RationalWiki:Technical support/Archive11

Loss of session data error
I keep getting a "loss of session data" error whenever I try to edit from my computer. (I'm on my phone right now.) It said to log out and back in again, but that didn't fix it. Any ideas?
 * I've also been seeing that, about two or three times an hour. Clearing cache does nothing, but resubmitting usually forces the edit through anyways.   21:22, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Resubmitting doesn't consistently work for me whether I'm logged in or not. It seems to be a matter of luck at this point, and my edits are failing more often than they're sticking.  (Wehpudicabok, not logged in)  76.4.247.119 (talk) 21:26, 5 March 2014 (UTC)
 * My psychic powers tell me all this crap is to do with spreading Apaches sideways, and them not accepting each others' cookies. Which shouldn't actually happen, but ... - David Gerard (talk) 00:10, 6 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Well, whatever it was, it seems to have stopped; I haven't had any problems editing lately.  08:13, 6 March 2014 (UTC)

Vandal bin 403
Every time I try to righteously put the brake on some scum vandal, I get a 403 forbidden error. So I have to block them, which is not the established protocol for petty vandalism.-- "Shut up, Brx." 17:38, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Well, the guy was already vandal binned by me, anyway (I think... didn't look like it had expired). And seeing as he was a returning vandal, a longer block might not have been to inappropriate. Anyway, just because it loads a 403 for you doesn't mean the action didn't went through. Though in your case, apparently it really didn't, looking at the vandal bin log... Octo8 (talk) 17:42, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I can't even go to the vandal brake page, I'm afraid. So the action couldn't go through, since I don't have access to it.-- "Shut up, Brx." 17:45, 7 March 2014 (UTC)


 * I'm back!!! :)      --81.132.16.42 (talk) 20:41, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

Is RW distributing malware?
In which I reveal my technological ignorance:So I just noticed that AdBlocker was blocking 12 ads on the Recent Changes page. Curious about what the ads would be, I opened up a new browser in porn mode, not signed in, paused AdBlocker, and loaded up RC. I got a pop-up window for some sort of Adobe-looking product. When I closed it, my computer immediately started downloading a file called "Player-Chrome.exe." to be clear, I did not ask to/confirm the download: it started automatically when I tried to close the pop-up. To me, that's not a good sign. Also, is RW supposed to auto-play what sound like radio commercials? 'Cause that's totally obnoxious. Please feel free to tell me that I don't know what i'm talking about. TeenageWasteland (talk) 20:06, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I don't find anything extraordinary on the Recent Changes. The only domains listed are RW and PayPal (because of the donation button). It looks like you may have malware on your computer, so you'd better run a virus scan.--ZooGuard (talk) 20:30, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I think that might just be you. No problems here either. --JeevesMkII The gentleman's gentleman at the other site 20:36, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Or here. This "porn mode" of yours might be a clue. You can catch stuff, you know. Sophie  Wilder silverbrain.png 20:56, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Think I found the culprit: I had a torrenting extension that I was trying out in Chrome. when I uninstalled it, the problem seems to have ceased. TeenageWasteland (talk) 21:02, 8 March 2014 (UTC)

RSS woes with Akregator (KDE's RSS reader)
I use Akregator as my RSS reader and it seems to have problems with Rational Wiki's RSS feeds for WIGO, and I'm not sure if it is Akregator, Yahoo or me.

In a web browser the RSS feed looks fine, 9 or 10 stories that are the same as what is current on the WIGO web pages. In Akregator it shows just one article (the last item in the RSS), and never gains any more even though the RSS from Yahoo does update.

Akregator works fine with every other RSS feed I have thrown at it, including the RW recent changes and the blog (neither of which involve Yahoo). Do many other people use the WIGO feeds, and have you seen any problems? Or is this perhaps something I should bug report to KDE?

Cheers RW BrowserWarVet (talk) 20:07, 27 February 2014 (UTC)


 * Weird. How's it cope with other MediaWiki installations?
 * The WIGO extension was something that Nx (I think) cobbled together. Nx, is the code publicly released? Probably it could do with some open source lovin' - David Gerard (talk) 09:08, 28 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Sigh, actually, no, I was not Nx. I did the RSS feeds for the WIGOs (and obviously never get credit for them). It's a Yahoo pipe. Because there isn't an easy way to get the WIGO data out, it uses regular expressions. Whenever there has been a problem in the past, it is because someone didn't use the correct format on the WIGO page. It's possible something else is afoot. There hasn't been a crushing demand for them, so I don't spend a lot of time maintaining them, but I'll take a look. It's possible that Yahoo! messed with pipes, which they do from time to time. [[File:Sterilesig.svg]]talk 19:43, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Actually, I can tell you right now, WIGO World (which is likely the one you are referring to) is having trouble because the page is too long since the entries haven't been archived for a Hell of a long time. I got "warning Error fetching http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/RationalWiki:What_is_going_on_in_the_world%3F. Response: OK (200). Error: Read timed out" from Yahoo!. Unfortunately' pi's script has been broken for some time. [[File:Sterilesig.svg]]talk 19:51, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
 * It should work now. Any one who can get the auto-archiving bot to work would be my hero. [[File:Sterilesig.svg]]talk 20:00, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

WIGO World auto archive
As it says above, the auto-archive bot for WIGO World does not work. I think that's a thing, so it's unlikely to be resolved. 20:05, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I don't think that there was ever an auto-archive bot for the WIGO pages, only for their talk-pages. --larron (talk) 21:49, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
 * used to create archive files. I do think WIGObot was a bot. And I've complained before. [[File:Sterilesig.svg]]talk 21:56, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
 * You are right - I only checked for the last few months, and seems to be dead since May 2013... --larron (talk) 22:04, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

Gadgets
They're back! Big thanks to whoever dunnit. Scream!! (talk) 14:35, 7 March 2014 (UTC)

--ZooGuard (talk) 15:27, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I don't see them-- "Shut up, Brx." 17:39, 7 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Got nothing here. Sophie  Wilder silverbrain.png 20:58, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Ctrl+F5 or whatever is the key combination for "hard refresh" on your OS/browser?
 * Please don't tell me that the gadgets appeared for some of us because of the new server setup...--ZooGuard (talk) 21:10, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Even that shouldn't have done that - Trent just copied the file tree over from apache1 to apache2 - David Gerard (talk) 23:31, 8 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I first noticed when the "hover over" thing on internal links began working, Makes Recent changes much better. Scream!! (talk) 00:25, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Scratch that: not working now & "Gadgets" vanished from preferences :-( Scream!! (talk) 16:43, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Confirmed - it was working, now it's not. Possible related to the /w/ bug mentioned below. Again, please don't tell me that it depends on which sub-server services me at the moment...--ZooGuard (talk) 08:26, 10 March 2014 (UTC)
 * @David: Are you sure MediaWiki isn't an Elder God that's just fucking with us?   00:52, 9 March 2014 (UTC)

Any progress with this? The gadgets clearly worked for some period of time. If you can remember what systemadminy stuff you did in that period, it may be possible to guess what is causing this.--ZooGuard (talk) 08:31, 13 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Back again. Not holding my breath. Scream!! (talk) 15:35, 15 March 2014 (UTC)
 * See? Gone! Scream!! (talk) 11:11, 16 March 2014 (UTC)

At least one of our backend servers is almost certainly misconfigured.
/w returns 403 on at least one of our servers. This is preventing a whole lot of things happening, including capturebot working properly, plus the vangal brake. Someone should probably figure out which one that is and take a look at the file permissions and the mod_rewrite config.

