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Wikimedia's servers don't correctly rewrite short URLs when the URL ends in a semicolon
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Description

While MediaWiki is able to handle article titles that end in a semicolon, Wikipedia is not. Wikipedia instead strips the final semicolon from the URL.

Compare the following:

  • https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/; This URL does not work as expected. The server strips the semicolon from the title, redirecting the user to the main page.
  • https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=; This URL works correctly. The user is taken to the article on the semicolon.

As far as I can tell this error comes from Wikimedia's servers not handling Short URL rewrites correctly. Other MediaWiki based sites I tried can handle semicolons, example here.

This is a very minor issue but it does cause unexpected behaviour. Examples of issues:

  • Readers cannot enter ";" in the search box to find the article on the semicolon
  • Nobody (except the few who know how to create index.php? based urls) can write to the user named Minth-11; because those who try to contact that user are redirected to another page, the semicolonless "Minth-11".