RationalWiki:Technical support/Archive14

Search
The usual thing. No search results except exact title matches. 19:30, 6 May 2016 (UTC)


 * I prodded it again, no idea why the script that's supposed to check it failed. Today I am poking RW stuff - David Gerard (talk) 12:30, 7 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Down again. --Ymir (talk) 08:16, 14 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Just did awful things to /etc/init.d/lucene and the checker script now works. Fucking thing - David Gerard (talk) 19:15, 14 May 2016 (UTC)

Fun with MediaWiki! The upgrade (sticky)
So I'm finally bothering to look at this bullshit. (It all went much more easily when I realised I in fact disliked system administration, to the point where I would get home from a hard day in the Linux saltmines and have an actual aversion to doing anything even slightly sysadminy in my own time unless the site was actually on fire. Having realised that, I could approach it with something more like how I approach Monday mornings. So, axe in hand, I log in and sudo -s ...)

I have a test installation which isn't ready for anyone to kick yet, but User:Zero did a test upgrade to 1.26 using a database dump and the extension pile, so I have his notes and fixed extensions to work from and I'm trying this with the full database as of last February (which will be quite sufficient for testing purposes).

So far the fun bit is getting our custom extensions to work, in particular wigo3, a piece of Nx code. Anyone who feels like poking at it, rwconfig.tar.xz has our entire config and extensions (minus sensitive bits) and that includes the wigo3 code.


 * wigo3 (Nx): You have to remove all mentions of wfLoadExtensionMessages, then you see up/down arrows that don't work - you click on an arrow and it disappears and doesn't alter your vote. Most annoying. Zero couldn't get this to go either.
 * Intercom (Trent): remove wfLoadExtensionMessages. Next/Previous/Mark As Read don't work. You also get "Notice: Undefined property: SpecialIntercom::$missingSummary" which is nonfatal, but should probably be fixed.

Anyway, I'll keep you updated ... work at the moment is pretty full on (we're moving hosting centres and puppetising every bit of haphazardly-applied gaffer tape since 2006 ... paying down an arseload of technical debt, which is good) but things should progress a bit.

Plan:
 * get something functional with 1.26 on test box, noting every step
 * probably 1.27 LTS, that should be out any day
 * set up a proper test box (we'll probably get a new Linode with 14.04 or 16.04), repeat there
 * at some point declare that the new instance
 * make a second one

"Hey David, how can I help?" Get rwconfig.tar.xz and look at the extension code. Email me for access to the barely-functional test wiki that spews error messages. No you can't have ssh, it's not my box - David Gerard (talk) 22:06, 7 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Latest: FUCKING MEDIAWIKI. Thank you.


 * (specifics: how the fuck does wigo3 even work how the hell does the code itself contain style="display:none" while RW in the browser shows style="" what are you doing to the DOM aaaaaaaaaa) - David Gerard (talk) 20:37, 10 May 2016 (UTC)
 * My main thought is "what the fuck is he talking about".--JorisEnter (talk) 15:02, 15 May 2016 (UTC)
 * axle-maxle manglebratic geeble-geep - David Gerard (talk) 16:23, 15 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I wrote a new WIGO extension a while ago: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:WIGO ... It's not a 100% drop-in replacement, but pretty close IIRC and it's certainly a lot easier to understand than the older WIGO code... Don't really have time to work on it (but feel free to ask specific questions/problems) but MIT licensed so do with it as you please... Carpetsmoker (talk) 11:57, 17 June 2016 (UTC)
 * That could be faaaaantastic, I'll have a hack at it. Is the database format the same or would it require porting the data? - David Gerard (talk) 13:25, 17 June 2016 (UTC)
 * No; compatibility was not a goal, so you'll have to write a script. Should be easy though. It also works different by actually having a form, instead of "magically" picking up  tags... IMHO that's a good thing and a feature, but some hardcore wiki folk might disagree.... Carpetsmoker (talk) 13:36, 19 June 2016 (UTC)

Citation templates generate two links: title and url
The citation templates (e.g., Cite web) have a  and a   parameter. It is normal to specify both, and the result should be similar to what  would produce. That is how it works on Wikipedia, both now and before their citation templates were converted to use a Lua module instead of the Citation template. On RW, however, we get two links to the same external target: the title and the URL are displayed separately. For instance,

produces:

I'm not good at debugging MediaWiki templates and don't have the time to learn right now. Can someone figure out what the problem is? Thanks. —Peter Chastain [¡háblame!]  04:54, 19 May 2016 (UTC)
 * I've had the same problem. While I have no clue how to actually fix it, you can simply add the link to the  paramter:




 * This will produce exactly the same reference you should get if the template worked correctly.
 * As a side note, if you want to display templates neatly you can use tl.--JorisEnter (talk) 05:35, 19 May 2016 (UTC)


 * Thank you, JorisEnter! And how delightfully self-referential  is. :) —Peter Chastain  [¡háblame!]  06:44, 19 May 2016 (UTC)
 * Let's not even mention what happens when you try to display  tags. Because the actual code used for this is , which is displayed using  , and so forth.--JorisEnter (talk) 23:00, 19 May 2016 (UTC)

Yeah, these were just copied from an older version on Wikipedia ('cos the Wikipedia versions are now Lua-based). We get to keep both pieces, if anyone thinks they can fix ParserFunctions code without going mad with an axe - David Gerard (talk) 07:35, 19 May 2016 (UTC)

I am sorry to say that the workaround suggested by JorisEnter (combining the URL and title within the title parm) causes accessdate not to be displayed. See this version of the Creflo Dollar article for an example. —Peter Chastain [Speak!]  12:07, 21 May 2016 (UTC)

Hotarticlerate
Hotarticlerate seems to be somewhat finicky, sometimes when i rate an article i get an error which reads: Error editing talk page: Invalid Token, anyone know why? Bubba41102The place where you can scream at me 00:53, 21 May 2016 (UTC)

Gadgets, part 42
The gadgets (at least the ones I use, being HotArticleRate, HotCat, plus a few other things I set in my preferences) have been working properly for at least a week. Has anything been fixed?--JorisEnter (talk) 14:32, 16 June 2016 (UTC)
 * I haven't actually touched a thing. I assume magic beans - David Gerard (talk) 16:49, 16 June 2016 (UTC)
 * I've been blowing on a tiny whistle every day at noon for the past week or so, so it could be that - though it'd just be a side effect of my whistle ensuring the sun rises and sets as it should. Reverend Black Percy (talk) 16:56, 16 June 2016 (UTC)
 * Aaaaaand... they're down again.--JorisEnter (talk) 12:27, 10 July 2016 (UTC)
 * (it's three minutes later and all gadgets appear to be working again. Dafuq?)--JorisEnter (talk) 12:31, 10 July 2016 (UTC)

Signature length restriction
I somehow can't revert to my older signature, because the textbox in the preferences refuses to take more than a certain amount of characters. Was that intentional?--The (((Kigel))) (talk) (mail) 04:57, 17 July 2016 (UTC) 04:57, 17 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Not sure what happened, but you can always create something along the lines of User:Kugelschreiber/sig in which you dump your favourite signature and then change the thing in your signature box to .--JorisEnter (talk) 07:50, 17 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Thx, I'll try just that.--The (((Kigel))) (talk) (mail) 18:12, 17 July 2016 (UTC) 18:12, 17 July 2016 (UTC)

Unable to receive emails
Joking about email alerts on my talk page aside, I haven't actually been getting emails from RW for some time. I didn't receive an email for FuzzyCatPotato's post on my talk page on June 26th. On the 29th or 30th I changed my email from the official Foundation-supplied one back to my personal one. I received no confirmation email, even after clicking the "Confirm your email address" button in Preferences. No, it isn't in my spam folder, nor has it been misfiled by a filter. As far as Gmail is concerned, I simply never got it in the first place. An hour or two ago I requested another confirmation email, and I still haven't gotten anything. 20:22, 12 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Eh, from what I know RW emails get lost quite often.--JorisEnter (talk) 20:29, 12 July 2016 (UTC)
 * GMail is still sending our email to Hell. Need to work out this SPF thing, which involves Trent fiddling with the DNS - David Gerard (talk) 12:58, 13 July 2016 (UTC)
 * I don't know what any of that means, but I appreciate you responding, since I know troubleshooting the wiki isn't exactly your favorite thing.  17:06, 13 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Oddly enough, I just now got emails alerting me to Owlman's posts to my talk page... from June 30th. Progress!   05:23, 22 July 2016 (UTC)
 * All the other emails I never got suddenly came in all at once. RW emails in general appear to be working now, since I just asked for and receiving a confirmation email in the span of a minute.  That being said, Gmail doesn't seem to like our email servers very much:
 * [[File:RationalWiki email flagged.png]]
 * 07:22, 22 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Gmail understandably gets really suspicious if someone else sends mail to their servers claiming to be from gmail.com. RationalWiki really, really shouldn't be using a gmail.com address to send mail. What's wrong with something like wiki at rationalwiki.org ? Thrawcheld (talk) 21:33, 22 July 2016 (UTC)
 * [MASSIVE FACEPALM] I literally had not noticed that it was doing that. CORRECTING! - David Gerard (talk) 22:44, 22 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Right, from: address is now rationalwiki@rationalwiki.org. A test message to myself got through straight away. So yay - David Gerard (talk) 22:51, 22 July 2016 (UTC)