How does our setup work anyway? How are we handling file replication and such? --JeevesMkII The gentleman's gentleman at the other site 03:39, 9 March 2014 (UTC)


 * Badly. We tried NFS served from apache1, and apache2 promptly locked up. So now, in a huge kludge, we rsync regularly. Trent is still fiddling with it - David Gerard (talk) 18:04, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
 * So do we have a master server that handles all the writes, and slaves that just handle reads or something? It all sounds like it's one lost race away from breaking down and shredding all the data in to artistic confetti. --JeevesMkII The gentleman's gentleman at the other site 18:30, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
 * No, that's not how it works - PHP is stateless, there's a single MySQL server for consistency. (You can add additional MySQL slaves for reads, we aren't there yet.) You should be able to horizontally scale MediaWiki just by adding Apaches, as we have. The thing the rsync deals with is media files - David Gerard (talk) 18:42, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Is there a fix on the horizon? Will the fundraiser help?-- "Shut up, Brx." 18:53, 9 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Oh, are you going to donate something this time around, Brx? Or are you running your mouth? Seeing you fake concern for a site you've actively undermined makes me want to vomit. [[file:Nuttysig.svg|68px|link=User:Nutty Roux|Nutty Roux]]100x100 anarchy symbol.svg 14:27, 11 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I actually have donated money to RationalWiki before, thank you very much. But I'm unemployed, right now, so I haven't much to spare. What a silly premise, that brx might care about this website!  Then again, that would explain why I've tried defending it from nasty creeps like you.-- "Shut up, Brx." 00:37, 12 March 2014 (UTC)

Hrm, without a set master-slave relationship, you're going to get a horrible web of rsync calls. We have, what? 3 backend servers now? That seems like the absolute limit that that's a sane plan. NFS is obviously a non-starter since it adds a single point of failure, and is generally terrible in any case. Have you given CODA a go? It seems like the lazy caching approach would suit us pretty much perfectly. Obviously you'd only want the mediawiki to data to live on the shared file system, not anything apache is using. --JeevesMkII The gentleman's gentleman at the other site 19:16, 9 March 2014 (UTC)


 * Does the /w problem still occur?--ZooGuard (talk) 08:32, 13 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Some pages like Washington, D.C. street design conspiracy theory are coming up "Forbidden" when I try to edit them. - Smerdis of Tlön (talk) 15:27, 14 March 2014 (UTC)

Who owns capturebot right now?
What with Conservapedia returning 500 errors about every second request these days, I was thinking that a little bit of extra work on capturebot would make it a lot better. Currently, it doesn't pay attention to the HTTP status code when taking captures so we get a lot of pictures of their error docs.

this stackoverflow question shows which signal to hook to get the HTTP result, at least in C++. It's pretty much the same in PyQt. Shouldn't take more than 5 minutes to put that in. --JeevesMkII The gentleman's gentleman at the other site 17:13, 1 April 2014 (UTC)
 * here's a rough diff of what it should probably do. I haven't actually tested it because I don't have pyqt installed, and there's any number of things I could have buggered up, but that's the general idea. I'm also kind of assuming the code on the capturebot page is up to date. --JeevesMkII The gentleman's gentleman at the other site 17:38, 1 April 2014 (UTC)


 * It's running on the bot server, I think. Though I'm not sure. Ask Trent - David Gerard (talk) 19:02, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

You don't have permission to access /w/index.php on this server.
When I try to update a picture (like http://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Upload&wpDestFile=Total-views-monthly.svg&wpForReUpload=1 ), I often get the following notice

That's not the only occasion when this problem happens, every time when there is a dot in an api.php or index.php query, this problem occur. I can circumvent this by replacing the dot with "%2E", but that is quite cumbersome. Can anyone do anything about this :-)

Thanks, larron (talk) 20:17, 1 April 2014 (UTC)

Difficulty with image uploads
I'm having some difficulty with image uploads. Every time I try to delete or update an image it gives me a 403 error. Additionally, When I tried to upload an image from a URL, it made it much darker than it appeared when I viewed it from Google. Anyone else having this problem? NerdyWizardyou believed that why? 07:57, 3 April 2014 (UTC)

New Wikimedia font?
I like the new look on WP. Will it be here anytime soon? TeenageWasteland (talk) 18:32, 4 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Apparently it's being rolled into the MediaWiki codebase, so I presume it'll be in 1.23, which I plan to move us to - David Gerard (talk) 18:48, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Who rocks? David Gerard rocks. TeenageWasteland (talk) 19:11, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Nooo, please, I hate the new font. Please don't do it, DG, please.-- "Shut up, Brx." 19:13, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
 * I can't say I'm thrilled with it either. Sitewide default tweaks are possible, though - David Gerard (talk) 21:12, 4 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I agree with brx. Wikipedia looks worse now, in comparison to before. The new font is harder to concentrate on. It's not as plain anymore. Octo8 (talk) 01:41, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
 * So this is why Wikipedia looked all wonky recently. I thought it was my computer. Frederick♠♣♥♦ 00:48, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
 * I think it's time to tell all the nerds to fuck themselves while we do legit typesetting on this site and pull all the fonts from remote APIs. 00:52, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Serifs for headers of sans-serif body text looks like change for the same reason a dog licks his balls. Here is some dancing bologna to cheer you up. [[File:Spur RB.gif]] [[File:Spur RB.gif]] [[File:Spur RB.gif]] [[File:Spur RB.gif]] [[File:Spur RB.gif]] [[File:Spur RB.gif]] [[File:Spur RB.gif]]
 * 02:50, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
 * This has nothing to do with typography, but get off your self-righteous fix on saving poor Brxbrx from facing the reality of being a pro-rape racist whom has made a career of being disruptive here, before and behind the scenes- I really don't know why you're the single one to take a stand on this. What's your fucking problem? 03:14, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Um, what? What do I have to do with this?  You think about me too much-- "Shut up, Brx." 03:17, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Nutty needs to remember to drink plenty of water before he goes to bed. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 03:19, 5 April 2014 (UTC)
 * I'm pretty sure that should be "who", not "whom", as brx is the subject of that sentence. This has as much to do with anything. Octo8 (talk) 03:26, 5 April 2014 (UTC)

