Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)

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

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.

view · edit

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

« Archives, 197, 198, 199, 200, 201, 202, 203, 204, 205, 206, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 212, 213, 214, 215, 216, 217

Add new category: articles in mainspace that contain template "Draft article"

{{AfC submission}} uses Module:AfC submission catcheck so it can list AfC submissions with categories automatically in Category:AfC submissions with categories.

It looks like {{Draft article}} also uses Module:AfC submission catcheck but it does not appear to be listing articles in mainspace that contain {{Draft article}} in a category. Can we do that? I have asked @Tol: to add removing {{Draft article}} from articles in mainspace to TolBots list of tasks. It would be nice if the bot could work from a category, just like the existing task to remove {{Draft categories}} from mainspace articles.

Note that there are currently no articles in mainspace that contain {{Draft article}} but that is because I used AWB to remove it. Thank you, Polygnotus (talk) 06:33, 7 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Polygnotus You're basically asking for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:WhatLinksHere?target=Template%3ADraft+article&namespace=0&hidelinks=1&hideredirs=1&limit=50. It's been a while since I've used the desktop AWB, but in WP:JWB it's pretty easy to generate a list of mainspace pages that transclude a template. You can import the JSON file below to do it for {{Draft article}}:

{
	"Draft article template in mainspace": {"string":{"namespacelist":["0"],"linksto-title":"Template:Draft article"},"bool":{"linksto":true,"backlinks":false,"embeddedin":true,"imageusage":false},"replaces":[]}
}

TolBot should be able to do something similar. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 17:21, 10 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That would also be a way to achieve the same goal, but that would be inconsistent, less elegant, and a waste of dev time. AWB and JWB are intended for tasks that require human supervision, which this does not. Polygnotus (talk) 15:56, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Polygnotus PyWikiBot, or whatever TolBot is using on the backend, should be able to perform a similar search. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 19:28, 16 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Ahecht: I know how Pywikibot and the Action API work. You have not given a reason why you prefer that approach. Polygnotus (talk) 10:22, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Typing "Template:gl" (lower-case G, lower-case L) in the search box takes me to an unexpected page

When I type "Template:gl" (lower-case G, lower-case L) in the search box at the top of my page (in Vector 2022), and then click Search, I am automatically taken to Template:GL (upper-case G, upper-case L). There is not a redirect at Template:gl, so I do not understand why this happens. I believe that I should end up at this search result page, telling me that "The page "Template:Gl" does not exist., etc."

This also happens if I type "Template:gin", so it is not limited to two-letter names.

I thought that after the first character, case was significant in page names. What is happening here? – Jonesey95 (talk) 19:20, 10 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The search box allows very near matches. This query matches "Now try all upper case" or another type of near match. 172.97.141.219 (talk) 19:51, 10 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for that. I suppose this (to me) inconsistent behavior is helpful for nearly everyone, but not for template editors and gnomes trying to investigate and fix specific problems. I find it a bit frustrating that the Search box at the top of the page behaves differently from the Search page. I guess that's why one has a white-background button that is the same height as the text box, and the other has a blue-background button that is taller than the text box. Maybe that will help me remember. – Jonesey95 (talk) 19:56, 10 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The big search box at Special:Search always makes a search and never goes directly to a matching page name. The normal search box on every page always goes directly to a page which only differs by captizalition, unless you select "Search for pages contaning" in the dropdown. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:15, 10 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Jonesey95, if you append a tilde to any search in the top-right box, it will force a search result page, regardless if a page exists matching your search string or not. This is actually documented somewhere, and not some kind of klugey thing that might go away next version. Try Template:Ambox~ or similar. Mathglot (talk) 09:02, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Interesting. Strangely, it doesn't tell me that "The page Template:gin~ does not exist", as I might expect, but I'll file that tip away for future use. – Jonesey95 (talk) 15:03, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Fun problem with Improved Syntax Highlighting (beta feature)

Was editing a page (2014 Gaza War) with the Improved Syntax Highlighting beta feature when I noticed that the text I was editing was all purple. Scrolled up to find where the problem started, and it was first completely unnhighlighted, then all purple except for [[where it should be different]], then it was just completely off kilter. E.g. As part of its crackdown and concurrent to rocket fire from Gaza, Israel conducted air strikes against Hamas facilities in the Gaza Strip. I guess that's beta features for you. – Daℤyzzos (✉️ • 📤) _{Please do not ping on reply.} 23:32, 11 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The talk page for that beta feature is mw:Help talk:Extension:CodeMirror if you want to report a problem there. It helps to describe exactly what you clicked on and what you saw. For example, were you using the Visual Editor, and were you editing a section or the whole article? – Jonesey95 (talk) 00:56, 12 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you... not sure how I would get syntax highlighting in Visual Editor though... :-) – Daℤyzzos (✉️ • 📤) _{Please do ping on reply.} 01:46, 12 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Phab:T366035 析石父 (talk) 14:26, 12 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you. – Daℤyzzos (✉️ • 📤) _{Please do ping on reply.} 21:28, 12 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Does the Japanese Wikipedia allow English edit summaries?

