Help:Bugs

Note: Please don't place actual bug reports here. All software issues and site configuration requests need to be posted at the Wikimedia BugZilla installation, which can be found at http://bugzilla.wikimedia.org.

Found a bug?

This web site is powered by the MediaWiki software, which is the same product that runs our sister projects, Wikipedia, Wikinews, etc. and the Wikimedia Commons. For precise details on what's in use, see the version information.

As with all software, it is quite possible that there are several undiscovered and/or unresolved issues in MediaWiki which might interrupt use of the site at a particular time. If you discover a bug, it's extremely helpful to report it on our bug tracker. Once a report has been filed, the development team can begin to track and address the issue.

Before reporting a bug

1. Check that it's a bug. Make sure that the problem can be reproduced under the same conditions.
2. Check that it's not a known issue. Search the bug tracker using the search tool to avoid posting duplicate bugs.
3. Gather the required information. We'll need to know where the bug happened, what happened (and when it's not obvious, why this is the wrong behaviour) and how to reproduce the problem for ourselves. If the problem requires a particular platform and operating system to reproduce, include this in the report - and make sure you select it when entering the bug.

When reporting a bug

When reporting an issue, provide as much detail as possible, and keep it relevant to the problem. If more than one problem is encountered, and the two are not related, please open separate bug reports for each.

For advice on effectively communicating problems, the following resources might be useful:

• BugZilla Bug-Writing Guidelines
• "How to Ask Smart Questions"; a useful guide for communicating problems to technical people
• "How to Report Bugs Effectively"; an excellent guide on what to include in a bug report

After reporting a bug

Once the bug has been filed, the core developers and other subscribers to the wikibugs-l mailing list will receive email summarising the bug, and several things could happen.

• One or more fields might be changed to categorise the bug in a more effective manner
• A developer might assign the bug to themselves
• The bug might be resolved INVALID or WORKSFORME
• You might be asked to provide further details of the problem
• The bug might be resolved FIXED

As the bug reporter, BugZilla will ensure that you are emailed whenever the bug status changes (the aforementioned mailing list also receives such messages) so that you can see what's happening to your bug.

A good percentage of bugs are addressed within a week, and it's not uncommon to spot a bug being corrected a short time after it is reported. More involved reports might be placed on the "back burner" to await further improvements.