Page titles with a dot, and index.php
Recently, I've found I'm unable to edit pages with a fullstop/period in the title. E.g. L. Ron Hubbard. I can view the page, but when I try to edit or view history, I get a 403 FORBIDDEN error message, stating "You don't have permission to access /w/index.php on this server. Apache/2.2.14 (Ubuntu) Server at rationalwiki.org Port 80". The same thing happens with vaporize and protect links on these pages, or when trying to view their logs; also when trying to access a redirect page (e.g. U.S.A. redirect page). So it looks like the server can't deal with any /w/index.php actions when there's a dot in the page title. 21:24, 14 March 2014 (UTC)
 * While I was receiving the same error while editing a little while back, I haven't seen it in a while. I also seem to be able to edit pages with dots in the titles as well (including your example). This is a strange problem indeed. - Grant (Talk) 00:46, 15 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Aha. This seems to be the common problem with trying to edit Washington, D.C. street design conspiracy theory and U.S. dollar bill folding tricks.  - Smerdis of Tlön (talk) 16:18, 15 March 2014 (UTC)
 * And of course I can edit both of those ... gah! - David Gerard (talk) 20:02, 15 March 2014 (UTC)
 * I can access them now. Has anything been fixed or is it just an intermittent problem?  14:22, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Intermittent covers a variety of intractable faults. When I was getting that error, it seemed to be correlated with how much processing I had just asked system to do. IOW, if I was looking at a diff or history display, attempting a logout gave the error. I thought it might have somewhat to do with which server was handling me at the time, but without some real diagnostic prodding, that's just an idle guess. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 15:19, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Could it be the same cause as the appearing/disappearing gadgets - seeming to vary from logon to log on? Scream!! (talk) 16:17, 16 March 2014 (UTC)


 * Speaking as someone with root on the servers, this appears made of magic beans, crack and flying winged penises and I have NO IDEA how this could sanely be happening, my previous hypotheses having been disproved. I apologise for the appearance of no action, but I do want to assure you all I'm fully engaged in being utterly flummoxed here - David Gerard (talk) 19:04, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Is there an Nx batsignal you could flash?-- "Shut up, Brx." 22:35, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Please don't. 23:35, 16 March 2014 (UTC)
 * David knows how to work things out. He doesn't need an unemployed, roundly despised, mentally ill, saboteur like Brxbrx even commenting on this page. [[file:Nuttysig.svg|68px|link=User:Nutty Roux|Nutty Roux]]100x100 anarchy symbol.svg 15:42, 21 March 2014 (UTC)

What do the error logs say? It should be a reasonably straightfoward matter to grep the error logs on the various servers to see just where the 403s are originating. You might also want to up the verbosity of the error logs if they aren't printing the full uri of the resource requested. --JeevesMkII The gentleman's gentleman at the other site 18:55, 17 March 2014 (UTC)

I'm having the same problems with Lane v. Sabine Parish School Board. Frederick♠♣♥♦ 04:13, 30 March 2014 (UTC)

I'm having the same problem trying to add a copyright notice to this image: . The wiki name of the entry is File:Jack Chick Soul Story Not Religious Christian.gif. Unfortunately, image files pretty much have to have a period in their names. --Tracer (talk) 19:27, 7 April 2014 (UTC)

iPad 3 View History Issue?
I seem unable to view history on an iPad 3. Is it just me or might there be an issue? Hope this is in the right place.--Barryjon (talk) 01:35, 7 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Shouldn't make a difference. What happens? - David Gerard (talk) 11:32, 7 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Page doesn't load and eventually Safari crashes. Just noticed I have the same issue on my iPhone (5s) so perhaps its an issue with the very latest software update to iOS?--Barryjon (talk) 17:47, 10 April 2014 (UTC)
 * It happens to me too. RW and aSK. But not WP. I actually like it, but it's obviously not ideal. 18:52, 10 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Same for me; works on WP but not here. I don't use aSK.--Barryjon (talk) 18:54, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

The connection was reset
Has anybody noticed that certain pages (especially WIGO:Blogs and WIGO:Clogs) have to be refreshed multiple times before they will load? 22:52, 7 April 2014 (UTC)
 * No. Scream!! (talk) 23:25, 7 April 2014 (UTC)
 * They've been loading properly for me. Frederick♠♣♥♦ 19:29, 10 April 2014 (UTC)

Image that can't be deleted
Please have a loot at File talk:IntelligentDesignCartoonSteveSack8-8-05.jpg.--ZooGuard (talk) 07:49, 12 April 2014 (UTC)

Possible Abuse Filter false positive
The abuse filter whacked Special:Contributions/LittleShortForAStormtrooper, despite their only visible edit being acceptable. Can someone check if it's a false positive?--ZooGuard (talk) 08:34, 12 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Very strange. I don't even know what caused that to be triggered, given the very specific criteria of that filter. No matter, I've set that filter to stun until summer vacation. If you see a possible false positive until then, feel free to undo it. Reckless Noise Symphony (talk) 03:29, 13 April 2014 (UTC)

IP Talkpages
Something weird here - if I click on the talkpage of an BoN poster (using ‎109.157.206.80 and 151.227.231.112 as examples), that's still red, I get a "403 Forbidden" error and "You don't have permission to access /w/index.php on this server." Red user accounts work fine, in going to respective edit dialogs. -- PsyGremlin undefined 13:18, 19 April 2014 (UTC)
 * I have seen this message intermittently when trying to look at diffs or user contributions. I just opened an edit window at User talk:151.227.231.112, but found I had nothing to say to them. From what I've seen, the error depends on lunar phase and whether an editor is holding their mouth right when clicking. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 13:56, 19 April 2014 (UTC)


 * The pattern of the error does probably seem pretty mysterious. I know why the error occurs intermittently and where it occurs, but I don't know the how on fixing it yet. Working on it. This is related to all the above issues with the same error message. Tmtoulouse (talk) 14:05, 19 April 2014 (UTC)
 * I does seem that the problem comes and goes. Does it have anything to do with which squid is serving the request? In unrelated news, I'd like to add  to User:Nutty_Roux/monobook.js. My UX is suffering.  15:13, 19 April 2014 (UTC)

No gadgets again
I don't have that tab in my preferences at the moment and the gadgets I usually use do not appear. :(--ZooGuard (talk) 11:36, 24 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Can confirm. --Revolverman (talk) 12:47, 24 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Yup! Me too (or do I mean "Me neither"?) Scream!! (talk) 12:55, 24 April 2014 (UTC)


 * Should be back. tmtoulouse 13:29, 24 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes, they are. Thank you!--ZooGuard (talk) 14:55, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

CaptureBot2 off again?
CaptureBot2 is not doing its thing. (From console, anyway; I have put a pile of stuff on the request page as well.) I don't run wherever it lives - who does? Basically, we need to add capture tags to NaturalNews promptly, and capture every single cited reference - David Gerard (talk) 07:28, 17 May 2014 (UTC)

