Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 22

Faulty diffs on Saddam Hussein
I made a very minor edit to the Saddam Hussein article yesterday, just changed a wiki-link. But if you diff my edit with the previous one it shows a repeating paragraph on one side.

Since then others have edited the article, and there are similar faulty diffs, for example comparing the current second-last and third-last edits.

I have purged both the server cache and my browser cache.

Thanks. --RenniePet (talk) 20:01, 20 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I confirm the error is there, and this is not just an editor who made a bad edit. One can for instance look at the diff in popups versus loading the whole diff page.  Also checking the versions from the history, the diff page cannot be right.  Those repeated paragraphs shown in the diff are not shown in the normal page. JackSchmidt (talk) 22:32, 20 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I tried a WP:NULL edit, but it did not help. I then tried purging the object cache with action=purge, and that did fix it.  I left the other diffs alone in case a developer wants to see the problem live. This diff is less garbled, but comparing the revisions shows that it is inaccurate. JackSchmidt (talk) 22:38, 20 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks. I hadn't realized that I should use action=purge on the diff itself, I thought you only had to use it on the article. (Boy, was I confused and worried when I first saw the diff between my edit and the previous revision! :-) --RenniePet (talk) 23:11, 20 February 2008 (UTC)

A similar problem occurred on GNU General Public License today. It's only the diff that's wrong, not the content of the article. I've reported the problem as 13129. RossPatterson (talk) 16:20, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

CURRENTUSER
Is it currently possible to use the CURRENTUSER magic word (see mw:Extension:Variables) or is there another way that I can implement this functionality? Thanks, Ron Duvall (talk) 19:28, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
 * That isn't enabled, but there is a related function where it is possible to link to the current user's user page or talk page with Special:Mypage and Special:Mytalk. Tra (Talk) 20:09, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
 * CURRENTUSER doesn't work with Wikimedia's caching (any page its on can't be cached or it won't work). Mr.  Z- man  21:20, 21 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Perhaps when one desires to direct someone to a page that uses CURRENTUSER, and it is expected that they will have it cached already, a link could be provided containing "&action=purge" in the url. Or a link to that could be included on the page itself. I'll figure something out. Anyway, what I am trying to do is produce custom responses based on who is viewing a given page (as noted in more detail at Wikipedia_talk:Delegable_proxy/Table). If the designated user visits a page, then it will display an option to accept the designation. Other users will not see that text. I tried to do some workarounds using Special:Mypage but of course those didn't work. Ron Duvall (talk) 21:53, 21 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I think a more compelling argument against adding a CURRENTUSER variable can be found here. — CharlotteWebb 15:29, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Commons message
Please see MediaWiki talk:Shareduploadwiki-desc. MediaWiki:Shareduploadwiki-desc seems to be redundant to MediaWiki:Sharedupload, and I'd like to blank it. Superm401 - Talk 18:23, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
 * ✅. —Random832 21:52, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I was actually more seeking consensus, since I'm an admin. But we can leave it blanked unless/until someone objects. Superm401 - Talk 06:28, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
 * My guess is the reason it hasn't been done before now is simply that a lot of admins aren't familiar with the interface pages - but if anyone objects feel free to revert and discuss. —Random832 04:06, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