IP tried to ask the Japanese Wikipedia if English edit summaries is allowed but ended up with receiving no consensus. So, i'm gonna mirror his discussion here on the English Wikipedia's village pump. 67.209.130.128 (talk) 03:14, 12 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The English Wikipedia has no authority over the Japanese Wikipedia. We would probably not want Japanese edit summaries here, but we don't have a "help for non-English speakers" page either so make of that what you will. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 04:32, 12 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It appears to have no filter to stop non-Japanese edit summaries. I suggest that you supply an edit summary in English that is helpful when editing. Without knowing the language, perhaps you can usefully edit images, or numbers on a page. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 06:37, 12 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I really wouldn't recommend editing a Wikipedia in a language you don't speak for anything beyond the most perfunctory of edits, e.g. maybe replacing images with technically superior versions. For that, machine translation (perhaps with a courtesy note explaining you don't speak the language) should suffice. Remsense ‥ 论 06:39, 12 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Unironically unironically the highest quality tip. Thank you. 67.209.130.66 (talk) 08:49, 12 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

If you log in, Japanese Wikipedia might send you a welcome message - they sent me one some years ago, see ja:利用者‐会話:Redrose64, which includes one line of English:

Hello, Redrose64! Welcome to Japanese Wikipedia. If you are not a Japanese speaker, you can ask a question in Help. Enjoy!

which may help here. I see that an IP has posted a similar question at 04:10, 3 December 2024 (UTC). --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 18:50, 12 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Or SWMT. JJP_{Mas_ter} (she/they) 20:50, 12 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I sometimes perform file moves on Commons, which generates a copy of my edit summary (in English) copied to all languages where the file is renamed pursuant to the file move. I have never had a problem result from this in any language Wiki, including Japanese, where I have some 250 of these. BD2412 T 20:54, 12 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Redirects to anchors

Redirects to anchors don't seem to work.

If I go to Special pages it redirects to MediaWiki at the top of the page. But if I click the link in "Redirected from Special pages" it shows a link to MediaWiki#Installation and configuration. And if I click that link, I get the anchor jump.

Is the failure to do the jump on redirect peculiar to Firefox or do I need to file a bug report with Wikimedia? Or is this a known issue they won't be able to fix?

Thisisnotatest (talk) 03:06, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

What version of Firefox are you using?

You can find it under help > About firefox. Snævar (talk) 03:35, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Redirects to a section require scripting to be enabled. Johnuniq (talk) 08:13, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Works correctly for me. Firefox 133.0.3 (64 bits) @ Windows 11 Home. --CiaPan (talk) 09:00, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Works for me in Firefox with JavaScript enabled, bot not disabled as Johnuniq said. Does https://www.whatismybrowser.com/detect/is-javascript-enabled/ say JavaScript is enabled? What is the url in the address bar after clicking Special pages? With JavaScript enabled and working correctly it should be rewritten to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki#Installation_and_configuration and jump to the section. Without JavaScript the url remains https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_pages. It does display the MediaWiki article but doesn't jump to the section. This is an effect of MediaWiki using "pseudoredirects" and not real HTTP redirects. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:56, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Data sorting in tables

Hi there, I've created a page List of Neo-Latin authors which has sortable lists.

In the first column, I've added data sorting via either |data-sort="Lastname, firstname"| or with {{sortname|Firstname|Lastname}}, or variations on these. The seem to be outputting to the table, but it doesn't seem always to sort on these values. In particular, cells which have sort values, but do not contain data, are treated as blanks.

It is necessary to have some data-less name cells, because the table contains columns for the author's original names, and their Latin names; but either of these can be absent for different authors.

