[Wikipedia-l] RFC on a few feature requests

[tarquin]

Brion VIBBER wrote:

> * "Most wanted" and "Most popular" special pages list the _total_ 
> number of links to a page, regardless of how many links there are _per 
> page_. Some types of lists can hyperinflate the numbers; a list of 
> video games might link [[Playstation]] 389 times (once for each 
> Playstation game listed). The behavior that people seem to expect is a 
> count of _pages_ that link, rather than the raw number of links. I 
> would tend to agree. This can be switched by the simple addition of 
> "DISTINCT" to a couple SQL queries; is there any reason to retain the 
> current behavior? 

don't think so. One page requesting many times IMO counts the same as 
one page requesting once.

>
>
> * On blocking vandals; there's still no interface for blocking by 
> username, and you can't get the IP address of a logged-in user except 
> by sifting through the server logs. Should we retain and display IP 
> addresses/hostnames of logged-in editors (as on UseMod), and/or allow 
> usernames to be blocked?
>
> * The administrative page rename feature on UseMod could optionally 
> find and change links to point to the new name in addition to just 
> supplying a redirect. We still haven't implemented this. Desirable? 

No. May make moves to slow. May edit links we don't want editing. (eg 
someone links "realist" and we move it to "realism")

But changing the links on redirects would be VERY desirable.
eg:
A redirects to B.
we wish to move B to C.
the action automagically edits A so A now redirects to C.


> * While the "Special:" namespace may be localized ("Spezial", 
> "Speciel" etc), the names of special pages are hardwired in English 
> (hence monstrosities like "Spezial:Recentchanges"). While these are 
> mostly hidden in the interface by descriptive names, the links, URLs, 
> and most annoyingly the tooltips on the links all show the raw 
> internal English name of the function which implements the special 
> page. A table of equivalencies could be set up, allowing more easily 
> recognizable localized names to be used. Good idea? Bad idea? 

excellent idea.

> * For the French wiki, the Wikipedia: namespace is tentatively set up 
> as "Wikipédia" (with acute accent on the "e"). The parser doesn't 
> accept namespaces with non-ASCII chars so this doesn't work, which is 
> a bug I intend to fix, but additionally one tester asked:
>
>   'For the francophone wikipedians without a French keyboard, would it
>   be possible for the "Wikipedia:*" links to automatically transform
>   into "Wikipédia:*"? Or, more simply, could the system interpret e/é as
>   equal in the namespace portion?'
>
> In short, allow aliases for namespaces. Good idea? Bad idea?

it's not a habit we should get into (aliases all over would be 
confusing) but not distinguishing between accent/nonaccent in the 
namespace portion of a name would be useful.