We had an email asking why we override browser defaults to underline links. I've asked about this at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_talk:Monobook.css , but am not sure how much that is watched. Any comments would be most helpful there.
(and yes, I know this can be changed in preferences, but that's not a help for the large number of non-logged in readers we have)
--sannse
It may be a colourblindness issue for red links. If your colourblind you wouldn't be able to determine a red link from normal text. ----- Original Message ----- From: "sannse" sannse@tiscali.co.uk To: wikien-l@wikimedia.org Sent: Saturday, June 11, 2005 9:08 PM Subject: [WikiEN-l] CSS and underlined links
We had an email asking why we override browser defaults to underline links. I've asked about this at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_talk:Monobook.css , but am not sure how much that is watched. Any comments would be most helpful there.
(and yes, I know this can be changed in preferences, but that's not a help for the large number of non-logged in readers we have)
--sannse _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@Wikipedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
David 'DJ' Hedley wrote:
It may be a colourblindness issue for red links. If your colourblind you wouldn't be able to determine a red link from normal text.
Yes, there are problems with forcing in the other direction too, so surely it's best to leave it to browser preferences?
--sannse
I assume it was done because a lot of people hate a bunch of underlines in their text. Personally, it doesn't really bother me, and I can change it in my preferences anyway, so we might as well change it for outsiders.
--Mgm
On 6/11/05, sannse sannse@tiscali.co.uk wrote:
We had an email asking why we override browser defaults to underline links. I've asked about this at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_talk:Monobook.css , but am not sure how much that is watched. Any comments would be most helpful there.
(and yes, I know this can be changed in preferences, but that's not a help for the large number of non-logged in readers we have)
--sannse _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@Wikipedia.org http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
MacGyverMagic/Mgm wrote:
I assume it was done because a lot of people hate a bunch of underlines in their text. Personally, it doesn't really bother me, and I can change it in my preferences anyway, so we might as well change it for outsiders.
--Mgm
Wrong way round - we currently force underlining for everyone who hasn't logged in and changed their preferences - that is, the majority of people who use Wikipedia
--sannse
On 11/06/05, sannse sannse@tiscali.co.uk wrote:
We had an email asking why we override browser defaults to underline links. I've asked about this at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_talk:Monobook.css , but am not sure how much that is watched. Any comments would be most helpful there.
As I understand it: * some people voted, a long time ago, to keep underlines (or, rather, "use browser default") - http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Link_style_vote
* when 1.3 came out, with the spangly new MonoBook skin, it included non-underlined links, and people complained - http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.3_comments_and_bug_reports/Archiv...
* the skin as distributed with the software still has them non-underlined by default (underline on hover), and indeed most Wikimedia projects leave them as such, but "by popular demand", the English Wikipedia overrides this in its global stylesheet
Whether that makes it the *right* thing to do, I've no idea.
[On a technical note, I can't quite work out how the user preference toggle for this works, but it might be cleaner to have this set as a default preference rather than explicit in the stylesheet]
ah, that's helpful Rowan - it was that meta page that I couldn't find.
Many thanks
--sannse
Rowan Collins wrote:
On 11/06/05, sannse sannse@tiscali.co.uk wrote:
We had an email asking why we override browser defaults to underline links. I've asked about this at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_talk:Monobook.css , but am not sure how much that is watched. Any comments would be most helpful there.
As I understand it:
- some people voted, a long time ago, to keep underlines (or, rather,
"use browser default") - http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Link_style_vote
- when 1.3 came out, with the spangly new MonoBook skin, it included
non-underlined links, and people complained - http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_1.3_comments_and_bug_reports/Archiv...
- the skin as distributed with the software still has them
non-underlined by default (underline on hover), and indeed most Wikimedia projects leave them as such, but "by popular demand", the English Wikipedia overrides this in its global stylesheet
Whether that makes it the *right* thing to do, I've no idea.
[On a technical note, I can't quite work out how the user preference toggle for this works, but it might be cleaner to have this set as a default preference rather than explicit in the stylesheet]