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

Newcomers to the technical village pump are encouraged to read these guidelines prior to posting here. 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.


Freenode IRC servers 'takeover'

Background

Traditionally, WMF projects and volunteers coordinated on Freenode IRC servers. Should we migrate (or aim to migrate) these projects to Libera Chat instead? Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 20:13, 20 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

The question here is to address what we should general aim to try to do. I'm well aware each project is independent and can setup IRC channels wherever they want. However, we could decide that we encourage specific servers and discourage others, and try to migrate the 'official' Wikipedia/Wikimedia IRC channels to Libera instead of Freenode. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 20:17, 20 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I don't see that this needs an RFC? Wikimedia group contacts have already announced they will migrate to Libera on meta. Izno (talk) 20:22, 20 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
This affects a lot more than what the WMF does. For example, there's #wikipedia-bag, #wikipedia-en-afc in templates like {{AfC welcome}} (including substed version of it), etc. etc. etc. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 20:41, 20 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
So, why would we go somewhere else? Who has the knowledge in the community for that? Who wants to volunteer for that? Izno (talk) 20:46, 20 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
See the above articles. As for who has the knowledge, there's busloads of technical users here that can help with this. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 20:48, 20 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Ok, let me spell it out then: A) We don't need an RFC. An RFC is a waste of the community's time on the point. B) Plain common sense is "go where WMF says they're taking the main channels". Izno (talk) 20:53, 20 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Also see here. -- RoySmith (talk) 21:04, 20 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
If I understand correctly, the channels were set up by the individual channel operators? So I suggest they can come up with a proposed plan and publicize it. I imagine most people will be fine with that, but in the event anyone objects, it can be discussed further. (Just as at meta, there may be interest in other chat tools, but that shouldn't stop any transition plan under these specific circumstances.) isaacl (talk) 21:06, 20 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Wikimedia is migrating to Libera Chat, that was announced by the IRC Group Contacts already. See IRC/Migrating to Libera Chat for some of the technical details, it'll of course take time to update documentation, links etc. Legoktm (talk) 21:43, 20 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
RfC tag removed per discussion above; if this is about notifying as many users as possible rather than inviting feedback, the Signpost and WP:AN are probably better places for a notification. There is one at Wikipedia:Administrators'_noticeboard#IRC_security,_Oversight_notice. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 22:49, 20 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@ToBeFree: You didn't remove it, you commented it out. There is a difference. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 19:25, 21 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
...and I had even looked at that section. 😄 Thanks for removing it. ~ ToBeFree (talk) 19:27, 21 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Resolved

@Awesome Aasim and BrandonXLF: The editing window for QuickEdit appears in the text editor for addmylinks. ― Qwerfjkl | 𝕋𝔸𝕃𝕂  (please use {{reply to|Qwerfjkl}} on reply)Template:Z181 18:50, 3 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Qwerfjkl: What do you mean the editing window is appearing in the text editor, what steps do you perform for this to happen? addmylinks has some buttons that look the same as the ones in QuickEdit, but that's the addmylinks text editor and not QuickEdit.
Do you mean when you save a page using QuickEdit, the page appears in the "My Links" section on the sidebar? – BrandonXLF (talk) 19:15, 3 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Qwerfjkl Looks all normal to me. Can you give browser information as well as skin information? Aasim (talk) 05:11, 4 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
At first, pages appear normally, but when I click the 'quick edit' button, the 'My links' section is replaced with the normal 'QuickEdit' editor. (I'm using the Vector skin, but it might be affected by User:TheDJ/mobileVector.css.) ― Qwerfjkl | 𝕋𝔸𝕃𝕂  (please use {{reply to|Qwerfjkl}} on reply)Template:Z181 06:59, 4 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Awesome Aasim @BrandonXLF This seems to only happen on mobile. ― Qwerfjkl | 𝕋𝔸𝕃𝕂  (please use {{reply to|Qwerfjkl}} on reply)Template:Z181 15:53, 6 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Aasim @BrandonXLF I've used User:BrandonXLF/PortletLinks to replace Aasim's script. ― Qwerfjkl | 𝕋𝔸𝕃𝕂  (please use {{reply to|Qwerfjkl}} on reply)Template:Z181 19:52, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Qwerfjkl: I was able to reproduce the issue on the new Vector skin, I'll see what I can do to fix it. – BrandonXLF (talk) 20:49, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Qwerfjkl: The issue should be fixed now. – BrandonXLF (talk) 16:40, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! ― Qwerfjkl | 𝕋𝔸𝕃𝕂  (please use {{reply to|Qwerfjkl}} on reply)Template:Z181 17:11, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@BrandonXLF By "new Vector skin", are you referring to User:TheDJ's mobileVector? ― Qwerfjkl | 𝕋𝔸𝕃𝕂  (please use {{reply to|Qwerfjkl}} on reply)Template:Z181 17:17, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Qwerfjkl: I'm referring to mw:Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements. If you go to appearance settings with Vector skin selected and uncheck "Use Legacy Vector" you see the new version of the skin. – BrandonXLF (talk) 18:33, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! ― Qwerfjkl | 𝕋𝔸𝕃𝕂  (please use {{reply to|Qwerfjkl}} on reply)Template:Z181 14:55, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Wikipedia welcome

