won't affect your account at all. After it's deployed here, if you enable the visual editor but set this preference to "Always use wikitext", then the only difference you will see is the addition of a small pencil-shaped icon in the upper right corner of the wikitext window. That icon will allow you to temporarily switch to the visual editor if you want to make a one-time edit there (e.g., to add a column to a table). Everything else will remain the same.

Also, to be absolutely clear, Alsee is wrong when he claims that Tech/News says the single edit tab is "about to be enabled". Tech/News actually says that this is a planned future change – "future", as in "any time not in the past or present", which encompasses next month and even next year. No date has been set for any deployment to any non-test wiki. The only firm decision about the deployment is that the English Misplaced Pages will not be the first location for the deployment. I do not even expect the team to discuss a date for the English Misplaced Pages until after they've seen how well this system works (or doesn't) at several other wikis. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 19:53, 12 January 2016 (UTC)

Whatamidoing (WMF), yes we've discussed before. I filed T122692 Phabricator two weeks ago which has gotten no response, and your latest reply gives no response to the question I asked. It was unclear from Tech News when deployment was planed, so I took this as a potentially urgent matter. As I indicated in my second comment above I was ready to assume that the test server is a useless demo which doesn't reflect what will be deployed. So fine, we're agreed that isn't what's being done. Can you switch from explaining various things that aren't being done, to helping provide some answer on what the WMF does plan? It the plan still to give new users a dysfunction menu and give new users a random default? (Randomly default VE / default Wikitext / default two-tabs.)

Note that my posts above didn't say oppose single-edit-tab, I opposed deployment until we sort out what it is that would be deployed. Keeping two edit tabs is reasonable, having one edit tab my be reasonable if it doesn't have a bad implementation. Alsee (talk) 01:24, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

Realistically, I expect the Phabricator task you filed to be closed as invalid. Tasks are for actions that need to be done. "This is bad for users" is not an action; therefore, it is not a valid Phabricator task. I suspect that the only reason it hasn't already beed closed is due to the backlog of holidays and travel.

Test2.wikipedia is not "useless". It shows the likely configuration for the majority of Wikipedias, especially for the Wikipedias that are likely to make this transition before the English Misplaced Pages.

The current plan is:

1. To fix several critical bugs before deploying the single edit tab to any production wiki.
2. To use different configurations for different wikis.
3. To not implement this system at the English Misplaced Pages first.
4. To test (at test2.wikipedia) the configuration that is most likely to deployed to the first wiki that will see this system, rather than the configuration that is most likely to be deployed (eventually, perhaps months from now) to the largest wiki.
5. To identify potential target dates based upon experience at these early wikis, instead of making up arbitrary dates in advance.

The "default" is:

• to give you the wikitext editor if you have Javascript disabled, and
• to give you the wikitext editor if you have VisualEditor disabled, and
• otherwise, to ask you for your preference.

If you do not answer the question, then you will be given whatever editing system you used last time. This information will be collected in advance, for people who have edited before (both logged-in and logged-out). This is not a "random" default.

Note, again, that this is a general statement about the overall plan, for a hypothetical average wiki. It specifically does not apply to IP editors at wikis that do not currently permit logged-out editors to use the visual editor. If IPs are not permitted to use the visual editor at that wiki, then IPs will still not be permitted to use the visual editor at that wiki. There is nothing in here that gives any IPs access to two editing tabs. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:39, 13 January 2016 (UTC)

I am trying to address a brand new user. The proposed menu asks them a question they don't understand and forces them to click randomly to make it go away (a bad and potentially stressful design), then sets them to an effectively random default when they click randomly.

Either new users should simply get the site default, or if the the WMF really wants a menu it needs to be a menu that won't freak out new users, one they can rationally deal with. Maybe a radio button for the various options, with the default pre-selected, and a simple "continue" button. At least that way a new user who doesn't understand the options can more comfortably just click "continue". Alsee (talk) 22:40, 13 January 2016 (UTC) Adding ping: Whatamidoing (WMF). Alsee (talk) 06:56, 17 January 2016 (UTC)

(Alsee, adding a ping to an existing comment like that won't work; see mw:Manual:Echo#Technical details. --Pipetricker (talk) 11:14, 17 January 2016 (UTC))

1. Not all newly registered accounts are actually new editors.
2. Whether a brand-new editor will see the dialog box at this wiki is still being discussed. They will presumably make a recommendation after the formal user testing is completed.
3. The "potentially stressful" dialog box doesn't require a response. You can just click "OK" without making a choice. In that case, you will end up in the what you're calling the 'default' editing system, and if you switch after entering the editor, then it will remember that you switched when (if) you ever edit again.

Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 23:19, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Problem with loading Wikimedia sites

User:PhilipTerryGraham

I'll keep it short and simple as I can; sometimes, when I'm editing, Misplaced Pages simply decides not to work. I can go for a while editing Misplaced Pages, then suddenly it stops loading. There's no pattern to this, it just decides randomly whenever it wants to stop loading things. Sometimes I can load things after a while, but it loads the page in a primitive HTML read-only version of the page. Sometimes it'll be 10 minutes, or half an hour, or at the worst of times a full hour before it works properly again. And then after that it stops again after a while. It has really crippled my ability to work on Misplaced Pages articles.

I know for a fact that it's not a problem with the site; I can easily access Misplaced Pages on my mobile and it works fine; no random breakdowns or anything. It also has nothing to do with my internet connection, since every other website I access works perfectly fine. The problem is limited to my access to Wikimedia sites such as Misplaced Pages and Wikimedia Commons. I can only deduce that it must be a problem with how I'm accessing Misplaced Pages on my PC, but I don't know what it is. Does anybody have the slightest clue on what's going on, or how to fix it? :s

Thanks in advance. Philip Terry Graham 15:41, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Hi Philip Terry Graham - would it be possible to have the browser and version of the browser you're using, as well as the operating system and version? -- samtar 15:50, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Browser: Firefox 43.0.4, Operating system, Windows 10, version 1511. Philip Terry Graham 15:55, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks - during a period of Misplaced Pages not working, what does the browser do? Does it show the previous page while the "loading" icon spins on the tab? Has it ever shown the message that it has timed out? If it happens in a moment, can you try pinging en.wikipedia.org? -- samtar 16:00, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

It simply does exactly as you described in the first scenario. There's never a "connection has timed out" or anything like that come up. The loading wheel just spins until it just stops, and I'm still on the same exact page. Philip Terry Graham 16:06, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Okay, and when this is happening can you access other webpages? -- samtar 16:08, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Yeah, that's exactly what I do; when I can't be bothered to wait for Misplaced Pages to load, I just kill time on other sites like Facebook or Twitter; every other website works completely fine when Wikimedia isn't. Philip Terry Graham 16:10, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Next time it happens can you try: Windows key + R --> "cmd" --> "ping en.wikipedia.org"? -- samtar 16:23, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

@Samtar: Okay, this was the result. Philip Terry Graham 17:11, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

I'm still having problems with loading Misplaced Pages at times, as per my statements above. Can anyone else help out? :s Philip Terry Graham 00:19, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

Philip Terry Graham, regarding pinging and your signature:

Your above attempt to ping @Samtar probably failed (so I did it for you now), due to your signature not directly linking to a page with your current username; see mw:Manual:Echo#Technical details, and also the guideline at Misplaced Pages:Signatures#Internal links.

So you should change the signature in your preferences so it links to your current user page (or talk page or contributions page per the guideline).

Also, I guess (but am not certain) that pinging through a redirected page doesn't work. So trying to ping you using the link from your current signature will fail, like it probably did when User:samtar did that, which is another reason for updating your signature.

