Last modified: 2013-06-18 15:56:49 UTC
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:White_Cat/Archive/2008/04#Bot_misbehaving I was informed of this problem on my talk page some time ago (linked above) If a user adds "#REDIRECT" on the very top of a page and the page contains at least one link it is treated like a normal redirect. That was what this user did on hi.wikipedia [http://hi.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=%E0%A4%9A%E0%A4%82%E0%A4%A6_%E0%A4%AC%E0%A4%B0%E0%A4%A6%E0%A4%BE%E0%A4%88&diff=182602&oldid=182375] This can be used maliciously since vandalism detection often relies on significant change in article size and by adding 9 bytes ("#REDIRECT") you can effectively blank an article. To make the matter worse, if the first link on the article links to a redirect you form a double redirect (linked case is such an example) and a bot can "fix" the double redirect as directed by [[Special:Doubleredirects]] effectively washing away the page. Things to fix: Redirects that contain text between "#REDIRECT" and "[[LINK]]" should not be treated as valid redirects. Redirects with a lot of content (an arbitrary size may be defined) should probably not be treated as valid redirects. If a page is going to be redirectified it should be noticeable in the RC feed.
Consider the cases below http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3AWhatLinksHere&hidetrans=1&hidelinks=1&target=Template%3APD-self&namespace=3 These are registered as redirects because if you look at their page source http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Purodha&action=edit You will see the page starts with a redirect but rest of the page contains various links including a {{tl|PD-self}} link which falsely registers as a redirect on the whatlinkshere page I liked first.
(In reply to comment #1) > Consider the cases below > > http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3AWhatLinksHere&hidetrans=1&hidelinks=1&target=Template%3APD-self&namespace=3 > > These are registered as redirects because if you look at their page source > > http://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Purodha&action=edit > > You will see the page starts with a redirect but rest of the page contains > various links including a {{tl|PD-self}} link which falsely registers as a > redirect on the whatlinkshere page I liked first. I think that should be considered a valid redirect. Wikipedian's like to add categories after their redirect ( {{R_from_other_capitalisation}} etc) Re the vandalism case: I cannot reproduce just adding #Redirect with a link way later in the article making a redirect, on trunk. Marking bug worksforme
How to reproduce this bug: create a new page like [[commons:User:R'n'B/Sandbox]] with text like this: #REDIRECT [[(1) Ceres]] [[(132524) 2002 JF56]] (In case you're wondering, I just went to [[commons:Special:AllPages]] and picked a couple of links off the first page of results.) Now create another page like [[commons:User:R'n'B/Sandbox 2]] that contains a link -- not a redirect -- to the page you just created. Then go to [[commons:Special:WhatLinksHere/(132524) 2002 JF56]]; you will see that both of the pages you just created now show up in the list, as if the first Sandbox page were a redirect to this page.
(In reply to comment #3) > How to reproduce this bug: create a new page like > [[commons:User:R'n'B/Sandbox]] with text like this: > > #REDIRECT [[(1) Ceres]] [[(132524) 2002 JF56]] > > (In case you're wondering, I just went to [[commons:Special:AllPages]] and > picked a couple of links off the first page of results.) > > Now create another page like [[commons:User:R'n'B/Sandbox 2]] that contains a > link -- not a redirect -- to the page you just created. > > Then go to [[commons:Special:WhatLinksHere/(132524) 2002 JF56]]; you will see > that both of the pages you just created now show up in the list, as if the > first Sandbox page were a redirect to this page. re-closing. That's not the same bug described in comment 0. (furthermore, that's bug 7304)