Did anyone else suddenly get ALL THE EMAIL?
Looks like GMail is talking to us again. I'm glad there wasn't actually a raging dumpster fire on my talk page ... - David Gerard (talk) 07:45, 22 July 2016 (UTC)
 * I am in the process of receiving 299 emails, most of which are going into my RationalWiki folder at the moment.--JorisEnter (talk) 07:57, 22 July 2016 (UTC)
 * And as soon as 299 had been reached Gmail went on to bump that up to 522. Good grief.--JorisEnter (talk) 07:59, 22 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes, I got a large number of emails, basically multiple emails for most or all of the pages that I follow. Bongolian (talk) 08:00, 22 July 2016 (UTC)

Also got a whole bunch. They were stuck in some queue on a server somewhere. I told David this wasn't working early this year, but he didn't believe me and nothing changed. Guess something finally got fixed somewhere. 82.95.88.48 (talk) 10:50, 22 July 2016 (UTC)

Using other languages and using a logo on a wiki
I have different languages enable on my wiki and it's all working fine, except I'm thinking I'll run into a problem later on when the titles of articles will be the same across those languages. One solution would be to put something in parentheses to indicate what language the article is in, which will work okay, but I'm just wondering if there's another way. I noticed when I clicked on your Russian translation of your main page that it has the prefix ru. How do you enable that option? Also, how do you put a logo up in the left-hand corner of the page? 71.212.102.213 (talk) 18:12, 24 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Well Mediawiki has a page on multilingual preferences.--Owlman (talk) (mail) 20:38, 24 July 2016 (UTC) 20:38, 24 July 2016 (UTC)
 * I'll check it out. I noticed another thing: RationalWiki doesn't have a www prefix on its main page and mine does. Will that affect the way it works for me? 71.212.102.213 (talk) 21:15, 24 July 2016 (UTC)
 * I got my logo up now. The languages are working fine, I just put a little something in parentheses after the name of the article so I don't fill up too many slots. For some reason I'm liking the idea of having it all centralized, which is great, but the one thing I wish I could fix is having a different sidebar for every language. In other words, the list of languages shows up on the options in the sidebar, but I'm trying to figure out how to make everything above that be in the language that is selected. I don't even know if it's possible to do that if it's all centralized the way I have it. 71.212.98.168 (talk) 01:41, 28 July 2016 (UTC)

Election Endorsements Rejected
Feeling very emotional and insecure here. I have tried to endorse candidates in the RW election, but all my attempts have been rejected as harmful. I've sniffed my armpits and huffed into the palm of my hand to check my breath. I wiped well this morning and even bathed. I just can't fathom the rejection. Surely you must be doing something wrong. Any tips (asked the leper of his best friend)?&mdash; Unsigned, by: Epsilon3 / talk / contribs
 * What do you mean by "have been rejected as harmful"?--JorisEnter (talk) 13:24, 27 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Hah. You gotta wipe 'til you see bright red on the paper, sonny! Reverend Black Percy (talk) 13:28, 27 July 2016 (UTC)

It won't let me reply in this page, either.&mdash; Unsigned, by: Epsilon3 / talk / contribs
 * The edit filter marked your edits as spam for some reason. I think I've fixed it now.--JorisEnter (talk) 18:23, 27 July 2016 (UTC)

Default time for reference tooltip
It's currently 200ms. I'd bet most visitors don't know that reference tooltips exist (go to any article and hover over a reference) and so are less likely to look at our sources -- which in turn makes it seem like RW just puts a source there to look legitimate without being legitimate. I think the default time should be changed to 0ms, so that mousing over any reference immediately pull up the source.

14:42, 27 July 2016 (UTC)
 * Why the hell not. They only work when gadgets are enabled though - and those don't work half the time.--JorisEnter (talk) 15:30, 27 July 2016 (UTC)
 * We could try that, sure. Reverend Black Percy (talk) 11:40, 28 July 2016 (UTC)

Hey, new stuff!
So, I've just noticed two novelties since Trent implemented the so-called hardware upgrades this last Saturday...

First of all — references placed before navs work now! They used to be broken in the previous version, but now that's fixed! Thanks a million, Trent!

And secondly — when browsing articles on my Android phone, the site now offers to "make mobile friendly". A new feature (for this site, that is). Although this new "mobile friendly" display mode does appear to break cquotes, it's still a wonderful addition.

If there is an official changelog tucked away somewhere, as a RationalMedia foundation board member, I'd wager that to be exactly among the type of things we probably ought to announce to the community; to show we're still working on things (duh) and also as an example of the donated funds materializing into something extra tangible, and so on...

I suppose that no such actual "changelog" will be posted by Trent, so just to still my own curiosity, I'm asking — anyone privy to any other changes and improvements brought on this last saturday (hardware as well as software)? All the best, Reverend Black Percy (talk) 09:36, 22 August 2016 (UTC)
 * References and navs don't collide with each other anymore? Whoa. *starts playing Handel's Hallelujah Chorus*--JorisEnter (talk) 09:41, 22 August 2016 (UTC)
 * See for yourself! (Upper right). 'Tis a blessing on the land, it is! Reverend Black Percy (talk) 09:58, 22 August 2016 (UTC)

For me, refs before navs don't work. In Confederate States of America, reference 1 is the Bouie quote. 13:14, 22 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Same here. Might be because gadgets are down again (and as such also the tooltips), but we'll see.--JorisEnter (talk) 13:16, 22 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Appear to works fine for me, both on my PC (Pale Moon) and my phone (Chrome). Ref 1 and ref 2 work as intended, and I can skip back and forth between them with ease and correctness. I'm also running no gadgets at all, for the record. Reverend Black Percy (talk) 14:01, 22 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Multiple servers? 15:31, 22 August 2016 (UTC)

This would be caused by "fucking magic", considering the change was (1) reboot the servers so they can see the increased memory (2) there's no step 2 - David Gerard (talk) 15:49, 22 August 2016 (UTC)
 * What the Reverend Black Percy (talk) 15:52, 22 August 2016 (UTC)

Gadgets
Hey everyone, I'm really new here. so if this sounds ignorant please excuse me. Where did the gadgets in preferences go? I seem to remember having wikEd (among other things) recently and now they're gone. Thanks, Andralker (talk) 07:49, 29 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Well for some reason the gadgets flip on and off at random. They were still up yesterday but today they don't seem to work anymore. This has been going on for the past few months at least, so it's a pretty well known issue (that still has not been fixed for some reason).--JorisEnter (talk) 07:52, 29 August 2016 (UTC)
 * As a board member, I'm starting to think that we might have to push upgrading and sorting the softare to top priority... Reverend Black Percy (talk) 12:04, 29 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Also, it loads pages in half (when I was reading Canada, it only loaded the page title and infobox) and after I purge the page it promptly logs me out. Andralker (talk) 14:09, 29 August 2016 (UTC)
 * What device were you on? OS, browser? What type of internet connection? Reverend Black Percy (talk) 07:32, 30 August 2016 (UTC)
 * Doesn't that problem exist since AGES and no-one is doing anything (except salvaging the site, when it crashes due to databases errors)?--The (((Kigel))) (talk) (mail) 03:18, 25 September 2016 (UTC) 03:18, 25 September 2016 (UTC)
 * Yes.--JorisEnter (talk) 09:39, 25 September 2016 (UTC)

Something's wrong with the references
I tried to troubleshoot them on this page by following the guidelines, because most of them won't show, but i can't manage to do it.--Sofer (talk) 02:18, 27 September 2016 (UTC)


 * Nevermind, Reverend Black Percy helped me.--Sofer (talk) 02:33, 27 September 2016 (UTC)