Testing to verify: I guess you get no notification for this ping @Philip Terry Graham: Am I right? --Pipetricker (talk) 11:26, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

Pinging User:PhilipTerryGraham. --Pipetricker (talk) 13:51, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

Hi hi, sorry I missed your ping! Those results suggest there is no technical reason as to why Misplaced Pages/media isn't loading as the hostname is being resolved to an IP (suggesting it's not a DNS issue) and the IP is reachable (not timing out). Could you try using a different browser? -- samtar 12:37, 18 January 2016 (UTC)

Philip, have you tried all the usual things, like WP:BYPASSing the cache? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 23:26, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Whatamidoing, pinging User:PhilipTerryGraham by linking his former username most likely won't work; see my above comments. --Pipetricker (talk) 10:08, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

Whoops. Sorry about that. I had completely forgot to change my signature after I changed my username a while back. Anyways, I did come across Misplaced Pages:Bypass your cache earlier, while I was doing my own research into what I could do, but it definitely doesn't do much help when trying to open up an editing page or, most importantly, trying to save edits. Philip Terry Graham 16:50, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

Clarification: I thought it was working... I think my internet connection was simply slower earlier in the day, and I had been reloading pages too quickly and not realising it was acting normal. Caching no longer works for me. It's the old load-forever-then-stop-for-no-reason thing once more. :( Philip Terry Graham 18:06, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

Also, I can confirm that it is a Firefox-only issue; Misplaced Pages works fine in Microsoft Edge, at least, when it doesn't work in Firefox. However, I ain't using Edge, I want to stick to Firefox, if that's possible. Philip Terry Graham 18:11, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

Nope. It happens on Edge too, just not concurrent with Firefox. Also, Edge simply gives me a white screen, rather than just staying on the previous page, when it stops loading. I feel Murphy's law screwing around with us again! XD Philip Terry Graham 18:41, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

I am now using Google Chrome. Let's see how this goes. Philip Terry Graham 21:25, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

Nope. Google Chrome does the same thing, albeit less frequently. So, the issue is definitely not limited to a single browser. It has something to do with my PC's connection to Wikimedia sites, surely. @Samtar, Whatamidoing (WMF), and Pipetricker. --Philip Terry Graham 22:08, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

As of right now, both IE 11 and Firefox 43.0.4 have issues with Wikimedia sites. I was not having these issues before. User Edit Count brings up a page with the Wikimedia template for it, but all content is missing. User Articles Created brings up the Wikimedia page with a message at the top of the page "No webservice". Global user contributions works as it should. Edit summary search seems to work ok. — Maile (talk) 23:12, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

Fwiw... as far as Edge goes; try disabling Use page prediction to speed up browsing, improve reading and make my overall experience better found near the very end of the view advanced settings menu of the settings menu opened by the three dots (•••) in a typical Edge toolbar. I first noticed something was off soon after the Windows Update patches (~ Jan. 13) but only recently resolved Wiki project issue by turning that (new?) option off in Edge.

I also noted that most Internet-Explorer-browser-version-to-Microsoft-operating-systems-support for other than those running Windows 10 officially changed big-time around the same time as that window's update was released. It might be the case that between what is no longer supported by Microsoft in addition to and/or in combination with what the MediaWiki code also no longer supports (i.e not Class A + both going into effect early 2016) is behind some if not all of these recently reported on-WP 'issues' (but I've been wrong before so your mileage may vary :) -- George Orwell III (talk) 09:56, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

@George Orwell III and PhilipTerryGraham: Not something I'm aware of (above) - would you like me to compile this all together for a phab bug report? -- samtar 10:06, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

If it helps, Wikimedia seems to be okay on Google Chrome now, on my end. It's been two days since Chrome hiccuped when accessing Wikimedia sites, so that's a plus. Although I'd be hesitant to confirm that Chrome's a-okay; it could very well screw up for me again anytime soon, if I'm unlucky enough. Philip Terry Graham 19:28, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

In contrast, unfortunately, Microsoft Edge still suffers from the problem. The browser version is 25.10586.0.0, running on Windows 10 version 1511, for those who are wondering. Philip Terry Graham 21:54, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Did you try disabling Use page prediction to speed up browsing, improve reading and make my overall experience better found near the very end of the view advanced settings menu of the settings menu opened by the three dots (•••) in a typical Edge toolbar from before? And have you looked through the features given when you type about:flags in Edge's address/url field yet? -- George Orwell III (talk) 22:24, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Yes, that was one of the very first things I did when I upgraded to Windows 10. Page prediction was a rather annoying feature in Edge, in my opinion, so I disabled it. As for About:flags, I have not heard of it until now, so I assumed all the selected options were default. I clicked "Reset all flags to default" and confirmed that no options had been changed from their default positions. Is there something here that you'd like me to tweak or play around with? Philip Terry Graham 22:52, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

I didn't know about the prediction setting until it seemed to "start working" last week after the monthly update; but that was not just when visiting Misplaced Pages. All the issues over the past day or two were not related to that and seem to have been nailed down/corrected here (running the same OS & browser).

Still if you're seeing similar behavior as before with Edge, I guess the root of the problem lies with something to do with caching. I know there is not much that you can "fiddle" with in Edge compared to old IEe so maybe you should check your User preferences on a lark? I found Live Preview enabled somehow the other week and was the cause of long page save waits on Wikisource for example. -- George Orwell III (talk) 23:33, 23 January 2016 (UTC).

Okay, Chrome just hiccuped for me. It behaved the same way as Firefox and Edge did; constant loading and quitting without any messages and simply not loading the next page and staying on the previous one. It started at ~12:10 GMT and lasted until 12:37 GMT. Now that it's relevant again, I'll give details: Chrome Version 48.0.2564.82 m, running on Windows 10 version 1511. Philip Terry Graham 00:49, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

User:Redrose64 and User:Jenks24

I use Firefox 43.0.4, I have two problems at the moment, which may be two symptoms of the same cause, and have appeared in the last day or so. One is slow loading of Wikimedia sites: the spinny thing which temporarily replaces the favicon in the browser tab sometimes takes a lot longer than it formerly did - whilst it's doing that, Firefox displays "waiting for en.wikipedia.org", "waiting for en.wikipedia.org", or "waiting for upload.wikimedia.org" etc. The other problem is that if I use the "back" arrow button, the previous page isn't just redisplayed - it's refetched, this doesn't just make it a lot slower than it need be, it's a pain in the ass when I'm previewing edits, since the edit window is reset to its initial state and my edit is lost. If I then try the "forward" arrow button, I get the message

Document Expired
This document is no longer available.
The requested document is not available in Firefox's cache.
    As a security precaution, Firefox does not automatically re-request sensitive documents.
    Click Try Again to re-request the document from the website.