"What links here" to nonexistent page
For the last few days, when I click on a red link to an article that doesn't exist (yet), the "What links here" is missing from the column of links on the left. Likewise, when I search for the title of a nonexistent page, there used to be a link to the page showing all pages that link in. Where'd it go? I've found I can work around the problem, by using the link on an existing page and copy&pasting the name of the target of interest, but that's an unnecessary hassle. —WWoods (talk) 07:42, 23 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I still have "what links here" in the toolbox on non-existing pages. Can you give an example link where you don't have it? Which skin do you use? PrimeHunter (talk) 13:29, 23 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I haven't tried all of them, but it's there in monobook but not in classic. -- Rick Block (talk) 14:39, 23 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I use Classic. —WWoods (talk) 16:05, 23 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I don't know what Classic normally looks like but I just tried Classic and see "what links here" at the bottom (not the left) when I click a redlink. Many things are placed differently in different skins and some links are not part of some skins, but this one is there. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:32, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Job queue
The Job queue is currently fluctuating at around seven million, and has been there for at least 24 hours. A template update I did the day before yesterday still hasn't worked its way through. Can anyone shed any light on why it's so high? Perhaps someone (cough Tim) needs to run ... Happy‑melon 11:46, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
 * If I refresh Special:Statistics the length jumps from 7 to 5, to 6 million in seconds, up and down. Something is broken. Prodego  talk  16:06, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
 * It might have to do with the login problem fix mentioned above or the hiddencat feature. I'm thinking those might create a large and fluctuating queue. MBisanz  talk 19:06, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
 * The job queue isn't the most reliable indicator. A good deal of high-use templates were updated recently; that, in addition to continued high-use of the site leads to the job queue rising quickly and then taking a long time to go down. --MZMcBride (talk) 20:26, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I think you mean this edit, right? Adding the new HIDDEN CAT magic word to all the maintenance categories in one go, via a template, might have seemed a good idea at the time... Carcharoth (talk) 02:35, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I checked the job queue after that edit - it was at about five million or so. My edit was after the report here about the job queue being at seven million, so I didn't think it affected things too much. FWIW the job queue is now 7,100,159. Graham 87 03:33, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Edit toolbar
Which MediaWiki message, if any, contains the editing toolbar that appears above the edit box? Happy‑melon 14:58, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Look for  lines in the HTML source of any editing page and for   in [/skins-1.5/common/wikibits.js wikibits.js]. You cannot redefine buttons using MediaWiki messages, but you can change them or add new ones through Common.js, manipulating mwEditButtons and mwCustomEditButtons arrays. —AlexSm 15:45, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I just wanted to get rid of them with my very limited knowledge of css .  I managed it eventually.  Do you happen to know how/if I can get rid of all the MediaWiki:edittools display, apart from the left-pointing arrow?  That's the only one I ever seem to use. Happy‑melon 16:59, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
 * You can hide parts of it. See MediaWiki talk:Edittools. — Edokter  •  Talk  • 17:41, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
 * After I reading this section I figured out the source of a closely related problem I've been having lately, and filed 13130. — CharlotteWebb 19:24, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

"redirects only"
The link to Tangotango's redirect-finder tool from Special:Whatlinkshere is broken for me, finding redirects to $1 no matter what page I launch from. Broken in monobook and classic, logged in and logged out. Thoughts? Happy‑melon</b> 17:03, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Fixed. --MZMcBride (talk) 20:24, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Picture weirdness
Several weeks ago the picture labeled "Gulab Jamun.jpg" looked like this. Note the red-orange color of the balls and the long wooden spoon. Now it looks like this. The balls are now brown, with a metal spoon. What in the world is going on here????--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 20:45, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Somebody uploaded a different picture to replace the good one (diff). R. Baley (talk) 20:53, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Yeah, it looks like one Commons user just overwrote the image with another image, without the original user's consent. Am I correct? I didn't even realize this was possible! I mean, I realize, that Commons is a wiki, but replacing someone's image file with a completely different image with the same filename can't be considered okay. Wouldn't such an ability be an invitation to vandalism--e.g., it would give any Commons user the ability to replace a widely-used image with an image of, well, use your imagination. If I'm correct, I'm surprised this doesn't happen all the time. I'm going to log into my commons account and try to revert the change.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 20:56, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Generally that sort of thing shouldn't be done unless it is a retouching of the previous image, which it isn't. As it is we do not know whether the second uploader intended to use the same license of the first uploader, which could present a problem. After you revert I would suggest asking the second person to upload to "Gulab_Jamun_2.jpg" or something (and to be sure to choose the right license). Remember that it could have been an accident. — CharlotteWebb 21:03, 23 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Interestingly, the user already has uploaded a Gulab Jamun2.jpg. But it's going to be deleted if the user doesn't put some kind of copyright tag on it.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 21:06, 23 February 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia running slow today
Is there a reason why Wikipedia has been running real slow for most of today, and not loading most pictures? Just curious. Ten Pound Hammer and his otters • (Broken clamshells•Otter chirps) 01:54, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

See Village pump (technical)/Archive 136 above. <b style="color:darkblue;">Harryboyles</b> 03:04, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

SVG image I uploaded won't display correctly
I recently uploaded an image, but it won't display correctly, either in its description page or in the article I put it into in order to replace the old one. When I click on it, moreover, it does not display correctly; some text is missing that is certainly there when I view it in Inkscape when I try to change it - i.e., the file that is in My Documents seems fine.

If it helps, you can download the file here from an external filehosting site. Again, clicking Open and viewing it in Internet Explorer does not seem to work properly (for me, at least), but saving it and then opening it with Inkscape does. Also, please note that I have the latest version of Inkscape (i.e. not the stable version). —Preceding unsigned comment added by It Is Me Here (talk • contribs) 17:42, 22 February 2008 (UTC)

Please help! - It Is Me Here (talk) 15:27, 22 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Try converting your embedded texts to paths. The svg rendering engine here has limited font support and they are notoriously untrustworthy. --Splarka (rant) 22:42, 22 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I don't understand what you mean - what precisely do I need to type/do? I'm new here :) - It Is Me Here (talk) 10:46, 23 February 2008 (UTC)