SSL
Rationalwiki still has no SSL :( Deku-shrub (talk)
 * Allow me to quote myself — we're working on it, let's say. Reverend Black Percy (talk) 18:58, 28 September 2016 (UTC)
 * dBMSXJEMsF/uEmo5KMl7BtergYFia0Ps/CygX3TaFZSx/SURL78gSMyPJxpFdLAycy3fZ+JsEEpzWP4/c/BlAcXQDi2D7zQoozHk2zitqk/Y06wrjkEaoUTKvomMgjSO ikanreed You probably didn't deserve that 18:59, 28 September 2016 (UTC)

Could a tech other than me...
...try using this website with a cellphone? Something changed and everything overlaps everything else and doesn't load properly. I don't know enough HTML for phones and such to be of much use here. StickySock (talk) 03:43, 2 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I have the same issue. I am not sure what is wrong.--Owlman (talk) (mail) 05:07, 2 October 2016 (UTC)
 * My fault. I put in the MobileMeta extension and it turns out to suck. So much for quick fixes - David Gerard (talk) 19:59, 2 October 2016 (UTC)

Weird image issue
Logged-in I go to http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/File:LovelyTree.jpg and get the error Error creating thumbnail: convert: unable to open image `/home/rationalwiki/public_html/w/images/f/f9/LovelyTree.jpg': No such file or directory @ blob.c/OpenBlob/2480. convert: missing an image filename `/tmp/transform_363bc65-1.jpg' @ convert.c/ConvertImageCommand/2838.. But logged out I go to same page and see a tree instead. 02:00, 3 October 2016 (UTC)
 * I see a cherry blossom tree with no issue. Also the pepe image we had issues with before seems to have been fixed. Caching issue probably.  02:10, 3 October 2016 (UTC)
 * Now I logout and log back in and the cherry blossom appears fine for me even logged in. However, still looks like something weird is happening with caching. If it happened just now it will probably happen again in the future. 02:22, 3 October 2016 (UTC)
 * This has been going on for ages. Images need a while to display properly after uploading.--JorisEnter (talk) 08:51, 3 October 2016 (UTC)

Description problem.
Hey, new user here, I recently joined because I want to assist the secular movement and fix grammar errors when I can. So I tried to add a description and it failed, I added no personal information that would lead to me in real life, and for some reason it's not working with me. So, could somebody help me with this?


 * Never add a link to your userpage as your first edit. You should be good to go now - David Gerard (talk) 23:32, 17 October 2016 (UTC)

Edit filter
Hi, I was trying to edit Nikolai Vavilov putting in that he died of starvation in prison in the Soviet Union for disagreeing with Lysenko's Marxist pseudoscience. And I got:


 * This action has been automatically identified as harmful, and therefore disallowed. The abuse rule which your action matched is: Probable spam, harassment, or dox


 * If you believe your edit was constructive, please report this error at our technical support page.

Why is that? Boris Grigor (talk) 13:00, 29 October 2016 (UTC)

Twitter
Looking around this place I see it's possible to embed youtube videos. Is it possible to embed tweets too? Smee Hee (talk) 21:27, 4 November 2016 (UTC)
 * For what reason? The quote template seems to work just fine.  22:38, 4 November 2016 (UTC)

Should WIGO's be automatically Archived?
The Current WIGOW Runs all the way to somewhere in September. I was wondering whether they should be somewhat archived automatically or something. User:K61824User_talk:K61824 22:29, 11 November 2016 (UTC)
 * They used to be, the bots broke and were never fixed. -- 05:00, 12 November 2016 (UTC)

WTH
Hi, I have tried to commit a huge expansion to Malleus Maleficarum but the filter $1 blocked me. Please help. --OneStep (talk) 05:05, 12 November 2016 (UTC)
 * That "huge expansion" was a literal Wikipedia copypaste.--JorisEnter (talk) 12:11, 12 November 2016 (UTC)
 * This is only partially true. I have spent a considerable time to carefully verify, adapt and expand it for RationalWiki. Is something wrong with that? This is an important content. Please compare lead sections for example. They differ a lot. Wikipedia is also mentioned in Bibliography to comply with licensing. Please also have a look at the Reception section. --OneStep (talk) 12:18, 12 November 2016 (UTC)
 * You copied large portions of the introduction from WP, as well as the entire sections and, including footnotes, images, inline comments and links to pages that do not exist.--JorisEnter (talk) 12:57, 12 November 2016 (UTC)
 * You ignore differences. I am familiar with the subject and as I said I have carefully verified those sections. The article was verified, adapted and expanded. This is not just a copy&paste. As far as redlinks are concerned, I am planning to change them using wpl template. I will be happy to answer any further concerns. This content is aligned with the mission of RMF. --OneStep (talk) 12:59, 12 November 2016 (UTC)
 * The ping feature doesn't work on RW's version of mediawiki. Secondly, please do not paste directly from Wikipedia like that. Reverend Black Percy (talk) 14:15, 12 November 2016 (UTC)
 * , what is wrong about that? I invite you to compare the lead section in this article (in a preview mode) with the lead section on Wikipedia. Please also have a look at the Reception section in this article that is missing on Wikipedia. I have also fixed all references and templates. I am new to RW. This is a good-faith edit. I am not planning to do the same with other articles. In my opinion this is justified in this particular case. --OneStep (talk) 14:24, 12 November 2016 (UTC)
 * As I said before, much of the body of the article was a literal copy-paste job. The fact that you tweaked the lead, or added a section that is "missing" on WP, does not mean that you can just copy and paste the rest of an article. And the fact that something is a good-faith edit doesn't mean it's a good idea.--JorisEnter (talk) 14:28, 12 November 2016 (UTC)
 * Let's not get too adversarial here. I am open to suggestions. The idea is to refute the propaganda about any condemnations whatsoever of this book and ignore 2 completely unreliable sources on WP (among other things). I also expect the WP article to quickly deteriorate. I expect changes to this one but perhaps not with the same trajectory. My goal was to make a good article that is self-contained. It can be expanded. Please clarify why are you so opposed to some content from WP? In some places I have added additional citations. Actually, I am not strongly opposed to removal of some duplicate content (and even almost all of it if you insist). --OneStep (talk) 14:35, 12 November 2016 (UTC)

Apparently RationaWiki's search does not examine the "summary" descriptions of uploaded files
e.g. A RationalWiki search for "Ty Bollinger" ... http://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?search=Ty+Bollinger+&title=Special%3ASearch&fulltext=1, does not find his name in this "summary" file-description ... http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/File:Leaked_data_from_%27Delta_Institute_International%27,_showing_some_of_their_%27affiliates%27_(sales_agents).png

Is there a way to include names in that file-description "summary" in the search results ?, (so if anyone searches for them on RationalWiki they will appear). 20:04, 23 November 2016‎ (UTC)

Delete template
I put up a call to be deleted for the French politicians page using the template. The banner is fine but I was unable to create a discussion entry. Can someone confirm that this is a problem? Bongolian (talk) 20:04, 23 November 2016 (UTC)

Fox News page
Something weird is happening on the Fox News page. This is appearing on the first line: "1. REDIRECT Template:Badsource". Bongolian (talk) 17:44, 3 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Fixed it. Reverend Black Percy (talk) 18:04, 3 December 2016 (UTC)

Weird error message


This occasionally pops up when I'm trying to get into RW. Sometimes, refreshing/going to some other RW page gets rid of it, but other times I have to wait until it works again.- 03:20, 7 December 2016 (UTC)
 * I'm getting this. The error says its most likely a cache issue. I've had cache issues in the past but not like this. 03:24, 7 December 2016 (UTC)
 * I had that yesterday. I'll notify DG and TMT. 04:11, 7 December 2016 (UTC)

apache2 seems to have gone dead and I'm having trouble finding the relevant Linode control panel to reboot it. I just emailed Trent - David Gerard (talk) 21:02, 7 December 2016 (UTC)


 * Trent thumped it. Apparently apache2 got clogged talking to the database (I can think of ways for this to happen). Let's see how it goes - David Gerard (talk) 22:39, 7 December 2016 (UTC)


 * This still seems to be happening; the site was completely inaccessible to me yesterday. 109.180.89.122 (talk) 09:07, 11 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Agreed. Still happening.- 03:16, 12 December 2016 (UTC)
 * I still get this: - Smerdis of Tlön, LOAD "*", 8, 1. 05:08, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

ERROR The requested URL could not be retrieved

The following error was encountered while trying to retrieve the URL: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page

Unable to forward this request at this time.