Worse, if I carry out a non-edit action like a page move or delete, having done that an attempt to use "back" resends the request to move or delete the page. These reloading/caching problems don't occur with other sites: it's as if my browser is no longer able to cache anything from Wikimedia. Similarly, watchlist checking is now a real bind: having clicked a "diff" link and determined that the edit was OK, I click "back" - and now need to wait several seconds for the watchlist to be rebuilt and reloaded, then the Javascript to stop flicking the page up and down (collapsibles etc. at the top), before I can find the next "diff" link. It always used to cache my watchlist until I explicitly refreshed the browser tab. What's gone wrong? --Redrose64 (talk) 11:07, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

This exact same thing just happened to me. And it would not let me use my tab's arrows to "Go back one page" or "Go forward one page". Firefox 43.0.4, Windows 8.1 — Maile (talk) 21:40, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

I have the same problem as Redrose, also using Firefox 43.0.4. Jenks24 (talk) 12:51, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

IMHO; the "obvious" thing to check is to verify if this also happens on non-wikiproject based sites that are also serving content exclusively through the https//: and SSL/TLS protocols only. If the same thing happens elsewhere as it does under MW today, my guess would be that the change is/was being done by design & not accident -- and, unfortunately, you've "caught up" to the misery IE users have been experiencing for some time now. (Also see Losing Edits below - seems related to FireFox users) -- George Orwell III (talk) 13:24, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

@George Orwell III, Jenks24, Redrose64, and PhilipTerryGraham: All these issues seem related, and paired with a OTRS tech issue ticket I'm dealing with I think this could be quite widespread. I'm going to try to summarise all this up in a phab ticket -- samtar 13:56, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Issue reported at T124417 -- samtar 14:08, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Traceroute results

Could affected users please provide a traceroute to en.wikipedia.org? (Windows instructions Linux/Mac instructions) - This would be especially useful from @Redrose64 and PhilipTerryGraham: thanks! Also, could I please have the continents you are each on to better diagnose what's going on? -- samtar 17:33, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Oh gosh... Am I allowed to ask for a short as possible explain-like-i'm-five explanation of what you want me to do? It's hard to understand and visualize in my head what I'm supposed to do; I'm not exactly an expert in computers and commands, just literature and Misplaced Pages code. @.@ Philip Terry Graham 21:41, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

@Samtar: Europe. I get this:

Tracing route to en.wikipedia.org 
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  1    78 ms    99 ms    99 ms  192.168.1.254
  2    11 ms    10 ms    11 ms  lo0.10.Central10.pcl-bng04.plus.net 
  3    11 ms    11 ms    11 ms  irb.10.PCL-CR01.plus.net 
  4    11 ms    11 ms    11 ms  ae1.ptw-cr01.plus.net 
  5    12 ms    22 ms    24 ms  linx-1.init7.net 
  6    18 ms    18 ms    19 ms  r1ams1.core.init7.net 
  7    18 ms    24 ms    20 ms  r1ams2.core.init7.net 
  8    18 ms    18 ms    18 ms  gw-wikimedia.init7.net 
  9    19 ms    18 ms    18 ms  text-lb.esams.wikimedia.org 
Trace complete.

However, some of the problems I described are no longer affecting me - I believe they rolled back MediaWiki to the previous version, and my browser cache now seems to be behaving normally; it's also not resetting the edit window on a "back" from preview.

@PhilipTerryGraham: Start a Windows "Command Prompt", and enter the command tracert en.wikipedia.org - it takes a few seconds, and when it says Trace complete., copy everything here. --Redrose64 (talk) 02:06, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Tracing route to en.wikipedia.org 
over a maximum of 30 hops:
  1    <1 ms    <1 ms    <1 ms  home.gateway.home.gateway 
  2    18 ms    16 ms    19 ms  bla802.ba.optusnet.com.au 
  3     *        *        *     Request timed out.
  4    16 ms    17 ms    17 ms  198.142.250.165
  5    20 ms    17 ms    17 ms  198.142.139.112
  6    17 ms    18 ms    17 ms  198.142.139.128
  7   173 ms   172 ms   216 ms  203.208.192.133
  8   175 ms   175 ms   173 ms  sjo-b21-link.telia.net 
  9   173 ms   174 ms   175 ms  wikimedia-ic-308844-sjo-b21.c.telia.net 
 10   174 ms   174 ms   173 ms  text-lb.ulsfo.wikimedia.org 
Trace complete.

Philip Terry Graham 17:31, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Viewing tables with mobile devices

What's the story with this? Are tables hard to view? Should tables now be avoided due to the high percentage of smart phones? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 23:00, 19 January 2016 (UTC)

The mobile skin and app seem to handle this fine; have you tried it? Regardless, the answer to the last question is "no". --Izno (talk) 13:06, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

I would say that because this is an encyclopedia, you should always consider the legibility of an article, and that by it's form, a data table is always rather limited in legibility and more so on a small screen mobile device (or a 1995 era large screen for that matter). It's a presentation form suited for looking up a specific fact, if you care enough to spend the time to actually look it up. In the context of a Misplaced Pages article, nice graphs or properly explained prose can be much more legible and informative and are a more suited form for encyclopedias. The fact that this becomes more noticeable on a mobile device, is just a side effect of this limitation of tables in my opinion. If you think the table is not useful enough on mobile, you can therefor wonder if it's actually a proper Misplaced Pages article, or just 'filling', a stub or a 'start quality' article. That's how I always judge this.

Nevertheless, some things could be done to improve tables on mobile a bit further. It's just not very easy to do, and our tables are too 'free form' to to reliably do it I presume. Anyways. I encourage anyone who has seen support for large data tables on other websites to actually 'work', to present those interface and UI ideas and file them in phabricator. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 16:18, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

I have no issues with viewing tables on a mobile phone, and even wrote one here with no problems whatsoever. White Arabian Filly (Neigh) 00:26, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Thank you Izno,TheDJ, and White Arabian Filly for the valuable feedback. By the way, I use tables mainly when sortability would be desirable to visitors. Anna Frodesiak (talk) 00:13, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

MediaWiki's edit conflict detection broken?

I've just encountered a second case of one of my edits getting clobbered by an edit conflict. The first, I had just put down to a good faith failure to properly handle the edit conflict window (it is a bit complex for less technically skilled people). This second case, it's from a user that I believe would normally handle it properly, and they have now assured me in talk that MediaWiki did not warn them of the conflict, but just silently deleted my comment.

Edits at WP:HD where the problem occurred:

Murph9000 (talk) 19:16, 20 January 2016 (UTC)

Edit conflict detection has numerous issues unfortunately - see the list at phab:T72163. --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 13:25, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for the info. I guess I've just been lucky in the past. I pretty much always check history and diffs after editing, and in many years of using MediaWiki have found the edit conflict detection to normally be quite reliable. It could well be that the reliability takes more of a hit on a very busy site, as my EN-WP activity is much more recent. Murph9000 (talk) 02:01, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Proposing change to Sp-contributions-footer

Since Xtools is down, changing to supercount, go here. --QEDK (T 📖 C) 20:34, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

Oooh, now even SUL is down and both the tools show a 503 Error. --QEDK (T 📖 C) 20:42, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

It's a Labs outage according to this.Jo-Jo Eumerus (talk, contributions) 21:28, 21 January 2016 (UTC)

Having trouble with subheaders

The past couple of days I've noticed a problem with sub-subheaders, the ones created by typing 3 =s on either end of a word. I had written a user subpage using them instead of the larger subheaders, and when I went to edit it I couldn't without going to desktop view and then going to the window from there. I just had the same issue with a new article written by somebody else. If a sub-subheader is under a subheader, I can edit it separately on mobile, but if it's not I have to go to desktop. Has anyone else noticed this? White Arabian Filly (Neigh) 00:22, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Terminology:

== Heading == is a heading for a section (level 2).

=== Subheading === is a heading for a subsection (level 3).

==== Sub-subheading ==== is a heading for a sub-subsection (level 4).

For reasons of standards and accessibility, you shouldn't use a subheading without a heading at the superordinate level. The guideline WP:Manual of Style/Layout#Headings and sections says "Sections should be consecutive, such that they do not skip levels from sections to sub-subsections".

