Last modified: 2013-10-11 17:05:23 UTC
The article "Cross-dressing, gender identity, and sexuality of Joan of Arc" has undergone major revisions which neither show up in the article history nor even when you choose to edit the article (editing the article shows it without the major revisions, yet viewing the article itself shows them). It's very bizarre. First, here's the article, current form: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-dressing,_sexuality,_and_gender_identity_of_Joan_of_Arc Here's what it used to look like. Notice how much shorter, for example, the "Background" section was: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cross-dressing,_gender_identity,_and_sexuality_of_Joan_of_Arc&oldid=456851045 Now, here's where it gets weird. Hit edit on the article - not the old version: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cross-dressing,_gender_identity,_and_sexuality_of_Joan_of_Arc&action=edit You'll note from the URL that you're editing the current version, not the old version. But you see the old text in the editor! It gets even more confusing. Here's the article history: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cross-dressing,_gender_identity,_and_sexuality_of_Joan_of_Arc&action=history No major changes show up in the article! However, if you click on old versions between these two edits: (cur | prev) 23:43, 21 December 2011 Twodanish (talk | contribs) . . (31,818 bytes) (+13) . . (undo) (cur | prev) 16:57, 22 October 2011 WOSlinker (talk | contribs) . . (31,805 bytes) (-11) . . (remove {{CATREF}}) (undo) That is, these versions: en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cross-dressing,_gender_identity,_and_sexuality_of_Joan_of_Arc&oldid=467107734 http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cross-dressing,_gender_identity,_and_sexuality_of_Joan_of_Arc&oldid=456851045 You'll notice that the former has the "longer" version and the latter has the "shorter" version. But there are two super-weird things going on here: 1) The "longer" version doesn't say that this is an old revision, even though you're clicking on an old revision! 2) The diff between the two says it''s only 13 characters, and indeed, if you check the diff, you only see a tiny difference. It sure looks like some sort of database error. Any clue what's going on here?
Am I missing something here? These have the title of "Cross-dressing, gender identity, and sexuality of Joan of Arc", but the URL can be https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-dressing,_sexuality,_and_gender_identity_of_Joan_of_Arc or https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cross-dressing,_gender_identity,_and_sexuality_of_Joan_of_Arc
Okay, so the first one is a redirect, but you're not told that you've been redirected.
And it doesn't make a difference which one you choose, the same problem exists (although I suppose that's another problem, that it's not showing that there's been a redirect, and as far I can tell, there's no way to go to the redirect page itself). I had planned to make some significant edits to the page, but I'll hold off until we can figure out what's going on here so as to not interfere with the potential for remedying the problem.
I tried it, and it seems to be back to normal now. The source text in the edit window matches the text displayed in the article; the redirect message shows up; and it seems to be 'business as usual' in all other respects.
Bizarre; I confirm that it's back to normal again. Very strange. I'll let you know if it recurs.
WFM then, for now.
I can watch it for you, Meme, since I check Wikipedia frequently throughout the day. But frankly, we should expect weird "hiccups" repeatedly with a system as enormous and complex as Wikipedia. It's surprising there aren't more, or maybe there are and we just don't notice because perhaps most of them are limited to specific servers or disappear within a few hours. If I had a dime for every bizarre, inexplicable database problem in my own software, I'd be independently wealthy by now. ;) The gremlins are a busy bunch...
Hehe, no problem. As a software developer myself, I'm well familiar with "gremlins" even in systems much smaller than Wikipedia!
I visited the article again, and the problem is most definitely back. To simplify, a quick example of the problem (among hundreds) is that the last section is titled "Modern perspective", both in the old version and the current source that you see when you click "edit" on the current version of the article: https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Cross-dressing,_gender_identity,_and_sexuality_of_Joan_of_Arc&action=edit But when you look at the article itself, you'll see the the last section titled "Alternative ideas". This is really weird, and I'm stumped as to what's going on here. I've tried logged in as me and un-logged-in, and in two different browsers. The problem exists for all. I've tried making simple edits to the article. As mentioned, I see the old version (with "Modern perspective") in the source when editing, even though I click edit on the current version of the article (as you'll see from the above link). When saved, the edits don't show - instead, the same "Alternative ideas" version keeps showing. It's like there's two totally separate codebases for this article overlapping each other.
I can only guess that the bug has something to do with the redirect issue (pointed out by Alex), since that isn't normal behavior either (a redirect page not showing that it's a redirect). That's only a minor problem, but it's a symptom that there's something else more major going on underneath. Would it be possible to delete and then recreate the article? We'd lose the history but at least it'd fix the bug. The talk page could be preserved.
It seems to be back to normal again. The heading "Modern Perspective" shows up; the redirect shows up; the source text in the edit window matches the text displayed. So it seems the ghosts / hobgoblins / space aliens have left again.... ;)
Yep, I confirm on my end that it's once again resolved itself. The redirect weirdness described above by Alex Monk has also once again vanished. But clearly it's not actually "gone", since this has happened before. I have to wonder, could this be an issue of syncing between servers, could it be wrong on one or more and not on others? Could that explain why it appears and disappears? What do you think about a delete-and-recreation with a restoration of the talk page and whatever other info can be salvaged?
And I confirm it's back, but different. :Þ I'm seeing yet another version for which the editing doesn't match the displayed. In the edited version (I haven't clicked history at all), I see the correct version. In the displayed version, it correctly has "Modern perspective" instead of "Alternate theories", but it's highly pared down from what shows up in the edit window - for example, in the edit window, it starts out "One of the first modern writers", while in the display version, it starts out "Among the first writers".
Maybe I'm confused, but I don't see any difference. Or has it switched back again by now?
