Technical Updates: September 23, 2022

Two weeks ago, on September 9th, you may have seen that we rebooted our Technical Update posts that contain updates on recent bug fixes and, for this new series, updates on product development initiatives like Mobile Theme Designer and Discussions moderation improvements. This is so we can consistently deliver news about improvements to the platform so our editor community remains up to date.

Check out the latest Technical Updates, below, since September 9th. We’ll continue to update you on bug fixes on a bi-weekly basis!

Notable Fixes

FandomMobile

• In some cases on the Fandom app, and even rarer cases on mobile web, the mobile dark theme was unreadable after the introduction of the mobile theme switcher. This was unrelated to our mobile theming test (you can read more about this test in the Development Updates section), and the switcher release has been rolled back and will be re-released when the issues are resolved.
• VisualEditor and the mobile editor were failing to load when an infobox was present on a page. This issue has been resolved.

Interactive Maps

• Custom map markers no longer disappear and are always visible.
• The title of the maps reports page on German communities has been corrected from "Berichte" to the more accurate translation "Meldungen."
• When using <tabber> to display multiple Interactive Maps on the same page, the first map would show up correctly but the other maps were all restricted in their zooming capabilities. This has been resolved.
• When an image file is used on an interactive map, it no longer appears on Special:UnusedFiles and its file page correctly lists the map pages where it is used under the "file usage" section.

Other

• Admins are no longer able to edit other editor’s profiles on Gamepedia enhanced profiles.
• When a mod or admin views who reported a post, the username(s) of the reporter(s) is now clickable and leads to their Discussions profile.
• The first element of the toolbar is visible in RecentChanges.
• Images now fit into image frame width on the Select image and Media settings.

Known Issues

The following are known bugs (or areas of improvement) that are currently in progress and that we hope to have released by the time of the next Technical Update:

• The Interactive Maps visual editor does not adhere to the page's protection settings for logged in users, meaning editors without any additional user rights (like admin rights) can edit the map page through its visual editor when it's protected.
• Special:Block's "partial block" option, a feature introduced in MediaWiki 1.37 that allows admins to block users from specific pages or parts of a wiki, does not currently interact well with Discussions, Comments, and Message Wall. Partial block support for these features will be fixed and improved.
• Although not a bug, the current 20 character limit for Discussions categories is too low to support all naming use cases, particularly on international Discussions. The character limit will be increased to 64 characters.

Development Updates

Mobile Theming

• Mobile theming is now live on 15 wikis for testing and feedback, applying their customized theme's colors, fonts, and background image to the FandomMobile skin.
• Those wikis are:
  • Apex Legends Wiki
  • Avatar Wiki
  • Battle Cats Wiki
  • Brickipedia
  • Elder Scrolls Wiki
  • Genshin Impact Wiki
  • Grand Theft Auto Wiki
  • Hell’s Kitchen Wiki
  • Hypixel Skyblock Wiki
  • Shadowhunters’ Wiki
  • Sonic Wiki
  • Stranger Things Wiki
  • Warriors Wiki
  • Wookieepedia
  • Yu-Gi-Oh
• Thank you to all the test communities who have provided continued development feedback so far.
• If you want to check out those wikis on mobile, either head over on your mobile device or add ?useskin=fandommobile to the end of any URL on your desktop device.
• We are aiming for a mid-October opt-in rollout for all wikis on the platform to receive and set mobile theming through the Theme Designer.

Discussions AbuseFilter

• Likewise, Discussions AbuseFilter is now also in testing on 20 communities that have Discussions enabled.
• Through testing we’ve been able to identify a few bugs that we’ll be fixing, as well as some feature requests that we can tackle later on.
• We’re aiming for a mid-October release so that any communities on the platform Discussions, Comments, and/or Message Wall can ask that Discussions AbuseFilter be enabled.

Discussions Moderation

• After Mobile Theming and Discussions AbuseFilter are released, our next project will be adding post and reply history onto Discussions, Comments, and Message Wall, including retroactively for posts and replies made prior to the release of posting history.
• This work has been scoped out and ready for work upon completion of our current initiatives.

If there’s anything you still think needs to be fixed that hasn’t yet, please be sure to either contact your Wiki Representative or, if your wiki doesn’t have one, send us a bug report!

Brandon Rhea

Fandom Staff

Hey I'm Brandon, former VP of Community at Fandom.
I worked at Fandom from 2010 to 2025.
I'm a huge fan of Star Wars, Star Trek, and Marvel.

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