I've tried adding nsbsp; to make browsers think there is content, in case that is the issue, but that doesn't seem to help. Any ideas? Jim Killock (talk) 17:12, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@JimKillock: It's called data-sort-value.[1] PrimeHunter (talk) 18:23, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ah great - thanks! Jim Killock (talk) 20:29, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Module editor needed, again

Another two redlinks generated by the move of template-generated maintenance categories again, this time relating to {{Infobox road}}:

But yet again, the template isn't directly declaring these categories itself in any place I could fix them myself, but is smuggling them in via a module I can't edit, so I need somebody with module-editing privileges to clean them up. Thanks. Bearcat (talk) 17:20, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

This is beyond me, too. And I tested and it doesn't follow redirects. Posted at Template talk:Infobox road in the hope that one of the editors watching that knows how this works. * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 17:30, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I think exceptions to ISO names need to be added at Template:Infobox road/meta/mask/category. — Jts1882 | talk 18:10, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I agree, it is safer than adding it to the ISO, less templates using the subtemplate than the module. Snævar (talk) 20:19, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I've made this edit and it seems to make the change. One road that I null edited is there at the moment. — Jts1882 | talk 08:04, 14 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The trace here is Template:Infobox_road > Template:Infobox road/meta/mask/category > Template:Country name > Module:ISO 3166 > Module:ISO 3166/data/National. The last module "Module:ISO 3166/data/National" mentions "Cabo Verde" as the main name and "Cape Verde" as the alterntive, hence the category gets thee "Cabo Verde" name. Snævar (talk) 19:40, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks, gang. I followed up Jts's Cape Verde edit above with another one that used the same format to deal with the Georgia category, and that also worked, so that one's now clean as well. Thanks again for figuring this out. Bearcat (talk) 15:35, 14 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

File:01 Burqa (cropped).tif

When I hover over the "reply" link on WP:VP/P policy I see File:01 Burqa (cropped).tif. Any particular reason for that? CambridgeBayWeather (solidly non-human), Uqaqtuq (talk), Huliva 23:00, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not sure which "reply" link you're hovering over (there are far too many to try all of them), but neither hovering nor clicking yielded the file in question for the two I tried. – Daℤyzzos (✉️ • 📤) _{Please do not ping on reply.} 23:29, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It's all the reply links. Only hovering shows the image and click on the reply link just opens the page to reply. CambridgeBayWeather (solidly non-human), Uqaqtuq (talk), Huliva 04:54, 14 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@CambridgeBayWeather: I guess you have enabled "Navigation popups" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets. The reply links are made by "Enable quick replying" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing. The links points to the page itself and File:01 Burqa (cropped).tif is displayed in Wikipedia:Village pump (policy)#Can we hide sensitive graphic photos? Popups can display an image outside the lead, unlike the default feature Page previews at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:36, 13 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I do have the navigation popup enabled. It just seemed an odd choice of image for the VP/P page as I didn't realise that was the only image on the page. I see that File:718smiley.svg is showing at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals). CambridgeBayWeather (solidly non-human), Uqaqtuq (talk), Huliva 05:00, 14 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe the icons at Wikipedia:Village pump should also be added to the top of the pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:12, 14 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There's not really a good place to add only the relevant icon, and hovering over a link to WP:VP (no particular section) yields no image, despite the WP:VP/P one being in the header, so I'm not quite sure where at all one would put a relevant image. – Daℤyzzos (✉️ • 📤) 15:42, 14 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Popups looks at the source text in Wikipedia:Village pump and doesn't discover the icons which are transcluded from {{Village pump}}. Hovering on the template link shows the first icon File:Edit-find-replace.svg. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:15, 14 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Ah. Still doesn't solve the question of where one would put the WP:VP icons. – Daℤyzzos (✉️ • 📤) Please do not ping on reply. 22:52, 14 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Huh. I thought that at the top might work because when I hover over my talk page link above I see File:ANEWSicon.png and on my user page, File:CambridgeBayWeather logo.svg. On PrimeHunter's I see a barnstar and his talk page link shows File:Information.svg. But for some reason hovering over the links to Daℤyzzos and his talk page show no images at all. CambridgeBayWeather (solidly non-human), Uqaqtuq (talk), Huliva 00:18, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Actually, hovering over a link to your talk page displays File:Wikipedia Administrator.svg, but that's still provided (albeit smaller than File:ANEWSicon.png) by the Adminidstrators' newsletter. – Daℤyzzos (✉️ • 📤) 18:35, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

And that's what I'm seeing now. CambridgeBayWeather (solidly non-human), Uqaqtuq (talk), Huliva 18:39, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I did some testing and I found... (drumroll please)
...that I have absolutely no idea why my talk page (or normal userpage for that matter) gets no image! But at least we know now that it can't be something to do with the image or its syntax

.

