Help talk:Editing

MediaWiki hardcoded page name. Redirected
The page title "Help:Editing" is an important one which is kind of hardcoded into the mediawiki software. While editing a page, a link appears below the box "Editing help (opens in new window)". So it's kind of ugly to have that redirecting as it is here at the moment.

Now I'm aware that this is controlleable by sysops, who can edit the 'System Messages' page MediaWiki:Edithelppage. But there's added dimension to the problem, because these help pages are supposed to be copyable into other wikis. See Project:PD help.

This means we need to make sure that the redirect gets copied, so I guess it should be added to Help:Copying (although can you even export/import redirects? never tried it) But this means ugly redirects get copied to all these various other wiki installations. Now we could recommend they also use sysop permissions to edit their MediaWiki:Edithelppage page. But this all starts to seem a bit messy.

I think the best solution is going to be to rethink the page naming such that there is something on the "Help:Editing" page (not just a redirect) Maybe move Help:Editing pages to here.

-- Harry Wood 16:49, 5 December 2007 (UTC)


 * ...But then again... I realise there's lots of translation pages for Help:Editing pages. These would also need to move, so that's a bit of hassle.  -- Harry Wood 09:54, 11 December 2007 (UTC)
 * Maybe it's best just to go back to what it was; an abbreviated index of editing topics. It shouldn't be linked from the index, since it is redundant, but just be used as another entry point to the help system -Steve Sanbeg 18:43, 19 December 2007 (UTC)


 * Ah yeah. That works. -- Harry Wood 09:58, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

How to edit a page with translations markup
Current translations documentation is oriented towards translations administrators, translation extension managers, and translations applications for translators. Editors need there own or section in Help:editing.


 * It should be compact and concentrate on the syntax and grammar of &lt;translate>, and other translations markup.
 * It should focus on the needs of editors. Perhaps a section in Help:Editing. Translations markings on a page discourage editing. There is no documentation for translations whose audience is editors.
 * It should bring pages such as Help:CirrusSearch, back to life, "edited by anyone, mercilessly" as the proven saying goes. Help:CirrusSearch is a ghost town, yet Search is a hot technology -- you can get a college degree in it -- and Elastica is a hot open source movement. Help:Searching on Wikipedia has little or nothing on CirrusSearch, perhaps as a result of Help:CirrusSearch paralysis.

As an editor at Help:CirrusSearch I struggled with 1) the documentation on translations and 2) with unresponsive translations "editors" for months before becoming fed up with it and removing it. Documenting how to edit a page with translations will prove that translations and translators care about editing, not just translations. Cpiral (talk) 19:11, 29 September 2015 (UTC)