This request could not be forwarded to the origin server or to any parent caches. The most likely cause for this error is that the cache administrator does not allow this cache to make direct connections to origin servers, and all configured parent caches are currently unreachable.
 * Yep, still happening. Yep, board is aware. Yep, we've tried to fix it. 05:18, 12 December 2016 (UTC)

Spam filter message
I've got a message that accuses me of harassing myself when trying to create my own user page: "This action has been automatically identified as harmful, and therefore disallowed. The abuse rule which your action matched is: Probable spam, harassment, or dox:" "If you believe your edit was constructive, please report this error at our technical support page." Cripdyke (talk) 02:04, 21 December 2016 (UTC)
 * This is probably because you might be trying to add a bunch of outlinks to your userpage? Reverend Black Percy (talk) 02:17, 21 December 2016 (UTC)
 * yeah, there's a spam filter that blocks early edits being links on a user page, since that's a standard thing MediaWiki spambots do. Edit a bit and come back to it and it should be right. I've added you to "autopatrolled" since you appear to pass the Turing test - David Gerard (talk) 20:03, 21 December 2016 (UTC)

Preview doesn't work
It always loads the same version. See HTML. It's not updated with the that I added. Tried several times. See screenshot. Also tried in Chromium (not even logged in there): same effect. Seems like a cache on the server? Only seems to affect new pages too, as this page *does* seem to work. Carpetsmoker (talk)
 * I just tried a new page -- each of three distinct preview uses worked. Is it possible this error is limited to just one squid server? Also, that's definitely a gr9 page. 02:15, 7 January 2017 (UTC)

rationalwiki.org
When i try to browse to http://rationalwiki.org, all I get is a blank page. The code for the page is some java script and something that looks like an attempt to redirect to the main page. But the redirection doesn't happen, even when Javascript is enabled.

Perhaps as a redundancy you could add a link to that page that takes a person to the main page? Right now, unless you know what to type in, going to rationalwiki.org kinda leaves a person stranded. (well, for me anyway. :-) )

Using firefox-esr 45 4.0, javascript enabled. Thanks Xggreen (talk) 03:11, 13 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Is the problem still occuring for you? Reverend Black Percy (talk) 02:18, 21 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Indeed the page is blank. The page may not redirect if you disable redirects with add-ons such as noscript (redirects can be malicious after all). I suggest adding this code at the bottom (remove the “#”'s, these were added to prevent the spam filter that I was triggering):
 * 20:37, 21 December 2016 (UTC)
 * Here's all the code on the redirect page (again, remove all the pound symbols):
 * 20:42, 21 December 2016 (UTC)
 * 20:42, 21 December 2016 (UTC)
 * 20:42, 21 December 2016 (UTC)


 * I can't reproduce this in Firefox 50.1.0 or Chromium 53.0.2785.143. But if two people are seeing it, there's likely something weird going on. What are you browsing on, etc? And who is your ISP? - David Gerard (talk) 21:58, 21 December 2016 (UTC)
 * You have to have scripts disabled or have a browser that's way too old. To reproduce, get the add-on NoScript on Firefox and start disabling a bunch of scripts, then access http://rationalwiki.org/. With scripts enabled, the page redirects you to the main page http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Main_Page. If you configured the redirect script to be disabled with Noscript, the page shouldn't redirect. 22:53, 6 January 2017 (UTC)


 * Ha. Well, in that case, too bad - David Gerard (talk) 12:58, 7 January 2017 (UTC)

Random glitch
When looking at the articles for deletion page, sometimes the bottom subheading("Goat") will show 3 = instead of a subheading.-Blue Eyes White Dragon (talk) 23:14, 10 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Hmmm, I've looked through the AfD page but I can't find this problem. Might have been a random glitch indeed.--JorisEnter (talk) 23:35, 10 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I've had this glitch, it's completely random and it happens very rarely. I've found it only happens on iPads and iPhones for me, so maybe use a computer if you're not already.- 23:48, 10 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Just found an example as well (while working from a computer).--JorisEnter (talk) 23:49, 10 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I get that occasionally too, it's not a mobile issue. The server is a bit buggy. It could be the template? 23:51, 10 January 2017 (UTC)
 * You'll all be glad to hear that the board plans to overhaul the entire MediaWiki suite to the newest version. ETA? TBD. (<- that's the less festive part). Reverend Black Percy (talk) 23:55, 10 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I'm using a computer, but thanks for trying to be helpful DD1. Perhaps CBF is right? :)-Blue Eyes White Dragon (talk) 23:56, 10 January 2017 (UTC)

Your proxy protection sucks
I am literally writing this while logged in via a proxy because my regular, non-proxy IP is blocked for supposedly being a proxy. Your bot says something something DNBSL. Seriously, for a supposedly technology-savvy project, RW has a lot of software fuck-ups...

But what do I care, I am "literally Hitler"

- Weaseloid about Avenger , apparently for my stance defending Israel. Avengerofthe BoN (talk) 19:11, 3 January 2017 (UTC)
 * "If your IP is blocked from editing as an open proxy: you need to go to your provider about it. The lists we use are xbl.spamhaus.org, dnsbl.tornevall.org, all.s5h.net - if your IP is on one of these lists, then your provider has a serious problem they need to resolve. We cannot get your ISP out of the blacklist." Reverend Black Percy (talk) 19:36, 3 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Security tip, it's never a good idea to go online with your real IP address. Because a) situations like this and b) once an attacker gets your real IP, it gives easier access to your machine. There's not really a good reason to have your real IP address out there. As for the block, do you have any clue why your ISP might think your IP was malicious and put it into a blacklist. I can only guess your real IP address was found along with proxy IPs deemed malicious, and your real IP was found guilty by association. 19:51, 3 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I clicked two of the three links the reverend provided, one of them did not work, the other two said my IP was "not on the list" (i.e. not deemed a proxy) - I am not quite sure what list your blocking is based upon. I think an update is in order. And I would actually prefer to only edit via a proxy server here, but there seems to be some irrational aversion against them and sometimes the captcha borks if I use a proxy. Avengerofthe BoN (talk) 22:03, 3 January 2017 (UTC)
 * I will be putting zero effort into doing anything about this whatsoever - David Gerard (talk) 00:16, 4 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Well to be frank, I did not expect you to put any effort into this, Gerard, as you have made your hatred for me and everything I stand for amply clear. But let's just say that my ISP is not Telstra (which is well known for spam and vandalism problems) and I have never had any problem on any page of the internet (including several different wikis) with my IP. Just extrapolate from my problem how many well-meaning potential contributors you are potentially excluding by something that is potentially easily fixable. Just do the same thing Wikipedia does - there I cannot edit through proxy servers like the one I am using to write this, but my natural IP without a proxy works just fine to fix a typo or the likes. Best regards to the Reverend. And to Gerard: May your wishes for me come true for you. Avengerofthe BoN (talk) 15:53, 5 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Sadly we haven't had anyone foolish enough to step up to be RW admin yet. I quit months ago ... - David Gerard (talk) 22:27, 6 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Avenger, I'm going to point out that, if your home IP address (not wi-fi, work, the library, your school's computer, etc) is in the CBL (cbl.abuseat.org) you've probably got a serious problem you should address. Specifically, you probably have a virus infection spewing out spam, and that is not cool. 184.5.12.196 (talk) 03:19, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

How, Avenger, do you write a query about blocklists in such confrontational terms? 94.1.138.216 (talk) 22:01, 26 January 2017 (UTC)
 * They're so full of it. I've triggered that more than once on wi-fi or highly dynamic cellular IPs, and EVERY time the IP was listed in the Composite Blacklist (cbl.abuseat.org). It's clear they are using the CBL, and the CBL specifically says NOT to use their service for anything but mailserver blacklists. 184.5.12.196 (talk) 03:14, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

Firefox now warns that the LogIn page is not secure.

 * This discussion was moved here from RationalWiki:Saloon_bar#Firefox_now_warns_that_the_LogIn_page_is_not_secure..

Just a note to let people know that the new Firefox (51) is now showing a warning on all non-secure web pages which contain password fields. This includes RationalWiki's login page. For this release it's just a grey lock icon with a red strike-through in the address bar, but future releases are planing to get worse.

Here's Mozilla's blog post on the subject:

https://blog.mozilla.org/security/2017/01/20/communicating-the-dangers-of-non-secure-http/

I don't know what other browsers do, but my guess is that they will soon start doing something similar if they are not doing it already.