— Daℤyzzos (✉️ • 📤) Please do not ping on reply. 19:19, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Cursor jumping

For a month or longer now, my cursor has been jumping to the beginning of my sentence when I'm writing a message in places like the Help Desk or an article's Talk page — but interestingly, not here at Technical Help — and try to type capital letters or certain common symbols such as colons, semicolons, parentheses, quotation marks, exclamation points, and question marks. This happens ONLY when I'm working in Wikipedia, nowhere else.

It's really maddening, because it means I waste a lot of time going back to the start of a line and copying the letter or symbol to pasted back down where I was typing. Can you help me stop this? Augnablik (talk) 12:08, 14 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Another mystery

When I go to the talk page for a Wiki article entitled "Ramendra Kumar" and click on History, sometimes I see the entire history as I'd expect, with all messages in descending order ... other times I see selected revisions (there's a box saying "Compare selected revisions," so I'm calling what I see that same way). I never know what to expect when I click on History. I assume this would happen at other article Talk pages.

Of course I want to see the entire history. Please help me stop the selected revisions from coming up when I click on History. Augnablik (talk) 12:43, 14 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Augnablik, what is the URL, in both cases? — Qwerfjkl talk 13:38, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

It's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramendra_Kumar, @Qwerfjkl. But now I see the history as it should look. I've noticed this has happened before with that history ... but now I've discovered this is happening with other histories as well. One day, I see selected revisions — another day, everything.

I checked several more edits that I made to other articles and the History tab is bringing up all the revisions correctly. Let me check on this again tomorrow and see if it goes back to seeing just selected revisions. Stay tuned, please.

I'm intrigued by your User name, as it's certainly an interesting version of the Qwerty keyboard! Augnablik (talk) 15:36, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Augnablik, I mean the URL when you only see certain versions, not the URL of the page.
As far as I know there is no Qwerfjkl keyboard; I just started on Qwerty and got bored halfway through. — Qwerfjkl talk 15:56, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Oh, sorry, that’s what I thought I’d copied for you. It’s https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ramendra_Kumar&action=history .

But again, I’ve now found that the selected version/entire version changes happen elsewhere as well as at that page. And by the way when I just checked at the RK page, I found the edits were now showing in their entirety. So, then, they changed twice in one day.

As for your Wiki name, lyes, I know there’s no keyboard that uses it. I was just having a little fun with you, Augnablik (talk) 18:26, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yet another mystery

When I add topics in places like the article Talk pages and the Help Desk, perhaps elsewhere too, I'm finding a lot of times that square-shaped "sticky notes" have begun to pop up with brief dictionary definitions of words. No idea why. I don't ask for them, they just seem to come on their own. They get in the way of my typing. Is there a way to stop this? Augnablik (talk) 12:46, 14 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Do the "sticky notes" look something like this?

note

A brief record of facts, topics, or thoughts, written down as an aid to memory.

More »

— Daℤyzzos (✉️ • 📤) 15:59, 14 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, except mine are square.

By the way, @DaZyzzogetonsGotDaLastWord, please tell me how you inserted that image. That's exactly what I wanted to do in this message but didn't know how. Augnablik (talk) 16:22, 14 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Okay. If the "sticky notes" look like that, you probably have some sort of dictionary extension installed. If you're using Google Chrome, check here to see if you have that installed. If you're not using Google Chrome, I doubt I can help any further.

I made the diagram using the {{box}} template—it's not an image. Documentation for using the {{box}} template can be found here. Information on uploading a screenshot (image) of Wikipedia to show your problem can be found here.

— Daℤyzzos (✉️ • 📤) Please do not ping on reply 18:53, 14 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

1- I am using Chrome. :) I followed your link and ended up on a page entitled Google Dictionary, so I suppose that means the dictionary is installed. Now what?

2- A box template, interesting. I look forward to learning about this. Augnablik (talk) 08:14, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Augnablik: Everybody sees a page called Google Dictionary at [2]. The question is whether you see a button to add or remove the extension. It may be another extension. See https://support.google.com/chrome_webstore/answer/2664769#uninstall-extension. PrimeHunter (talk) 11:15, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@PrimeHunter, I see an Add button. Augnablik (talk) 12:17, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@Augnablik: Then look for another installed extension as described at my link. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:27, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I did what you asked, looking for another installed extension. Two came up. One was clearly an extension, and it didn't look important, so I deleted it. But the second is Acrobat! I can't imagine why that would appear as an extension. As you can guess, I didn't uninstall it.

