mw-cite-backlink is styled with user-select: none; in ext.cite.css. When using IE9, the backlinks ^ab do not display due to this property.
This property is not supposed to be supported by IE9 but, apparently it causes the content to not display. IE8 and below do not support this property at all; IE10 and above support it properly.
This can be fixed in user CSS with:
.mw-cite-backlink,
.cite-accessibility-label {
display: inline
}But obviously does not help anon readers.
It looks more like it's the 'display:none' in the print style, something's not right about it.
Change 198811 had a related patch set uploaded (by Brion VIBBER):
Workaround for IE 9 regression caused by @media print style
Change 198811 abandoned by Brion VIBBER:
Workaround for IE 9 regression caused by @media print style
Reason:
hrmmmmmm not sure what's up with that
In testing I couldn't repro the fix but I can repro the bug. Not sure what the heck's going on in there!
The two editors who reported the issue and my IE9 test system were fixed with the rule I provided in the description. I removed my fix and ensured that the problem occurred. I then applied your CSS and the problem is resolved.
The problem on IE9 does not occur with debug=true. It seams to be a parsing problem with the minimized CSS version.
The minimizing is not the problem.
The problem must be in mediawiki.js. When I remove nextnode from newStyleTag( text, nextnode ) the @media print rules works correctly in IE9.
Change 212009 had a related patch set uploaded (by Bartosz Dziewoński):
Move '@media print' rules to separate file
Change 213778 had a related patch set uploaded (by Gerrit Patch Uploader):
mediawiki.js: Handle IE9 like IE10 and above for style loading
Yeah, I actually didn't. It looks okay until you hover things with the mouse, at which point this issue can still be reproduced with my patch.
Change 213778 abandoned by Krinkle:
mediawiki.js: Handle IE9 like IE10 and above for style loading