Notice the different levels aren't just for styling headings in different sizes; they also convey structural information. --Pipetricker (talk) 10:21, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Losing edits

Red alert on Misplaced Pages and Mediawiki sites. If you leave the edit page, you lose your edits. This abnormal situation just started happening withing the hour. — CpiralCpiral 01:45, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

If you don't understand the complaint, to test this, press any link from a preview page. Then go back. Any change you made should still be there, per WP:TESTLINK (howto test a wikilink from preview page before saving an edit), and per User:Cpiral/Surf your cache. — CpiralCpiral 07:53, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Turning off Preferences → Editing → live preview (which stores a local copy of the DOM) I then start getting

Document Expired. This document is no longer available. The requested document is not available in Firefox's cache. As a security precaution, Firefox does not automatically re-request sensitive documents. Click Try Again to re-request the document from the website... To display this page, Firefox must send information that will repeat any action (such as a search or order confirmation) that was performed earlier.

Sources say this is caused by Firefox honoring the instructions from Misplaced Pages servers of the page not to cache or store it, and that this is fixed by going to the php.ini file and changing session.cache_limiter = nocache to public instead of nocache.

On my end (FireFox 43.0.4) I've tried

• Options → Advanced → Override automatic cache managenemt
• safe mode
• clearing browser cache
• rebooting

— CpiralCpiral 07:53, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

I haven't been losing edits but I have started getting "Document Expired", both at WP and at Wikivoyage. I already had Preferences → Editing → live preview turned off and have made no changes to Preferences recently. I am using Firefox and have not updated it recently – I am still using 40.0.3. So the change in behaviour is not due to browser update or any change I have made to my WP/WV preferences. @Redrose64: also reported the "Document Expired" problem above at #Problem with loading Wikimedia sites. Any solution? Or even an explanation of why this has started in the last day or so? Nurg (talk) 22:29, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

I had this problem today, and have had it in the past (can't remember when). Whatever it is, please fix it. Users shouldn't have to be jumping through hoops with special settings just to get a preview page. — Maile (talk) 22:36, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

I have just checked other browsers. The problem is not happening in Chrome, but IE 11.63.10586.0 gives "Webpage has expired", and Edge gives "This page was just here a second ago". I don't normally use these browsers so am not sure if it is new behaviour in them. Nurg (talk) 22:51, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Chrome 48.0.2564.82 is working correctly. FireFox 43.0.4 and Explorer 11.0.9600.18163 are losing edits. — CpiralCpiral 00:17, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

T124510 thanks! Firefox is now working. Explorer is not working, but I don't know if this is a change for it or not. — CpiralCpiral 02:08, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Yes, things are back to normal in Firefox for me too. Nurg (talk) 05:42, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Nope, this is not a change for Explorer; it's always lost text when using the back button. Graham87 13:59, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

cookie / login change?

Anybody know if anything changed today with the login mechanism?
My bot just stopped working. —Steve Summit (talk) 03:07, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

• See Misplaced Pages:Bot_owners'_noticeboard#Breaking_change. — xaosflux 03:37, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Thank you -- that looks like it's probably it. —Steve Summit (talk) 03:50, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

WP:Huggle login and portions of WP:STiki functionality also seem to be broken, but these are not bot related on their frontends. Per , in this context, "our target is to have this rolling out to WMF wikis by the end of February." The timetable on the bot front isn't immediately clear in related postings, but CBNG is also having issues. West.andrew.g (talk) 05:20, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

The Feburary target is about the rollout of AuthManager. This may be related to this morning's deployment of SessionManager with -wmf.11. Chenzw  Talk  07:55, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

@Scs: Your problem is that your "httpget" tool doesn't properly handle cookie expiration. See phab:T124252 for some details. You might do better to just use curl with the -d (for POST) and --cookie-jar (for cookies) options. Anomie⚔ 21:26, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

I was so not expecting you to debug (or even to be aware of the existence of!) that tool for me, but: thank you so much! It would have taken me quite a while to discover that issue. —Steve Summit (talk) 21:39, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Logout = login

Nice, right after logout (Special:Logout) you now get the friendly message "You are globally logged in now" (and you are). Is that the great new WMF-tool not to lose any more contributors?! *eg* (Thanks to 213.169.163.106) --.js 09:28, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

I used nowiki to disable your logout link. Please don't post easter eggs like that. When discussing technical issues, it is best to stick to the facts with plain language. Are you saying that Special:Logout in fact does not log out the user? Johnuniq (talk) 09:44, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

I've posted this at Misplaced Pages:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents#No longer able to log out (thank you, WMF!). It happens to me as well and could cause serious problems. It is in any case unwanted behaviour, if someone explicitly clicks "log out" then the system shouldn't simply log them in again. Fram (talk) 11:27, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

I experienced this issue as well earlier today. They need to fix this. It could cause a lot of issues especially if people are editing off public computers. White Arabian Filly (Neigh) 22:25, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

At WP:ANI they declared it being fixed by 17:27, 22 January 2016 (UTC), while this official announcement leaves some questionmarks open for the future. --.js 00:32, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

It was fixed, about 8 hours ago. The announcement you link is something different. Anomie⚔ 00:53, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

I don't know if this is related, but I keep getting logged out every hour or so. FoCuS contribs; talk to me! 01:29, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Community Tech status report

Hi, a short update from the WMF Community Tech team:

We did a community wishlist survey in December and got a list of things the community wanted to prioritize. We're currently investigating all the top ten wishes, but are also looking at two in more detail: migrate dead links to the Wayback Machine and pageview stats. For more details, see the status report. /Johan (WMF) (talk) 11:08, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Dead boxes on Article wizard/Ready for submission

The submission boxes go light and inactive when I address the page Misplaced Pages:Article wizard/Ready for submission that I've always used. Has someone blacklisted me without telling me why?Jzsj (talk) 12:14, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Jzsj, the submission buttons are disabled until you've typed something into the text boxes, as a result of a change in the implementation of mw:Extension:InputBox. APerson (talk!) 18:05, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks!Jzsj (talk) 19:14, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Use Special:Mypage/common.js to add a tab to the nav bar

I there a way to add a tab to the nav bar (beside the edit, history, and twinkle tabs)? The ReFill docs say to add

mw.loader.load( "https://meta.wikimedia.org/search/?title=User:Zhaofeng_Li/Reflinks.js&action=raw&ctype=text/javascript" );

to Special:Mypage/common.js but this adds it to the side bar under tools. Is there a way to make it a tab (or add it to the twinkle tab which may even be better)? WikiWisePowder (talk) 18:09, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Yeah, you can add stuff pretty much anywhere on the normal interface from user JS, that is if you write your own JS. The relevant thing is Misplaced Pages:User scripts/Guide#Portlets, and you want the "p-cactions" group for the links / menus / tabs just above the top of the page content. Murph9000 (talk) 20:49, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

@Murph9000: Thanks I had been looking for this but I couldn't find it. I guess I was searching for the wrong thing. WikiWisePowder (talk) 15:25, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

N dashes: reverted edit

I edited NEMA connector page and I changed all hyphens in the text to N dashes because NEMA officially use them instead of hyphens; nevertheless my edit has been reverted on the basis that "use of en dash breaks text search within the page". Is there a soultion for this problem? A template forcing to show n dashes instead of hyphens? Thanks in advance.--Carnby (talk) 19:19, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

If we have a conflict between displaying the correct names and easy to use ones, I suggest to use the correct ones. We don't remove diacritics from names like Sauli Väinämö Niinistö just because they might be hard to type, either. But that is a policy question, not a technical one. —Kusma (t·c) 19:43, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

