Topic on 2017 wikitext editor/Feedback

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T158692 Resolved

Like the editor generally (a handful of things remain really much better in wikitext) but when switching from new wikitext -> VE/WYSIWYG I lost data. Not sure if this is expected/known, and I hadn't noticed it earlier. If it is expected, a warning would be nice; if not, well, just FYI that you've still got some bugs :(

I need more information. Which wiki? Did you start editing in a section? Did you save the page? I see a few bot edits during your last editing session at enwiki: Did the bot edit the page just before you lost your work?

I figured this might not be that helpful, but had to point it out, given the severity of the problem (nothing turns off users faster than data loss :/ Some answers:

• enwiki (
• I think I started editing in a section, but can't be sure.
• It is entirely possible that the bot edited between switches! That would make some sense, timing-wise.

When you lost your work, what did you see? Specifically, did it give you the whole page with none of your changes, or did it blank most of the page (i.e., everything except the section that you were editing)?

(Also, if you started editing in a section, it should have given you a choice between cancelling the switch, or losing all of your changes.)

Definitely no "cancel or lose" notice that I saw. (I was somewhat expecting it.)

Gave me the whole page with none of my changes.

Note that the flow was a VE (make changes) -> new wikitext (make more changes) -> VE (all changes gone)

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T158692

If you started in visual mode, then you weren't editing a single section. (You might have clicked the [edit] button for a section, but visual mode always opens the whole page.)

Do you have the Beta Feature for the 2017 wikitext editor enabled? In looking at your contributions, I'm assuming that you don't, but please let me know if I'm wrong. (It's at w:en:Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatures if you want to try it out.)

Yes, I started in VE. It's been my default for years ;) You can still click a section header to edit, so perhaps I misunderstood the question.

I enabled the 2017 wikitext editor on ... Friday, probably? But it isn't my default.

Hey, I don't know if you saw the latest, but the bug's been found, the patch has been merged, and it will probably (usual disclaimers apply) be fixed in production a week from now. Thanks, again, for reporting this. I hate lost-work bugs, and you helped us kill it.

I did see it, thanks for ccing me. (Also saw the less good news afterwards, but such is software life ;)