 * What you need to do is select each text object that is not showing up, go to the "Text" menu, and select "Convert to Text". (there was another glitch in the object for the name "Italy", I recreated it; and there were two labels titled "The Triple", which I fixed to "The Triple Alliance" and "The Triple Entente"). The file works fine in my browser now, but Commons appears to be having some problems rendering svg thumbnails at the moment. You included a link to a local png file on your hard drive in the image, this caused the rendering to fail. —Random832 14:42, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Can't get to contribs and Talk from redlink User names - need help ASAP
I'm discovering this evening that if I go to a User page which is a redlink, I can't get to that User's Contributions and Talk pages from the nonexistant User page. This did not used to be the case. This needs to be fixed, ASAP. Corvus cornix talk  00:03, 24 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Corvus, are you sure the user hasn't requested a name change? If so, the contributions and talk would link from the new name, not the old name.--The Fat Man Who Never Came Back (talk) 00:38, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

I'm not having a problem. Perhaps the user doesn't have any contributions, or posts on their talk page as yet. Tyrenius (talk) 01:05, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

It's every redlinked name. Take a look at User:Mctrain, for example. And User:Dayyanb above. Corvus cornix talk  02:00, 24 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I don't see any problem. I checked in monobook, chick, modern, classic, simple, cologne blue, and nostalgia skins.  Both "dicuss this page" and "user contributions" are on the page, even when the action is editredlink. JackSchmidt (talk) 02:19, 24 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I'm using Classic with IE7. I have always used Classic with IE7.  This problem has only begun today.   Corvus cornix  talk  02:22, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
 * When I switch to Monobook, I don't have this problem. But I hate Monobook, that's why I use Classic.  I switched back to Classic and still have the problem.   Corvus cornix  talk  02:25, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Hah. If I get out of edit mode on the redlinked page, I can see the Contributions and Discussion links.  I guess I'll have to live with that.   Corvus cornix  talk  02:26, 24 February 2008 (UTC)


 * There have been changes to the MediaWiki software as described here by Tim which might be the cause of the problems. <b style="color:darkblue;">Harryboyles</b> 02:54, 24 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I do not see any problem in IE7. Does this work for you? For me, it is the classic skin, and the user contributions and discuss this page link are at the very bottom of the page. Try logging out and using that link as well.  Perhaps your personal css has some unexpected effect. JackSchmidt (talk) 06:20, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

I am using an entirely different PC, but still IE7 and Classic skin, and still have the same problem. Corvus cornix talk  19:19, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I also see this quirky behaviour on the left-side bar in IE7/Classic. The links are shown at the very bottom of the page though, as JS notes. This seems definitely related to the change to editredlink, changing the URL to just action=edit seems to make Classic behave properly. Franamax (talk) 19:51, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks Franamax! Now, I see what is bothering Corvus cornix.  The user contributions and discuss this page links are on the left in plain edit, but on the bottom in editredlink. It should be easier to find the problem now that the symptom is clear. JackSchmidt (talk) 20:06, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Ok, that's bizarre. The bug is not in mediawiki-current, only in en.wikipedia.org.  I guess there goes the fiction that wikipedia is running publicly available code :(  At any rate, one fix is to start using the version of the code they claim to be using.  Another fix is to modify skins/Standard.php at lines 172 and 245 to include 'editredlink' as a possible action. I'll see what the appropriate way to ask about this bug is. JackSchmidt (talk) 20:24, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
 * The code running at en:wiki is publicly available, but you have to get it from SVN. I just made a small (hour-long) foray into that swamp, I'm happy to stick with the stable 1.11 release for my own wiki! Probably Bugzilla is the place to complain, maybe you could make a compact formulation of the problem, post it here in its own section farther down, and ask for advice. Franamax (talk) 20:32, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
 * This was fixed in r31218 by vasilievvv. en.wikipedia.org is currently running a slightly outdated version, r31183.  This should be fixed in the next update.
 * I actually needed to run 1.12 (svn) because of the new preparser and how it handled templates. I've found it reasonably easy to keep stable, but I have to run the database upgrade script every time I update the svn code, since they do make schema changes.  1.12.0 should be released "soon", as they've changed the svn version to 1.13alpha.  I haven't decided whether to switch to the released 1.12 or stick with svn.  I've only got a thousand potential users, and of course only about ten of those are actual users, so any disruption is not that devastating. JackSchmidt (talk) 20:42, 25 February 2008 (UTC)