Occasionally, I am welcomed on a different-language Wikipedia (so far Italian and German). This seems to happen spontaneously. ― Qwerfjkl | 𝕋𝔸𝕃𝕂  (please use {{reply to|Qwerfjkl}} on reply)Template:Z181 14:40, 5 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Qwerfjkl: many of the other projects have "welcome bots" that welcome "new accounts" (which get automatically created if you load a page from that project). See your global accounts here: meta:Special:CentralAuth/Qwerfjkl. — xaosflux Talk 14:55, 5 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
This is acceptable if you actually made an edit on the wiki in question; it is understandable, if annoying, if you visit the wiki without making an edit. But a few days ago I got a notification from Tamil Wikisource, which I am absolutely 100% dead certain I had never visited until I followed that notification to find out what it was all about, only to find this notice, which I cannot read one bit. I'm pretty sure the WMF has decreed that welcome bots should not send messages to people who have never edited the wiki in question, but does the restriction also apply to humans? Courtesy notification to Sridhar G, who is not a bot. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 19:42, 5 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
WMF has not decreed such a thing. That is entirely a (or several) particular community's decision.
There is a gadget out and about that can have you 'visit' every wiki such that you get all the welcomes out of the way at a single time. I don't have it to hand. Izno (talk) 20:01, 5 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
(ec) No, there are dozens of wikis with welcome bots that hit every new account. If you want to "get it over with", enable third-party cookies, then try meta:User:Krinkle/Tools/Global SUL. You'll get about 25-50 welcomes over a week or two, and that will be that. If you know how to draw more attention to the proposed meta:Welcoming policy, please do so. Suffusion of Yellow (talk) 20:02, 5 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I believe what happened with Tamil Wikisource is that edits you made to Module:Protection banner/config were imported to English Wikisource on August 20 (as part of an import of Template:Category disambiguation with the "include templates" box checked), and then imported from there to Tamil Wikisource on May 26 (as part of an import of s:Module:List with the "include templates" box checked), which automatically created local accounts for all users who had edited the page. The same thing happened to me via Module:Documentation (which was imported to English Wikisource as part of the same batch-import on August 20 and then imported to Tamil Wikisource on February 3 as part of an import of s:Template:Bad page scan), except for some reason I was never welcomed. * Pppery * it has begun... 21:46, 5 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
All users that have edited an page that was imported only get assigned if the admin clicks to assign the edits to global users and include all edits of the page. Both are off by default. That kind of action is deliberate. Notice the "w>" in the history of the en.wikisource module (Module:Documentation), (next to MusikAnimal) it indicates that that edit is not assigned to him.--Snævar (talk) 23:26, 5 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Redrose64: here we can see the new users. so that i welcomed you. Sridhar G (talk) 06:53, 6 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
It appears that I'm in with a bunch of other people whose names I recognise:
  • 05:24, 26 May 2021 User account Alex 21 talk contribs was created automatically
  • 05:24, 26 May 2021 User account Erutuon talk contribs was created automatically
  • 05:22, 26 May 2021 User account Trialpears talk contribs was created automatically
  • 05:22, 26 May 2021 User account Black Falcon talk contribs was created automatically
  • 05:22, 26 May 2021 User account Mz7 talk contribs was created automatically
  • 05:22, 26 May 2021 User account Galobtter talk contribs was created automatically
  • 05:22, 26 May 2021 User account Timrollpickering talk contribs was created automatically
  • 05:22, 26 May 2021 User account Bellezzasolo talk contribs was created automatically
  • 05:22, 26 May 2021 User account Writ Keeper talk contribs was created automatically
  • 05:22, 26 May 2021 User account SMcCandlish talk contribs was created automatically
  • 05:22, 26 May 2021 User account Swarm talk contribs was created automatically
  • 05:22, 26 May 2021 User account BrownHairedGirl talk contribs was created automatically
  • 05:22, 26 May 2021 User account Redrose64 talk contribs was created automatically
  • 05:22, 26 May 2021 User account Jo-Jo Eumerus talk contribs was created automatically
  • 05:22, 26 May 2021 User account Yaris678 talk contribs was created automatically
  • 05:22, 26 May 2021 User account Fayenatic london talk contribs was created automatically
  • 05:22, 26 May 2021 User account Ymblanter talk contribs was created automatically
Like me, they've been around for absolutely years. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 18:19, 6 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
They are contributors to a page imported at that time.[1] None of them had ever visited the wiki. If they had then their accounts would have been created when they did instead. This is why my proposal at meta:Welcoming policy says: "A wiki is only allowed to post welcome messages to users if their account was originally created at the wiki, or the user has at least one non-imported edit there." PrimeHunter (talk) 22:02, 6 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Mobile/desktop .js pages

