This is a request for comments on both the patch and the feature that are in Bug 626: Different new page text for each namespace (enhancement) at: http://bugzilla.wikipedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=626
This patch creates new system messages to modify the how the system message newarticletext is used.
Currently, newarticletext is for new pages in any namespace, including talk, new catagory, new image descriptions and so forth. This patch creates 8 new page text variables: newuserpagetext, newwikipediapagetext, newimagepagetext, newmediawikitext, newtemplatetext, newhelppagetext, newcategorytext, newtalktext so that custom messages can be created for each. This allows the message that a user sees when creating a new talk page to be different when creating a new article and so on and so forth. I created this patch initially when I saw the message:
Wikipedia does not yet have a Talk page called Scarcity.
* To start the article, begin typing in the box below. When you're done, press the "Save page" button. Your changes will be visible immediately. * Please do not create an article to promote yourself, a website, a product, or a business (see Wikipedia:Policy). * If you are new to Wikipedia, please read the tutorial before creating your first article, and only use the sandbox for editing experiments. * Search for Scarcity in Wikipedia
and I thought that the text was rather strange for creating a discussion page. The text on en.wp has since been improved, but as the system message is used in practice (that is, a brief guide to creating new pages), I believe it would be useful to have different messages for different namespaces.
I request your comments on both the attached patch, and on whether it would be useful to have seperate new page texts for each namespace.
Josh Cogliati