Perhaps for the uninstallation to work, or the sticky notes to stop (if that's supposed to happen now), I'll restart my computer and come back to see what happens. Augnablik (talk) 15:09, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Christmas message error

Urgh I just sent out a load of Christmas messages and forgot to add a </div> at the end. So responses will spew onto the background. Can somebody use AWB or a bot to quickly fix it and add it like this, it would take an hour to do manually! ♦ Dr. Blofeld 10:29, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Some have been fixed already. Each one will require checking manually. @Dr. Blofeld: What is the original that you used? --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 12:35, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Blowers, you are guilty of having too many wiki-friends! Looks like RedRose64 is very kindly helping you out. Martinevans123 (talk) 12:47, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

A number of them are contributors to the challenges who deserve to be shown that they are appreciated Martin! ♦ Dr. Blofeld 12:58, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The only challenge I generally ever attempt is this one, and the results aren't usually very impressive. Martinevans123 (talk) 13:25, 15 December 2024 (UTC) [reply]

Redrose64, or use AWB to alert them to add </div> at the end if they've not already fixed it! ♦ Dr. Blofeld 12:52, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That would be spamming. But what is the original that you used? Presumably it was a template; if I can fix the problem at source, it shouldn't occur again. It seems that every year, somebody sends out Christmas greetings with unclosed markup of some kind - in this case there were both a missing ''''' and a missing </div> but in the past I've seen cases of unclosed tables, or where closing tags are transposed. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 12:59, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Please let me know if I can help with this. I have a bot task approved for fixing typos and issues in mass messages. – DreamRimmer (talk) 13:21, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Is it possible something could be coded to fix the ones Redrose hasn't done yet? It's just it'll take over an hour to fix manually. Perhaps if this is a common problem at Christmas something could be coded to fix them? Only if it wouldn't take long to do Dream. ♦ Dr. Blofeld 16:56, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Yes, I can fix it. It is bedtime here where I live, so I will take care of it tomorrow. – DreamRimmer (talk) 17:14, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

All

Done now, including fixing up some half-fixes by others - do people really think that </div style> is valid?. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 19:59, 15 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

URGENT - more category template mess

A mass nomination has been listed at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working for processing with hundreds and categories and hundreds of thousands of articles. However these are generated by convoluted code in templates and it's not clear how to change WikiProject & taskforce "articles" to "pages" without causing chaos.

Can some please URGENTLY look at the templates and sort this out. Once again we've had a mass renaming pushed through without stopping to check it can be easily done. Timrollpickering (talk) 00:04, 16 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Module talk:WikiProject banner has some discussion about the topic. Izno (talk) 00:12, 16 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I see at the top of Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working#Bot work it states If the category needs to be split among multiple destination categories, requires template editing, or requires editing the documentation subpage of templates, or any other special circumstances that require manual review, list it at Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working/Manual rather than here. Perhaps that should be done, and the person who didn't do that in the first place informed of their mistake? Anomie ⚔ 00:14, 16 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I've moved the list to Wikipedia:Categories for discussion/Working/Large and will try blocking the bot for a couple of hours to see if that resets it. I have asked the editor who put the list on the main processing page to remember to fix templates at the same time. But more generally this whole renaming mess has caused chaos, not least because of the absurdly complicated way these categories are generated without being easy to amend. Timrollpickering (talk) 00:22, 16 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Infobox radio station issues

In many articles at Category:CS1 errors: URL regarding radio stations have a common problem and its about a citation error that too in same place. It's something with {{Infobox radio station}}.––kemel49^{(connect)(contri)} 17:38, 16 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Not a WP:VPT issue.

I only looked at one article (WALC) but in that article there is this:

| facility_id = WALC: 72377 <br />WZLC: 173901

The value assigned to that parameter completes an incomplete url.

If one is to believe the template documentation, the only value that should be assigned to that parameter is the 'numeric Facility ID' – whatever that is. As currently written, the value assigned to |facility_id= looks like a mishmash of callsigns and facility IDs for two different radio stations. Perhaps the other radio station articles in Category:CS1 errors: URL suffer from similarly malformed input.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 18:16, 16 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Is it appropriate to remove WALC: & <br /> and only put one line of numerical rather than two.––kemel49^{(connect)(contri)} 18:22, 16 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You should probably discuss this issue with editors at Wikipedia:WikiProject Radio Stations. Editors there should be able to tell you how to properly handle two (related) radio stations in a single article/infobox. Perhaps that discussion will result in changes to {{Infobox radio station}}.