Resolved

When I load any .js page on the desktop version of Wikipedia, I cannot paste or copy text, so I have to switch to the mobile version. Is there a way to get a round this? (I think WikEd allowed me to view text normally.) ― Qwerfjkl | 𝕋𝔸𝕃𝕂  (please use {{reply to|Qwerfjkl}} on reply)Template:Z181 16:52, 6 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

There's certainly something odd about the edit box in some circumstances. If you don't get an edit cursor when you click in the edit box, click in the edit summary box instead, then use ⇧ Shift+Tab ↹ to get to the main edit box. You should then be able to click with the mouse on the desired editing point. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 18:22, 6 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
It works for me. Does it work if you log out? Does safemode work? What is your browser? What is your skin at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering? PrimeHunter (talk) 18:28, 6 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@PrimeHunter @Redrose64 I'm using a mobile device, which is why I have to switch to the mobile version to paste anything. ― Qwerfjkl | 𝕋𝔸𝕃𝕂  (please use {{reply to|Qwerfjkl}} on reply)Template:Z181 19:55, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@PrimeHunter It does not work in safemode, and I'm using the vector skin. I cannot test wether it works when logged out, as User:Qwerfjkl/common.js isn't editable by a non-interface administrator. ― Qwerfjkl | 𝕋𝔸𝕃𝕂  (please use {{reply to|Qwerfjkl}} on reply)Template:Z181 06:25, 10 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Can you copy and paste when you log out? Safemode does not load any user js page. What do you mean by "load any .js page" in "When I load any .js page on the desktop version of Wikipedia, I cannot paste or copy text"? Are there circumstances where you can copy and paste in desktop? PrimeHunter (talk) 09:17, 10 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@PrimeHunter Normally, when editing on a mobile device in desktop mode (or mobile mode), I can double- or triple-tap on a word to highlight, and an option to copy or paste appears above the selected text. However, in .js pages, this doesn't happen; the text selection behaves wierdly, and instead of options appearing above the selected text, a '...' Box appears, with multiple options that don't work. ― Qwerfjkl | 𝕋𝔸𝕃𝕂  (please use {{reply to|Qwerfjkl}} on reply)Template:Z181 21:28, 10 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, you are talking about editing js pages. Loading a js page usualy means a load command to run the script in the page. Try clicking the <> icon at the left of the toolbar to switch between the normal editor and the code editor. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:37, 10 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! ― Qwerfjkl | 𝕋𝔸𝕃𝕂  (please use {{reply to|Qwerfjkl}} on reply)Template:Z181 14:57, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Problem with major intersection in an article about a road

Take a look at Dillon County under "Major intersections" in South Carolina Highway 38. There are two places called Oak Grove, South Carolina. The one that had an article before I added the one in Dillon County has more people and is obviously more notable.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 17:43, 6 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Template:Jctint#Parameters, location_special. MarMi wiki (talk) 02:10, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
That works. Thanks.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 20:11, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Fredddie did this.— Vchimpanzee • talk • contributions • 15:52, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Infobox language family

In the infobox at Bantu languages, the Southern Bantu branch doesn't show up, even though it is present in the code. I found out that the number of displayable branches is capped at 20 (something I hadn't realised as of yet), and the parameter "child21=" results in an internal error message. What's the best way to deal with this awkward situation? --Florian Blaschke (talk) 19:16, 6 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

You could have added more entries separated by <br> in child20. But the whole idea of displaying a list of numbered parameters seemed pointless so I replaced it with one long parameter containing the list.[2] Maybe the infobox documentation should suggest this. The list is rather long for an infobox but it's not my field. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:51, 6 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you! A quick workaround I thought of afterwards was simply deleting the first entry, which isn't even a real branch but a link to the geographical classification by Guthrie. But your solution works too and has the flexibility I was looking for. I only just remembered the similar solution employed in Tibeto-Burman languages. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 15:01, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

A Redirect which goes to the correct Wikipedia article, but to the wrong place within the article

After a Teahouse discussion, the two people helping me there suggested that I ask here. (For a quick summary of that discussion, see the 6 June 2021 comment by User:Ganbaruby.)