 * But I don't see the links anywhere on the page.  Corvus cornix  talk  22:07, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Hm. I have my preferences set for Quickbar to "Fixed left", does that matter?   Corvus cornix  talk  22:15, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
 * No, I tried "Floating left" and still can't see the two links at the bottom of the page like everybody else says they do.  Corvus cornix  talk  22:17, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
 * NB not just two links, at the very bottom of the page is a series of links, "Edit this page", "Watch this page", 8 in total, "User contributions" is the second last. For some of us anyway :) Franamax (talk) 22:33, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Oh, oh, oh, way down there. Yes, I see them.  Thank you.  Duh me.  :)   Corvus cornix  talk  22:50, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Seems like we're done here then? Adding resolved tag. Franamax (talk) 23:58, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Corvus cornix talk  22:09, 25 February 2008 (UTC) Whoops, nope, I take it back. action=edit works. Corvus cornix talk  22:11, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

en:wiki now running 1.13alpha, problem should be gone after purging browser cache.Franamax (talk) 07:39, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Remove sections from ToC
<div style="margin: 0 0 .57em 0; padding-top: .5em; padding-bottom: .17em; border-bottom: 1px solid #aaa; font-size: 150%;"> Remove sections from ToC

Is there a way of forcing a single title to not show up in the table of contents? <b style="color:forestgreen;">Happy</b>‑<b style="color:darkorange;">melon</b> 16:07, 24 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I don't think so. But it is possible to limit the levels shown, ie. in TOClimit. — Edokter  •  Talk  • 17:04, 24 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Instead of creating the title with "===title===", use ";title". You won't get an edit link for it either.- gadfium 19:00, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I meant something that looks like a level-2 title (edit link isn't important) but doesn't show in the ToC. <b style="color:forestgreen;">Happy</b>‑<b style="color:darkorange;">melon</b> 19:16, 24 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Try this (seen above). --Splarka (rant) 08:28, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

<div style="margin: 0 0 .57em 0; padding-top: .5em; padding-bottom: .17em; border-bottom: 1px solid #aaa; font-size: 150%;"> Remove sections from ToC
 * Hm... looks rather hacky, and out-of-place in some other skins. See its appearance in, say, the Nostalgia theme: ew. Grace notes T <span title="Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)">§ 18:02, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

Do h2 tags still not show up in the toc? —Random832 19:32, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

hmm - they show up in the toc, but don't have an edit section link. —Random832 19:32, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Preprocessor breaks reference list
Would someone who knows more about preprocessor issues please have a look at this. For some reason, works as it is intended,


 * <div id="longpagewarning" style="margin: 0 0 1em; padding: .5em 1em; vertical-align: middle; border: solid #aaaaaa 1px">This page is 37 kilobytes long.

but breaks the reference list later in the page. Silly rabbit (talk) 16:23, 24 February 2008 (UTC)


 * A change in MediaWiki:longpagewarning may have been responsible for that problem. I have reverted that change. It should work again. — Edokter  •  Talk  • 17:02, 24 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks. That did the trick. Silly rabbit (talk) 17:05, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Possibly buggy search result
Do a search for "wonderfull" (with 2 l's) and many pages are returned. Go to page 2 of the results and there is only one listing. Go past page 2 and you get full pages again. Why only one result on page 2? Is this a bug? Jason Quinn (talk) 12:50, 25 February 2008 (UTC)


 * This was reported earlier this month, but I could not reproduce it then or now. It was the same sort of thing, misspell the word and the number of results supposedly changes.  When I do the search and click next, or if I click on the page 2 link, I just get "Results 21-40 of 9375", as expected. JackSchmidt (talk) 15:28, 25 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I reported the earlier bug but this is different. This is a problem with the listings, not the pages themselves. I just tried again it it's still producing the faulty behaviour. Click here to see. Jason Quinn (talk) 16:11, 25 February 2008 (UTC)


 * It looks totally normal to me, both logged in or not logged in. JackSchmidt (talk) 17:11, 25 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Strange. I wonder if we are seeing the same thing. Are you only seeing one result on page 2? Jason Quinn (talk) 17:36, 25 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Nope, twenty results on the link you gave, numbered 21-40. It looks extremely normal to me.  I've tried IE7 and FF2, both have the same (normal) behaviour for me, logged in or logged out.  What happens when you logout and try it? JackSchmidt (talk) 18:00, 25 February 2008 (UTC)


 * When I log out and do the search. I see no problem with the results, only when I am logged in do I see it. By default it search the "article", "template talk", and "help" namespaces. I tried searching those namespaces while logged out but all appeared normal. It is only when I am logged in that I get the unusual behavior. The lone result on page 2 is the top result on page 3. This seems like some sort of one-off error in the wikipedia search engine. Jason Quinn (talk) 18:35, 25 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Weird. I tried switching my default search namespaces to yours, but everything behaved normally.  I tried using monobook skin too (not that it should have any effect whatsoever, but you never know), but again all normal. JackSchmidt (talk) 18:49, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