Recent Changes/other Special pages not loading in Safari
For a while now, whenever I try to access the RC or any other kind of "log" page, Safari sort of locks up. The page doesn't load and neither will anything else. CPU usage for "Safari Web Content" shoots up to 100%. The only solution I've found is to 1. quit Safari and restart it and 2. never ever visit any Special pages ever. I don't get this problem when I tried it in Firefox. After logging out, the RC header shows up, but the same issue happens as soon as it tries to load the log itself. I asked Apple Support Communities about it and the person replying said that he couldn't access it either. Any idea what might be causing this? «-Bfa-» 01:02, 25 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Please email David your phone's IP address if you're comfortable doing that. He's pulling the Apache logs to nail down the problem. Nutty Roux (talk) 18:29, 25 May 2014 (UTC)


 * This has been showing up for some iOS users as well, so evidently we're triggering a bug in Safari itself. Buggered if I know what or where to start on this (having neither a Mac nor an iPhone). Any web developers here want to dive into probably-futile diagnosis of this problem? - David Gerard (talk) 11:46, 25 May 2014 (UTC)
 * I've been asking for the apache logs for my attempts from my iPhone. Nutty Roux (talk) 14:26, 25 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Ah yes! I'll go look now ... - David Gerard (talk) 17:52, 25 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Probably won't help now that I think about it. It's browser side, so I'm trying to see which HTTP request is causing it to shit out. The problem is that the Safari developer console, which connects to the phone when it's plugged in, isn't catching anything. It's just ... a request for the main page and then nothing. No scripts pulled, no images, not even the generated base HTML. Nutty Roux (talk) 18:08, 25 May 2014 (UTC)
 * These are Apache-like (i.e., NCSA format) logs generated by the Squids. You should be able to see if a 200 actually manages to send something like the right number of bytes, etc - David Gerard (talk) 18:11, 25 May 2014 (UTC)
 * Actually, here is the single log I'm showing. And then ... like a ghost. Screen Shot 2014-05-25 at 1.10.29 PM.png


 * Ya, there's a 200 for the main request, and then nothing. Nutty Roux (talk) 18:13, 25 May 2014 (UTC)

IP Editing
To help protect anonymity while keeping identity, why don't we show a hashed ID instead of the IP for anonymous editors and only let people with range banning wiki power see the actual IP? Occasionaluse (talk) 01:44, 7 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Code it and maybe. There's occasional discussions of doing something like this in MediaWiki in general, but they never really go anywhere - David Gerard (talk) 08:11, 7 June 2014 (UTC)

Archiving
Is there a template/bot that could be added automatically to talk pages to auto-archive comments (say) a year or more old? I enquire because I've just noticed a (fairly new) user responding to conversations 4 and 6 years old. Scream!! (talk) 23:52, 14 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Don't we already have that? (Pibot, though it seems to have to be added manually, so nevermind -- Mie kal  00:23, 15 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Pibot where needed, I s'pose. But I submit it doesn't actually matter when a talk page is really short - David Gerard (talk) 08:38, 15 June 2014 (UTC)

Templates/Reference material
Template:PD-USG doesn't work with Template:Reference material for some odd reason. (Edit) Actually, none of the license templates seem to work with the Reference material's parameters somehow. User:K61824User_talk:K61824 21:03, 25 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Never mind, the doc is wrong on that one, fixing it in short order. User:K61824User_talk:K61824 21:09, 25 June 2014 (UTC)

Problem with SVG image
There is a problem with File:Icon social justice.svg - the file page exists, and it shows up in the Upload log, but no thumbnail or complete image is displayed on any page. Clicking on the "file" link in the Upload log allows you to download the file directly - http://rationalwiki.org/w/images/5/5e/Icon_social_justice.svg, which means that the upload was at least partially successful. Any idea what's going on here?--ZooGuard (talk) 09:48, 26 June 2014 (UTC)
 * So far it seems that Tyrannis and me are/were able to see the image just fine, while ZooGuard and Femilisk aren't/weren't. Nullahnung (talk) 10:17, 26 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Cache synchronisation problems?--ZooGuard (talk) 10:32, 26 June 2014 (UTC)

AfD page- Easter Bunny
What just happened? GØØBY PLS  Remembrance of the transcending moon  14:23, 29 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Never mind. MESSIAH OF DOOM   Mortality is truth… Dolan.png 14:34, 29 June 2014 (UTC)

Confirmation email
Hmm....

I've just created a new sock but I'm not getting the confirmation email. Is this my stupidity, is gmail treating us as spam or is there something wrong? Cloud Yeller (talk) 10:45, 30 June 2014 (UTC)
 * I just sent myself an email through the wiki, to my GMail, so it's sending out email okay ... - David Gerard (talk) 11:28, 30 June 2014 (UTC)

Bible Generator
(The one with the texts) usually have a link such as
 * 

Which clicking on the link reloads the page (or goes to technical support when this one is on technical support. Is there a difference?). Is that the intended behaviour? User:K61824User_talk:K61824 16:36, 5 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Probably not. That extension has had problems since the section title format of RW's annotated Bible was changed.--ZooGuard (talk) 08:20, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

404 Not Found
... is what I get when I type http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/ in the address bar. Can we make it so it just redirects to the main page, like in Wikipedia? Sherif (talk) 09:15, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
 * It should do. But the .htaccess is made entirely of wtf - David Gerard (talk) 11:11, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Bible Generator
(The one with the texts) usually have a link such as
 * 

Which clicking on the link reloads the page (or goes to technical support when this one is on technical support. Is there a difference?). Is that the intended behaviour? User:K61824User_talk:K61824 16:36, 5 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Probably not. That extension has had problems since the section title format of RW's annotated Bible was changed.--ZooGuard (talk) 08:20, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

404 Not Found
... is what I get when I type http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/ in the address bar. Can we make it so it just redirects to the main page, like in Wikipedia? Sherif (talk) 09:15, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
 * It should do. But the .htaccess is made entirely of wtf - David Gerard (talk) 11:11, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Bible Generator
(The one with the texts) usually have a link such as
 * 

Which clicking on the link reloads the page (or goes to technical support when this one is on technical support. Is there a difference?). Is that the intended behaviour? User:K61824User_talk:K61824 16:36, 5 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Probably not. That extension has had problems since the section title format of RW's annotated Bible was changed.--ZooGuard (talk) 08:20, 6 July 2014 (UTC)