Here are two examples (each going to a wrong location within the target Wikipedia article, COVID-19 pandemic in Illinois):

User:Ganbaruby reported that the Redirect he/she tested misbehaved in Safari, but worked correctly in Chrome. (All my testing was in Safari; sorry: I don't know how to determine what version of Safari I was using.) CWBoast (talk) 02:16, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

I think I can reproduce it (in Chrome). What happens for me if I click one of those links is that it first scrolls to the correct location. However, the huge bar chart with the number of cases ({{COVID-19 pandemic data/United States/Illinois medical cases chart}}) is still expanded. Then, at some point, it's collapsed by some javascript, and that reformats the text, which moves the target section up. --rchard2scout (talk) 07:33, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
This is expected with autocollapse and custom collapsibles as used by that chart. Its one of the reasons we tend to avoid using them. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 10:25, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

MFA

Can I configure my Wikipedia account to use MFA? Ideally, it would work like GitHub or NPM where I can use an authenticator mobile app and have some recovery codes which I can use in case when my phone is stolen. Grillofrances (talk) 02:25, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

See Help:Two-factor authentication * Pppery * it has begun... 02:43, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks so it seems that only some groups of users have 2FA available so I need to request such access. IMO each user should be able to configure a 2FA and for the most privileged users, it should be even required. Grillofrances (talk) 23:13, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
We know. Though I don't agree with the opinion, there is a large opinion that WMF 2FA is too hard to deal with.
That said, the WMF-reason for not having it for all people today is that is not easy to fix if you lose your account password and your scratch codes and particularly requires human resources that have higher-paying jobs than to deal with such a user. Izno (talk) 01:30, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Searching diffs?

Any suggestions on how to search a page's diffs? For example, I want to know if there are any previous edits of Parliament of Singapore which are similar to Special:Diff/1027141563. -- RoySmith (talk) 12:12, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

This is not possible offhand, though occasionally requested. (Maybe someone has built or identified a tool on Toolforge since the last time?) Izno (talk) 12:41, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
You could try using WikiBlame, which might be able to find things that stayed in the article for a while before getting removed, but I honestly doubt it'd do a particularly good job. May be worth a shot, though. – Rummskartoffel (talk • contribs) 12:56, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • I actually started work on such a tool years back. I stopped due to difficulties with parsing the diff pages, but I've recently finished work on a different tool that might solve that problem. If I can get it working, I'll be sure to post a notice here and a few other places. ᛗᛁᛟᛚᚾᛁᚱPants Tell me all about it. 13:21, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
    MPants at work, Cool. Ping me if you get that working. I hear you about how hard it is to parse the diffs. -- RoySmith (talk) 13:30, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
    RoySmith, Will do under one condition: write me a message saying this on my talk page so I don't forget. ᛗᛁᛟᛚᚾᛁᚱPants Tell me all about it. 13:45, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
  • @RoySmith: the which are similar component is going to be a far stretch. If you just want to search for a phrase or string, you could use Special:Export to export all of the revisions of the page, then just use a text search tool on the output file. (Limited to 1000 revisions). — xaosflux Talk 14:14, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Weird redirect

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T8151

Does anyone know what's happening here? It seems like an attempt to create a redirect to a centralized talk page, but the "../" isn't something I've seen before and it's not currently working. {{u|Sdkb}} talk 17:58, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Hmmm. It is working for me. I haven't seen this shortcut before either, though. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 18:24, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
It's a subpage link (or rather a parent page link in this case). It should work, but it appears due to a bug, redirects like it haven't worked from at least 2006, see phab:T8151. – BrandonXLF (talk) 18:30, 7 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I really wonder why it works for me then, both on Firefox and Opera. --Florian Blaschke (talk) 01:38, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
 Fixed by just explicitly declaring the target. — xaosflux Talk 10:46, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Sdkb: This has always worked fine for me, and I use it sometimes. Here's a demo, just follow the breadcrumbs. Do any of these not work for you? I'm on Win 10/Vivaldi, but I checked it on iOS 14.2 mobile as well. Haven't incorporated it into a redirect, though, so maybe there's something squirrely there. Mathglot (talk) 01:56, 12 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
That works for me! {{u|Sdkb}} talk 02:10, 12 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Tech News: 2021-23

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

Changes later this week

  • Recurrent item The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 8 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 9 June. It will be on all wikis from 10 June (calendar).

Future changes

  • The Wikimedia movement uses Phabricator for technical tasks. This is where we collect technical suggestions, bugs and what developers are working on. The company behind Phabricator will stop working on it. This will not change anything for the Wikimedia movement now. It could lead to changes in the future. [3][4][5]
  • Searching on Wikipedia will find more results in some languages. This is mainly true for when those who search do not use the correct diacritics because they are not seen as necessary in that language. For example searching for Bedusz doesn't find Będusz on German Wikipedia. The character ę isn't used in German so many would write e instead. This will work better in the future in some languages. [6]
  • Advanced item The CSRF token parameters in the action API were changed in 2014. The old parameters from before 2014 will stop working soon. This can affect bots, gadgets and user scripts that still use the old parameters. [7][8]

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

20:01, 7 June 2021 (UTC)

Best way for tool to monitor Category:Requests for unblock?

I am making a tool for monitoring Category:Requests for unblock. I looked at the IRC feed but it does not seem to monitor additions and removals from categories.

