Forum:Glitches in the Wiki System

As many of you have no doubt noticed, the wiki has been affected by some glitches lately. Below is a list of the glitches I have noticed and what I know about them, along with ways to avoid them. If you have noticed any other glitches that are not listed, please post about them here. 14:39, October 28, 2009 (UTC)

The "Blue Box" glitch
Observed problem: Usually occurring when adding text on a new line, or separating a paragraph into two, the text that was just edited will be surrounded by blue dashed line, forming a box around the text, and will often have a scroll bar, as the text may disappear off the side of the screen.

Explanation: There is a simple reason for this occurring. The code used for wikia dictates that if a new line starts off with a blank space, then it will add the blue box to all text from there to the next empty line. This only applies to the start of a new paragraph, so spaces at the start of lines after the first line of a paragraph are unaffected.

Solution: Easy. Just make sure that there is not a space before any text at the start of a new paragraph.

Advice to avoid this issue: See "Solution" above.

The "&nbsp ;" or "whitespace" glitch (Resolved)
Observed problem: the string of characters "&nbsp ;" (without the spaces in-between) appear in place of a space, sometimes after a word, other times connecting two words together. Occasionally, there will be a load of them repeated one after the other. It seems to only happen when the Rich Text Editor is used, and is only visible when looking at the wikitext code.

Explanation from Wiki Central (User: Kirkburn): ''When users type shift+space, this is what appears, or when users type multiple spaces. We can't remove that already exist, because they are used for some valid design issues. However, I'm still hoping we find a way to resolve it - the shift+space issue is really the heart of the problem.''

Solution: Fixed in latest version of Rich Text Editor (3.1).

Advice to avoid this issue: Try not to hold the shift key when pressing the space bar as you type. It may not stop the issue altogether, but hopefully it will at least cut down on the instances of it. Also, please use the "show changes" option immediately underneath the editing window to check for instances of the glitch in your edit. You may need to use the wikitext editor to remove the glitch.

The "New Line" or "Enter" glitch (Resolved)
Observed problem: New blank lines are added to a page. This glitch seems to occur most frequently immediately after a heading. Again, this seems to be linked to the Rich Text Editor.

Explanation from Wiki Central (User:Kirkburn): ''We're actually working on reworking the editor at the moment, and hopefully it should avoid these issues. (We know of the spacing issues, and we have been trying to get them all fixed.)''

Solution: Fixed in latest version of Rich Text Editor (3.1).

Advice to avoid this issue: The only advice I can offer is to check your edits using the "Show changes" option underneath the edit window. Remove any extra lines that have been added unintentionally.

The "Image History" glitch (Resolved)
Observed problem: When someone uploads a new image using the same file name as an old image, it replaces that old image. However, any attempts to revert the new image to the old one are not working.

Explanation from Wiki Central: Currently, none.

Solution: None, but it seems to have been sorted out.

Advice to avoid this issue: If you want to upload a new image, simply upload it with a new name. Do not replace an old image.

Comments
Please post any comments here, so that they may be kept separate from the glitch summaries. 14:39, October 28, 2009 (UTC)

Some users are still having trouble understanding the Image thing. And I am seriously running out of patience with it. This morning User:Master Spider "updated" a bunch of pics with inferior-quality pics, and I was unable to fully restore some of them. Arrancar109 16:40, November 7, 2009 (UTC)


 * Oddly enough, File:Momo Hinamori2.jpg is showing up correctly on Momo Hinamori's page, but not the Characters page. Arrancar109 17:46, November 7, 2009 (UTC)

Recent Updates Glitch
It seems like there's a new glitch coming up. I refresh the "Recent Updates" page, but I've noticed that it's not showing some of the most recent edits. Anyone else having this problem? Arrancar109 (Talk)  01:34, December 19, 2009 (UTC)

I have the same problem right now, but also, last night the recent changes thing was acting up. Underneath the list of changes, the "Show changes since..." link kept giving incorrect times and showing me edits from the last few hours before it should do. 11:33, December 19, 2009 (UTC)


 * This seems to have been a temporary issue, as it has not arisen since. 11:56, January 25, 2010 (UTC)

Update to Rich Text Editor
Apparently there will be an update to the RTE very soon (sometime this week), and the "new line" and "&nbsp ;" glitches should be sorted out with this update. Can't wait for it, as I'm sick of the problem. Hopefully the new update will not introduce any new glitches. 23:18, January 13, 2010 (UTC)


