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
On Sun, 16 Jan 2005 15:19:03 -0800 (PST), jjcogliati-wp@yahoo.com jjcogliati-wp@yahoo.com wrote:
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
I haven't looked at the exact operation of your patch, but as stated in bugzilla I support the idea of allowing these messages to be configured independently. The only disadvantage I can see is that the more messages there are, the more there is to translate, and the harder it is for site administrators to keep track of customisation (the more you *can* customise, the longer it takes to do so).
The only way to avoid that problem is to have some kind of "transparent" messages, or just a switch, so that the old one-size-fits-all message can be used by those who don't want to think about the different namespaces. But as far as I'm aware, you can do transclusions within MediaWiki messages (am I right?), so anyone wanting to *merge* the messages can just use {{MediaWiki:newarticletext}} for those they don't want to define.
This even gives the option of picking and choosing, so really obvious distinctions, like starting a new *discussion* versus new *content*, or *describing* a category versus *creating* an article, can be made even if others aren't. [But maybe I *am* wrong about inclusions in MediaWiki: messages...]
I know I'm in danger of restating my case once too often here, but I thought this would be a reasonable context to work through some of the possible concerns.
wikitech-l@lists.wikimedia.org