Right now I am using the API to ask for its members every few minutes, but it would be nicer if I could get a feed as I prefer not to bother the API too much. Does anyone know a better way to monitor for additions and removals from a category? HighInBC Need help? Just ask. 02:44, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Anomie probably does similar things for the protected edit requests queues. Izno (talk) 04:20, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
AnomieBOT just queries all pages in the categories periodically. Anomie⚔ 11:35, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Might my CatChangesViewer help you? Also obviously you can watch the category to monitor additions/removals, though imperfect (for which I wrote another script). Nardog (talk) 04:30, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
MediaWiki itself can show you category additions, see mw:Manual:CategoryMembershipChanges. It is turned on on every WMF site.--Snævar (talk) 09:18, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@HighInBC: so if you are "making a tool", can't your tool just query the category? The other option mentioned above involves the watchlist. One thing you could try would be to make another account, add those categories to that account's watchlist - then use the watchlist RSS feed for that account to see the changes. — xaosflux Talk 10:38, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I am querying the category right now. Interesting idea about the watchlist. Right now it is not using and account as it is read only. But that is a good idea. Thank you. HighInBC Need help? Just ask. 10:48, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@HighInBC: see Wikipedia:Syndication#Watchlist_feed_with_token for more on that, as it will let you not have to worry with the normal "authentication" stuff needed for logging in with an account programmatically for this case. — xaosflux Talk 11:02, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Oh that is neat. Thank you for that info. HighInBC Need help? Just ask. 11:05, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Yes that is perfect. I can supply the API that token, and the timestamp of my last check and get a full update in just one call. I no longer have to store the previous state to compare against to find out what has changed. Thank you, and thanks to everyone else who gave advice. HighInBC Need help? Just ask. 11:15, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Xaosflux: But as you can see in the URL, isn't a feed essentially just an API call returned in Atom XML rather than JSON? I can't imagine it's less server-expensive than simpler API calls that don't require tokens. Nardog (talk) 13:43, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@HighInBC: Oh, you're making a tool! Sorry I was off. I may be still preaching to the choir, but: AFAIK there are two basic ways: list=recentchanges can give you the specific edits that caused additions/removals, but it's limited to last 30 days and doesn't detect changes by way of transclusions; list=categorymembers doesn't have those limitations but only gives you additions, not removals, and only timestamps, not revisions. Nardog (talk) 12:08, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@HighInBC: The Wikimedia EventStream API shows both category additions and removals. It's a stream (hence makes your tool actually work in real-time, rather than every 10 minutes or so), and doesn't require any authentication or atom XML parsing. – SD0001 (talk) 03:32, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you, I was looking for a real-time solution instead of polling. This is very useful. I have learned a lot from this thread. HighInBC Need help? Just ask. 04:04, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@SD0001: Perfect, and only 27 lines of code: User:HighInBC/Category unblock watcher.pl. HighInBC Need help? Just ask. 05:30, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Keeping track of new pictures in a wide category tree

Hello,

I'm a marine biologist specialized in Echinodermata. I would like to be informed of any new picture of these animals so I can review the identification and, when useful, add them to the relevant Wikipedia articles. But as there are over 7000 species of the, of course I can't check all the categories every day. I used to benefit from Ogrebot's newsfeed for a long and useful time but it is no longer working. Do you guys know any other way I could get such uploading newsfeed ? (knowing that I'm not a hacker).

Thanks and best regards,

FredD (talk) 07:22, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

This is basically the same question as the "Best way to monitor Category:Requests for unblock", so the same answers apply.--Snævar (talk) 09:20, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Outdenting as this wants an entire recursive category tree. — xaosflux Talk 10:35, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@FredD: are most of these new files not actually here, but on commons? — xaosflux Talk 10:42, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I'm not sure I understand what you mean, Snævar. Xaosflux, it's for pictures that are not yet on commons but will be added in the future. I want to know when people add them, so I can review and use them. Thanks ! FredD (talk) 11:38, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@FredD: if you would like someone else to make a bot to make such a report for you, you can ask over at WP:BOTREQ. Best regards, — xaosflux Talk 13:33, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Ok, I'll try this. Thanks ! FredD (talk) 14:01, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

action=protect with pre-filled fields?

Resolved
 - Information provided. — xaosflux Talk 14:29, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a way to build a URL which gets you to the "Change protection" screen, but with fields pre-filled? You can do that with block user, via Special:Block, i.e. this, but as far as I can tell from the wikimedia manual, there's no version of that for page protection. What I'm hoping to do is be able to have a script which creates a link you can click on to take you to a pre-filled out form, which you just have to review and click the "Confirm" button. I know I can do it directly through the API, but if I can do it with a clickable link, that would be preferable. -- RoySmith (talk) 14:00, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@RoySmith The URL params should match the name attribute of the input fields. You can inspect the DOM to see what they are. This technique should work on most all forms in MediaWiki. Here's an example that touches almost every field: [9]. — MusikAnimal talk 16:24, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
MusikAnimal, Ah, cool. Thanks. I guess that's what the docs mean by "This page is a partial list of the parameters" :-) -- RoySmith (talk) 16:41, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Bug in "Find edits by user"?