404 Not Found
... is what I get when I type http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/ in the address bar. Can we make it so it just redirects to the main page, like in Wikipedia? Sherif (talk) 09:15, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
 * It should do. But the .htaccess is made entirely of wtf - David Gerard (talk) 11:11, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Excessive IP vandalism via proxy servers
Is there an easier way to prevent this? It's starting to get frustrating --Drowninginlimbo (talk) 13:32, 17 July 2014 (UTC)
 * In the past, a certain persistent vandal required the activation of a switch that used anti-spam IP blacklists to deal with it. I don't know if it's still in use.--ZooGuard (talk) 15:35, 17 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Would it be possible to utilise this for a day or so? --Drowninginlimbo (talk) 15:44, 17 July 2014 (UTC)
 * As I said, I don't know if it's still in use, i.e. if it has been left "on" - it doesn't catch everything, it takes some time for a proxy's address to make it to the lists.
 * Anyway, it's a setting that requires access to the server. That means it has to be done by DG or TT.--ZooGuard (talk) 15:59, 17 July 2014 (UTC)
 * It's not currently on. It's something I'm pretty reluctant to switch on except in dire circumstances, because (IIRC) it catches unlucky logged-in users too - David Gerard (talk) 22:29, 17 July 2014 (UTC)
 * It wasn't that bad, certainly nothing that couldn’t be handled. We had worse a couple years back when some disgruntled former shit editor went on this weird TOR-backed spree which involved fucking with templates and signatures and putting weird clipped portions of articles into themselves. Shit, what was his name? He damn near broke the wiki. Father Vivian O&#39;Blivion talk 22:34, 17 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Yeah, that was the guy we put that in place for. But "night mode" is deprecated unless it's absolutely necessary because of an ongoing serious attack. (That's a description of the discussion at the time, not a declaration of policy on my part.) - David Gerard (talk) 07:33, 18 July 2014 (UTC)

An image error on NoiseBot's userpage
I uploaded an image for use on the userpage of my bot account. However, all I see from both my browser and from my smart phone in place of the image is the following error: Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/home/rationalwiki/public_html/w/images/9/92/NoiseBot_1.jpg': No such file or directory @ blob.c/OpenBlob/2480. convert: missing an image filename `/tmp/transform_1b3fef1-1.jpg' @ convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/2838. Reckless Noise Symphony (talk) 07:51, 21 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Looks like a simple deletion and re-upload were the key to fixing it. Reckless Noise Symphony (talk) 09:45, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

Again no gadgets
No working gadgets, the tab in Preferences is missing again.--ZooGuard (talk) 12:11, 22 May 2014 (UTC)
 * They work fine. Nutty Roux (talk) 18:09, 25 May 2014 (UTC)

And again.--ZooGuard (talk) 17:42, 28 May 2014 (UTC)
 * And they are back. WTF? --ZooGuard (talk) 18:20, 28 May 2014 (UTC)

And again.--ZooGuard (talk) 09:29, 15 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Seem to switch on and off with the weather or the phase of the moon or something. Scream!! (talk) 11:05, 15 June 2014 (UTC)
 * They are back at the moment. Thank you to whoever fixed it.--ZooGuard (talk) 16:15, 16 June 2014 (UTC)

The weather/phase of the moon is unfavourable again.--ZooGuard (talk) 10:34, 26 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Still no gadgets. Does anyone know what's the personal .js for a "section 0 edit link"?--ZooGuard (talk) 09:56, 29 June 2014 (UTC)
 * *bump*--ZooGuard (talk) 08:27, 9 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes, having those gadgets again would be awesome. While it may not seem like much of a deal, some of those gadgets are quite useful. Reckless Noise Symphony (talk) 09:30, 9 July 2014 (UTC)

Somebody do something please!

 * Been on for a week or so & just vanished today! I miss most the "Navigation Popups" (that's what they're called on WP) that let yo see the details of the last edit on Recent Changes without actually clicking the link. Scream!! (talk) 12:42, 2 August 2014 (UTC)

Vandal Bin Controls
I...can't seem to find where the button is for this anymore. Am I missing something super obvious and need a kick in the pants or? 13:28, 18 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Do you mean the one called "vandal bin" in the little line of links at the top of the user contributions page? Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 14:32, 18 August 2014 (UTC)
 * * Presents posterior* Apparently I do need said kick. 14:35, 18 August 2014 (UTC)
 * eeww. Kindly get that thing out of my face. No kicking is merited, nor will be given. I've had enough grey matter leak out into my hair that such lapses are easily forgiven. Keep up the good work, Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 14:43, 18 August 2014 (UTC)

Pibot archiving a very old talk page
I've tried to set up Pibot to archive Talk:Irreducible complexity, hoping that it will shove all the pre-2014 content into the archive. Surprisingly, it archived only two sections. Am I wrong believing that Pibot can archive stuff before the first section on a page, and why did it fail to do so in this case? Also, what prevented the rest of the sections from being archived? I thought Pibot can cope with non-UTC timezones in timestamps, and this seems to be at least partially true - both archived sections use timestamps in CDT.--ZooGuard (talk) 17:57, 18 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Does Pi actually do any active running of Pibot? It's a mystery to me - David Gerard (talk) 18:54, 18 August 2014 (UTC)
 * I just archive manually if it looks like it needs doing. Sophie  Wilder silverbrain.png 14:45, 8 September 2014 (UTC)

Wikipedia-style image viewer
Any chance of seeing here that thing on Wikipedia that displays a large image when you click on its thumbnail?--ZooGuard (talk) 14:03, 3 September 2014 (UTC)


 * You realise you're talking about one of the most hated things on Wikipedia :-D Um, probably not until we go 1.23 (which we'll need to before May 2015, when support for 1.19 ends). Not sure if Media Viewer works with 1.23, but if it does then sure! - David Gerard (talk) 17:00, 4 September 2014 (UTC)

Mobile frontend?
http://mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:MobileFrontend ?--Monarchofascist 16:52, 12 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Also waiting for 1.23. (Which is waiting on me finding time to contemplate the matter atop a mountain, put it on rationalbeta, get far too few people to beat it up, release it, fix everything that broke because of too few people beating it up.) Mobile is actually a seriously good reason for this, because our site looks like shit on a phone - David Gerard (talk) 19:10, 12 September 2014 (UTC)

Editing Table of Contents
The ability to move TOC boxes or limit headings would be a good idea (see 9/11 conspiracy theories or Mentions). Osaka Sun (talk) 00:04, 16 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Moving already works - haven't yet checked the limiting of headings.--The General talk to me 00:42, 16 September 2014 (UTC)
 * All the fancy hideous NOTOC and template-based frippery you can do on Wikipedia should work here - David Gerard (talk) 09:35, 16 September 2014 (UTC)

Search down, sidebar default


etc, etc, etc. I'm aware of this. As I write this I'm at work and busy, but I'll contemplate oneness for a bit and probably thump it at lunchtime - David Gerard (talk) 10:00, 15 September 2014 (UTC)