@Carnby: @Kusma: This was recently discussed, using the NEMA connector article as an example case, here. It's not just that it's "easy to use", by which I think is meant easy to type into the wikitext. The real problem with the en dash (and the em dash for that matter, and the subtraction symbol) is that, without awareness of en dashes and how to type them, you can't use a text search within the page to find them. And it is entirely plausible that a reader might use the broswer's text search to search the NEMA connector article for "L5-30". If it's an en dash in the wikitext they won't find anything, even though the text "L5-30" might be staring at them from their screen. This violates the principle of least astonishment. For that matter, Misplaced Pages's built-in search (the magnifying glass box in the URC) won't find it either. This means that hacks like having en dashes render as hyphens won't help; nobody is going to going to use Wiki search for info on "L5{{endash_rendered_as_hyphen}}30". Consensus at that Teahouse discussion was to leave them as hyphens, for what I think was good and sufficient reason. What's more important here? Adherence to a distinction of typography that (as @Chris the speller: (who is as strong a proponent of proper dash use as anybody) said at the Teahouse thread) 99.99% of the readers don't care about? or making the information in the encyclopedia findable? Jeh (talk) 20:06, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

One of our standard tests is to check what other high-quality reliable sources do. Do technical publications about NEMA connectors use hyphens or do they use dashes? We should follow the style used by relevant independent reliable sources. —Kusma (t·c) 20:39, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

This is the paper my edits were based on. I also created a lot of redirects in Commons categories (redirecting hyphens to en dashes) since someone there told me there were no problems.--Carnby (talk) 21:25, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Well, first, I don't know how you can determine anything from that paper. The NEMA type designations appear there only in a scanned image. Neither my browser nor my PDF reader can find any characters in that chart so I have no idea how you are sure that the "-" in "L5-30" is one or the other. To my eye they look like hyphens surrounded by spaces! Which we don't do.

But anyway, I'm not disputing that NEMA might actually use en dashes. My point is that hyphens in the type designations in the article make the article more useful. And commons category names are another thing entirely. You can create redirects for those; WP:TITLE or WP:DASH, I forget which, even suggests that, and I don't think anyone will depend on browser text search to find such.

But that doesn't fix the browser in-page search problem. (For that matter, the WP search tool should equate hyphens to en dashes and even minus signs, not just for article titles but for in-page content too... but this would not fix the browser search problem either.) My "bottom line" is that the article is more useful to readers with hyphens in these type names, even though they're not exactly what's in the NEMA document (or, perhaps, other sources). Jeh (talk) 22:55, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Emphatic agreement with the principles of least surprise, easy searchability, and usability over obscure typographical "correctness". True Unicode dashes have their place and are preferable to plain old ASCII hyphens in some circumstances, but I'd say not here. —Steve Summit (talk) 21:33, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Half-hearted agreement. It's only a matter of time 'til browser search ambition catches up to web search ambition. Web searches use stemming on words and folding on letters to find "meaning", and to find more; I predict that all browser page-searches will one day soon allow tapping "next" again and again a few extra times as it jumps from dash to ndash and mdash. The locale of the keyboard should find all reasonable matches, so that all dashes mean the same as a keyboard dash. Then we can have the proper display Carnby is recommending ahead of their time. As for CirrusSearch L5-30 finds L5–30 and L5-30 and L5{{dash}}30 (and L5/30, L5.30, etc.). But yes, asking users to do a browser search for L5 alone and tapping next a few more times while searching for L5–30, all for the sake of "style now!" sounds like a losing debate. Meanwhile, this is an encyclopedia waiting for a browser. — CpiralCpiral 00:07, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

User pages in Google search

I have noticed that user pages are not found in Google search anymore. I tried with a few usernames of En WP. Is it a new change? (user subpages are fine). --Tito Dutta (talk) 22:39, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

This has been in effect for years. See Template:User page "noindex=yes – prevents external search engines from indexing the page" — Maile (talk) 22:45, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

For pages that do not use {{user page}}, it's recent. See Misplaced Pages:Village pump (technical)/Archive 142#User pages deindexed?. Johnuniq (talk) 22:54, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Noindex is hard-enabled for the entire User, User talk, Draft, and Draft talk namespaces. See InitialiseSettings.php (search for "wgNamespaceRobotPolicies", and look for enwiki):

# ROBOT @{
'wgNamespaceRobotPolicies' => array(
...
	'enwiki' => array(
		NS_USER => 'noindex,follow', // T104797
		NS_USER_TALK => 'noindex,follow',
		118 => 'noindex,nofollow', // draft
		119 => 'noindex,nofollow', // draft talk
	),

Murph9000 (talk) 23:02, 22 January 2016 (UTC)

Which means that if you're trying to find a conversation on a user talk page, and you're having problems finding it with Special:Search, then you used to be able to fall back to your favorite web search engine, but now you can't. If this had happened before the major upgrade to CirrusSearch, I think I would have opposed the change. As it is, almost anything you can do in a web search engine can now be done in Special:Search (and more), so it probably won't prevent people from finding what they need. WhatamIdoing (talk) 02:49, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

@WhatamIdoing: User talk pages have not been indexed for over seven years, see phab:T15890; the recent change - and what Titodutta is asking about - concerns User pages, not User talk pages, and it's phab:T104797. --Redrose64 (talk) 11:28, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Having trouble making edits

I copy-edit articles for Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Guild of Copy Editors/Requests, and today I've been editing various articles most of the day. I just started to copy-edit Bristol, and I am unable to make an edit I want to make to the lead. I am also puzzled as to why, in edit mode, all the text of the article is shaded in gray. I have had WikEd enabled for a long time. In edit mode, regular text appears as black letters on a white background, references and block quotes are on a gray background, image files and captions are in lime green, and templates such as "Citation needed" and hidden notes are in pale salmon. I just enabled Visual Editor about a week ago, but I haven't used it. (I click on "Edit source" a the top of the page, not "Edit".) In Bristol, I want to move a phrase in the lead. I highlighted the phrase, right-clicked (as I always do), clicked on "Cut", put the cursor where I wanted to place the phrase, right-clicked, clicked on "Paste", and hit enter. I've tried it four times. Each time, I get a blank screen with an error message. Can you look at the article and tell me whether the text of the article is supposed to appear shaded in gray throughout the article? I don't remember seeing an article like that before. If it is supposed to appear like that, what am I doing wrong? Corinne (talk) 02:48, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

(talk page stalker) See also User_talk:Baffle_gab1978#Bristol; I removed some unknown parameters that were only showing in the normal preview screen from the infobox. I'm unable to replicate this error because I edit without WikEd and without javascript enabled. Cheers, Baffle gab1978 (talk) 04:24, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2016-January/084501.html — Preceding unsigned comment added by 92.225.183.8 (talk) 08:41, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

I just tried to make the edit I wanted to make yesterday. When I tried to move a phrase earlier in the sentence through cutting and pasting, I got a blank screen with an error message. When I tried by typing the phrase where I wanted it to be, and deleting the phrase in the later location, character by character, and saved, it worked. So it's the cutting and pasting that doesn't work. Also, why is the text throughout the article shaded in gray in edit mode? Corinne (talk) 15:43, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

