I encountered this issue while editing on Wikipedia, and have since reproduced it on mediawiki.org on a simple almost empty page to help eliminate most factors from the issue.
Steps:
- Edit a page that has a first paragraph with a reference in it, and some words after that reference. Example: https://www.mediawiki.org/w/index.php?title=Project:Sandbox&oldid=4346667
- Remove those words.
- Observe the cursor is now nowhere, not blinking. Although if you're quick you can still type and despite no cursor, the text does go to where the cursor was last seen and is thought to be.
- If you click to where you think the cursor is, nothing happens visually (the blinking blinking cursor does not come back, nor does it appear elsewhere), but beneath the surface it seems this has severed the connection with our known universe. Any further typing now goes nowhere.
Notes
Clicking into where you already are may seem odd, but it made sense for two reasons as a user. 1) The cursor dissappeared, so I clicked in an attempt to resurrect it. 2) The issue also happens in the perhaps more common scenario where you first succesfully move the cursor elsewhere in the page and make changes, and then come back later to the earlier sentence that now ends with a reference.
Attachment
Done
- Before closing this task, check to ensure whether T273781 is still happening