 * memcached had fallen over. Restarted - sidebar is working, site is much faster now. Search still returning no results, will continue contemplation - David Gerard (talk) 10:04, 15 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Search now working too - lucene had fallen over as well. Anything else not working? - David Gerard (talk) 10:06, 15 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Wikimedia Commons-based photos are down. Osaka Sun (talk) 23:46, 15 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Working for me, e.g. Ray Kurzweil File:Raymond_Kurzweil_Fantastic_Voyage.jpg - got a broken example? - David Gerard (talk) 09:36, 16 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Just found an example: the picture of Larry Sanger on Citizendium. It works on one browser but not the other (wtf) - David Gerard (talk) 13:25, 16 September 2014 (UTC)
 * POTUS, British Isles, Sea serpent, any country we have with an article, etc. Osaka Sun (talk) 01:42, 17 September 2014 (UTC)
 * I'm seeing stuff fine in the logged-in browser (Firefox) but not in the logged-out one (Chromium). THIS IS NOT SANE BEHAVIOUR. MEDIAWIKI WTF R U DOIN - David Gerard (talk) 09:58, 17 September 2014 (UTC)
 * I couldn't access the picture of Sayeeda Warsi at my home computer, then I accessed it at a library computer but now I can't again with my home computer. What in the name of the most holy FSM could cause that? Proxima Centauri (talk) 17:34, 18 September 2014 (UTC)

Lots of images disappearing
Lately, there have been many images going the way of the dodo. Why is that? Faunas (talk) 13:31, 17 September 2014 (UTC)


 * See above. Wikimedia Commons images aren't coming through when they should. We have two Apache servers and I'm thinking one is getting confused in some manner - David Gerard (talk) 13:54, 17 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Can you put a direct link to it, please? Faunas (talk) 20:05, 17 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Here? Scream!! (talk) 21:23, 17 September 2014 (UTC)

About the family name "Gay"
I wanted to add a little info in the article "Gay" that there is a family name "Gay" and I put a ref link (About the family name "Gay" -- Arnold Gay and Tyson Gay.), but I've got an error. No idea why, I am a newbie here, but I like this project, because it's helpful to discover the truth. Science (talk) 17:04, 25 September 2014 (UTC)
 * We don't have an article on the word "gay". We have an article about homosexuality but I don't think it needs links to random forum threads about people's names.  I'm not sure what error you encountered; it would be helpful if you could let us know what the error message said.  17:16, 25 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes, I meant that article ("homosexuality"). The error was something like "troll", I'm sorry, I don't remember exactly. Thank you for your fast response!!! I'll continue to read and to contribute here, when I can. Science (talk) 17:20, 25 September 2014 (UTC)
 * I think your edit was probably blocked by one of our abuse filters. We've had problems with repeat attacks by vandals and internet trolls, often posting racist and/or homophobic comments, so these filters were set up to prevent edits that include certain combinations of words or phrases that appeared in these troll attacks.  18:19, 25 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Filters also stop edits for sticking link(s) in on first edit - very trollish to a robot. Scream!! (talk) 22:28, 25 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Thank you for bringing this to my attention. I looked over the edit filter in question, and it seems there was some old code from a wandalism spree that had been written in such a way that it blocked certain things. I will not give any more details, but to say that I fixed it and it shouldn't be a problem again. Reckless Noise Symphony (talk) 09:40, 26 September 2014 (UTC)
 * You're welcome! Thank you all for the warm and responsible acting here! I like more and more this project! :) Science (talk) 17:35, 26 September 2014 (UTC)

Captcha problems
So, I was too lazy to log in, and I tried to edit under a BoN. However, no matter what page it was, it would go to a blank page that said "could not open socket". Anybody know what this means? MĖSSIÅH ØF DØØM  Raining blood, from a lacerated sky  02:54, 27 September 2014 (UTC)

Also, no emails
Brx states that he sent me some emails; however, I have not received these. Additionally, Brx states that he checked the "send copy to myself" button, but did not receive any copies of the emails. MĖSSIÅH ØF DØØM  Clam down dere, matey!!1  04:37, 27 September 2014 (UTC)

Test
David Gerard, Dearest Expert and Benevolent Guardian of RationalWiki's Servers, I'm afraid I attempted to send you an email, to further test this issue. I checked the box that is supposed to send me a copy of said email, but I have not received the copy, as when I attempted to email User:Doom Messiah, above. If you have not received my humble missive, then at least it will confirm one thing: that when User:brxbrx attempts to email other users of this site through the "Email this user" function, User:brxbrx both fails to reach his intended recipient and does not receive a copy of his message (which is frankly tragic because anything I write is as gold to a miser, and should be preserved at all costs).

Is this part of a problem affecting other users of the site? Can others send each other emails? I do not know.

I am but a lowly stooge who's whimsically decided to talk like I'm addressing an emperor in a long-forgotten era with archaic ritual speech. Hopefully this issue will be easy to resolve, or at the very least, only affects me. And hopefully you're not annoyed by unnecessary faux-formal communication. But honestly, I figure there's a fifty percent chance I'm already annoying no matter how I talk to you (not a Bayesian estimate), so what have I got to lose by having a little bit of fun? Also, this last paragraph is totally unnecessary to your resolving this tech support issue, so hopefully you'll have started reading from the bottom, that way you'll be able to skip it and get to the relevant bits.-- "Shut up, Brx." 17:08, 27 September 2014 (UTC)
 * I have attempted to email User:Reckless Noise Symphony, whom I have successfully emailed before. I checked "Send me a copy of this message," and I have not received a copy.
 * What remains to be seen from my actions is whether the honorable David Gerard and respectable Reckless Noise Symphony have received the test emails I attempted to send them.


 * If I could but make a humble suggestion, perhaps other users could try emailing each other through the "Email this user" function, to see if they are able to contact one another? Hopefully, this is only a brx problem and not a wiki-wide problem.  At which point, David Gerard, Venerated Wiki Ancestor, could simply tell me to go fuck myself, because a problem that only affects me is not a problem worth fixing, if a problem at all...
 * Please note that the aforementioned scenario would make me very sad.-- "Shut up, Brx." 17:36, 27 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Update:RNS hasn't received my email. So I can't send emails.  Can anybody else send emails?-- "Shut up, Brx." 19:29, 27 September 2014 (UTC)


 * argh, another bloody thing. Yeah, I'll have a look.
 * Interesting you also have the commons images problem. I think it's time for a particularly acerbic look at apache2 - David Gerard (talk) 09:10, 28 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Actually, Doom Messiah said he was able to send an email to RNS and receive a reply. So, so far, it seems it only affects emails that I send.  I'm going to try some more troubleshooting on my end.  I will let you know if I find anything of significance.-- "Shut up, Brx." 16:23, 28 September 2014 (UTC)

Many things ...
... seem to switch on and off together: Gadgets; images; email. There's summat that's affecting randomly about ½ the log-ons to RW. If there are two servers - could it be that one of them's misbehaving? (At the moment my a/c's OK but yesterday it wasn't) (caveat: I'm a total ignoramus so feel free to ignore these mutterings) Scream!! (talk) 12:08, 28 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Basically, yeah. - David Gerard (talk) 22:38, 28 September 2014 (UTC)