Bug? The "Next 500 results →" link at https://sigma.toolforge.org/usersearch.py?name=50.201.195.170+&page=Talk%3AWuhan_Institute_of_Virology&server=enwiki&max= doesn't work. Σ runs it? (Leads to https://sigma.toolforge.org/usersearch.py?startdate=None&name=50.201.195.170+&page=Talk%3AWuhan_Institute_of_Virology&server=enwiki&max=500 which leads to itself. Started here.) --50.201.195.170 (talk) 23:50, 8 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

As you noted, this is not part of the English Wikipedia, and you can follow up at User talk:Σ. — xaosflux Talk 00:08, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Anyone know why this isn't part of the standard UI? It's part of the API, see https://en.wikipedia.org/w/api.php?action=query&titles=Talk%3AWuhan_Institute_of_Virology&prop=revisions&rvuser=50.201.195.170&rvlimit=500. So why do we need an external tool to produce human-readable output? Suffusion of Yellow (talk) 00:33, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Interesting question. The native API result suggests usersearch.py is more severely broken; it finds 0 edits, instead of the many the API finds in the last 500 revisions. Also a bug? (It is "part of the English Wikipedia", xaosflux, in the sense that the tool is linked to from every page like that where I said I started, though at toolforge.org. So? I can follow up on their talk if @Σ: doesn't respond to the ping and/or others may help. E.g. if I'm confused and these aren't bugs.) --50.201.195.170 (talk) 02:12, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
50, we link to many external tools - but we (the editors and admins of wikipedia) don't maintain them. If it is broken to the point being useless, we can remove the external link from the interface or change it to something else - but we can't actually do anything about it being broken any more then if the RIR links on the bottom of your talk page had an error - we have no access to the codebase for that tool, only its maintainer does. Removal or replacement can be discussed at the associated message here: MediaWiki talk:Histlegend. — xaosflux Talk 10:26, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
The people that maintain them often watch this page, or know what the issue is, how to fix it, or provide alternatives. I think this is a perfectly acceptable venue. Because I saw this discussion, I've changed MediaWiki:Histlegend to point to what should be a fully working tool (disclosure, authored by yours truly). — MusikAnimal talk 22:57, 10 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
User:Ale jrb/Scripts/userhist.js also provides this function as a userscript integrated into special:contribs, though the UI is bit outdated. – SD0001 (talk) 03:33, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Did anyone find the 2 bugs reproducible (or not reproducible)? I guess so, but I don't see anyone mentioning one way or the other. --50.201.195.170 (talk) 23:14, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
This feature works fine in XTools: https://xtools.wmflabs.org/topedits/en.wikipedia.org/50.201.195.170/1/Wuhan_Institute_of_Virology. I've changed MediaWiki:Histlegend to point to it for the time being. — MusikAnimal talk 22:54, 10 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Up until recently there was not a way to search for edits by IP addresses. At some point this became possible, but I have simply never gotten around to implementing this. →Σσς. (Sigma) 10:00, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

IP addresses have actor IDs just like accounts, so if you go by that it should be the same query for both IPs and accounts. If you want to query for IP ranges (which XTools only very recently added support for, but it's been technically possible since late 2017), then that does require a different query. Is the source code published anywhere? I'm happy to help. — MusikAnimal talk 17:21, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
You're right. It's actually already supported, but the link above doesn't work because there's a space at the end. https://sigma.toolforge.org/usersearch.py?name=50.201.195.170&page=Talk%3AWuhan_Institute_of_Virology&max=500&server=enwiki works fine. Oops→Σσς. (Sigma) 02:26, 12 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]


Change in "Find edits by user"?

Clicking on "Find edits by user" today is taking me to a new user interface at xtools.wmflabs.org. It was a different one until yesterday. Is there any notice or discussion around this? How can I remove the pie charts that show up in that page? I could not find a way to see a customized result, even after logging in to that site. Or, how can I go back to the older interface? - Jay Talk 13:02, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

See above. --Izno (talk) 13:51, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
I had seen it earlier, and did not know it is related to my query. How is it related to my query? What has happened? - Jay Talk 14:13, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Ok, so the earlier tool was called WikiBlame and it is broken, and xtools is a temporary replacement? And this discussion is the place where we can get updates on this? - Jay Talk 14:30, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
WikiBlame is a completely different tool and is still accessible via "Find addition/removal". Nardog (talk) 14:42, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

What just happened to Watchlist?

