diff --git a/includes/Gadget.php b/includes/Gadget.php
index 52f39f6f..6fc9e9a9 100644
--- a/includes/Gadget.php
+++ b/includes/Gadget.php
@@ -137,18 +137,25 @@ class Gadget {
 		return $this->name;
 	}
 
+	/**
+	 * @return string Message key
+	 */
+	public function getDescriptionMessageKey() {
+		return "gadget-{$this->getName()}";
+	}
+
 	/**
 	 * @return string Gadget description parsed into HTML
 	 */
 	public function getDescription() {
-		return wfMessage( "gadget-{$this->getName()}" )->parse();
+		return wfMessage( $this->getDescriptionMessageKey() )->parse();
 	}
 
 	/**
 	 * @return string Wikitext of gadget description
 	 */
 	public function getRawDescription() {
-		return wfMessage( "gadget-{$this->getName()}" )->plain();
+		return wfMessage( $this->getDescriptionMessageKey() )->plain();
 	}
 
 	/**
diff --git a/includes/GadgetHooks.php b/includes/GadgetHooks.php
index 2e2d9eba..07202eed 100644
--- a/includes/GadgetHooks.php
+++ b/includes/GadgetHooks.php
@@ -109,21 +109,19 @@ class GadgetHooks {
 					&& $gadget->isSkinSupported( $skin )
 				) {
 					$gname = $gadget->getName();
-					# bug 30182: dir="auto" because it's often not translated
-					$desc = '<span dir="auto">' . $gadget->getDescription() . '</span>';
-					$available[$desc] = $gname;
+					$available[$gadget->getDescriptionMessageKey()] = $gname;
 					if ( $gadget->isEnabled( $user ) ) {
 						$default[] = $gname;
 					}
 				}
 			}
 
-			if ( $section !== '' ) {
-				$section = wfMessage( "gadget-section-$section" )->parse();
+			if ( $available === [] ) {
+				continue;
+			}
 
-				if ( count( $available ) ) {
-					$options[$section] = $available;
-				}
+			if ( $section !== '' ) {
+				$options["gadget-section-$section"] = $available;
 			} else {
 				$options = array_merge( $options, $available );
 			}
@@ -140,7 +138,7 @@ class GadgetHooks {
 		$preferences['gadgets'] =
 			[
 				'type' => 'multiselect',
-				'options' => $options,
+				'options-messages' => $options,
 				'section' => 'gadgets',
 				'label' => '&#160;',
 				'prefix' => 'gadget-',
diff --git a/tests/phpunit/integration/GadgetHooksTest.php b/tests/phpunit/integration/GadgetHooksTest.php
index 7e2f14df..8b034b18 100644
--- a/tests/phpunit/integration/GadgetHooksTest.php
+++ b/tests/phpunit/integration/GadgetHooksTest.php
@@ -52,10 +52,10 @@ class GadgetHooksTest extends MediaWikiIntegrationTestCase {
 		$repo->definitionCache = $gadgets;
 		GadgetHooks::getPreferences( $this->user, $prefs );
 
-		$options = $prefs['gadgets']['options'];
-		$this->assertArrayNotHasKey( '⧼gadget-section-remove-section⧽', $options,
+		$options = $prefs['gadgets']['options-messages'];
+		$this->assertArrayNotHasKey( 'gadget-section-remove-section', $options,
 			'Must not show empty sections' );
-		$this->assertArrayHasKey( '⧼gadget-section-keep-section1⧽', $options );
-		$this->assertArrayHasKey( '⧼gadget-section-keep-section2⧽', $options );
+		$this->assertArrayHasKey( 'gadget-section-keep-section1', $options );
+		$this->assertArrayHasKey( 'gadget-section-keep-section2', $options );
 	}
 }