(talk page stalker). Hi Corinne. Gray is the color the WP:wikEd text highlighter usually uses for references but for now all body text is also being highlighted the same as a reference. I suspect it has something to do with the JavaScript used in Template:Infobox settlement and I have submitted a trouble report over there on the talk tab, and I also submitted one on the talk tab at Misplaced Pages talk:wikEd. Cheers! {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 04:57, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks Checkingfax. As I explained a few minutes ago on my talk page, I have just now been able to resume editing after a full day of not being able to edit. I couldn't even leave a request for help on this page. All of a sudden, when I clicked on "Edit source", at first the edit window looked normal, but very quickly it didn't. It became a narrow band that stretched from the far left to the far right of the screen, and the menu at the left and the Wiki markup at the bottom showed through, in the edit window. I could type something, but when I went to save, I got the box that says, "Do you want to leave/stay on this page?" So basically I couldn't save anything I typed. I undid the edit I had just made to my talk page thinking that might help, but it didn't. I clicked on Preferences, then "Disable visual editor while in beta", and saved. That didn't help. Someone suggested I change to a different web browser, so I downloaded Firefox (I had been using Chrome), logged on to WP, typed a comment on my talk page in an edit window that looked normal, and saved. It worked. I even added another comment below that one. So this seems to have something to do with Chrome. I actually prefer the appearance of the text in edit mode when I'm using Chrome, but I will have to continue using Firefox unless someone can help me figure out what happened with the edit window. Corinne (talk) 23:29, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Redrose64 Can you help me with this problem of the edit window when I am using Chrome? Note that this last comment is really a separate issue from the copy-and-paste issue described earlier in this section, although they may be related. Corinne (talk) 00:37, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Hi Corinne. "Snap" which I read in one of your posts somewhere is an error message from Google Chrome that presents itself on basically a blank gray window when Chrome crashes. There is a "Feedback" link where you can describe what you were doing when Google Chrome crashed and it will automatically submit a screenshot and trouble report to Google if you allow it to. Cheers! {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 05:09, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks, Checkingfax. This morning I uninstalled Google Chrome, then re-installed it. When I went to make an edit on my talk page, after I clicked "Edit", the edit window looked the same as it did before. I hesitate to send a screenshot to Google because my user name is visible. Isn't there anyone on WP who can help me with this? I prefer editing from Google Chrome because it's slightly faster than Firefox. Corinne (talk) 16:17, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Samtar Redrose64 Can either of you, or anyone else, help me with this? I've edited with Google Chrome for the last two years with no problem, then now suddenly I can't. Corinne (talk) 16:20, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Perhaps there is: but it's not me, I don't use Chrome. --Redrose64 (talk) 16:38, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Hi Corinne. I switched to Chrome because IE was too slow, then switched to Firefox, then to Palemoon which is a derivative of Firefox. Palemoon offers a stripped down version that runs faster on my slow computer. Also, in Firefox/Palemoon I can copy/paste columns of data, something Chrome does not allow.

I guess you will have to try Phabricator support (see link above, top of page) and also Google tech support. I never send in the screenshots because the screenshot I would be sending them is nothing germane to the problem. Cheers! {{u|Checkingfax}} {Talk} 18:56, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Double click highlght

Doubleclick:this

Did both words highlight? In edit mode, same? Did you want them to? I don't want them to. I frequently click User:XXXXX or File:XXXXX and just want the XXXXX highlighted. Is this a browser thing or Misplaced Pages thing? Can this be changed? Anna Frodesiak (talk) 12:01, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

It's a browser thing. In Firefox, only "Doubleclick" or "this" gets highlighted after double-clicking, not the whole phrase. If you double-click the colon itself, only the colon gets highlighted. Other browsers, like Internet Explorer/Edge, tend to be a bit overzealous when it comes to text selection. — This, that and the other (talk) 12:49, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

So it's Chrome, eh? I hereby rename it Thulium, one of the dullest metals. Thanks you for the valuable info. :) Anna Frodesiak (talk) 12:56, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Help with IF expressions

Hi. Notice the "Width" label in the infobox on this page (the page currently uses this test infobox). That label is generated when any of the following parameters are used: width_min, width_avg, width_max. Depending on the parameter (min, avg, max), a custom header is generated over the value (i.e. "Average width"). I want the following to work:

• If width_avg is filled, the custom header "Average width" should be auto generated. (seems to work at the moment)
• There should be a break before that header, and after that header. (the after break works, before doesn't)
• Likewise, if width_avg is not filled, the section header and the related breaks should not be gererated. (doesn't work)

Can you help fix the code please? This is what the code looks like now (it's one continuous line; broken to three here just for ease of reading):

• {{#if:{{{width_min|}}}|'''Minimum width:'''}}<includeonly><br/></includeonly>{{{width_min|}}}<includeonly><br/></includeonly>
• {{#if:{{{width_avg|}}}|'''Average width:'''}}<includeonly><br/></includeonly>{{{width_avg|}}}<includeonly><br/></includeonly>
• {{#if:{{{width_max|}}}|'''Average width:'''}}<includeonly><br/></includeonly>{{{width_max|}}}<includeonly><br/></includeonly>

--Rehman 12:38, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

@Rehman: I think I fixed it. Should I also do that for depth and rate of discharge or you want to play with it yourself? --Edgars2007 (talk/contribs) 15:48, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks User:Edgars2007! I'll do the rest. Rehman 01:32, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Hi. Need help with one more function. Looking at the infobox here, you will notice that there are two columns for the "Tributary" field. What I'm trying to do is: If any one column (left or right) is missing, I want the remaining column to ignore the column formatting, and just follow a single column in list format. Is this possible? Rehman 08:30, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Anyone? Rehman 08:54, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

 Done, maybe. I threw together something quickly which might do the trick for you, or at least move you close to what you want. Please test thoroughly, I didn't do any real testing on it. N.B. For production use, the documentation should live in the /doc subpage, just in case you don't already know that (but it's fine as-is for sandbox). This is into personal taste, but I'm not sure about center on those lists, I think they might look cleaner with default left justification. Murph9000 (talk) 09:38, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

@Rehman: PING! Murph9000 (talk) 09:40, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks Murph! I'm on mobile at the moment, I will test it when I get home today. P.s. The doc page is only temporary. Regards, Rehman 10:46, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

@Rehman:No problem. On reflecting on it for a while, I realised my boolean logic wasn't quite right, so my second change should do the trick nicely. Cool, no problem about /doc, I just like to flag any anomalies if I spot them, in case it helps; I did suspect it was just a temp thing in sandbox. Murph9000 (talk) 11:11, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

I agree with you on the centre thing, but if its headers ("Left" and "Right") are also aligned to left, it will look messy together with the "Tributaries" label. Talking about the headers, would you be able to include the headers in the columns? It seems to not be displaying at the moment... (on a separate note, would you also know if this is possible?) Rehman 13:46, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

@Rehman: I'm not quite sure what you are asking about the headers. I'm seeing "Left" and "Right" at the top of the columns at present (in two-column mode). Or are you referring to some other headers? You should probably WP:PURGE, then reload the page, to see if that helps, if you are not seeing them, or check what you see in page preview (as that shouldn't be cached). Remember the thing about previewing a demo instance of a template on the same page as the template, it doesn't reflect changes made to the inner workings of the template until saved and purged. I think the headers would look ok left-aligned with the content, but that's just opinion, and I don't hugely care about it, I'll leave it to you to reach consensus on that with people more strongly motivated towards the content side of that infobox. Might be worth seeing if MOS has any wisdom to offer. As for the globe thing, no, I don't think there's a reasonable way to turn it off; you would need to justify a usage case and achieve consensus for a change to the templates / modules. Murph9000 (talk) 14:15, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

@Murph9000: Two column mode shows the "Left" and "Right" at the top of the columns, but doesn't show in single column mode... Is it the same for you? Thank you! Rehman 14:25, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

@Rehman: Ahhh, ok. Yes, I didn't add a header in single mode, as I thought that was what you intended. It would be easy enough to add a header if one is needed. Murph9000 (talk) 14:28, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Oh okay. I thought something was wrong from my end. I will play around and see if adding a header is better, and do the necessary. Thank you so much for you help! Rehman 00:01, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Hi Murph. Sorry, but I can't seem to figure that out... I am trying to make single-column uses to display the list with the header (i.e. "Left"), in the position where "Left" is displayed when both columns are used... Can you do that for me, please? Sorry for troubling... Rehman 12:57, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

@Rehman:  Done, and not a problem, tech stuff is my strong point, and I'm glad to contribute on that side of WP. I think center looks really odd for single column mode (every other thing is neatly left-aligned), but threw it in there anyway, along with some clear comments to ensure you can see which section is used for each situation, for you to make the cosmetic decisions on it (along with anyone else who has a strong interest in the content). Murph9000 (talk) 13:26, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Thank you, and thanks for being so fast, Murph. I really appreciate it. As for the alignment, I agree with you. I will play around with it more (indents, etc), and if nothing looks better, I'll slot it back to left. Have a great day! Rehman 13:36, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Editor's new autocorrect feature—any way to turn it off?