I'll keep you posted if I find out anything new. I use the wikipedia search a lot and I'd say that about 2 or 3 percent of the results pages show either this problem or the one I previously reported. Whatever causes them has been around for years. I've only just recently bothered into report it. Jason Quinn (talk) 19:10, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Definitely do. Also see if you can find some simple thing to do on your account that switches it from happening to not happening.  My wife does a lot of spell-checking, I'll see if she'll try using the built-in search for it.  Are there other gnomish tasks that are helped by searching?
 * So far the bug is something specific to your account. Unfortunately, that means it is not likely to be high priority on the fix list.  If you can figure out a way to make it affect any account, then I suspect it will both be amazingly easier to find the underlying problem, and be much higher priority to fix it. JackSchmidt (talk) 19:16, 25 February 2008 (UTC)

I've figured it out such that you can reproduce it. I apparently failed to mention a namespace that I have checked (don't know how I missed it). Anyway, do the search for "wonderfull" (sic) with these four namespaces: article, mediawiki talk, template talk, and help. Note that page one of the results says "Results 1-20 of 9487" but the problematic page 2 says "Results 21-40 of 264" and then page 3 onward jumps back to 9487 results. I can now reproduce it while logged out and for both my main account and a newly created alt account. It only produces the problem with all four namespaces checked. Hopefully reindexing of the search terms won't make the problem disappear before you get to see it. Jason Quinn (talk) 23:51, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Dang. The problem disappeared after the latest re-index. I'll have to find another example. This is trying to hit a moving target. Jason Quinn (talk) 11:31, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

The autoblock finder tool is down
The "find autoblocks" tool at http://tools.wikimedia.de/~pgk/autoblock.php appears to be down. Any query results in PHP error messages:

Warning: mysql_fetch_assoc: supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/pgk/public_html/autoblock.php on line 76

and

Warning: mysql_free_result: supplied argument is not a valid MySQL result resource in /home/pgk/public_html/autoblock.php on line 93

Is that PHP-speak for "I couldn't talk to the database"? Tonywalton Talk 16:14, 25 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Kind of. If it couldn't talk to the database at all, mysql_connect would return false, instead of a MySQL resource, so the subsequent attempts to run mysql_query would generate a PHP error. But it must have been able to connect, because it didn't give an error until it tried to return the result with mysql_fetch_assoc (after mysql_query had run). Usually means the query is malformatted or the database layout has changed somehow......... I'm sorry, that's not actually very helpful is it...? I wonder why it's down. • Anakin (talk) 20:17, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Having gone and read some PHP documentation it could be using @mysql_connect then ignoring the FALSE resource returned, then using @mysql_query. Whatever, it appears to be down. Could someone take a look? Tonywalton Talk 11:21, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

For all Math/Physics article writers
In school, if I did not write down the dimensions of my final answer, I got the answer wrong. There are so many overlaps in the usage of variables, clarity would be saved and completely preserved if everyone, after deriving, substituting, and doing whatever else to put together these wonderful equations would just say at the end of it 'in units of...'.

please and thank you
 * Unsigned user (remember the four tilde's :), you're absolutely right. Can you provide examples of where this is not happening? Franamax (talk) 08:57, 26 February 2008 (UTC)


 * In many equations in physics, the units are arbitrary; any consistent set of units will work just as well. In such cases, it's conventional not to state any units. This is the most common reason for this frequently asked question. -- Tim Starling (talk) 12:54, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

The "+" page tab - any special conditions?
Is there any special requirements for a page to get the "+" tab that opens the editing screen as a new section for any page? It appears automatically (best I can tell) for any Talk: namespace, but like, for example, it also appears here. If it's a template that can be added to a page, it would help for some non talk, administrative pages that seem to run very long or have high edit rates, which I note some have (like AN/ANI). --M ASEM 16:24, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * You include the magic word __NEWSECTIONLINK__ on the page. JackSchmidt (talk) 16:30, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Is there a way to see/download an entire category list?
Is there a way to see/download an entire category list, such as Category:1941_births? Normally, only 200 entries are shown on a page. Espertus (talk) 19:18, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Your best bet is with an API query: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&list=categorymembers&cmtitle=Category:1941_births&cmprop=title&cmlimit=500 does it for that category in 500-title blocks. If you have a bot account, you can do 5000-title blocks (if you want I can do that for you, although I'm not sure what to do with it afterwards). <b style="color:forestgreen;">Happy</b>‑<b style="color:darkorange;">melon</b> 19:23, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * How does one get a bot account? Espertus (talk) 22:00, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * (edit conflict sorry for duplication)
 * If you want to write some code, then you can download the list in chunks of 500 from API like this, using the format= option to choose a format appropriate for your language. For example, format=json is good for javascript, format=php is good for php, and format=xml is good for xslt or java.
 * I don't know of a ready made solution, but category intersection is a popular request, and there is a nice tool for it at the tool server that you might want to check out. Probably WP:AWB can get you the list. JackSchmidt (talk) 19:33, 26 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Thanks a lot. Espertus (talk) 20:35, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Wikisource link anomoly
Can someone take a look at this recent edit of mine: For some reason the s: is appearing in the text where I made an inter-wiki link to Wikisource. Yet the link seems to be established. Am I doing something wrong? Thanks ~ Alcmaeonid (talk) 20:28, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * If you do not want <tt>s:</tt> to appear, simply add | at the end, like this: <tt> test </tt>, this will be automatically expanded to <tt> test </tt> on saving. —AlexSm 20:33, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Thanks. Is that documented somewhere? ~ Alcmaeonid (talk) 20:39, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Help:Piped link Sam Korn (smoddy) 20:53, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I put it over here as well. Easier to find for the average user. Thanks again. ~ Alcmaeonid (talk) 21:13, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