—Trappist the monk (talk) 18:56, 16 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Account creation limit for administrators

I'm trying to process WP:ACC requests and I'm getting the message that I've exceeded the "6 accounts in the last 24 hours" limit (when I tried it via the API, I got "acct_creation_throttle_hit") despite the fact that I am an administrator have the noratelimit userright. Reading WP:Account creator and WP:Event coordinator it seems like admins shouldn't be subject to that limit. I've verified via the API that I am properly logged in and have noratelimit. Any idea why I'm not able to create further accounts? --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 19:14, 16 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Special:ListGroupRights#sysop confirms you should have noratelimit. You have created 9 accounts today.[3] wgAccountCreationThrottle is set to 6 in https://noc.wikimedia.org/conf/highlight.php?file=InitialiseSettings.php. If the problem started after the 9th then I really don't know why. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:55, 16 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@PrimeHunter Some were created directly with the ACC tool, so they may appear to come from a toolforge IP address as opposed to my own, and others were created manually. At least that's all I can think of. --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 21:11, 16 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

@PrimeHunter I just tried creating some other accounts both manually and via the tool and they both worked, but the specific username I tried before still gives me the "6 accounts" error. Does that rate limit follow the username somehow? --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 21:18, 16 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I don't know. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:35, 16 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

You could be hitting a special upstream mitigation, is there anything unusual about the username you are trying to create? — xaosflux ^Talk 22:16, 16 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Might've been the email domain, which appears to be on various lists as "likely used for abuse and fraud". --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 14:20, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Could be - I don't normally create accounts for people with suspicious email addresses. — xaosflux ^Talk 18:04, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

How are you authenticating to the API? If you're using a bot password or an OAuth client it's possible that the client does not have a grant that includes noratelimit. Taavi (talk!) 15:14, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

I was using Special:ApiSandbox, so no bot password or OAuth (and the same issue occurred with the regular account creation page as well). --Ahecht (TALK
PAGE) 15:22, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Highlight function of Interactive Pathways Map not displaying content correctly

when you try to use the function Highlight as in

GlycolysisGluconeogenesis_WP534|highlight=Glucose-6-phosphate_isomerase

the thumbimage is not displayed correctly: it is centered on the highlighted objcet as intended but not displayed, leaving a void where the highlighted object should be.

div style="position: relative; top: -204.445378151261px; left: -239.5px; width: {{{bSize}}}px" the problem is in width:{{{bSize}}}. it should be fit-content

the problem affects every interactive pathways map i have seen. A.garofalo32 (talk) 20:37, 16 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

The highlight box when clicking on a notification linking to this post is also way oversized: it extends just past the bottom of the text in the previous post an well below the bottom of the footer. (Wait—is this reply also going to be way off to the side? Only one way to find out!) – Daℤyzzos (✉️ • 📤) Please do not ping on reply. 20:49, 16 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Tech News: 2024-51

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

Weekly highlight

Interested in improving event management on your home wiki? The CampaignEvents extension offers organizers features like event registration management, event/wikiproject promotion, finding potential participants, and more - all directly on-wiki. If you are an organizer or think your community would benefit from this extension, start a discussion to enable it on your wiki today. To learn more about how to enable this extension on your wiki, visit the deployment status page.

Updates for editors

Users of the iOS Wikipedia App in Italy and Mexico on the Italian, Spanish, and English Wikipedias, can see a personalized Year in Review with insights based on their reading and editing history.
Users of the Android Wikipedia App in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia can see the new Rabbit Holes feature. This feature shows a suggested search term in the Search bar based on the current article being viewed, and a suggested reading list generated from the user’s last two visited articles.
The global reminder bot is now active and running on nearly 800 wikis. This service reminds most users holding temporary rights when they are about to expire, so that they can renew should they want to. See the technical details page for more information.
The next issue of Tech News will be sent out on 13 January 2025 because of the end of year holidays. Thank you to all of the translators, and people who submitted content or feedback, this year.
View all 27 community-submitted tasks that were resolved last week. For example, a bug was fixed in the Android Wikipedia App which had caused translatable SVG images to show the wrong language when they were tapped.

