Are you here because you received a notification that someone mentioned your name, but you can't see your name in the diff? This happens when people transclude pages that contain a link to your userpage. Look for {{page name}} in the diff.
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MY NOTIFICATIONS BELL HAS A ONE ON IT BUT WHEN I CLICK ON IT NOTHING NEW SHOWS UP. THE ONLY THINGS SHOWING UP ARE PAST MESSAGES!
Justyouraveragelechugatalk 17:25, 3 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
ClydeFranklin: I am seeing the same thing as Justyouraveragelechuga (thanks for your reply). How would I find whatever other wiki might have triggered the notification, and how would I interact with it to remove the "1"? Also, I don't recall making another account elsewhere. Was one created automatically? If so, why? Was there perhaps a "create accounts in all these wikis" box I might have checked or left checked?
Also, as best I can see, both my "Your alerts" bell and my "Your notices" in-tray appear to link to the same URL, Special:Notifications. I wonder if that's normal? If so, then what is the difference between both icon-links, and why do we have both? (It's not a ¿Por qué no los dos? in-joke, or is it?) I do note that they don't both have the "1", so apparently their subscripted counter state can differ. Curiouser and curiouser. ReadOnlyAccount (talk) 04:43, 15 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@ReadOnlyAccount: Whilst the ultimate link is to Special:Notifications, clicking the icon (not the link) triggers some Javascript that filters what Special:Notifications returns. The two icons apply fifferent filters, so should return different results. Try both. One (or both) of them may have an entry in the list showing text like "More alerts from 2 other wikis Wikidata and Simple English Wikipedia View 2 alerts". If you click on the "View 2 alerts" it will expand to provide further entries. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 08:14, 15 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Redrose64: I do not see different results between clicking on the in-tray or bell. I also do not see anything like "More alerts from other wikis". I have found a setting "Cross-wiki notifications – Show notifications from other wikis" in Preferences, and disabling that makes the "1" disappear. Re-ticking it brings back the "1". I do use the vector (NOT 2022) layout, which is essentially the reason I made this account. I may have modified some Global Preferences during or shortly after account creation, but I am unable to find anything that looks like it might have triggered this behaviour – which increasingly looks like a CSS bug. Am I in the right place asking for help with that? Should this be reported elsewhere? Justyouraveragelechuga's testimony suggests this is not just me, and that the issue is possibly reproducible in certain conditions, but I don't know the precise steps that would be required for others to reproduce the misbehaviour. I suppose one of the steps might be, you'd have to trigger an unread message from another wiki, but I don't know how to do that. Perhaps one way to try and reproduce might be to make a new account and then do what I did, which so far hasn't been very much. I see Justyouraveragelechuga has 598 edits as of this writing, so that's not a new account, meaning the bug is possibly not simply linked to that. Is there some other common factor? It can't be too common, or else this thread would be overrun by hundreds of users screaming about the same thing. ReadOnlyAccount (talk) 09:51, 15 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I'll mention you at meta:, which should bump the counter on the bell icon. --Redrose64 🌹 (talk) 10:15, 15 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Huh. Son of a gun. It did. It now says "2". So what does that mean, and where do I go from here? ReadOnlyAccount (talk) 12:05, 15 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@ReadOnlyAccount: Your account is automatically created at Wikimedia wikis if you view any page while logged in. Special:CentralAuth/ReadOnlyAccount shows your accounts. If you visit each wiki then maybe you can see a notification when you hit the right wiki. Maybe it's the welcome message at fr:Discussion utilisateur:ReadOnlyAccount. I don't know why you don't see "More alerts from other wikis" here. It works for me. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:21, 15 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thank you for the information. Can the Special:CentralAuth/ReadOnlyAccount page be found and navigated to in some way that does not rely on users already knowing that URL or being told it and bookmarking it? Is that URL (or each user's version of it) linked and listed somewhere, so people can actually find and reach it on their own? Is it at all discoverable?
I will note that automatic account creation elsewhere because I sign up here does not follow the principle of least surpriseeven if that's maybe mentioned in some red-tapey terms and conditions somewhere for legal CYA. This also sounds like a pretty CATCH-22ish quandary: I don't know what triggered the notification, and I cannot click through and see the notification. I could browse to random non-enwp wikis to see if it's maybe visible there, but you're effectively, implicitly saying visiting random wikis might trigger more unsolicited account creation with MORE notifications(!). If that's not usability hell or at least UI Design by Kafka™, then I don't know what is. No offence. I especially don't mean to have a go at helpful you, and I don't know whether or where else this oughta be reported, but I do know that this seems crazy to me. LSD-driven development, anyone?
Like I mentioned above, I do of course realise that the "More alerts from other wikis" thing seems to work for most people, and that the bug only affects a subset of users. But I also know I'm not alone, because I'm not the original reporter – rather, when I came here to report this, I did find Justyouraveragelechuga had just done that. ReadOnlyAccount (talk) 13:46, 16 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@ReadOnlyAccount: The English Wikipedia is one of the Wikimedia projects run by the Wikimedia Foundation. The projects have separate logs but a unified login system. I was here before that system and it's a great improvement. Before, you had to manually create an account everywhere of interest, e.g. another Wikipedia language, and choose a username and password. Your normal username might already be taken there. Passwords could be different at each project. "Contributions" (may be in a user icon menu at the top right depending on your preferences) goes to a page with links to your Special:CentralAuth page, both near the top on "global accounts" and at the bottom on "accounts". Going to other Wikimedia projects to look for a notification is definitely not how it's intended to work but was merely a suggestion when the intended method apparently fails for you for some reason. Maybe it would work in another browser. At least you only have 6 accounts. Special:CentralAuth/PrimeHunter shows 376. I thankfully never had to go through them to look for something. Special:CentralAuth/ReadOnlyAccount only shows accounts which have already been created so you will not create additional accounts or trigger more notifications by going there. At Special:SiteMatrix you could create around 1000 local accounts by clicking links. PrimeHunter (talk) 20:40, 16 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Oh, so, wait, if I understand correctly, then I can not only safely go to Special:CentralAuth/ReadOnlyAccount but also can safely click on any of the links under "List of local accounts" w/o triggering more notifications? That's... not quite as kafkaesque. Still at best a workaround to buggy behaviour, but not really a CATCH-22 like I thought.