87.192.220.205 (talk) 16:07, 26 January 2017 (UTC)
 * You'll be glad to hear that our next big milestone is upgrading our entire MediaWiki platform, which will get us SSL. ETA: TBD. Reverend Black Percy (talk) 16:38, 26 January 2017 (UTC)


 * No, SSL is separate. It requires access to the load balancer, which I don't have. Trent is AWOL again and apparently uncontactable - David Gerard (talk) 19:19, 26 January 2017 (UTC)
 * How do you know? Were you there? Jokes aside, if access was granted, could something like this be relevant? I noticed it's marked as "stable", but that's about where my MediaWiki powers end. They are very weak indeed.  Reverend Black Percy (talk) 19:30, 26 January 2017 (UTC)
 * No, that's a completely different thing. Basically we need to terminate SSL at the load balancer (which is the IP that the name rationalwiki.org points at) and that can then talk to the squids by plain HTTP - David Gerard (talk) 20:47, 26 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Gotcha — thanks, old timer. Which reminds me; where is Trent? Not vanished to the Caymans, right? Reverend Black Percy (talk) 20:54, 26 January 2017 (UTC)

For frick's sake, quit misusing the CBL
From cbl.abuseat.org: What affect is this listing having on you? The CBL is intended to be used only on inbound email from the Internet. ''If you are being blocked from IRC, Chat, web sites, web email interfaces (eg: you're using Internet Explorer or Firefox to send email) or anything other than basic email with a mail reader like Exchange, Thunderbird etc, the provider of this service is using the CBL against our recommendations. Contact the provider and refer them to http://www.abuseat.org/tandc.html and refer them to item 2 and 7.'' Twice now I've tried to edit from a very large hospital, and it's blacklisted for a spam infection on the wi-fi network. The IT people won't do anything about it because it's on the wi-fi network and they claim they have no way of stopping the abuse. Really though, that's irrelevant, what is relevant is that this site is misusing the Composite Blacklist. 184.5.12.196 (talk) 03:09, 27 January 2017 (UTC)
 * This needs more attention. My suggestion is to signup. 04:07, 27 January 2017 (UTC)

Your captcha does not display anything
I had to make use of the audio captcha (which sucks balls) because your visual captcha does not work. Techies - fix this. SOLVE MEDIA is the only thing it says.
 * It's worse than that. If scripts are disabled, captcha works for me, but with scripts on I have to make two attempts because the first attempt will go as follows:
 * The captcha image will be the phrase "irresistibly modern" and, with or without any action from the user, the browser will be redirected to a bullshit "you've won a prize" page. 94.1.138.216 (talk) 21:48, 26 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Update: It didn't do it this time. Maybe it's fixed. 94.1.138.216 (talk) 21:50, 26 January 2017 (UTC)
 * It's hit or miss. Sometimes Solve Media will give me a real captcha, whereas sometimes it redirects to some prize or scareware nonsense. I hope they don't fix it, the broken captcha runs a bunch of would be editors away, and I hope someone with a really expensive Samsung Galaxy device complete destroys their phone with that scareware, figures out it is RationalWiki's fault, and sues RationalMedia into bankruptcy. 184.5.12.196 (talk) 13:32, 29 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Better yet, I hope an employee of some Fortune 100 company tries to edit from their company-issued device, somehow gets an Android virus from the captcha, and opens the company up to a massive data breach (think Target's data breach), and the corporate IT department figures out this site was to blame and David Gerard knew about it. Then I hope some snooty corporate lawyer serves Trent's foundation with a multi-million dollar lawsuit. 184.5.12.196 (talk) 13:39, 29 January 2017 (UTC)

Captcha glitch
Something else to point out: sometimes when I use an Android device to edit a page, I get redirected to a scareware site claiming my phone is infected with a virus. Don't know if there's anything you can do about it. It does NOT happen on PCs 184.5.12.196 (talk) 03:23, 27 January 2017 (UTC)
 * At what point does it sink in that you're on a network made of toxic waste - David Gerard (talk) 17:58, 27 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Seriously. Let that sink in. Reverend Black Percy (talk) 18:07, 27 January 2017 (UTC)
 * You're right, I'm on the internet and that is a network filled with toxic waste. That's why so-called fundie schools use net-nanny filters to keep their impressionable students safe from nonsense. Seriously though, if you read what the CBL (which you are obviously using) says about using its service for what you are using it for, it basically says that you are a dumbass. It's designed for mail servers to filter out email spam, not wikis. 184.5.12.196 (talk) 21:02, 28 January 2017 (UTC)


 * You're using a network you know is full of toxic waste and you're OUTRAGED that the networks-full-of-toxic-waste blockers block it - David Gerard (talk) 23:06, 28 January 2017 (UTC)
 * If you want to use the CBL to block protocols other than SMTP on port 25 (ie: IRC), realize this is officially UNSUPPORTED by the CBL team... It should be absolutely clear that there will be a potentially large number of affected users who, through no fault of their own, will NOT be able to delist due to NAT, dynamic IPs, or other similar issues. Anyone using the CBL for blocking IRC, blog comments or whatever needs to know that they will get collateral damage and they will either have to manage that themselves with whitelisting or live with it. Idiot. IPs listed in this should fix their problems, but that doesn't make you less of an idiot. 184.5.12.196 (talk) 13:19, 29 January 2017 (UTC)
 * By the way, the scareware crap that comes from this site's captchas has nothing to do with toxic waste on the editor's side. It is toxic waste on YOUR site. Now you know about it, and when someone else who is stupid as you are actually falls for that scareware, I hope RationalMedia has insurance. 184.5.12.196 (talk) 13:23, 29 January 2017 (UTC)
 * Re scareware: According to Microsoft:
 * "[W]e have came across situations in which the used WiFi router was exposed to malicious code and interacting this way with the Windows Phone devices."
 * If this is the situation, the attack can be performed through sites that do not perform end-to-end authentication for their packets. In other words, sites that do not use or an onion domain are vulnerable to a . The site does not use SSL now but plans on switching in the future. RationalWiki is not legally accountable for this attack and is not legally accountable for user security because it is not dealing with confidential information.
 * If you are infected: If you have been infected by malware please follow these steps and stop once you no longer have malware:
 * Backup your data
 * Factory reset your phone
 * Reinstall your phone's OS
 * Root your phone and reflash the firmware and bootloader. Then reinstall the OS.
 * Buy a new phone.
 * Unfortunately, most mobile phones make it difficult to do 3 and 4.
 * Prevent this attack in the future:
 * Use the NoScript plugin for Firefox to prevent injected malicious scripts from executing in your browser.
 * Use secure Wi-Fi networks that are password protected and have a firewall.
 * Be alert when using sites that don't use SSL
 * Re CBL: I have yet to hear anyone with admin authority to confirm that the site uses CBL. Could you state why you are assuming this? 17:44, 29 January 2017 (UTC)
 * We don't, we use the list at the top of this page - David Gerard (talk) 18:18, 30 January 2017 (UTC)

The good and the ugly
So apparently gadgets are working again, after having been gone for&mdash;how long exactly? I guess it was at least a couple months. Anyway, my compliments to whoever fixed this.

There appears, however, to be a problem with the placement of images and templates, see the image on the right. For some reason I only get this error when working from my computer (my phone is doing fine), but I still find it just a tiny bit suspicious that it has happened right at the same time as a new update. Does anyone know what is going on?--JorisEnter (talk) 11:51, 25 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Does anyone know what is going on?
 * It's funny because it's true. Reverend Black Percy (talk) 12:29, 25 February 2017 (UTC)
 * In the case you care, the image's data contains (presumably) your real name. 17:33, 25 February 2017 (UTC)


 * If something started working, it's because of fucking magic, not because anyone did anything - David Gerard (talk) 13:08, 26 February 2017 (UTC)

"Gadgets"
Not that important but I was wondering, is there any particular reason why the "Gadgets" section in my preferences is hardly ever there? As you'll see from this edit I got it working once. Next time I went on rationalwiki it had gone again. Is this true for everyone or just me? Christopher (talk) 19:41, 13 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Check top sticky thread, just pulled it out of the grave. 21:25, 13 March 2017 (UTC)

Making a page considered "harmful"??
Like, I found out about a gamergate guy just recently and tried to make a page for him because we had none (created an account to shield my IP so a gamergater doesn't dox me for my edits, you know how they are) But it keeps sayin it's harmful for me to make a page for him. Something about "spam" and "abuse" rules, and I'm not entirely sure how I am breaking these rules? Can an administrator please help me with this. I really love the work on this site so its so weird seeing my attempt at writing an article blocked like this.
 * Reverend Black Percy (talk) 17:19, 19 February 2017 (UTC)

Hey, I'm having the same problem! The wiki seems to think the page I'm trying to make is spam. First it says If you are seeing this instead of your message, type 1= before your message but even when I type 1= in front of my post, when I try re-submitting the page, it tells me it's spam.Gagamaru (talk) 08:11, 14 March 2017 (UTC)
 * What's the page you're trying to make? Christopher (talk) 16:06, 14 March 2017 (UTC)