Updates for technical contributors

There is no new MediaWiki version next week. The next deployments will start on 14 January. [4]

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

MediaWiki message delivery 22:21, 16 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Seeking bot that checks for duplicate sources

Is there any bot on Wikipedia that will check an article for sources that are used multiple times (and could be combined)? ▶ I am Grorp ◀ 22:26, 16 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

There is a tool available at https://yabbr.toolforge.org/ that helps combine duplicate references. – DreamRimmer (talk) 02:12, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Looks like that's a different function. It finds articles where someone has twice named a citation using the same refname. I'm looking for something which finds duplicate URLs, so that I can combine them into one [named] citation that can be referred to multiple times. ▶ I am Grorp ◀ 02:20, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia:ReFill is also helpful in combining duplicate references, but it is mainly used for fixing bare references. – DreamRimmer (talk) 02:38, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

That sounds like the ticket! I'll give it a try. ▶ I am Grorp ◀ 02:48, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

VPNgate blocking bot

I am seeking consensus on a proposal to develop and deploy a bot to help block VPNgate IP addresses used by a particular WP:LTA. For WP:DENY/WP:BEANS reasons, I cannot provide full details, but users familiar with the LTA in question will understand the context.

Background

I have tested several VPNgate IPs, and very few of them are currently blocked. According to Wikipedia's policy on open proxies and VPNs (per WP:NOP), these should be blocked. Given the volume of VPNgate IPs, I propose using a bot to automate this process.

This is building off this discussion on WP:BOTREQUESTS.

I am posting here to gauge consensus needed for a WP:BRFA.

Proposal

I propose a bot to automate blocking these VPNgate IPs using the following steps:

The bot will use this list provided by VPNgate, which contains OpenVPN configuration files in Base64 format. The provided "IP" value is only the one that your computer uses to talk to the VPN (and sometimes wrong), not the one used for the VPN to talk to Wikipedia/external internet - this requires testing to uncover.
The bot will iterate through each config file and use OpenVPN to test if it can connect. If successful, it will then use the VPN to send a request to this WhatIsMyIPAddress API to determine the real-world IP address used by each VPN to connect to Wikipedia. This is sometimes the same as the IP used to talk to the VPN - but sometimes completely different, see the demo edit I did using VPNgate on the Bot Requests discussion linked above and I also did one as a reply to this post. Also, testing is needed before blanket blocking because VPNgate claim to fill the list with fake IPs to prevent it from being used for blocking, again see the BR discussion.

Blocking or Reporting:

If the bot is approved as an admin bot, it will immediately block the identified IPs or modify block settings to disable TPA (see Yamla's recent ANI discussion per the necessity for this) and enable auto block.
If the bot is not approved to run as an admin bot, the bot will report the IP addresses to WP:AIV, WP:OPP or another appropriate venue for human admins to handle (however, there will be a lot)

Additional Information

I have already developed and tested this bot locally using Pywikibot. I have tested it on a local MediaWiki install and it successfully prevents all VPNgate users from editing (should they not be IP block exempt).
I’m posting here to gauge broader community consensus beyond the original WP:BOTREQUESTS discussion.

Poll Options

Oppose: Object to the bot proposal. Feel free to explain why.
Support options:

Admin Bot (admin given code): An admin will run the bot, and I will provide the code for them to run, as well as desired environment setup etc. and will need to send any code changes or packages updates to them to perform. Admin needs to be quite technically competent.
Admin Bot (preferred by me, admin gives me token): An admin provides me with the bot token (scoped so that they only possible admin action is block) of a newly created account only for this purpose, allowing me to run the code under myself on Toolforge and fully manage environment setup (needs install and config of multiple python and brew packages not needed for standard pywikibot) as well as instantly deploy any needed code changes or dependency updates without bottlenecks. Admin only needs to know how to use Wikipedia UI and navigate to Special:BotToken, check some boxes, and then submit.
Admin Bot (I run it): For this specific case I am permitted to run my own admin bot. Withdrawn per Rchard2scout and WMF viewdeleted policy.
Bot without Admin Privileges: The bot will report IPs for potential blocking without admin privileges. Not recommended per large volume.

Existing phab ticket

Phabricator ticket T354599 does not block IPs—it adds a new "reputation" variable to edit filters, which does not catch all VPNgate IPs and has been evaded by the LTA. This is why I propose a dedicated bot. The Phabricator ticket is stalled and unlikely to be ready soon. MolecularPilot ^{🧪️✈️} 05:34, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Hey, it's me, User:MolecularPilot on VPNgate. This VPN is listed as 112.187.104.70 on VPNgate cause that's what my PC talks to. But, this VPN when talking to Wikipedia, uses 121.179.23.53 as shown which is completely different and not listed anywhere on VPNgate, showing the need for actually testing the VPNs and figuring out the output IPs are my bot does. Can this IP please be WP:OPP blocked? 121.179.23.53 (talk) 06:22, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Can confirm this is me! :) MolecularPilot ^{🧪️✈️} 06:24, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Poll

