Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Syntax: Difference between revisions

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What is this?

An attempt to fix up mismatched wiki syntax (such as brackets), like this "[link]]", or "(see [[Link)", or "(see link]])", or "[[link]". 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?

Randomly select a page from the list of pages below (that hasn't been crossed out already).
On that page, randomly select one block of 5 problems from the list of contents.
Fix those 5 syntax problems (by closing/opening brackets or adding/removing quotes).
With each fix, if you want, set the edit description to "[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Syntax|Please help out by clicking here to fix someone else's Wiki Syntax]]". (This is to encourage more malformed syntax to be fixed.)
Delete that block of 5 problems from the page (so that we know that they're done).

Double quotes

Tip: These usually need to be closed before the newline.

- ~~000~~ - ~~001~~ - ~~002~~ - 003 - ~~004~~ - 005 - 006 - 007 - 008 - 009
- 010

Square brackets

- ~~000~~ - ~~001~~ - ~~002~~ - 003 - 004 - 005 - 006 - 007 - 008 - 009
- 010 - 011 - 012 - 013 - 014 - 015 - 016

Ordinary brackets (parentheses: unclosed or unopened) - From previous run

Tips on fixing parentheses:

Please do not add or delete parentheses unless there really is a grammatical mistake - for example if an article has "The arguments in favour are 1) something 2) something else", then that's OK - but if it has "The arguments in favour are well known (see reference. " then that bracket should be closed. Things like emoticons :) are also grammatically OK (although possibly not always suitable for an encylopedia!).
If you're in doubt as to whether something is a real problem or not, then please assume it's not a problem, and just delete it from the list of problems. It's better to not fix something that is a problem, than it is to fix something that is not a problem; or to put it another way: "If in doubt, leave it out."
Please don't surround parentheses with nowiki tags (as they're not a wiki syntax).

- ~~000~~ - ~~001~~ - ~~002~~ - ~~003~~ - 004 - 005 - 006 - 007 - 008 - 009
- 010 - 011 - 012 - 013 - 014 - 015 - 016 - 017 - 018 - 019
- 020 - 021 - 022 - 023 - 024 - ~~025~~ - 026 - 027 - 028 - 029
- 030 - 031 - 032 - 033 - 034 - 035 - 036 - 037 - 038 - ~~039~~
- ~~040~~ - ~~041~~

Completed pages

headings ~~000~~
square brackets ~~017~~ - ~~030~~
miscellaneous ~~001~~ - ~~002~~
double quotes ~~011~~ - ~~071~~
triple quotes ~~000~~ - ~~013~~
redirect syntax ~~000~~
1911 Britannica Category ~~000~~
Braces-Tables ~~000~~
HTML table attributes that look wrong ~~000~~. This list came from Erik Zachte - Thank you Erik!
Double Redirect or Non-existent Redirect target ~~000~~ - ~~014~~
Miscellaneous ~~000~~

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!

What if I am unable or don't want to fix all 5 problems in a block?

You don't have to fix the whole block, but please don't forget to remove the problems you've fixed from the page.

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:

[http://www.site.com Description]

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, and other Wiki formatting symbols are:

The mathematical notation [a,b) or (a,b]
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.
In C code, "==" often appears
Emoticons such as :)
The use of '' as a symbol for inches or arc minutes

These are all valid, so please don't close the brackets, or other symbols. 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.

Note: If you find link enclosed in square brackets (i.e. "[text [[link]] text]"), be sure to enclose both outer brackets in nowiki tags ("<nowiki>[</nowiki>text [[link]] text<nowiki>]</nowiki>").

What types of problems does it find?

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

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

Do one of the following:

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

Do not "fix" the following square brackets

The following form is correct: things like [[dog]]s, [[logic]]al, [[Russia]]n, [[dogma]]tic, [[apocrypha]]l, and [[hyphen]]ated are correct and do not need to be altered. This form causes the entire word to appear as a clickable link to the page with the title inside the brackets.

Tips on fixing redirect syntax

Pages listed as redirect syntax problems are using a non-standard type of redirect, although they may or may not work (as the Wikipedia is extremely forgiving of redirect syntax).
The simplest redirect syntax is: #REDIRECT [[Target]]
Note that the redirect target is not enclosed in italic quotes, nor is the redirect target enclosed in ordinary-brackets / parentheses.
The redirect target should always be in enclosed in matching double square brackets.