Smileys
What happened to the old "Smileys" toolbar we could have? Reckless Noise Symphony (talk) 08:48, 1 July 2014 (UTC)
 * Well? - Is anyone out there? Scream!! (talk) 12:44, 2 August 2014 (UTC)
 * Obviously not! Everyone is obviously out there looking for the absent gadgets? Scream!! (talk) 16:55, 8 September 2014 (UTC)
 * RNS is not smiling at the lack of smileys around RationalWiki :-( Reckless Noise Symphony (talk) 10:42, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Something to look for for the Edit Filter
I'm pretty sure this edit was from a spambot. It's either that or this guy has a fixation on Indonesian Facebook ads and no understanding of our mission-- "Shut up, Brx." 17:24, 28 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks for the heads up. I added a bit of that to our spam edit filter. Reckless Noise Symphony (talk) 10:41, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Commons images: at least some are back
and I expect other stuff to work better by and by. The problem: /etc/resolv.conf had vanished. "What on earth," you say. So do I - David Gerard (talk) 19:27, 30 September 2014 (UTC)
 * You know that they disappeared and came back only to disappear again before, right? It's an intermittent problem.  The worst kind of problem-- "Shut up, Brx." 20:23, 30 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Everything's under multiple layers of caching. We'll see how it is tomorrow - David Gerard (talk) 21:01, 30 September 2014 (UTC)

Something strange with my user rights
Earlier today, as can be seen this account did not have sysop rights. Now, it does. Yet, the log does not account for the change.

I sent some emails out about this earlier, but now I have no clue what's happening. One minute I'm not a sysop, the next I am. All without anything in the user rights log to tell me why.

I'm hoping someone with server access can elucidate?-- "Shut up, Brx." 01:55, 6 October 2014 (UTC)
 * This, uh, took on some new dimensions. If someone can look serverside and see what actually happened to the user rights log and user rights, that would be really helpful.-- "Shut up, Brx." 04:39, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

Trouble loading pages
Suddenly pages are taking an awfully long time to load, and in some cases I even have to refresh. It started a few weeks ago. This isn't an internet problem, because all other pages load instantaneously.--TemplarJLS (talk) 13:34, 6 October 2014 (UTC)


 * This can happen when memcached falls over ... but it's up right now - David Gerard (talk) 14:27, 6 October 2014 (UTC)

The "Captcha" sucks
I have tried about 10 times now to create my own page, but have been blocked by the Captcha function which mistakes me for a spambot or somesuch. It is not clear to me what the gd written clue is, and the sound quality on the audio clue is so hopelessly bad, when 'Z' sometimes sounds like 'D' or 'E', that I can't edit my own page. Now, to even POST this comment on your tech support page, I am again blocked by the stupid captcha. One more reason why I prefer Wikipedia to RationalWiki.--Tomwsulcer (talk) 14:41, 8 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Note: I finally figured out that I had to flip through several ads before I came to the written clue. This feature must surely screen out persons who want to join your encyclopedia, but can't get past this obnoxious feature.--Tomwsulcer (talk) 14:43, 8 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Finally figured it out, never mind with this message.--Tomwsulcer (talk) 14:47, 8 September 2014 (UTC)


 * Sorry for the inconvenience. There's a good reason for the particular behaviour - David Gerard (talk) 16:26, 8 September 2014 (UTC)

I'm also unable to create my own userpage. I've retyped the text from Captcha many times but the problem persists. "A brief description of the abuse rule which your action matched is: Userpage spam" How do I proceed? --Egg (talk) 13:45, 22 September 2014 (UTC)
 * Are you trying to put an external link on your userpage? Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 13:59, 22 September 2014 (UTC)
 * I, too, am having this problem. All I tried to do was put a bunch of user boxes into the creation of my userpage and it's saying I can't because it's "userpage spam." the Rev. Dr. Judas Faulpelz 13:25, 9 October 2014 (UTC)
 * This isn't a captcha problem. As to what you're addressing, it's certainly a compromise, but one that's caught orders of magnitude more spam than false positives. You must have a certain number of edits before you can create a userpage that includes certain kinds of links. Sorry, but that's the way it is. Nutty Roux (talk) 15:06, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

Unable to log in
This is Stabby the Misanthrope. RW refuses to let me log in. I type in the correct username and password, hit "log in", and when the page is reloaded, I remain logged out. Neither my username nor my password is typo'd — I tested both with deliberate misspellings and RW throws up the standard error message. I just logged in to Wikipedia without problems. I'm using Waterfox 32.0 (switched from Chrome literally this morning) on Windows 8.1. 140.211.14.199 (talk) 18:26, 1 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Um, that's annoying. Can you create a new username at all? (I just tested and I can log in.) I'll look through the logs later if I can get a moment - David Gerard (talk) 18:55, 2 October 2014 (UTC)
 * This is bizarre. I was able to successfully create a new account and log in, but the moment I navigate to a different page/click to edit the current one, I appear as logged out and I get the "editing as IP" box.  140.211.14.199 (talk) 14:37, 6 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Problem gone after the second attempt at a clean install of the browser. Well that was embarrassingly simple.  Sorry for wasting your time!   17:43, 9 October 2014 (UTC)

Email, cont.
So, I fiddled around with the email function. I made two new accounts, and set them up with two different emails. Trying to confirm the email address, I got the following message, both times:

RationalWiki could not send your confirmation mail. Please check your email address for invalid characters.

Mailer returned: Could not execute mail delivery program '/usr/sbin/sendmail -t -i ' Hope that helps.-- "Shut up, Brx." 02:15, 3 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Useful! Shall investigate - David Gerard (talk) 18:57, 3 October 2014 (UTC)
 * I don't know if you did anything, but I used "Email this user" to contact, and it worked. I sent him two emails, one with "Send me a copy of this email" checked, and one without.  I didn't get a copy, so you may want to ask Tielec01 whether he received two emails or just the one.--109.163.234.7 (talk) 09:36, 7 October 2014 (UTC)

RMF email server issues
I've gotten MAILER DAEMON returns from two attempts to email addresses @rationalmedia.org These addresses are on the RMF site, so it only seems natural that they would be both current and functional. The addresses are:

jacob@rationalmedia.org trent@rationalmedia.org

I can't say if all @rationalmedia.org addresses are having issues, or just these two. This just seemed like as good a place as any to inform someone of the problem.--109.163.234.7 (talk) 09:34, 7 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Mail was being flaky when the DNS wasn't working. What was the actual error? - David Gerard (talk) 21:05, 10 October 2014 (UTC)
 * "Mail server for "rationalmedia.org" unreachable for too long"-- "Shut up, Brx." 21:20, 10 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Also, from a different email address: "The recipient server did not accept our requests to connect."-- "Shut up, Brx." 21:24, 10 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Not right now, but tomorrow I'll check where that actually lives - David Gerard (talk) 23:39, 10 October 2014 (UTC)

How do you mark something for needing archives?
Pretty much all in the topic. There's a page that needs it. Ikanreed (talk) 18:42, 13 October 2014 (UTC)
 * I keep the code at the bottom of my user page for quick copying. 19:05, 13 October 2014 (UTC)

Pages reloading part-way through
For certain pages, when they're partially or so, for some reason will re-load. Sometimes the browser will fail to render the page (with an error message such as "The connection was reset"), but most of the time, the page is totally fucked up. HTTP headers are injected, as well as the portion of the page that was already loaded. Like this. Other times, the page just stops loading.

