On 7 September 2011 17:32, John Vandenberg jayvdb@gmail.com wrote:
On Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 7:26 AM, Risker risker.wp@gmail.com wrote:
On 7 September 2011 17:18, John Vandenberg jayvdb@gmail.com wrote:
On Thu, Sep 8, 2011 at 12:55 AM, Risker risker.wp@gmail.com wrote:
On 7 September 2011 10:48, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
<snip>
The closest we could come to a neutral filtering system is an easily accessible on/off switch for images.
Interestingly, this proposal has come up many times completely
separate
to
the issue of image filtering. Many users, particularly those on
dial-up
systems or those whose billing is related to the amount of data
accessed
have asked for this ability for some time. For them it is a
performance/cost
issue, and has nothing to do with filtering. Given some of the
arguments
that have been made in opposition to filtering, particularly those
that
seem
to focus on "the content should be displayed in the way the authors intended", I'm concerned there would be equally significant opposition
to
even this simple matter.
Turning off images should be, and can be, done by the user-agent. We have a help page describing how to do this.
That would be the page with the great big "this page is out of date"
notice
at the top, giving instructions that are not valid for the most common
user
agents (Firefox 2?).
Every version of Mozilla has included the "Dont load images" option. And it is simple to find.
John, you made me laugh out loud when I read that - it reminded me of how incredibly non-techie I was before I started hanging out with Wikimedians, because a few years ago it never would have occurred to me that it was possible. As it was, It took me 15 minutes to find the two ways to do that (without looking at the help page that I doubt anyone would find without knowing a lot about the project).
I do think David Gerard's suggestion is probably both (a) quite workable and (b) more likely to create user satisfaction, especially if it's a straightforward toggle.
Risker/Anne