I've been using Safari 9.0.2 for a while, so I'm assuming that English Misplaced Pages's regular editor, which I use, has been upgraded in the past two or three days with a new autocorrect feature.

While I'm in the middle of a word, a popup sometimes appears with a suggested full word while highlighting what I'm typing; worse, it sometimes just applies that popup even when it isn't the word I'm looking for. Assuming I notice that it's mangled my prose, I then have to stop and go back and fix something that was correct.

Is there any way to turn off this "feature" (it offered to change "feature" to "few")? If not, can there be? Some people may like it, but I find it distracting and more than a little time-consuming. Ideally, I'd like to suppress both the autocorrect and the distracting popups, but eliminating either would improve things. I was happy with the red underline indicating a probable misspelled word, since then I can use my own judgment, and I'm glad to see that it remains intact. Thanks for any help you can give. BlueMoonset (talk) 17:06, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

@BlueMoonset: can you please clarify what you mean by "regular editor"? Are you talking about the edit window? I don't get autocorrect with anything, not any gadgets in Preferences or without them. But I'm using Firefox 43.0.4, with Windows 8.1. — Maile (talk) 22:20, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Maile, I'm talking about the regular edit window when you click on Edit to work on a Misplaced Pages page, whether an article, template, or talk page. As in what I'm doing right now, writing this reply to you. BlueMoonset (talk) 22:26, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

OK, well @BlueMoonset: I'm not getting that as I type. So, maybe it's specific to how Misplaced Pages reacts to your browser. — Maile (talk) 22:30, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Can you try a different browser? This seems like something on your end. — xaosflux 22:42, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

I'd have to install a new one, Xaosflux. All I have at the moment is Safari, and it's all I've used on Misplaced Pages for years. So you can confirm that this is not built-in behavior for the Misplaced Pages editor? BlueMoonset (talk) 22:50, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

Are you in mobile view or using a mobile application? What computer type are you using (e.g. Windows, ipad, etc)? The only autosuggest we should have on is for the search box, not the edit box. — xaosflux 23:39, 23 January 2016 (UTC)

I'm not in any mobile view or application; these are regular en.wikipedia.org pages, which are all I use. The computer I've been on today is a Macbook Pro of over four years vintage, upgraded three months ago to OSX El Capitan (10.11.2). If there isn't autosuggest as part of the Misplaced Pages editor, then this is likely an OSX or Safari thing. Thanks for letting me know; it seems to have stopped for now after I tried a couple of things suggesting by Graeme Bartlett below. BlueMoonset (talk) 02:04, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

You may have to shut down OSX’s built-in spelling corrector. Go to system preferences, keyboard, and uncheck "Correct spelling automatically".

Or in safari there might be an edit button with spelling and grammar on the drop down, then uncheck Correct spelling automatically. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 00:08, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Graeme Bartlett, thanks. The system preferences/keyboard was was already unchecked. I also didn't have Correct Spelling Automatically checked. I did, however, have the other two checked (Check Spelling While Typing and Check Grammar With Spelling), because I rather like have the colored underlines show up, even if half the time I end up ignoring them. However, once I unchecked those two, the correcting went away along with the popups, so I'm hoping that whatever glitch caused the issue won't object if I recheck Check Spelling While Typing, since I do make typos every now and then, and the sudden splash of color in my wake lets me know that I may have gone wrong. BlueMoonset (talk) 02:04, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Android app: "similar pages" gone

The latest version (2.3.138-r-2016-01-21) of the official Misplaced Pages app for Android no longer has the "similar pages" dropdown that was generated when {{other uses}}, {{for}} or similar hatnote templates were present. Surely a mistake? Qwfp (talk) 08:21, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

@Qwfp: Thanks for finding this. https://www.mediawiki.org/Wikimedia_Apps might receive more attention by the mobile application developer team. Or file a bug report directly. :) --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 00:51, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Different section opens in the edit box

This has happened quite a few times now. Whenever, I click on a subsection (noticed it on an article first and now today at ANI), it opens some other section for editing. If I go back and click on it, the same behaviour is seen. It seems to contain the wrong edit link until I refresh the page. Using Firefox 43.0.4. Please tell me I'm not hallucinating. --QEDK (T 📖 C) 11:11, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

This can be caused by section reordering or archiving. The edit section links are tied to the order on the page at loading, so if a section is added or removed between the time you load the page and editing it, you can end up with a different section. — JJMC89 (T·C) 11:18, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

I didn't pay much attention but I take lots of time so I guess it's entirely possible that it happened. --QEDK (T 📖 C) 11:32, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

@QEDK: Not knowing which article you have in mind, I cannot say what happened there; but at ANI, I'm pretty certain that your experience was caused by this edit occurring at some point between your fetching the page and clicking that edit link. --Redrose64 (talk) 12:58, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

As it happens, that was the thread which came up in place of the one I was trying to edit. --QEDK (T 📖 C) 13:27, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Candidates for speedy deletion

The page Category:Candidates for speedy deletion says that it is a hidden category but it is shown on its members such as Nancy Drew (2002 film) as not being a hidden category. GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 15:26, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

A null edit to the category and to the redirect page has fixed it. I guess that this is related to today's accidental deletion of the category. -- John of Reading (talk) 15:55, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Sorry.--S Philbrick(Talk) 03:32, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Prefilled speedy-deletion reasons in deletion screen

Admin technicality: Does anybody know how and where the rules are defined on how templated deletion options are automatically pre-filled in the deletion screen? When a file page has been tagged with certain speedy-deletion templates and you then click the "delete" button, a deletion reason is automatically preselected in the "reason" dropdown accordingly. This works for {{di-orphaned fair use}}, but apparently it doesn't work for {{di-replaceable fair use}}.

How and where can this behaviour be adjusted? Fut.Perf. ☼ 16:11, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Consider {{subst:orfud}}, this is converted to {{Di-orphaned fair use}}. In that, there is the template {{deletable image}} with the parameter |for administrators=]: Unused non-free media file for more than 7 days}}}} delete this file] after confirming it is not in use (be sure to check redirects to the file).. That's where it comes from. --Redrose64 (talk) 16:25, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks. Actually, I just found there's also something else: . This one acts not on the embedded deletion link inside the template, but on the standard deletion button at the top of the screen, via javascript in MediaWiki:Group-sysop.js. Fut.Perf. ☼ 16:39, 24 January 2016 (UTC)

Edit count lnk broken

When I use the "edit count" link on my contributions page, it leads to a 404 error. "The URI you have requested, /xtools-ec/?user=RudolfRed&project=en.wikipedia.org, doesn't seem to actually exist.". Side note: the error message says Xtools.tools is one of the maintainers, but that account doesnt seem to exist. Clicking the link leads to "User account "Tools.xtools" is not registered." @Cyberpower678: are you still one of the maintainers?