Is this happening to anyone else? 04:03, 15 October 2014 (UTC)


 * o_0 yeah, that's fucked up. Looks like something hiccuped at our end, but I haven't seen this manifestation before. (Mediawiki works by calling bits of the page from itself, and evidently it pulled the basic page but not all of the pieces.) The squids aren't melting under the server load as yet ... Does the page work on reload? And is anyone else seeing this? - David Gerard (talk) 10:05, 15 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Sometimes the first time will make it work, and sometimes the page has to be refreshed multiple times before it loads properly. 11:29, 15 October 2014 (UTC)

User rights problem
I think they are borked. I just made this guy autoconfirmed, which should've gotten rid of the red exclamation marks. However, they are still dropping them when they edit. This also might go hand in hand with Brxbrx being able to use rev. delete while he was de-sysopped and blocked a week or so ago. Reckless Noise Symphony (talk) 11:11, 15 October 2014 (UTC)

Turn on the anti-spam IP blacklist, please
The recent wave of mass trolling is getting tedious. They appear to be using IP addresses listed on anti-spam sites, so enabling the protection should frustrate them--ZooGuard (talk) 17:18, 24 October 2014 (UTC)


 * Finally in place - David Gerard (talk) 20:30, 24 October 2014 (UTC)

@rationalmedia.org unreachable
Sorry, we were unable to deliver your message to the following address. : Mail server for "rationalmedia.org" unreachable for too long

A highly ineffective model for transparency and dialogue with the community--68.230.65.159 (talk) 21:29, 28 October 2014 (UTC)
 * Or, an oversight. Considering these people are volunteering to give you a site to evade your block on, I'd be a little more gracious. Nobody here works for you, Brxbrx. Nutty Roux (talk) 21:58, 28 October 2014 (UTC)

Abuse filter loophole
Apparently the block settings of for the "dox" filter allows the blocked BoN to edit their talk page.--ZooGuard (talk) 16:03, 6 November 2014 (UTC)
 * It's not a loophole. It's just how it is. The edit filter doesn't permit you to specify block options. Change it by hand if the blocked account comes back to edit its talkpage. Nutty Roux (talk) 16:14, 6 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Uh, I did - the reason I noticed is that they spammed their crap on their talk page after being blocked and I had to delete it and re-block them.--ZooGuard (talk) 16:17, 6 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Uh, I saw that just as clearly as I saw why you did it. Nutty Roux (talk) 16:22, 6 November 2014 (UTC)

What links here
How come this internal link shows up on the 'What links here' rationalist page, but this one minutes later does not show up on the fatwa page? nobsIt all depends what ISIS is. 17:30, 15 November 2014 (UTC)
 * i think it's something to do with those navboxes on the right hand side. They transclude random stuff from the category they're about, and that all gets caught up in the "what links here" thing. They're very annoying when you're trying to tidy up via What Links Here. Personally I'd change them all to having fixed lists of the best of the topic, if we're to have them at all. Sophie  Wilder silverbrain.png 18:28, 15 November 2014 (UTC)
 * What SW said. You can remove them from the "what links here" list by making a zero edit in them - just open them for editing and immediately hit "Save page" without actually editing. This will cause the link tables to be re-populated.--ZooGuard (talk) 18:31, 15 November 2014 (UTC)
 * duh...I got it...or I could just click the 'View Next 50' button...duh.... nobsIt all depends what ISIS is. 18:45, 15 November 2014 (UTC)

Search appears broken
Try searching for something. I get no results for anything. Note that I'm specifically talking about Special:Search (I know my way around MediaWiki). Shows you how much anyone uses it. --Ymir (talk) 23:17, 18 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Ah, thank you! Lucene restarted :-) - David Gerard (talk) 12:37, 19 November 2014 (UTC)

WIGO World archives
Is there some specific reason why WIGO World archives of June 2014 is deleted and no more archives since then is found? User:K61824User_talk:K61824 01:15, 19 November 2014 (UTC)


 * Those are done by WIGObot, no idea who runs that - David Gerard (talk) 12:37, 19 November 2014 (UTC)
 * User:Π runs those bots. The lack of reply from him kind of make me wonder whether that has been brought up elsewhere already.  User:K61824User_talk:K61824 00:57, 20 November 2014 (UTC)
 * Pi often disappears for months at a time. His control of RationalWiki's bots is a legacy of years-old decisions, and at this point responsibility for them should absolutely be passed to David and Trent.  It's a bad idea to let the RW's bots languish because the one guy who has control of them can't be arsed to fix them in a reasonable time frame.   01:45, 20 November 2014 (UTC)
 * So.... any fixes in sight? User:K61824User_talk:K61824 21:06, 27 November 2014 (UTC)

Wat
I tried to create an account using my mobile data provided by Telstra, an Australian internet provider thing. It said I was blocked for being a proxy from the "DNSBL" or something? What is this? The ip is 101.169.255.239. 124.187.141.226 (talk) 13:02, 24 November 2014 (UTC)


 * We block open proxies from editing or account creation because they were the source of a barrage of garbage in the recent past. That IP is in Spamhaus' general block list as supplied by Telstra for email - it certainly shouldn't be a web proxy. Your own IP shows as blocked similarly, but again only for email. I'll check how drastic our blockers are being. In the meantime, email me at dgerard@gmail.com with your desired account name and I'll try to create it for you - David Gerard (talk) 13:24, 24 November 2014 (UTC)

In case you're wondering about the notification emails
I just got a pile of old talk page notification emails. These appear to be from while the outgoing email wasn't working; they were finally sent because the server got rebooted. Everything is fiiiine! - David Gerard (talk) 21:46, 2 December 2014 (UTC)
 * I'm kinda surprised MediaWiki doesn't cap the maximum age before it gives up trying to send emails. Or is it more of an outbox situation?  Ikanreed (talk) 21:49, 2 December 2014 (UTC)
 * By then they'd already left MediaWiki and been queued up for sending, they just ... never got sent - David Gerard (talk) 23:31, 2 December 2014 (UTC)
 * I did briefly panic because the first email of the bunch I got was a copy of an RMF board email I sent several weeks ago. Thank you for letting us know not to worry about it.   08:28, 3 December 2014 (UTC)

Old mail from new user with autoblock issue

 * I just now got an email from User:Egg dated 23 September 2014, replying to this question about whether he was trying to put an external link on his user page. He said, "Yes, my Wikipedia userpage and twitter. I think it's a very common case and it shouldn't be forbidden."
 * He says he got a "Cannot open socket." error when trying to reply on this page. I've replied with an apology on behalf of RW, and a recommendation that he email RNS. Sprocket J Cogswell (talk) 17:05, 3 December 2014 (UTC)