Five minutes ago, my Watch list looked like it always did. Is it my imagination, or are the square green boxes on the left new (as of the last 5 minutes, it seems). Some are green. Some are the same old blue color they always were. I went over and looked at my Commons watchlist, and the little boxes to the left are all the same blue color. I'm not sure what the green color is supposed to signify. Clicking on any color of them, does not change the color. So, what is the purpose? — Maile (talk) 23:08, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Green are unread, blue are those you've looked at. — JohnFromPinckney (talk / edits) 23:11, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
You may have accidentally enabled "Display green collapsible arrows and green bullets for changed pages in your watchlist, page history and recent changes (unavailable with the improved Watchlist user interface)" in the Preferences. Nardog (talk) 23:15, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Yes, that was it - checked in Preferences. Thanks. — Maile (talk) 23:24, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Maile66: It's not new, see for example Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)/Archive 103#"Updated since last visit" markers from eight years ago. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 23:28, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Yeah, I saw on Preferences that it wasn't new. But something on mine made it suddenliy really stand out, to the point of being annoying. Perhaps a font or some other something updated on my system to cause it. My browsers - Firefox and Chrome - both showed it the same way. — Maile (talk) 23:35, 9 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Redrose64 and Nardog: I think - perhaps - why this suddenly stood out at me. And maybe this changed. I've been looking at my watch list on Commons and Wikisource. They both have the green and blue square boxes, but look normal to me. The difference - both of them display the time of edit to the right of the edited page name. The one here on Wikipedia displays it to the left of the page name, between the boxes and the article name, creating what seems like a wider gap between the boxes and the rest of it. Or maybe it's my imagination, but that seems to be the difference to me. — Maile (talk) 00:52, 10 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Cats visible in mobile view for mobile users

Hello, probably just my device, or, are there any other mobile users experiencing categories being visible(in a block like manner) whilst in mobile view? is there a d.i.y manner for me to remedy this? Celestina007 (talk) 20:34, 10 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

WP:ITSTHURSDAY, I think. This appears to be intentional and working as designed, as step one of a change in mobile category display. See T246049, which appears to have changed the mobile view to display categories. It may be followed by T152199, which intends to make them collapsible.
This change appears to have been announced as part of the often inscrutable list of updates linked from the above Tech News (and always posted well after the Tech News, so you have to remember to check the link sometime after the Tech News posting). See mw:MediaWiki 1.37/wmf.9#MinervaNeue for the description of this change.
I am not always great at following the phab/gerrit/WMF bread crumbs, and never great at understanding why they work on this fiddly stuff instead of fixing real bugs, so I could have any of this wrong. – Jonesey95 (talk) 20:54, 10 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
This change removes the old component that used to do categories on mobile, which had a half dozen open bugs associated with it. So... yes, it fixed real bugs. Izno (talk) 21:09, 10 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
And may even enable category gadgets. Izno (talk) 21:09, 10 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
You can completely hide it by adding #catlinks {display: none;} to your minerva.css. – Rummskartoffel (talk • contribs) 21:02, 10 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Jonesey95, Rummskartoffel, Izno thanks, I think I’d probably just opt to hide it (if it doesn’t translate to it being invisible in desktop view also) You coders/script creators and all template editors in general are gifted. This aspect of editing just overwhelms me. Celestina007 (talk) 21:19, 10 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
minerva.css only affects the mobile skin, so you'd still see categories while on the desktop version. – Rummskartoffel (talk • contribs) 21:26, 10 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Rummskartoffel, thanks-a-billion mate. Celestina007 (talk) 22:26, 10 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Is the global Lua function type effectively overrideable?

So I made a function in Module:Lua class (last function) that tries to override/build upon the default type to support new "types". I was testing it in User:Alexiscoutinho/sandbox 1 and noticed that it behaves differently if you are previewing. When you view the sandbox normally, it should contain "table table table". However, if you preview the page (without edits of course) it would now contain "class Base instance" (which is desired). What is going on? Why is the type function behaving differently? Alexiscoutinho (talk) 21:33, 10 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

While OOP is great, I'm not sure that the confusion of another layer would be worthwhile. However, I purged User:Alexiscoutinho/sandbox 1 and it is now showing "class Base instance", the same as in preview. Johnuniq (talk) 00:21, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you very much! I completely forgot how to fully purge a page. Furthermore, I thought purging was only client side, thus I got quite surprised when the issue persisted in an anonymous tab. Alexiscoutinho (talk) 01:13, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Is there any way to make links to other language wikipedias, commons, Wiktionary, etc, open in a new tab? I sometimes forget that they don't behave like normal external links and it's annoying. DuncanHill (talk) 00:59, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