"View source" on protected pages displaying incorrect template
Fully protected pages do not appear to be displaying the correct template header when someone views the source of a page. Instead of saying the page is fully protected, and only editable by administrators, the page says it is only semi-protected, and editable by registered users, despite the fact that I am a registered user and have been for 14 months. For details, see Template:FA-Class (prot. log) and Larry Sanger (prot. log). <em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:blue">Hers <em style="font-family:Bradley Hand ITC;color:gold">fold  (t/a/c) 21:07, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Admin needs to change 'protect' → 'editprotected' inside #ifeq in MediaWiki:Protectedpagetext, this appears to be a recent change in MediaWiki. —AlexSm 21:28, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Fixed. --MZMcBride (talk) 22:59, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

No Math Portal!!!
I am an anonymous user who likes to read Wikipedia. Today I was looking at the main page, and clicked on "Math Portal." When the page loaded, there was nothing there, except for the word "hi". I took the "hi" off, but I don't know what to do about the fact there is nothing on the math portal! I know I know I did not delete everything in the portal because I waited minutes for the page to load. Please Help!!!
 * Someone vandalised the page. It's fixed now. — Edokter  •  Talk  • 21:32, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Phew!
All right, never mind. I looked again, there was the normal math portal. Maybe Wikipedia fixed it, I don't know. Sorry if I accidentally raised alarm. Thanks!


 * If you see something like that again, you can usually fix it yourself... no really. Just click on the History tab on top of the page and revert the vandalism yourself. — Edokter  •  Talk  • 21:34, 26 February 2008 (UTC)

Strange inadvertent reverse transcription of unicode characters
Whenever I edit a page with a Gothic interwiki, for some reason the unicode Gothic characters are replaced by their numerical &#xxxx; equivalents, as in this diff and this diff. Is this an issue with my browser (Konqueror)? I suspect that it must also involve the Wikimedia software as well, because I can't imagine how or why my browser would cause a reverse transcription like this. Silly rabbit (talk) 16:16, 21 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I can look into this, but do you have some shorter, less edited articles with gothic interwikis? I don't know a simple way to search.  I also have to find some gothic fonts, but theoretically that should be easy.  I assume you yourself have no particular interest in the gothic wikipedia, it was just the only one that broke (and I confirm the interwiki link even went away on the rendered version).  It was probably a good idea to change the section heading: I hadn't looked, because I figured it was about a version of wikipedia with black text on a black background. :) JackSchmidt (talk) 03:15, 22 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Macedonia (a disambiguation page) is the best I could do. See here; it happened again. Thanks, Silly rabbit (talk) 03:25, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I finally got a gothic font, so could navigate the gothic wikipedia and read some of its got:Special:Randompages. I messed a little with Achila II under windows.  I don't think it has been involved in any edit wars, is sort of short, and has a gothic link.  I'll check under linux and MacOS tomorrow.  I think Safari is based on old konqueror, so that should help determine if its a linux/kde thing, or a konqueror thing.
 * When you edit one of these pages in konqueror, does the #xxxx show up in the edit window, or only in the diff afterwards? JackSchmidt (talk) 04:20, 22 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I can confirm with Konqueror 3.5.8 (Ubuntu Gutsy); it happens on form submission, you can see the converted text in the edit box after preview. Safari 3.0.4 on Mac OS X passes the text through intact. --brion (talk) 22:12, 27 February 2008 (UTC)
 * The other interesting thing to note is that the numeric codes are for the UTF-16 surrogate code points, not for the actual Unicode characters, which is why the link no longer works -- it becomes invalid. --brion (talk) 22:17, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Wikipedia markup editor
Is there an editor out there designed for Wikipedia markup? I am thinking of something analogous to Netbeans, which when you click on a pair of curly braces, would highlight it and the matching set of braces. That way, you could easily see if you left one out. Absidy (talk) 04:31, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Is this User:Cacycle/wikEd what your thinking of?  MBisanz  talk 04:34, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Well, basically I am looking for something that will highlight the braces so that it's easy to distinguish what matches with what:

fdksajhsdfhksdflh  ksdahksadkhsdafl

I'm working on nested #ifs and keep running into bugs that I'm having trouble tracing. It's driving me nuts. Absidy (talk) 05:07, 24 February 2008 (UTC)