 * The updates has been launched, details at . If anyone continues to encounter the "new line" and "&nbsp ;" problems, or anything else they think might be a glitch in the wiki system, post about it please. 10:34, January 15, 2010 (UTC)

From what I can tell looking over the recent changes since the update was launched, the "&nbsp ;" glitch is no longer an issue, while the new line glitch is no longer a problem on the articles. However, it is an issue on the forums - I keep seeing multiple empty lines (typically 4) inserted at the start of posts. It is happening too often with too many users for it to be deliberate - it seems to be a glitch. But it is happening less now, so maybe they've sorted that out. I've also noticed that sometimes when editing a page with kanji on it, one of the kanji is replaced by this symbol: �. I'm not sure if it is the same kanji or different ones each time, but it is rather annoying. There have been various other odd occurrences, but nothing that has been happening often enough to worry about atm. 11:56, January 25, 2010 (UTC)


 * Kirkburn at Wiki Central says that a fix for the kanji problem should be up now, so all being well, that issue should be resolved. 19:45, January 25, 2010 (UTC)

Return of the &amp ; Glitch
Well, I was checking recent edits and I noticed a page had "&amp ;" on it. I've only seen it once (which I removed), but I'm seriously hoping it doesn't become a major problem again. Arrancar109 (Talk)  04:47, February 26, 2010 (UTC)


 * I've seen it once or twice this week too. Hopefully it will stay at small problem at worst. 11:47, February 26, 2010 (UTC)

Random Extra
Im not sure if this is a glitch or not but there seems to be a random insert of recent plotline at the bottom of the Yadomaru Lisa page under the references section. Figured I'd bring it to attention. --Ehgriezero 05:22, July 8, 2010 (UTC)

This is in many if not all the pages, I cannot find the source however--God (Pray)  05:39, July 8, 2010 (UTC)

I'm not seeing this anywhere, so it may have been resolved. There were server issues yesterday, and many things got messed up for a while. I'm guessing it had to do with that. 10:13, July 8, 2010 (UTC)

Time Glitch
I don't know if I am the only one experiencing this or not, but sometimes when I hit my home, it is displaying the recent changes time as a negative random number such as -198674 or -45395 seconds ago. Also, when I made my most recent blog post, when I went back to my home page, it was not listed in the recent changes and in my recent contributions box, it listed the blog as created 5 hours ago--God (Pray)  05:28, July 8, 2010 (UTC)


 * I've noticed that happen sometimes after a bad server problem on Wikia. The system is trying to sort itself out after the problem and does weird things. Wikia reports that everything is alright now. However, according to Wikia Central, there will be more server downtime as they are upgrading their servers. 10:13, July 8, 2010 (UTC)

Vanishing Images
Okay, so no doubt many of you have noticed that there is a sizable number of pictures that are not showing up on the articles atm. Many of them show up when you click on them though for some reason. Don't know what has changed to make it a problem, but it seems that a lot of the images that have rarer characters (such as ō, apostrophes etc) in their titles are disappearing. I have moved a number of the "missing" images to new titles using just the normal letters and they have reappeared. I don't know if we're going to have to do this with all such images or if Wikia can sort it out. But in future, it may be best to avoid using symbols in image titles. 12:30, August 13, 2010 (UTC)


 * This seems to be dealt with now, but please report any broken images to an admin ASAP. 16:54, August 20, 2010 (UTC)

Image Glitch
Seems the old image glitch is back. Not the vanishing one, but the old one, where if you try to restore an old upload, the thumbnail or the displayed image will show up as whatever the image was that you were trying to revert over. I first noticed it with one of Tinni's replacement Kensei images, where the scaled down image looked unusually compressed, but the full image looked fine. I noticed it again today when SunXia tried to undo Sanji Taichou's image upload of Image:C382 byk.png, which was replacing the manga image with the scene from chAngE. The image from chAngE was still showing up in the thumbnail, regardless of how many times I tried to fix it by continuously trying to revert it to the manga shot. I think the only way we might be able to fix this is the delete the image altogether and restore it. It worked a bit differently for me though when I tried this. I tried to restore it up to SunXia's revert, but all it did was save the Fair Use Rationale to the image, not the actual image yourself. I would suggest that if you do decide to take this step, then you should save the image, so you can upload it again. Arrancar109 (Talk)  17:27, August 29, 2010 (UTC)