Personal tools

Personal tools are a set of links provided in the most popular MediaWiki skins, including Vector, Monobook, Cologne Blue, Simple, Modern, and others.

Default set
The most default set of links provided is to give users access to their...


 * User page (Special:MyPage)
 * User talk (Special:MyTalk)
 * Preferences (Special:Preferences)
 * Watchlist (Special:Watchlist)
 * Contributions (Special:Contributions)
 * User authentication (Special:UserLogin/Special:UserLogout)

Other extensions or gadgets which add to personal tools

 * LiquidThreads adds new messages
 * Echo adds notifications (not currently used in production, but planned)
 * Extension:Education Program adds courses
 * Some large Wikipedias (such as the English Wikipedia) include a "My sandbox" link to Special:MyPage/sandbox.
 * Wikimedia Commons adds "My uploads"
 * ULS adds a language selector
 * Others?

Copy
Other than the header for personal tools, nearly all skins retain the  possessive form, e.g. "My talk", "My watchlist".

Use of possessives
Previous versions of this menu used a possessive form, prefixing items with "My...". This was removed as a result of bug 41672 in change 31605.

Related research:
 * http://www.designingsocialinterfaces.com/patterns.wiki/index.php?title=Your_vs._My
 * http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/4348/your-vs-my-in-user-interfaces
 * http://developer.yahoo.com/ypatterns/social/core/yourvmy.html