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Difference engine problem
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Description

Author: webmaster

Description:
I am not sure what could have caused this, but according the attached url
(http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Batman&diff=prev&oldid=37797800) I made a
several line contribution to the Batman page, which was ultimately reverted.

I simply did not. I did make a tiny one-line addition... That is all. (I added a
link " [[DCDatabase:Batman|DCDP: Batman]] - DC Database Project " )

Clearly something has happened where my edit has been merged with another edit. Is it
possible the other editor's account was deleted and the difference engine didn't know
what to do, so it attributed all of his/her work to me?

This could be a calamity. It would (did) cause the revert to go through more edits
than intended... It could also lead to poor/libelous work being attributed to the
wrong author.

Do you think this is a difference engine problem or was it a problem with the revert?


Version: unspecified
Severity: normal
URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Batman&diff=prev&oldid=37797800

Details

Reference
bz4853

Event Timeline

bzimport raised the priority of this task from to Medium.Nov 21 2014, 9:05 PM
bzimport set Reference to bz4853.
bzimport added a subscriber: Unknown Object (MLST).

Note that it's entirely possible that you simply accidentally started your edit from an
earlier revision and didn't notice the warning message; this can and does happen.

Can you describe how you went about editing that page? Were you looking at the history?
At a diff of an older version? How did you reach it? Through your watchlist? Recent
changes? Your or another user's contributions list? A link someone showed you?

This diff shows your single-line addition:
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Batman&diff=37797800&oldid=34420608

The parent version was made on January 8 by Ace ETP. Is it possible that you were
looking at that version when you started editing?

webmaster wrote:

I reached the 'incorrect' diff from my contributions page here:

23:49, 1 February 2006 (hist) (diff) m Batman

When I click diff, I should expect to see what changes I made, right?

It STILL shows that 'incorrect' edit...

According to my contributions page, the edit where I added the link was here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Batman&diff=prev&oldid=34350099

Not the link you provided, which appears nowhere on my contributions page.
Something seems amiss...

The diff is almost certainly correct.

What was "incorrect" was that your editing started from a different version from what
you expected. Therefore the version you saved made more changes against the then-most-
recent version than you expected. Therefore the diff looks different from what you
expect.

How did you reach the page *when you edited it*? Were you looking at an old version or a
diff *at the time you edited it*? Did you click edit *on an old version*?

webmaster wrote:

(In reply to comment #4)

The diff is almost certainly correct.What was "incorrect" was that your editing

started from a different version from what you expected. Therefore the version
you saved made more changes against the then-most-recent version than you
expected. Therefore the diff looks different from what you expect.How did you
reach the page *when you edited it*? Were you looking at an old version or a diff
*at the time you edited it*? Did you click edit *on an old version*?

I would imagine that I reached the page by direct url manipulation when I edited
it, but not expecting an error, I can't say I took mental note.

I will watch for similar cirumstances in the future, but for now, since this is
probably un-reproduceable... We should probably just close the bug. I will keep
it on my watchlist, should I see something similar.

Thank you Brion,

Jamie.

Ok, going to close as INVALID for now.