Actually it's used in two places:
includes/SpecialUpload.php: $fd = wfMsgHtml( 'filedesc' );
includes/Image.php: $textdesc = '== ' . wfMsg ( 'filedesc' )
. " ==\n" . $desc . "\n" .

First one is plain text and second is wikitext.

I'll experiment if I can change to first on to wikitext.

dbenbenn wrote:

The same goes for [[MediaWiki:Badfiletype]].

I created new message [[Mediawiki:fileuploadsummary]] which is wikitext and
contains the semicolon.

dbenbenn wrote:

[[MediaWiki:Categoriespagetext]] is another message where <a> used to work, and
now neither HTML nor Wiki markup works.

Not anymore, now wikitext.

dbenbenn wrote:

It appears that [[MediaWiki:Categoriespagetext]] is still not wikified. See
[[Special:Categories]].

It will be, when wikimedia installation is next time synced, which may take from
hours to days.

adraeus wrote:

Formatting is not interpreted in [[MediaWiki:Tagline]].

adraeus wrote:

Formatting is not interpreted in [[MediaWiki:Booksourcetext]].

dbenbenn wrote:

[[MediaWiki:Badfiletype]] is still not wikified.

dbenbenn wrote:

[[MediaWiki:Minoredit]] is not wikified.

wiki.bugzilla wrote:

*** Bug 3721 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

wiki.bugzilla wrote:

And some more (moved from bug 3721):

• [[MediaWiki:Timezonetext]]
• [[MediaWiki:Templatesused]]
• [[MediaWiki:Unusedcategoriestext]]
• [[MediaWiki:Doubleredirectstext]]

should also be wiki text.

(In reply to comment #8)

Formatting is not interpreted in [[MediaWiki:Tagline]].

see bugzilla 4187 (duplicate)

• Bug 4187 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

gangleri wrote:

*note*
The feature requested at
bug 2453: [[Special:Allmessages]] should provide information about the type of
the MediaWiki message
would help sysops, developers and users to identify chaanges and bug easier.

As this information would need to be maintaind in a (.php) file it would be easy
to follow changes about how MediaWiki messages are rendering / used via CVS.
However its implementation would require a lot of work analysing the whole
existing code.

best regards reinhart [[user:gangleri]]

See my quick patch for [[MediaWiki:tagline]] in bugzilla 4187

For those who need [[MediaWiki:tagline]] messages with HTML and Wiki-formatted
texts (which is currently not
possible), the attached very simple patch is suggested for CVS-HEAD and similar
products:

/skins/Monobook.php
change line 84 (or search for 'tagline')

<h3 id="siteSub"><?php $this->msg('tagline') ?></h3>
to
<h3 id="siteSub"><?php $this->msgWiki('tagline') ?></h3>

I will submit a regular patch as soon as the cvs access to sf.net is working
again (which is currently not the
case for me for an unknown reason). I also ask the experts to review my patch
(whether it could have negative side effects).

It's unclear, whether a similar change would solve all other message text
problems, but it's again up to the experts to decide.

Patch for the unpatient readers:

/skins/Monobook.php change line 84 (or search for 'tagline')

<h3 id="siteSub"><?php $this->msg('tagline') ?></h3>

to

<h3 id="siteSub"><?php $this->msgWiki('tagline') ?></h3>

(In reply to comment #13)

• [[MediaWiki:Timezonetext]]
• [[MediaWiki:Templatesused]]
• [[MediaWiki:Unusedcategoriestext]]
• [[MediaWiki:Doubleredirectstext]]

should also be wiki text.

also [[MediaWiki:Fileuploaded]]

(In reply to comment #19)

.... [[MediaWiki:Fileuploaded]]
should also be wiki text.

This appears to be solved in HEAD (1.6); sorry

Wiki.Melancholie wrote:

Hmm, isn't this bug actually a duplicate of bug 212?

repeated from comments #17, #18 ...

/skins/Monobook.php change line 84 (or search for 'tagline')

change <h3 id="siteSub"><?php $this->msg('tagline') ?></h3>
to <h3 id="siteSub"><?php $this->msgWiki('tagline') ?></h3>

and so on for all the other remaining not-yet-wikified messages as listed in
this bugzilla 3208

dbenbenn wrote:

[[MediaWiki:Gotaccount]] is apparently not wikified.

dbenbenn wrote:

And could we please get [[MediaWiki:Nologin]] wikified ASAP? I need to add a
language bar at http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Nologin (Actually,
it would be nicer if the entire content of [[Special:Userlogin]] were generated
by a single MediaWiki message, but I guess that's too much to hope for.)

stanley wrote:

Also [[MediaWiki:1movedto2]] and [[Mediawiki:1movedto2_redir]]

(In reply to comment #22)

/skins/Monobook.php change line 84 (or search for 'tagline')
change <h3 id="siteSub"><?php $this->msg('tagline') ?></h3>
to <h3 id="siteSub"><?php $this->msgWiki('tagline') ?></h3>
and so on for all the other remaining not-yet-wikified messages as listed in
this bugzilla 3208

An open issue; the 1.7.1 still lacks the msgWiki() -fying of remaining plain
text textvariables and I kindly ask the main developers to "Wikify" remaining
plain MediaWiki messages for example [[MediaWiki:Tagline]] and many more (see
this mediazilla).

Such messages are performance-sensitive, and most likely will not be wikified.

How about [[MediaWiki:Badfiletype]], this shouldn't be a performance issue (a
rare message), and there is no way to add a link there (neither [[]] nor <a
href="...">...</a> works).

At the moment it is impossible to know from the comments what should be changed to what and what is changed already in the meantime. Please open new bugs for new requests, if needed.

/skins/Monobook.php:

change <h3 id="siteSub"><?php $this->msg('tagline') ?></h3>
to <h3 id="siteSub"><?php $this->msgWiki('tagline') ?></h3>

to allow wikisyntax and links for tagline contents.

leon wrote:

Commited to SVN trunk, r34370.

robert wrote:

That fix only fixes MonoBook -- this needs to be done for all skins.

was also reverted by Brion in r34382

"Revert r34370 -- don't rev up the wiki parser for *every single page view ever* please!"

leon wrote:

Wontfixing, then.

• Bug 14064 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***

*** Bug 16851 has been marked as a duplicate of this bug. ***