Tips on fixing double-redirects or redirects with a non-existent target

If the link goes to a redirect page with a blue link, which when clicked gives a page that says at the top "Redirected from (somepage)", then it is a double-redirect. A double redirect is when page A redirects to page B, which then redirects to page C. The Wikipedia only properly supports one level of redirects. To fix this, page A (the first redirect page) should be edited to point to page C (the final page), instead of another redirect (page B) - and then please delete it from the list.
If the link goes to a redirect page with a red link, then the redirect target does not exist. Basically it's a redirect that points to something which isn't there. This redirect should either be edited to point to something which does exist, or if you can't easily find a suitable target, then it please add it to the end of the Redirects For Deletion page (where the redirect will either get fixed, or deleted by an administrator), and then delete it from our list page. If the redirect page has no useful history, you can identify it with {{delete}} at the beginning; it will then be speedily deleted.
If the link on the redirect page works correctly (i.e. shows the article, without saying "Redirected from (somepage)"), then it has already been fixed - please delete it from the list.

Multiple redirects to same ultimate target
The groups of five may contain two or more pages that ought to redirect to the same ultimate target; some such pairs or triples overflow into another group of five. It will be most efficient if all are done in one hit and all then deleted, no matter which group they are in.

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 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 68 contributors to this first batch.
The second batch of invalid wiki syntax searched for more kinds of invalid wiki syntax (added section headings, double braces + wiki table start/end, italics quotes, bold quotes, parentheses), and checked every article in the Wikipedia. This run went from the 6th November to the 20th November 2004, and involved fixing around 15,000 problems. There were 237 new contributors to this second batch.
The third batch is running now, and started on the 1st December 2004, and lists 3,924 problems. (The second run found 15,000 problems in the same categories.) In other words, we're definitely having a big effect: 3924 / 15000 is equal to 26% - I.e. we have eliminated 74% of these problems!

Are the problems shown ever not problems?

Yes, sometimes — but it's fairly rare. It can happen when the page author did something that looks like invalid wiki syntax, which now tends to only happen with mathematics notations — two examples are half-open interval notation in mathematics, and surreal number notation in mathematics. The solution in these situation is usually to enclose the thing that looks unbalanced in nowiki tags.

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 Wikipedia: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 Wikipedia: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.

@@ Line 30: / Line 30: @@
 <br/>
 - [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Syntax/double-quotes-010.txt|010]]
-- <s>[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Syntax/double-quotes-011.txt|011]]</s>
 ===Square brackets===
@@ Line 111: / Line 110: @@
 * square brackets <s>[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Syntax/square-brackets-017.txt|017]]</s> - <s>[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Syntax/square-brackets-030.txt|030]]</s>
 * miscellaneous <s>[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Syntax/miscellaneous-001.txt|001]]</s> - <s>[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Syntax/miscellaneous-002.txt|002]]</s>
-* double quotes <s>[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Syntax/double-quotes-012.txt|012]]</s> - <s>[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Syntax/double-quotes-071.txt|071]]</s>
+* double quotes <s>[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Syntax/double-quotes-011.txt|011]]</s> - <s>[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Syntax/double-quotes-071.txt|071]]</s>
 * triple quotes <s>[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Syntax/triple-quotes-000.txt|000]]</s> - <s>[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Syntax/triple-quotes-013.txt|013]]</s>
 * redirect syntax <s>[[Wikipedia:WikiProject Wiki Syntax/redirect-syntax-000.txt|000]]</s>

Active Wiki Fixup Projects
Must be active, systematic, have lists, & need help.
Writing
Articles that need to be wikified Massive backlog. Ongoing (category) Dead-end pages These pages are not wikified. Ongoing (category) Missing articles Wikipedia is not as complete as you might think. Ongoing Most wanted articles Updated February 2015 Oldest requested articles Updated November 2012
Other
Articles needing geo-coordinates Help locate places. See WP:GEO. Ongoing (category) Articles written by a single editor Reviewing articles written by a newer editor. Updated February 2013 Bluelink patrol Directing wayward links to the intended articles. Ongoing Check Wikipedia Fix the syntax of Wikipedia. Updated every 15 minutes Disambiguation pages with links Directing ambiguous links to the intended articles. Ongoing Fix Common Mistakes Fix common mistakes in English grammar (e.g. "the the", "and and"). Ongoing moss Currently doing a collaborative spell-check of the entire encyclopedia. Moving free images to Wikimedia Commons Moving free images to the Commons so they are easier to find. Ongoing (categories) Orphaned articles Help link to these orphaned articles. Ongoing (category) Red Link Recovery Turn red links blue. Ongoing Stubsensor Help remove stub tags from articles they don't belong on. Updated August 2011 Uncategorised articles Help categorise articles. Ongoing (category) Unreferenced articles Ensuring articles include at least one reference or source. Ongoing (category) Main Inactive Mini
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