 * That I've never seen as a tool, try asking at WikiProject User scripts/Requests.  MBisanz  talk 06:13, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

I don't think it is trivial to determine whether a bracket is part of a }} or }}}. —Random832 19:30, 26 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Highly primitive trick: if there is absolutely no other option, replace the brackets with parentheses and enter them into Microsoft Excel (it colours parentheses, though not in pairs). Desperate measure for desperate people from the absolute non-expert. Waltham, The Duke of 13:00, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

JS
Hello! My question is:
 * How can I get a JavaScript to go into edit mode (for example to add some text) from the view mode?

I am somewhat certain that perhaps it has something to do "ca-edit" or  ......??

Thanks! &Lambda;ua&int; Wi  se  (Operibus anteire) 15:42, 25 February 2008 (UTC)
 * The page for editing and the page for viewing can be accessed at two different URLs. This means you'll have to do  from the viewing page, which will send the browser to the specified URL. In your specific case, executing the following code loads the editing page:

If you need to automatically execute something on the editing page, you can send a fake URL parameter: for example, '&fakeaction=customreplace'. Grace notes T <span title="Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)">§ 18:08, 25 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Thank you very much Gracenotes. :-) &Lambda;ua&int;  Wi  se  (Operibus anteire) 19:38, 25 February 2008 (UTC)


 * And if you need to pass more state than can be maintained in a URL parameter, open the edit page in a (hidden) inline frame and manipulate it from there. I think this is what TW does when it needs to make edits. —Random832 19:27, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * TW uses AJAX to submit a POST request. Grace notes T <span title="Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)">§ 16:01, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Category text change in Classic skin
I'm using the Classic skin and just logging on today I noticed that the Categories at the tops of articles have now grown to be the same font size as article text. Is this a change or a problem on my end? --Merovingian (T, C) 11:57, 26 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Update: I am not experiencing this problem anymore. --Merovingian (T, C) 23:37, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Foonotes
I may be posting it in the wrong place, and it may already be up to debate, but I wonder when the spacing between lines when using footnotes is going to be fixed? It's really, really ugly. - Jetro (talk) 21:44, 26 February 2008 (UTC)
 * This is being discussed. It is hoped that we now have a solution for firefox, safari and opera. IE is however being problematic like always. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 10:33, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

navboxes not collapsing
I noticed this in the past hour and don't know how long it's been happening: The function (which generally begins {| class="navbox collapsible collapsed" style="text-align: left; border: 0px; margin-top: 0.2em;" ) is not collapsing and has no show/hide function. Anyone here know why? — Athaenara ✉  02:20, 27 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Have you tried a forced reload of a wikipedia page (bypassing the cache of your browser) ? --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 10:31, 27 February 2008 (UTC)
 * No, not sure how that works, but I did try purge cache, which had no effect. I guess the collapsibility loss was an anomaly.  It was gone when I came onsite this morning after the computer had been shut down overnight.  I've never seen it before.  — Athaenara  ✉  11:14, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Transclusion
I'm trying to get Special:Recentchangeslinked/Category:Requested_edits to transclude to WP:COIN so editors there will know when its updated, but the usual bracket {{ aren't working, any ideas?  MBisanz  {{sup| talk }} 07:08, 27 February 2008 (UTC)
 * You cannot transclude pages of the Special namespace, since these are not wikipages. So you will need a bot or something to do that. Although in that case, i think it would be easier for the bot to transclude the category. --TheDJ (talk • contribs) 10:20, 27 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Not quite: <tt> {{Special:Recentchanges/3}} </tt> produces {{Special:Recentchanges/3}}


 * Methinks this is one for bugzilla. And there's no recentchangeslinked for the API, so a bot isn't likely too. MER-C 11:25, 27 February 2008 (UTC)