It's a page about a guy who was involved in gamergate who seems pretty nutty, his name is Samuel Collinwood Smith. He thinks Hillary Clinton is a satanist and he was involved in a bunch of weird drama. Gagamaru (talk) 23:01, 14 March 2017 (UTC)

So, any help? I'd at least like to know why the page was labeled spam so I can avoid that error in the future. Here's the message it gives me: This action has been automatically identified as harmful, and therefore disallowed. The abuse rule which your action matched is: Edit caught by spamfilter. If this is not spam, please go to RationalWiki:Technical support. If you believe your edit was constructive, please report this error at our technical support page. Gagamaru (talk) 03:43, 16 March 2017 (UTC)

I'm still waiting. What does this wiki consider spam? Gagamaru (talk) 01:23, 17 March 2017 (UTC)
 * And to quote Christopher from above... What's the page you're trying to make? Reverend Black Percy (talk) 01:27, 17 March 2017 (UTC)
 * To be fair, if he's not auto-confirmed, there's a good chance that the edit filter will reject the things he's submitting even if they're on a talk page. I'm gonna go dig in the filter logs and see if I can't spot the rule that got triggered.  In the mean time, excise the external links and see if your page works, that's the most likely case for spam.   ikanreed You probably didn't deserve that 01:30, 17 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Well, follow up is easy, don't mention kiwifarms, because drive-by doxxers like to use it. We can add it later, after you're autoconfirmed.  And honestly, I'm not sure this kind of internet drama is really appropriate for a rationalwiki article anyways.  Even if it ties into a shitty little proto-authoritarian movement like gamergate, it's further from on mission than the greater "movement" and its conspiracy theories are.  ikanreed You probably didn't deserve that 01:40, 17 March 2017 (UTC)
 * My own, unofficial rule of thumb states that: basically anything that would be of interest to ED ought to be of little interest to us, and vice versa. In other words — don't cross the streams. Reverend Black Percy (talk) 01:48, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

There's an article on Joshua Conner Moon who has nothing to do with conspiracy theories. If that article is good enough, I don't really see why this one wouldn't be. Gagamaru (talk) 06:26, 17 March 2017 (UTC)
 * Alright, well, you're right, that's a determination that's not just up to me. But the rule you're flipping is this: new users can't mention kiwifarms.  So... work around that, and you can add those details when you're autoconfirmed.  That's only 10 non-rejected edits away.  If the article is really truly off-mission, users other than myself will think so after the page is made.  ikanreed You probably didn't deserve that 16:00, 17 March 2017 (UTC)

Capcha glitch, unauthenticated edits being rejected
It appears that unauthenticated IP edits are being rejected as "probably spam, harassment or dox." Looks like the capcha filter is broke. I was encountered with a stupid Progressive Insurance ad, twice, and both edits failed despite entering the right response to the stupid ad capcha. Regards, Cosmikdebris (talk) 05:14, 19 February 2017 (UTC)
 * I think I fixed it (it seems that the filter had an extra "pipe" in it that made it reject non-autoconfirmed edits containing literally anything). Note to self: last blocked edit was today at 08:02. Let's see what happens next.--JorisEnter (talk) 10:41, 19 February 2017 (UTC)

IP edits not welcome?

 * This discussion was moved here from RationalWiki:Saloon bar#IP edits not welcome?.

The edit filter calls constructive IP edits "spam, harassment, or dox." Mods/techs pls fix. SmartFeller (talk) 05:00, 19 February 2017 (UTC)
 * I verified this bad behavior here too. Reported to the slobs in charge. Regards, Cosmikdebris (talk) 05:17, 19 February 2017 (UTC)
 * The filter actually appeared to be blocking ALL non-autoconfirmed edits.
 * On 11:16, 16 February 2017, edited the filter. From 11:28, 16 February 2017 to 08:02, 19 February 2017, the filter has "caught" 248 edits. I think I've found the source of the problems, folks. Reverted back to version as of 08 December.
 * Please IP-edit to confirm. 15:45, 19 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Just going to point out here that I already fixed the issue.--JorisEnter (talk) 16:14, 19 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Sorry for stealing your thunder, Joris. :P 20:20, 22 February 2017 (UTC)
 * We can't get vandalized if nobody can edit. Jokes aside, though — I broke the edit filter? Sounds about right... Sorry, everybody! Reverend Black Percy (talk) 17:07, 19 February 2017 (UTC)
 * Spillover from Conservapedia? 31.51.114.75 (talk) 14:38, 21 February 2017 (UTC)
 * You mean, in terms of rampant staff incompetency? If so: no — not spillover from CP. My idiocy is an RW original. Reverend Black Percy (talk) 16:28, 21 February 2017 (UTC)
 * The blocking policies of Conservapedia spilling through the tubes and snarly-up-ing RW (think various low-budget films with 'whatever' spreading rapidly...) 86.145.120.234 (talk) 13:54, 22 February 2017 (UTC)
 * In fact, we did it better than Conservapedia. Not only did we block 100% of IP edits, but we also blocked 100% of new-user edits! Conservapedia's low ratios can hardly compare. Sad! 20:23, 22 February 2017 (UTC)

Forgot password with no email associated
Is there any way to fix this? Long story short, I went onto this guy's page, assumed I had a new message, and clicked the link. Instant regret. I have a screenshot of me not-yet-logged-out in one window and logged out on another. Sorry for the trouble. &mdash; Unsigned, by: Randír / talk / contribs
 * If you genuinely cannot remember, I'd suggest just creating a new account -- any of the mods or techs can rename that account to whatever you please. 15:52, 31 March 2017 (UTC)

Wrong icon in Template:WIGO NAV
In Template:WIGO NAV, the icon for "Elections" is the same as the one for "World." For consistency it should use the Politics icon instead. The offending code is

I can't find what CSS file this definition is in, or if I even have permissions as a lowly sysop to change it. Could someone with the appropriate permissions fix this? Regards, Cosmikdebris (talk) 23:57, 6 April 2017 (UTC)
 * I pointed out the same thing back in 2016, and IIRC, Ikan/FCP/Gerard noted that they didn't know how to change the icon... :C I hope you have more luck than me with this! Reverend Black Percy (talk) 01:28, 7 April 2017 (UTC)

Tried to fix it. 03:41, 7 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Oh, yipe. Hover over is blank, and bar icon's gone all blank. Cosmikdebris (talk) 03:46, 7 April 2017 (UTC)
 * File:Wigobuttons inline2.png needs to update. Blame RW's shitty MediaWiki and image caching. 04:11, 7 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Thank you for fixing this. Regards, Cosmikdebris (talk) 01:05, 29 April 2017 (UTC)

Enabled $wgFileCache
Server load was at 26, so I enabled $wgFileCache, which is a cache for anonymous page views. There may be a glitch in the matrix. Don't be alarmed. -- Tim Starling (talk) 00:50, 7 June 2017 (UTC)
 * That's all fine and well, but here's the important question: Do I blame David or do I blame Trent? 02:38, 7 June 2017 (UTC)

I did not do this.
http://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Neil_deGrasse_Tyson&action=history

I did not do this. I have a 180 day cookie on my laptop. Did someone steal it?

ClickerClock (talk) 06:36, 11 June 2017 (UTC)
 * http://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Mathematics&action=history I didn't do this either. ClickerClock (talk) 06:39, 11 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Maybe this has something to do with the nazi I messed with. ClickerClock (talk) 06:40, 11 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Are you absolutely sure you didn't just forget about making those edits? Christopher (talk) 08:21, 11 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Now that I think about it. I edit Rationalwiki on a touchscreen. ClickerClock (talk) 10:21, 11 June 2017 (UTC)
 * I could just be very clumsy when it comes to my thumbs. ClickerClock (talk) 10:21, 11 June 2017 (UTC)

Accidental rollbacks are very easy to do when editing from Recent Changes. You're officially a normal RatWik now. Rejoice! 10:45, 11 June 2017 (UTC)

topic issue
i cant send a topic i was wanting to send to someone, i did everything and added a 1 like it said and then i re-did the puzzle again..... then it says it wasnt allowed because its spam.....
 * Hi there, let me check the issue. 00:17, 6 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Yeah, I don't know why your edits were blocked. I gave you autopatrolled, which will let you override the spamfilter. 00:21, 6 June 2017 (UTC)

