Is this only on wikimedia wiki's?

Which skin?

Sounds like a local issue. MediaWiki does not specify a font beyond the generic
"sans-serif." Can you verify your settings in Internet Explorer for sans-serif
fonts?

hackwrench wrote:

cursive:
http://manual.audacityteam.org/index.php?title=Temporary_HTML_Manual_Export
http://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/Main_Page
http://wiki.typo3.org/index.php/Main_Page
http://en.gentoo-wiki.com/wiki/Main_Page
http://wiki.videolan.org/Main_Page

not cursive:
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/
http://wiki.laptop.org/go/The_OLPC_Wiki
http://wiki.rubyonrails.org/

Further suggesting the problem is on your end. Neither ubuntu or rubyonrails uses mediawiki, however unbuntu has the font set to ariel, and rubyonrails has it set to Veranda. The OLPC wiki has overridden the default font style of mediawiki from sans-serif to Ariel. I didn't look at all the wikis you listed as cursive, but the videolan one keeps the mediawiki default of sans-serif. I assume the other "cursive" wikis do to.

Did you check which font you have internet explorer configured to map to sans-serif as MZMcBride suggested. (sans-serif is a generic font that the web browser is supposed to map to a "real" font)

karun.84 wrote:

It sounds like someone has changed the default font on internet explorer. There is an option somewhere to change it. Im not sure how to as I dont use it though.

karun.84 wrote:

looks like this is an upstream issue with internet explorer.

karun.84 wrote:

This is an issue with individual websites, and not specifically with MediaWiki. You should report the bug to the individual website, as the mediawiki software allows them to set the font they use.

The person reported it here because wikipedia was one of those said websites. (Thus he reported it in the right place)

However from the sounds of this, it sounds like the user has misconfigured a feature of internet explorer. Assuming thats right then its an invalid bug, as the user specifically asked internet explorer to render websites in a cursive font (of course its always possible that that is not the problem, but that is what it sounds like to me, but i could be wrong). I wouldn't classify it as an IE bug either, more as a feature.

karun.84 wrote:

(In reply to comment #8)

The person reported it here because wikipedia was one of those said websites.
(Thus he reported it in the right place)

However from the sounds of this, it sounds like the user has misconfigured a
feature of internet explorer. Assuming thats right then its an invalid bug, as
the user specifically asked internet explorer to render websites in a cursive
font (of course its always possible that that is not the problem, but that is
what it sounds like to me, but i could be wrong). I wouldn't classify it as an
IE bug either, more as a feature.

I can not see Wikipedia in the list of sites that have been provided as in a cursive font. So from the list I think it was more a bug about mediawiki.

I can't read the reporters mind, so i could be wrong, but:
*User submits bug with title "Wikipedia wikis appears in a cursive font on Internet Explorer" (title has since changed)
*Reedy asks if it is only wikimedia or other two
*User responds with a list of other wikis that this issue affects.
*I conclude from this that in addition to wikipedia, several other mediawiki wikis are affected. (With a counter-example that does not use the default mediawiki css)
**(I make the further conclusion that the issue at hand is probably on the users end, but could be wrong about that. however thats beside the point).

Thus if there is an issue that needs fixing here, it is with mediawiki (including wikipedia), thus the person should not send bug reports to those individual sites.

hackwrench wrote:

It happens on the page http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml/ and also http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/fonts.html as well. When I go to Developer tools and turn off CSS the site appears normal.

karun.84 wrote:

(In reply to comment #11)

It happens on the page http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml/ and also
http://www.w3.org/TR/CSS2/fonts.html as well. When I go to Developer tools and
turn off CSS the site appears normal.

In that case, it looks like a problem with your computer, and not Mediawiki or Wikipedia.

karun.84 wrote:

(In reply to comment #10)

Thus if there is an issue that needs fixing here, it is with mediawiki
(including wikipedia), thus the person should not send bug reports to those
individual sites.

There is no issue that needs fixing here. The issue occurs also for the reported with HTML websites, that have nothing to do with MediaWiki/Wikipedia. Such as the W3 one. It is a computer configuration issue, and nothing to do with mediawiki/wikipedia.