RudolfRed (talk) 00:58, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Works fine for me.—_{Chat:Limited Access} 02:03, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

https://tools.wmflabs.org/xtools/pcount/index.php is the correct link now. --Izno (talk) 03:14, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Umm...no it's not.—_Chat:Offline 04:07, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

OK the link resolves for me now, but it says that I have 0 edits. Something's off... RudolfRed (talk) 04:25, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

xtools/pcount/index.php just mirrors xtools-ec/index.php. So, does xtools-ec//index.php. --QEDK (T 📖 C) 05:50, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Edit throttling

Hi all! What are the edit throttling settings / $wgRateLimits on en.wikipedia.org? The Quixotic Potato (talk) 01:12, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

InitialiseSettings.php:

# wgRateLimits @{
'wgRateLimits' => array(
	'default' => array(
...
		'edit' => array(
			// 8 ed./min per each non-autoconfirmed, or group thereof from same IP
			'ip' => array( 8, 60 ),
			'newbie' => array( 8, 60 ),
		),

Murph9000 (talk) 01:19, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

That was quick! Thank you Murph9000! The Quixotic Potato (talk) 01:21, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Tech News: 2016-04

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

Recent changes

• You can now follow when pages are added or removed from a category on German Misplaced Pages. The plan is to add it to Wikimedia Commons and other Wikipedias this week.
• Administrators can hide individual entries of a page with RevisionDelete. There is now a button to choose "all", "none" or "inverse" in Special:Log. The article history will get the same buttons soon. Wikis that have done this locally with JavaScript will be able to remove that code.

Changes this week

• You will be able to see the references when you preview a section you are editing. This will happen even if there is no <references /> tag in that section.
• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 26 January. It will be on non-Misplaced Pages wikis and some Wikipedias from 27 January. It will be on all wikis from 28 January (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the next meeting with the VisualEditor team. During the meeting, you can tell developers which bugs you think are the most important. The meeting will be on 26 January at 20:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• There is now an extension called ArticlePlaceholder. It can automatically generate content on Misplaced Pages with data from Wikidata if there is no Misplaced Pages article. It will have a tag to remind the reader it is not an article and ask the reader to create one. The developer is now looking for smaller Wikipedias that want to try the extension.
• The OTRS system will be upgraded. The plan is to do this on 3 February at 08:00 (UTC). It will probably take 6 to 8 hours. OTRS will be down during the upgrade.
• Users will soon be automatically congratulated when they reach some edit count milestones.

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

16:39, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

SineBot not working more often than not, these days?

Until a few months ago, SineBot always worked, and signed every single unsigned post. Since about three months sgo, SineBot actually working has been more the exception than the rule, and I've constantly had to use the "unsigned" template on pages all over Misplaced Pages. Does anyone know why SineBot isn't working these days? Pinging Slakr, the owner of the bot, who seems to be almost completely retired these days. Is it time to give SineBot to another user, or have another user create a bot that works? Softlavender (talk) 17:50, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

+1 template

In Template:+1, the documentation from Template:+1/doc does not get shaded green. Only the header and footer are shaded green. GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 22:19, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

 Fixed, for me, by doing a WP:PURGE. I've seen maybe a half dozen cases like that (not just template docs, but articles with huge edit links, and similar, in the last 24–48 hours. It looks to me like one of the servers was a bit dodgy for a time, while parsing source into the cached pages which are actually served to people. Murph9000 (talk) 22:21, 25 January 2016 (UTC)

Pageview Stats down again

Pageview stats at http://stats.grok.se are down again. Stats have not compiled since October 11. Thus, the following is a summary the datefiles that are currently not compiled.

Template:Multicol

Complete datafiles in need of compiling

• January 31, 2008
• February 28, 2008
• March 1, 2008
• June 1–2, 2008
• July 1, 2008
• July 13–31, 2008
• October 20, 2008
• November 15, 2009
• June 26, 2010
• September 2, 2011
• October 20, 2011
• April 30, 2012
• February 5, 2015
• October 12, 2015
• January 21–25, 2016

Template:Multicol-break

Partially complete (between 1 and 23 hourly files have data) datafiles which should be considered for compiling

• March 3–4, 2008
• October 21, 2008
• October 14, 2009
• October 16, 2009
• November 22, 2009
• January 23–24, 2010
• February 8, 2010
• June 28, 2010
• July 5, 2010
• July 7, 2010
• July 10, 2010
• July 23, 2013
• January 6, 2014
• August 28, 2014

Template:Multicol-break

dates without datafiles that can not currently be compiled

• September 23, 2009
• September 25–27, 2009
• October 15, 2009
• July 8–9, 2010
• December 24–25, 2011

Template:Multicol-end — Preceding unsigned comment added by TonyTheTiger (talk • contribs) 03:28, 26 January 2016‎ (UTC)

Cuneiform

(I was directed here viâ the help desk.) I’ve noticed that cuneiform appears properly on my browser only irregularly. I know I’ve installed various cuneiform fonts on several occasions. With the exception of U+122B9, which appears as a black circle, every sign on List of cuneiform signs appears properly. On the other hand, on Lugal all signs (save the one that is not text but an inline image) are seen only as a box with six numbers. The same occurs on Internet Explorer. --75.190.164.194 (talk) 07:13, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Bogus notification

Special:Notifications is telling me that Mkdw reverted my edit on Korean name, but there's no such edit in the edit history. Thoughts? --SarekOfVulcan (talk) 17:14, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

I've been getting a lot of that too. I'm told that one of my edits were reverted on a page I've never edited before. It's been happening ever since the new notifications system came out. —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 18:35, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Image not appearing after resizing it

In Thermal management of high-power LEDs the third image (CFD LED Free Convection Heat Sink Design.gif) is no longer displayed after I changed its size attribute to thumb. Would someone kindly have a look at this to see what the problem is? Thanks, Lambtron (talk) 17:16, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

The third image is correctly displayed for me. Have you tried bypassing your browser cache? --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 18:35, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

WM Commons and Meta seem to be redirecting to the WMF site

Anyone else seeing this? Blue Rasberry (talk) 18:37, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Yes. Aboutmovies (talk) 18:40, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Yes, and I did have initial problems logging in here too. Whenever I'm now trying to access Commons I'm getting redirected to the generic WMF page. De728631 (talk) 18:41, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

• (edit conflict) Looks like some new code went wonky (needless to say). Operations is aware and working on reverting it. Everyone take deep breaths and hug a kitten while we wait for them to fix things! Kbrown (WMF) (talk) 18:42, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Noticed it too. At first, I thought this was some sort of an unannounced change to merge Commons and MetaWiki into one. —k6ka 🍁 (Talk · Contributions) 18:43, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Reported as phabricator:T124804. —LX (talk, contribs) 18:48, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Thanks for reporting this! There are multiple issues which are currently being investigated in #wikimedia-operations on Freenode IRC (in case you want to watch, but no further reports about it needed). --AKlapper (WMF) (talk) 18:49, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

Commons image link doesn't go to Commons

What's going on with File:Codex Sinaiticus Matthew 6,4-32.JPG? It's lacking the Commons description page, and the go-to-Commons link instead takes you to https://wikimediafoundation.org/File:Codex_Sinaiticus_Matthew_6,4-32.JPG, which has no description page, and its go-to-Commons link instead takes you to https://wikimediafoundation.org/File:Codex_Sinaiticus_Matthew_6,4-32.JPG, which has no description page, and this is the Song That Never Ends, yes it goes on and on my friends...Nyttend (talk) 18:49, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

PS, now I see that the issue is wider than just this image. Nyttend (talk) 18:51, 26 January 2016 (UTC)

• Misplaced Pages village pump
• Pages automatically checked for accidental language links