 * {{Special:Whatlinkshere/Main_page}} also does not work. I think the problem is how the transcluded special page picks up its path_info type parameters.  Quite a few special pages work, though.  I am very happy to see that RecentChanges can somehow pick up the "3", so that suggest RecentChangesLinked has a bug.  I could not find the place in the code where one accessed its arguments differently.  BTW it is possible to disable special page transclusion in mediawiki's LocalSettings.php, but it is enabled by default in mediawiki installs, and at wikipedia. JackSchmidt (talk) 16:51, 27 February 2008 (UTC)
 * Actually, I think that certain special pages are special-cased to be transcludable (and the way they take parameters is defined in the code that makes them transcludable). It seems that recentchangeslinked is one of the special pages that isn't. --ais523 18:23, 27 February 2008 (UTC)
 * True, as far as I know, only <tt>Allpages</tt>, <tt>Prefixindex</tt>, <tt>Recentchanges</tt>, <tt>Newpages</tt> and <tt>Newimages</tt> can be transcluded. I would like to take the opportunity to advertise a very helpful (imho) m:Help:Special page which I recently rewrote, where transclusion is discussed in section <tt>#Links to special pages</tt>. —AlexSm 18:45, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Secure server
I noticed today that there's a secure server. Excellent! I don't really see why all traffic on the Web isn't encrypted by now; it doesn't take all that much CPU. When will this spread to be the norm on Wikipedia? (I didn't find Secure server or any such help page.) Tempshill (talk) 17:03, 27 February 2008 (UTC)
 * The secure server helps with logins sometimes, but is much slower than the main servers. It sometimes is helpful for people with login problems that are the fault of their ISP. --ais523 18:24, 27 February 2008 (UTC)
 * The https Wikipedia access is not really ready for more widespread release (so the devs say), and can't handle too much more load than it currently takes (hence its relative obscurity). Grace notes T <span title="Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)">§ 19:11, 27 February 2008 (UTC)
 * It doesn't work that well anyway. I tried it. It perpetually takes you from https to http and you have to keep going back into https. — Rlevse  •  Talk  • 19:34, 27 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I wrote a script to work around that problem. It's explained on my user page. Not wanting to brag, but it works quite well. • Anakin (talk) 21:57, 27 February 2008 (UTC)

Remove bot edits from []
It seems a bit silly to include bot edits on this watchlist. If anyone wants to see how a new bot is functioning, they would be better served just looking at the bot's contributions. As it is, it just adds clutter. Best, sho  y  17:53, 23 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Without a bot flag, there isn't any way to keep a bot off the list. And new bots rarely get approval and flagged within the first four days of their existence. (Some bots never get flagged, so you won't see the "b" with any of their edits, and they couldn't be excluded in any case.)


 * Plus, in most cases, new bots are in trial/testing mode during their first four days of existence, so (a) there shouldn't be a lot of edits on the list in any case, and (b) those testing/trial edits are quite possibly worth looking at. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 19:13, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

My history feeds don't work in Google Reader
I have used the atom feeds for history pages for quite some time now to keep up with changes on pages I watch. Recently, the full set of changes is not showing up in Google Reader - just the edit summary. I have looked all over the net and in Wikipedia, but cannot find an answer. I would greatly appreciate anyone who might be able to help with this. -- Bull  Wiki  Winkle  03:34, 24 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Specifics? Operating system (e.g., Windows XP)? Browser? (e.g., IE 7).


 * Also, you might want to post at Wikipedia talk:Syndication, since you've gotten no response here. And if you get no help there after a day or two, try the help desk. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 19:17, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Is there a way to view the pages that I have created
Is there a way to view the pages that I have created only, not edited or added to my watchlist. Alexsanderson83 (talk) 10:10, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
 * You can't have created a page without having edited it, so not really. You need to compile a list of pages you've created, then filter out the ones you've made more than one edit to.  Maybe someone with a toolserver account could help you - ask at Bot requests. <b style="color:forestgreen;">Happy</b>‑<b style="color:darkorange;">melon</b> 17:04, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
 * I can do it, drop a note on my talkpage. βcommand 18:46, 24 February 2008 (UTC)
 * His question could also mean ones that he has created regardless of if there are subsequent edits or not, as distinguished from a method that gets pages he created and ones that he edited but not create. —Random832 19:31, 26 February 2008 (UTC)


 * Question was asked again (by another editor), and answered below. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 19:20, 28 February 2008 (UTC)

Prompt edit summary function didn't work
Even though I have it enabled, for this edit. Discuss. Grand master  ka  06:29, 25 February 2008 (UTC)


 * I tried this at WP:SAND (deleting everything first, then pasting in what you added in your edit), and got the warning.


 * Then I tried it at User:John Broughton - and got exactly the result you did - no warning.


 * Then I tried it at User:Your username goes here, an alternate account of mine. This time I got the warning.


 * So I conclude that the (empty) edit summary warning does not in fact work on one's own user page (and perhaps one's own userspace; not tested). -- John Broughton  (♫♫) 19:04, 28 February 2008 (UTC)