Captcha blocked as advertising by Ghostery
The image captcha you use is blocked by Ghostery under the "advertising" category. Fair enough, since that's what it is. I thought you'd like to know. The audio variant worked but took me about 5 minutes to solve, which is a bit impractical when a captcha solution is required on every edit, even the user page edit I just did. -- Tim Starling (talk) 00:17, 4 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Someone probably needs to fix that. Christopher (talk) 09:28, 4 June 2017 (UTC)
 * In technical terms RationalWiki is a ghost wiki (1.19 ahoy! Was someone going to rewrite the WIGO extension to work with 1.27? Wasn't me, and nobody else has stepped up; and we don't have SSL because I don't have load balancer access), and Trent hasn't answered my email in literally months. I quit long ago and only bother fixing stuff when it's literally completely broken and easy because I still happen to have root. There's a great big blocker on the process of getting it out from under Trent, and it's called Trent - David Gerard (talk) 10:32, 4 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Supposedly RMF owns the website, not Trent? But it would be a nuisance to have to convince Linode and Register.com of that. Especially since you apparently don't have a registered trademark. Best if he can be convinced to share access. -- Tim Starling (talk) 23:48, 4 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Indeed, supposedly RMF owns the website. But property don't mean much without access, and Trent's been, ah, virtually nonresponsive about giving access. We've been trying to do something about it all year. 00:36, 5 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Yeah, this is often a problem with sites such as this. On one hand the founder has no time to do their duties, but on the other hand they don't want to let go of "their" project. It's understandable but frustrating. I remember bsdforums.org literally collapsing under a truckload of spam because of this :-/ Sooner of later, I fear the same will happen to RationalWiki, which would be a shame :-( Carpetsmoker (talk) 01:41, 5 June 2017 (UTC)
 * I think RationalWiki is worth saving. Most sites are not incorporated, but according to the New Mexico business database, RationalWiki is incorporated and has a plausible list of directors which does not even include Trent. If those directors are contactable then you can certainly take action. You should set a deadline. Threaten to remove Trent as an officer if he doesn't get his act together. Register the trademark. -- Tim Starling (talk) 04:30, 5 June 2017 (UTC)
 * The trouble is getting access to all the stuff - David Gerard (talk) 07:11, 5 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Well, I wrote a new WIGO extension a while back, which also has some features the current one doesn't have: https://github.com/Carpetsmoker/MediaWiki-WIGO ... Feel free to use/modify/etc. (liberal MIT license applies); the major hurdle in migrating to it (if ye want, that is) is that it doesn't have a tool to convert current entries, but that can be easily written. I can look at it if you're interested in migrating to it. Carpetsmoker (talk) 01:38, 5 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Hard part is making it work with ten years' up/down votes, and that would be useful and lovely thank you (the lack of 10 yrs' back data was the problem last time). Useful stuff and (IIRC) our local extensions at RationalWiki:Content dumps (and I need to put an up to date content dump there) - David Gerard (talk) 07:10, 5 June 2017 (UTC)
 * It should just be a matter of converting stuff from table format A to table format B. Shouldn't be too hard ;-) One reason I never did any work on it is because I wasn't sure how likely it is to actually get used. Trent is absent, and you always seemed busy with other stuff (work, life, and other such trivialities ;-)). And beyond that there was no one else. It seems that this is still the case? Carpetsmoker (talk) 13:30, 5 June 2017 (UTC)
 * More or less. It's pretty much the biggest blocker for 1.27 though, and with that I can at least consider an upgrade.
 * Tim Starling has also kindly offered to look over our awful pile of stuff, and has spotted a pile of 'sploits already. Yay! - David Gerard (talk) 17:26, 5 June 2017 (UTC)
 * So what you are saying is that spending time on this is not a waste of time? I remember spending time on that DPL thing to fix the "can't have references before sidenav"-bug, and that was basically a "replace extension A with B"-action (just like this), but that was never done, so basically it ended up being a waste of my time. Not blaming you or Trent for that, but hope you understand I'm hesitant to invest time here without at least semi-serious commitment from someone who can actually follow through and enact these changes (I know ye can't promise anything, as it's all a volunteer effort); I also have other stuff going on in my life and have to prioritise where I spend my time :-) Carpetsmoker (talk) 17:43, 5 June 2017 (UTC)
 * It was me. I was going to rewrite the wigo extension.  I even DID, but I sucked so hard at getting around to testing it in more than just my browser.  ikanreed 🐐Bleat at me 18:11, 5 June 2017 (UTC)
 * No hard feelings. :) 00:24, 6 June 2017 (UTC)

RationalWiki refuses HTTPS connections
Three-month ping on the issue described in RationalWiki:Technical_support/Archive14

Logging in to http://rationalwiki.org/ with Firefox 52 or later produces a warning on Special:UserLogin


 * 🔓 Logins entered here could be compromised. Learn More

Attempting to use https://rationalwiki.org/ fails:


 * Firefox can’t establish a connection to the server at rationalwiki.org.

--68.45.187.245 (talk) 16:55, 17 April 2017 (UTC)
 * Does it prevent you from actually logging in or just warn you not to? Christopher (talk) 17:09, 17 April 2017 (UTC)

The USERNAME template doesn't work
USERNAME It always says "Anonymous user" instead of my username.- 03:09, 29 June 2017 (UTC)
 * If we install this extension, we can change USERNAME's contents to And USERNAME doesn't work because   doesn't work anymore. ClickerClock (talk) 09:07, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

No email notifications
It seems that email notifications for watched pages are not happening. Bongolian (talk) 04:27, 29 June 2017 (UTC)


 * Oh good my inbox is fucking flooded now 12:55, 29 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Oh good my inbox is fucking flooded now 12:55, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

Internal Error
I got this error when I went to Template:Messagebox.

ClickerClock (talk) 08:51, 29 June 2017 (UTC)



SVG file not creating thumbnail
See Racialism, above "Johann Blumenbach's 1775 racial typologies". Error provided:

Error creating thumbnail: /bin/bash: rsvg-convert: command not found

01:58, 29 June 2017 (UTC)


 * Thanks! 12:54, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

Collapse template no longer works
collapse doesn't work. Example:

text

I'm pretty sure WP uses a different tag/magic word to get the same effect.

See also Crebox. 02:00, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

NSFW images being displayed if you use gallery
For obvious reasons I won't link to an example of when this has been abused by wandals but I've seen it happen a few times. Any idea how to fix it? Christopher (talk) 18:32, 19 May 2017 (UTC)
 * (I mean the thing, when I tried to include in the subject header it didn't come up, which is another more minor technical problem). Christopher (talk) 18:43, 19 May 2017 (UTC)
 * * poke*Christopher (talk) 15:18, 30 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Would you mind giving an example? 18:29, 30 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Some vandalism to your sig(NSFW, obviously). Christopher (talk) 18:50, 30 May 2017 (UTC)
 * How is this problematic? Seeing gay porn spontaneously should make anyone's day (because everyone has the same sexual preferences, duh). Why do we have gay porn on here?  04:28, 31 May 2017 (UTC)

*shrug* that's just the usual File:frot vandalism, adds nothing new to it. 19:29, 30 May 2017 (UTC)
 * But isn't _NSFW_ meant to stop it? Christopher (talk) 19:33, 30 May 2017 (UTC)
 * If you don't use it just produces this (as long as you have NSFW images disabled in your preferences): Christopher (talk) 19:45, 30 May 2017 (UTC)
 * Oh, I don't have them disabled. There are so few images tagged as NSFW... Since the gallery tag is inherent to mediawiki it's probably not fixable on our end. Maybe test it out on en.WP? 23:48, 30 May 2017 (UTC)

Server shuffle in 1 hour
http://rationalwiki.blogspot.co.uk/2017/06/server-shuffling-and-upgrades.html

Visible effect: should be 0 - David Gerard (talk) 12:58, 17 June 2017 (UTC)

New technical problems probably caused by the server shuffle
When I try and use HotCat it says "500 internal server error", something to do with the server shuffle? As Bongolian pointed out in the saloon the search doesn't come up with suggestions anymore, anything else? Christopher (talk) 08:07, 18 June 2017 (UTC)


 * Both issues were probably due to the security fixes I implemented on the weekend. At least, the PHP error log was full of parse errors due to an incompatibility with PHP 5.3. I pushed the fix to https://github.com/tstarling/mediawiki-extensions-RWEditcount (yay version control) and deployed it. Search suggestions appear to work. Please retest HotCat and let me know if it works. -- Tim Starling (talk) 01:33, 21 June 2017 (UTC)

Also autocomplete is no longer working in the search box. Bongolian (talk) 07:25, 21 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Autocomplete works for me. I'm currently on a Windows 10 laptop and Chrome browser.ClickerClock (talk) 08:19, 21 June 2017 (UTC)
 * It is now working for me again. Bongolian (talk) 02:14, 22 June 2017 (UTC)