You must have enabled "Open external links in a new tab or window" at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets. It's not default. I don't know how to extend it to interwiki links. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:19, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
It'll require a bit of javascript. @DuncanHill You can do it by adding $(function() { $('.extiw').attr('target', '_blank'); }); to special:mypage/common.js. – SD0001 (talk) 04:20, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Hold down the Command (Mac) or Ctrl (Windows/Linux) key while you click the link. – Jonesey95 (talk) 06:21, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
exactly, by far the easiest way to do it and works on any website. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 07:39, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
indeed, but I thought that was obvious and DuncanHill was looking for an automated solution. – SD0001 (talk) 10:39, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
They aren't external links, they're internal within Wikimedia. Mike Peel (talk) 10:57, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
google: doesn't look like an external link, but is. A lot of the m:Interwiki map is truly external. —Kusma (talk) 12:07, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Weird, I didn't know that was possible (nor do I understand *why* that is possible) but none of the examples before that were external. Mike Peel (talk) 12:47, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Traditionally most of the other websites that had special interwiki prefixes were other wikis or other free content sites, with some other sites like Google thrown in for convenience. The main difference between the interwiki map links and normal external links (other than the styling) is that interwiki map links do not have the "nofollow" attribute. (I once got so annoyed at Wikia/Fandom's advertising that I worked a bit to turn "nofollow" on for links that go there). —Kusma (talk) 13:04, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@SD0001: Thanks, that certainly works for commons, wikiquote, etc, doesn't work for the interlanguage links down the left-hand side. @Jonesey95: and @TheDJ: actually right-click and open in new tab is what I use, but as I mentioned I sometimes forget, and @Mike Peel: they may or may not be external but they behave like external links in that the preferences I set here do not apply there, and things like templates that work here do not work there. Anyway, thanks all. DuncanHill (talk) 16:30, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@DuncanHill Ändern Sie '.extiw' to '.extiw .interlanguage-link-target' to cover them as well. – SD0001 (talk) 16:37, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@SD0001: That doesn't seem to do anything - and stops it working for commons etc too. DuncanHill (talk) 16:45, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@DuncanHill oops, needed a comma there in between: '.extiw, .interlanguage-link-target' - SD0001 (talk) 16:52, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Bingo! @SD0001:, this will be a great help to me, many thanks. DuncanHill (talk) 16:55, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

NASA 2gb PNG image too large for Commons?

QUESTIONS: Tried uploading a recent NASA 2gb PNG image ( at "https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/archive/PIA24663_fullres.png" on NASA-page => "https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/catalog/PIA24663" ) (takes awhile - ~1hr/?) - but Commons didn't seem to accept it for some reason - is the image file-size too large for Wikipedia? - Is there some workaround? - image seems relevant to several NASA articles (ie, "Perseverance (rover)", "Timeline of Mars 2020" and possibly more) - downloaded image file opens OK in my Firefox browser (Wintel10/Firefox/DellXPS8900) - iac - Thanks in advance for a reply - Stay Safe and Healthy !! - Drbogdan (talk) 11:41, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

@Drbogdan: c:Commons:Maximum file size might be helpful. Elli (talk | contribs) 11:43, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
"takes awhile" lol.. you don't say.. 2 GB... —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 12:58, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
@Drbogdan, unless someone wants to count the number of grains of sand on Mars, I don't see why the image dimensions wouldn't be downscaled by 4, and the image saved as jpg, like they did here https://photojournal.jpl.nasa.gov/jpeg/PIA24663.jpg, file size 15 MB (link found here). Those who really need the 2.4 billion pixel image can always go back to NASA. Ponor (talk) 14:19, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

FWIW - seems — * Perserverance at Van Zyl (AVideo360; 1:40; Spring 2021) on YouTube (related site; 2GB PNG-image) — added to "Timeline of Mars 2020#External links" may be sufficient for now - Thanks for all the comments above - Stay Safe and Healthy !! - Drbogdan (talk) 14:58, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Is there a module function that given a table returns a JSON-like tabulated string?

Alexiscoutinho (talk) 22:43, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

mw:Extension:Scribunto/Lua reference manual#mw.text.jsonEncode
—Trappist the monk (talk) 23:03, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks! Alexiscoutinho (talk) 23:21, 11 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Hidden maintenance category shows up at top of main category list

Why am I seeing one hidden category showing up at the top of the main category list at the bottom of an article?

On the article Simone de Beauvoir, the first category I see is "Wikipedia articles with WORLDCATID identifiers", a maintenance category. The next two cats are Simone de Beauvoir, followed by 1908 births; these two correspond to the first two categories explicitly in the article wikicode. The first category is not in the wikicode anywhere, which is not surprising, as it is a maintenance category that is probably dragged in by a citation with an |oclc= param.

I have my preferences set so that I see hidden maintenance categories, and after the main category list which is displayed to everybody, the hidden cat list starts off with: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list; CS1 maint: archived copy as title; Articles with short description, and so on. Why doesn't the WORLDCATID maintenance category appear somewhere with these hidden categories, instead of the top of the main category list? Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 01:32, 12 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]

Because a since-fixed bug in a series of edits I made to Module:Pages with authority control identifiers caused the category to no longer register as hidden. I've applied some null edits, and now the category is back to its proper spot. * Pppery * it has begun... 01:44, 12 June 2021 (UTC)[reply]
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