Skip to content
TrickyBird

Reference site

Unblock Wikisource and open the edition you came for

Paste the address of the work and press Launch: Wikisource opens in the tab you already have, and the document arrives with its text on the page instead of a notice from the network you are on.

Almost every piece of advice about a blocked site starts with an app, and an app is exactly what a machine you do not administer refuses: no administrator password, no way to run an installer. A web proxy needs none of that. It is a page, and you are already allowed to open pages.

Wikisource runs on the same software as Wikipedia, which is why it carries through a proxy so cleanly. The page is finished on Wikimedia’s servers before your browser sees it, so nothing has to run locally for the words to appear, and the address of Wikisource shows up neither in your URL bar nor on the page in front of you.

Wikisource in our own tests

An edition page arrives with the complete text of the work, and the library’s own search leads to the same documents. A bare title often opens an index of editions instead, through the proxy as on a direct visit.

Last checked 2026-08-01

The address here is TrickyBird’s own, never the address of the site you opened

The site loads in the tab, but its address stays out of your URL bar and off the page you see.

How does TrickyBird open Wikisource?

TrickyBird sits between your browser and Wikisource. It asks Wikimedia for the page you wanted, changes every address in it so links, images, and stylesheets run back through the proxy rather than out to wikisource.org, and hands the result to your tab. A small script rides along and catches whatever you click next, which is what keeps the step from the start of a work to its next page on TrickyBird’s address rather than the library’s.

Wikisource sees a request from TrickyBird’s server rather than from your IP address, and your network sees a connection to TrickyBird. Nothing here needed special handling: MediaWiki serves finished HTML and puts no bot check in front of a public document.

Why one link opens a list and another opens the text

A well-known work usually exists on Wikisource in several editions, and its bare title often leads to an index page listing them, headed something like “Works entitled …”, without a line of the work itself. Nothing is broken when that happens. You landed on the index, and the index is what lives at that address.

The way out is the same as on a direct visit: pick the edition you want, then launch its address. A link that names its edition, the way “Gettysburg Address (Bliss copy)” does, opens the complete document. From there the text sits whole on the page, and the links inside it keep running through TrickyBird as you follow them.

Why is Wikisource out of reach on some networks?

Usually because of a category rather than the library. Filters sort the web into groups, and Wikisource lands with the wikis and the reader-edited reference works, alongside everything else of that shape, so a network that switches the group off takes the library with it. Nobody read the texts to decide that. Works old enough to be out of copyright also carry the occasional phrase a filter reacts to, and the filter then walls off the whole domain rather than the one page it objected to, which is how an entire library disappears over a single document. Either way the rule was written for a category, and the library was inside it.

Mainland China is a different case, because the block there covers the country rather than an office or a campus. GreatFire measures from inside the country, has recorded interference with en.wikisource.org since 11 May 2012, and rates the library as blocked. Joining another network there does not change that.

What stays with us while you read

While you read, the edge keeps a short access log to run the service and stop abuse: a shortened form of your IP address, the destination hostname, and basic response details, for at most 48 hours. There is no account here for any of those lines to attach to, and our privacy page covers the rest.

Questions

Does the whole text of a work come through?

Yes, when the address you launched is an edition rather than an index. An edition page arrives with the complete document, its headings, its notes, and the links inside it, in whatever form that edition has. Wikimedia assembles the page before sending it, so nothing has to run in your browser for the words to appear.

Why did my Wikisource link open a list of editions?

Because the bare title of a well-known work on Wikisource is often an index that lists the editions instead of carrying the text, and that happens on a direct visit too. Pick the edition you want from that list, launch its address, and the complete document opens.

Is Wikisource blocked in mainland China?

Yes, according to GreatFire, which runs its tests from inside the country. It has recorded interference with en.wikisource.org since 11 May 2012 and rates the site as blocked. A measurement like that covers the country rather than one network inside it, so changing connection on the ground gives no different result.

Can I sign in and proofread through TrickyBird?

This page covers reading, and no further. Signing in to a Wikimedia account, proofreading a scan against its text, or correcting a transcription are not part of it, so treat those as untested rather than promised. If you contribute to Wikisource, use a connection where the library loads without a detour.

Can I search Wikisource through TrickyBird?

Yes. The library’s own search runs through the proxy, and whatever you pick from the result list opens the same way. That is the usual way in when you have a title in mind and not an address. For a textbook rather than a source text, Wikibooks is here too.

Other sites people unblock

Open Wikisource now

Paste the link or press the button. The site opens in this tab, no download and no account.