Author: ntk

Description:
I noticed this when doing RC patrol on Wikipedia. Normally, when submitting
edits to a page, you are warned if your edits are based on an outdated version
of the page, thus alerting you if your changes would be inadvertently reverting
another persons recently submitted edits.

However, if the page is DELETED while you are working on the edits, no warning
is given. The page is simply recreated with the content you submit. This is
bad, because whenever a user creates nonsense, many users will notice it and
mark it for speedy deletion, and if an admin sees it s/he will delete it--all of
which can take place simultaneously. But what can happen (and has happened to
me), is that an admin will delete the page at the same time I am adding the
'{{delete}}' tag to the page, so when I submit it, the page comes back, albeit
with the "Speedy deletion" notice, whereas if I knew it had been deleted I would
not have wanted to submit it.

It shouldn't be too hard to have the server remember whether a user is was
creating a new page or editing an existing page and check for consistency when
the form is submitted, and warning if the page has been deleted. This could
either be cached on the server or embedded in the form itself.

Version: unspecified
Severity: minor
OS: Linux
Platform: PC