I would check if HotCat works but the gadgets are broken yet again. Christopher (talk) 20:25, 21 June 2017 (UTC)
 * HotCat works but HatCat's autocomplete doesn't.ClickerClock (talk) 04:52, 22 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Works for me. I don't know how much time I should spend debugging gadgets. You know you can edit them yourself. I'm not even a sysop, I'd have to grant myself access to edit them. -- Tim Starling (talk) 05:57, 22 June 2017 (UTC)

There's no smiley toolbar. ClickerClock (talk) 04:57, 22 June 2017 (UTC)
 * It works if you disable the user preference called "Enable enhanced editing toolbar", which is enabled by default in LocalSettings.php. It's enabled in your account. -- Tim Starling (talk) 05:57, 22 June 2017 (UTC)
 * It works![[File:Clapping.gif]] I'm just going to attempt to code a smiley toolbar that works with the enhanced editing toolbar.ClickerClock (talk) 06:25, 22 June 2017 (UTC)

Why do my edits to Common.js keep triggering the spam filter?
ClickerClock (talk) 07:38, 22 June 2017 (UTC)


 * wgSpamRegex is set to /&lt;a href|766849|a3864d|947445|dbb687/i, presumably you are trying to make links. Better to use AbuseFilter for that kind of thing, it is more configurable. I'll just comment it out for now. -- Tim Starling (talk) 12:23, 22 June 2017 (UTC)
 * What the hell would that regex match? Is "766849" a common phrase? 15:19, 22 June 2017 (UTC)
 * My wager is that there were probably bots linking the same url over and over, and it had that number in it. ikanreed 🐐Bleat at me 16:36, 22 June 2017 (UTC)

DPL configured to respect parser cache
I don't think it's OK to have a wiki of this size and popularity with every cache layer disabled by the DPL extension on virtually every main namespace page. So I enabled ExtDynamicPageList::$respectParserCache. If you don't like the results, please have a look at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:DynamicPageList_(third-party) and tell me what I should be doing differently. -- Tim Starling (talk) 01:32, 23 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Can you either briefly explain what ExtDynamicPageList::$respectParserCache changed or link to documentation? 02:12, 23 June 2017 (UTC)
 * I did link to the documentation. Ideally DPL would allow you to set a short expiry time, rather than giving you a choice between zero or the wiki default, but those are the two choices at the moment. So with the current settings, I think DPL boxes will be updated once every 24 hours, or when the page is purged or edited. -- Tim Starling (talk) 05:50, 23 June 2017 (UTC)
 * That's a sensible setting for a dynamically-generated object, having it cache like an included template should be entirely fine - David Gerard (talk) 14:34, 23 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Sorry, Tim, shouldn't've responded while tired. Plan sounds good. 14:40, 23 June 2017 (UTC)

indicator tags don't work
Help:Page status indicators

ClickerClock (talk) 04:53, 28 June 2017 (UTC)


 * You wrote this before I did the upgrade. Try again now. -- Tim Starling (talk) 10:36, 28 June 2017 (UTC)
 * It works! ClickerClock (talk) 11:19, 28 June 2017 (UTC)

Cquote text going all the way along the page even if there's a navisdebar
What the section title says. Christopher (talk) 15:13, 24 June 2017 (UTC)


 * No idea what's up with that. Cquote wasn't edited, Navsidebar wasn't edited. The only thing that changed was Randomarticles -- and in a way that shouldn't affect the navsidebar. 20:03, 24 June 2017 (UTC)
 * It's also happening at transitional fossil where it's obscuring a picture so it's something to do with cquote. there are no recent edits to common.css or anything else like that. Christopher (talk) 20:44, 24 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Cquote only uses !, last changed 2009. 20:56, 24 June 2017 (UTC)
 * It's my fault. My temporary solution to an extension being unsupported is extremely hacked together. It will be fixed when this wiki updates. ClickerClock (talk) 07:35, 25 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Is there a way you could reverse it? It's really annoying, especially on the agnosticism page. Christopher (talk)
 * Fix implement for gold, silver, bronze, balloons and goat page header templates. It should be gone.ClickerClock (talk) 10:13, 25 June 2017 (UTC)
 * It works! The brainstars aren't in the best place but you can't have everything. Christopher (talk) 10:30, 25 June 2017 (UTC)


 * Except when Page is goat is used. Christopher (talk) 13:49, 25 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Wanted to second that. 21:46, 25 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Better now?ClickerClock (talk) 03:41, 26 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Still looks the same to me. Christopher (talk) 07:24, 26 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Looks OK here - David Gerard (talk) 10:08, 26 June 2017 (UTC)

Seems fine now, across 5 devices. 14:11, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

Interwikis are broken
Interwiki links (like WP:pagename) no longer work, Special:Interwiki is still up but CP:Goat takes me to http://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=CP:Goat&action=edit&redlink=1 not http://www.conservapedia.com/Goat Christopher (talk) 16:32, 28 June 2017 (UTC)
 * This is used on quite a few templates (like wpa) so it's quite important. Christopher (talk) 16:11, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

ADDNEWSECTIONBELOW is broken
It's only used twice so it's not that important, it currently just displays __ADDNEWSECTIONBELOW__ instead of doing whatever it's meant to do. Christopher (talk) 20:00, 29 June 2017 (UTC)


 * It was removed on purpose, since the extension was unmaintained and rarely used. You can remove the tag from those two pages. -- Tim Starling (talk) 00:40, 30 June 2017 (UTC)


 * I'm remembering now that what really tipped the balance was finding out that it was broken even before the upgrade. It was probably broken since the upgrade from 1.16 to 1.19. -- Tim Starling (talk) 04:38, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

Fix it! Fix it! Fix it!
This may not be a bug per se, but the video embedded at the top of this very page (see thread title) used to have a frame, visually of the sort and  get when given the "thumb" parameter. The current lack of such a frame could reflect a MW layout change, but since it looks kinda crooked compared to before, I thought I'd mention it. Reverend Black Percy (talk) 21:46, 29 June 2017 (UTC)


 * Maybe try reading the fine manual -- Tim Starling (talk) 23:02, 29 June 2017 (UTC)
 * I'm still in shock that current (read: up-to-date) MW documentation applies here. Thanks, Tim. Reverend Black Percy (talk) 23:05, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

Internal Error
at Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence

ClickerClock (talk) 07:31, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

is broken
The template no longer seems to outlink to Wikipedia properly. Example:



...which should take you here. Reverend Black Percy (talk) 22:33, 29 June 2017 (UTC)


 * So is, e.g. . Cosmikdebris (talk) 00:11, 30 June 2017 (UTC)

Upload form
Special:Upload is borked as fuck. 00:07, 29 June 2017 (UTC)
 * It's because MediaWiki:Uploadtext doesn't handle properly -- has it been removed? 02:38, 29 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Apparently &lt;textinsert&gt; was a local patch to the CharInsert extension. Maybe you can see if there is some other way to do what it is you were doing, since I'm not too keen on unnecessary local patches. If you think the feature was really awesome, we can get it merged upstream. -- Tim Starling (talk)
 * I'll mess with it today. Agreed on local patches. 14:06, 29 June 2017 (UTC)
 * I've rigged up a substitute in MediaWiki:Edittools. However, no edittools work on Special:Upload. Any idea why? 16:08, 29 June 2017 (UTC)
 * Maybe T88922, which I should be able to fix. -- Tim Starling (talk) 21:00, 29 June 2017 (UTC)

Upgrade status
The MediaWiki 1.27 upgrade is done. This was done in a bit of a rush, so some things are broken.

RandomSelection (#choose) is evidently broken, I'll fix that shortly. Fixed

Intercom was broken in an annoying way, messages could not be dismissed, so I disabled it. I should be able to re-enable it within a few days.

Wigo3 is also broken for the same reason (sajax_do_call), but is apparently less annoying in its brokenness, so I'll leave it enabled while I fix it. Fixed

There's a log entry suggesting that some DPL instances were broken by the migration to MariaDB 10.0.

createbox, flashmp3, sort and topicon were removed on purpose.

If you logged in and changed your password before the timestamp of this comment, you may get a second password expiry prompt when you log in for the second time. Just ignore it and use the same (new) password.

That's all the issues I know about right now. If other things are broken, feel free to note them below.

Tim Starling (talk) 11:15, 28 June 2017 (UTC)

To help with prioritisation, please add a comment to the relevant section below if you think an issue is important and should be fixed before the other things. -- Tim Starling (talk) 09:05, 29 June 2017 (UTC)