Oppose for now. From reading that discussion, it looks like the IPs available through the API are only the "ingress" IPs, which is what you connect to on their side when using the VPN (and even then, it seems like the VPN client might sometimes use another IP instead?). If there's actually a publicly available list of outgoing IPs available, I'd be very surprised. From an operational standpoint, those IPs don't need to be public, and if they are, that's a serious error on their side. If we do somehow get our hands on a list, I'd be in favour of option 1. There's plenty of admins available who are able to run bots. --rchard2scout (talk) 08:37, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Hi rchard2scout, I think you misunderstand the bot. The bot connects to each "ingress" IP and then finds out the "egress" IP that it uses by sending a request to a "what is my IP address API" (not associated with VPNGate in any way), then blocking the egress. This fully disables VPNgate on my local instance of MediaWiki. Thus, a list of egress IPs are not required, because it makes it own by connecting to each of the ingress ones and sending a request. I apologize if my documentation wasn't clear. MolecularPilot ^{🧪️✈️} 08:44, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Noting that I currently do have a complete list of "egress" IPs from my local run of the bot, so should I take your vote as a support of option 1 like you stated? Thank you. MolecularPilot ^{🧪️✈️} 08:45, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Oops, you're right, I somehow missed this. Hadn't had my first coffee yet ;). Striking, adding new vote.
That's so fine, my brain is a little laggy in the early morning as well! My technical/documentation writing probably needs some work as well, it's not my best skill (anyone please feel free to edit this post and make it clearer, if it's wrong I'll just fix it). Thank you for your time in reviewing this even though it's still the early morning where you are! :) MolecularPilot ^{🧪️✈️} 09:38, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Support option 1. Options 2 and 3 are probably incompatible with our local and WMF policies, because an admin bot can do anything an admin can do, and you haven't gone through RfA, so you're not allowed access to rights like viewdeleted. Or (@ anyone who know this) are OAuth permissions granular enough that an admin can generate a token that allows a bot access to block but not to other permissions? In any case, I think option 1 is the easiest and safest way, there's plenty of admins available who are able to run bots. --rchard2scout (talk) 08:59, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
- Hi Rchard2scout, thank you for your new comment and feedback. I hope your morning is going well! Ah yes viewdeleted, silly me to forget about that (I have the opposite problem as you before, it is far too late at night where I live!), I do recall it from someone else's declined proposal of admin sortion, I've struck Option 3 now per WMF legal policy. Re OAuth permissions, I know from using Huggle that when you create a bot token there's a very fine grained list of checkboxed for you to tick, and "block" is in fact one of them, so it is that granular as to avoid all other admin perms, I've expanded Option #2 above to clarify this and more circumstances. I do believe this would be my preferred option, per the reasons I've placed in my expansion, but are really happy with anything as long as we can deal with this LTA. Anyway, enjoy your morning! MolecularPilot ^{🧪️✈️} 11:29, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
- There's no grant allowing block but no other permissions. The minimum additional admin permissions would be block, blockemail, unreviewedpages, and unwatchedpages. Anomie ⚔ 12:33, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
Option 1. I believe this is the only option allowed under policy. Admins need to run admin bots. This RFC is a bit complicated. Usually an RFC of this type would just get consensus for the task ("Is there consensus to run a bot that blocks VPNGate IP addresses?"), with implementation details to be worked out later. –Novem Linguae (talk) 12:09, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

There is a relevant Phabricator ticket: T380917. – DreamRimmer (talk) 12:02, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think non-admins can run admin bots. Perhaps you would like to publicly post your source code, then ask an admin to run it? cc Daniel Quinlan. –Novem Linguae (talk) 12:05, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]
I don't think blocking a single VPN provider will have the effect people want it to have. It's easy for a disruptive editor to switch VPNs. This is really a problem that needs to be solved by WMF. Daniel Quinlan (talk) 15:45, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]

Sub-referencing: Request for feedback

Hello, I’m Johannes from the WMDE Technical Wishes team. Four months ago, we reached out to the community to discuss the new sub-referencing feature we are currently working on. Thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts and feedback on meta:Talk:WMDE Technical Wishes/Sub-referencing or in local village pump discussions!

We would like to ask for your perspective again, because we’ve made changes to the wikitext syntax of sub-referencing, based on the feedback we’ve received and because it’s the only viable way of dealing with some technical limitations. Please visit meta:Talk:WMDE Technical Wishes/Sub-referencing#Request for feedback to read more about our approach for inline sub-referencing and share your thoughts! Thanks Johannes Richter (WMDE) (talk) 14:06, 17 December 2024 (UTC)[reply]