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:WikiProject Wiki Syntax - Misplaced Pages

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What is this?

An attempt to fix up mismatched wiki syntax (such as brackets), like this "]", or "(see ])", or "". They're all wrong, and need to be fixed. If you're looking at this page, it's probably because someone fixed something on a page you're watching. All that's being asked is that you do the same for someone else (i.e. fix something on someone else's page). You don't have to go looking for these misplaced bits of wiki syntax — that's already been done for you. All you have to do is follow the steps below — it's very easy, quick, and helpful.

How does this work?

  1. Randomly select a page from the list of pages below (that hasn't been crossed out already):
  2. On that page randomly select one block of 5 problems from the list of contents.
  3. Fix those 5 problems with bad brackets (either by closing them, opening them, or deleting them).
  4. With each fix, if you want, set the edit description to "]". (This is to encourage more malformed brackets to be fixed.)
  5. Delete that block of 5 problems from the page (so that we know that they're done).

That's it.

I can't find a listed problem / it was fixed already.

Then please disregard it, and move on to the next problem.

If I want to fix more than 5 things, can I?

Absolutely!

New lines

Please try and ensure that all square brackets, ordinary brackets, bold quotes, and italics quotes are opened and closed on the same line (i.e. no carriage returns between each start and end pair). For example, do this:

Rather than this:

  • [http://www.site.com

Description].

Or this:

  • '''bold text'''

Rather than this:

  • '''bold

text'''

If these things occur on different lines, they will be listed as problems (once for each line). This is deliberate, as these things really should be opened and closed on the same line.

What do I do if I encounter valid unclosed square brackets, or other wiki syntax?

Some example of valid use of unclosed square brackets are:

  • The mathematical notation
  • The use of "[" in tables of character sets
  • Articles about the languages of Africa where they make click noises, and apparently [ and [[ are common ways to spell the clicks.

These are all valid, so please don't close the brackets. Instead, please enclose that bit of text in <nowiki> tags — for example "<nowiki>[a,b)</nowiki>", or "<nowiki>[[</nowiki>". These nowiki tags will ensure that the software will know that it should ignore those unclosed brackets the next time that it is run.

If you encounter unclosed ordinary brackets by themselves, i.e. "(" or ")" that are valid, please do not enclose these in nowiki tags, since ordinary brackets are not a kind of wiki syntax.

What types of problems does it find?

  • Unbalanced square brackets — e.g. ].
  • Unbalanced ordinary brackets — e.g. (blah)). These are not actually wiki syntax, but they're easy to forgot to close.
  • Unclosed bold or italics — e.g. '''blah.
  • Unbalanced nowiki tags.
  • Unbalanced math tags.
  • Unbalanced comment tags.
  • Unbalanced table open / close tags.
  • Unbalanced section headings.
  • Redirect pages that look malformed.

How to fix --> (i.e. an ASCII arrow)_(i.e._an_ASCII_arrow)">

Do one of the following:

  • (Most common situation) Replace "-->" and "--->" with &rarr; which looks like this →
  • Replace "|-->" with this: <math>\mapsto</math> which looks like this: ↦ {\displaystyle \mapsto }
  • Replace "<--->" with this: <math>\leftrightarrow</math> which looks like this: ↔ {\displaystyle \leftrightarrow }
  • Make sure HTML open comments are matched with an equal number of HTML close comments e.g.: <!-- blah -->
  • If none of the above apply, enclose in <nowiki> tags.

If I find a mistake in this page, or want to add or correct or expand or improve something, can I?

Of course — please do.

What is the scope and aim of this project?

The scope is the whole of the English wikipedia, and the aim is for it to contain valid and well-formed wiki-syntax. In other words, it should be possible to get the number of problems found down to zero (excluding valid unclosed ordinary brackets, so these will probably be ignored in a later runs).

History

  • The first batch of invalid wiki syntax focussed primarily on mismatched square brackets, and took place from 27th October to the 31st of October 2004, and found around 1,500 mismatched brackets, and it covered up to "Luke" in the alphabet. There were many contributors to this effort (please see below for contributors).
  • The second and current batch of invalid wiki syntax list more kinds of invalid wiki syntax, and involves checking every article in the Misplaced Pages. This current run was done on 6th November 2004, and the problems found are listed above. This run was done using the most recent available database dump (from the 30th October 2004), so anything that has been fixed after that date will not included in the above lists (but this is usually relatively infrequent).

Are the problems shown ever not problems?

Yes, sometimes — in the current run this seems to happen particularly where unusual newline characters have been used (possibly where either \r or ctrl-M has been used instead of \n). This seems to happen on average around three times on every page (or around 1 in every 46 problems listed, or around 2% of the time). Sorry about this — it will fixed for the next run, so in the mean time if you encounter a listed item and there does not seem to be a problem (either with unclosed/unopened syntax, or with a newline between the syntax start and end), then please assume it is either this (or that it has already been fixed by someone else), and delete that item from the list of problems.

When are you planning on doing a new run?

When everything on this page has been done, and a new database dump is produced that incorporates those fixes.

As existing problems get fixed, it is thought that each successive run will find progressively fewer problems. After a few runs, it seems likely that only newly-created problems will be found, and that the total number of errors will probably fit onto a handful of pages.

What do I do if I finish the last items in one of the above pages?

Please ensure that all the items have been deleted from the list, add a quick note to that page that it has been completed, and then put a strikeout through the name of that file on this page (so that everyone knows it is done).

What do I do if I find an article that needs more than just its syntax cleaned up?

If you find any articles that need additional, non-syntactic, cleanup, then please list those articles on Misplaced Pages:Cleanup. Many Wikipedians regularly go to the Cleanup page, looking for chances to do deeper cleanup work. The main difference between Cleanup and Wiki Syntax is that Wiki Syntax is much broader (systemically checks every article) but shallower (focuses on fixing specific problems with Wiki Syntax) — whereas Misplaced Pages:Cleanup is narrower (there are usually around 100 or more pages listed) but much deeper (including complete rewrites of articles).

Thank You to Contributors

There are many people who have contributed to fixing broken wiki syntax, and big thank you to everyone who has helped out — this project is only possible because of your help:


Note: If you've helped out before and your name is missing, or if you've just fixed something, then please add your name to the list.

Credits — software

The software for finding malformed wiki syntax was written by Nickj, as part of his link suggester project.

Misplaced Pages:WikiProject Wiki Syntax Add topic