Thanks for explaining how to find my Global account information page. Once you know where to click, Contributions – global accounts is just two degrees of Kevin Bacon.
I still don't know exactly what the common factor is that I have in common with Justyouraveragelechuga and that causes people like us to not see the "More alerts from other wikis" thing (or a difference between the in-tray and the bell). I have also encountered more Notifications bugginess, but reporting that would probably require uploading some screenshots somewhere. Would it be appropriate to upload screenshots to Wikipedia purely for bug reporting? Not saying that I will get around to it, but I might.
The Special:SiteMatrix thing looks wild. What does it mean if links are struck out or red, respectively? Is that explained anywhere? ReadOnlyAccount (talk) 15:07, 17 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@ReadOnlyAccount: See Wikipedia:Bug reports and feature requests. Phabricator has its own system to attach a file to a bug report. What is your browser? Does it have JavaScript enabled? Have you tried another browser? Red at Special:SiteMatrix means non-existing, i.e. that project doesn't have a wiki in that language. Strikethrough means closed. There may still be visible pages but the wiki cannot be edited and you cannot log in or create an account. See more at mw:Extension:SiteMatrix. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:20, 17 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Delete specific notifications from notification log[edit]
Hello,
I have a problem where I am unable to delete certain notifications from my notification list, even after checking them. The specific notification was just someone being unnecessarily rude, but it’s become an eyesore every time I check my Wikipedia notifications. Is it possible to delete this (specifically on mobile)? Thank you.
NOTE: Please forgive me if this is outlined somewhere already and I missed it, I am relatively new to Wikipedia and still learning the ins and outs of it.
Dantus21 (talk) 01:45, 8 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
At the moment, the only way to make a given notification disappearing is to get more notifications. These new notifications will "push" the unpleasant one to the "All notifications" menu. Only the last 25 notifications are visible on mobile.
I know it is not the solution you expected, and I'm truly sorry that I can't provide a better solution. Your report of this need is now documented, and it will help us to improve the experience for everyone.
Thank you so much!!!! It’s unfortunate that there’s no option to delete notifications yet, but I greatly appreciate your efforts to have this fixed. As for the rude message itself, thankfully it has been buried as I have started a requested move and rfc with many replies, so I am good for now. I must say again though, thank you so much for your kindness! You embody the spirit of what Wikipedia should be! Dantus21 (talk) 00:21, 12 July 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Could someone tell me what the Notice badge icon is actually intended to represent?
I'm giving a presentation on Wikipedia shortly, and realise I don't know how to describe its shape. (I can't find anything in the talk archives, and I've always regarded it as an OKI321 dot matrix printer ribbon, or a VHS video tape, but I doubt either is correct.)
Any thoughts (before I make a complete fool of myself) might be rather welcome! Nick Moyes (talk) 10:51, 13 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Before email, people had actual boxes on their desks for incoming and outgoing paper documents. A stylized image of an inbox, I think. The icon may have progressed from something like to to that as designers moved from skeuomorphism to flat design. Anomie⚔ 11:46, 13 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Aah! That does make sense as to its origins. Thank you.
I'll just have to refer to it as "that little, square intray-shaped thingy"Nick Moyes (talk) 08:43, 14 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
The "You have a new message (last change)." notice refuses to go away, no matter what I try, e.g. forcing reload on the Talk page multiple times. --2001:1C06:19CA:D600:96F5:4FF9:C05A:7509 (talk) 16:20, 26 August 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Is there an expectation that admins should have notifications enabled / respond to them? Is there a policy about this? Schwede66 09:21, 4 September 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Schwede66 the relevant policy is WP:ADMINACCT. The relevant part reads Administrators are expected to respond promptly and civilly to queries about their Wikipedia-related conduct and administrative actions, especially during community discussions on noticeboards or during Arbitration Committee proceedings. Administrators should justify their actions when requested. Notifications are not mentioned in the policy but email is, While best practices are for administrators to have email enabled, they are not required to enable or reply to email. Various places require editors (not just administrators) to be made aware when they are the subject of a discussion, and it is always taken that a message on their talkpage fulfils this requirement but a ping does not necessarily do so. Accordingly I would say the spirit is that administrators are not required to have notifications enabled. Thryduulf (talk) 19:56, 10 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
There is no rule that admins have to react to pings, but I would still expect any active admin to either have notifications enabled or to watch and follow closely all noticeboards and talk pages where they could reasonable expect pings. There are enough situations where we are not discussing an admin's actions, but would still like their advice (say, we'd like to hear from the admin who unblocked Editor A last year in a later discussion about sanctions for A). At the least, admins who turn off pings should clearly state this on their user page to avoid/explain pings going missing. —Kusma (talk) 21:04, 10 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Thanks, Thryduulf. Schwede66 21:54, 10 October 2023 (UTC)[reply]
mention me on reply) 23:21, 5 May 2023 (UTC)
Trizek_(WMF) (talk) 13:00, 12 July 2023 (UTC)
Nick Moyes (talk) 10:51, 13 August 2023 (UTC)
to 
to that as designers moved from skeuomorphism to flat design. Anomie⚔ 11:46, 13 August 2023 (UTC)
