Talk:Talk pages project/Replying/2020/12

The team would value any thoughts and/or questions you have about this new tool for Replying to specific comments on talk pages.

My reply sent to end of thread instead of under a comment

I used the Reply tool to reply to one of comments in the middle of a thread. Then the new message was posted to the very bottom, i.e. the very end, of the thread. The new message should have been underneath the comment that I replied to but also above at least one succeeding comment. Rather than use the beta tool, I fixed the error in a manual, wikicode way, i.e. moved my reply to where it was supposed to be.

Example: diff 1, diff 2 George Ho (talk) 13:01, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

Reply links in mobile version

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

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@PPelberg (WMF) @Whatamidoing (WMF) Hello, please try this link. Can you see [ reply ] links? Why? I see this. Patrik L. (talk) 17:03, 3 December 2020 (UTC)

@ESanders (WMF) and all others: Can you replicate it? Patrik L. (talk) 11:49, 14 December 2020 (UTC)

Thanks @Patriccck, we’ll look in to it. ESanders (WMF) (talk) 11:55, 14 December 2020 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Always inserts signature at end even if signature is already in the comment

Sometimes there will be text after my signature, such as "please ping me in replies since I don't watch this page" or perhaps my comment was in <small></small>. In those cases, the reply tool ignores the fact that I already have a signature in my message and sticks one on the end anyway. GeneralNotability (talk) 01:55, 5 December 2020 (UTC)

There was a similar request on Phabricator: T268558 Matma Rex (talk) 20:51, 5 December 2020 (UTC)

Aha, thanks very much! Subscribed to that ticket. GeneralNotability (talk) 00:55, 6 December 2020 (UTC)

Add a space character between a text and user's signature

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T270259

Recently I replied in a thread and pasted following URL: https://web.archive.org/web/20170211003909/https://uk.wikipedia.org/wiki/%D0%9A%D1%83%D1%80%D1%82_%D0%92%D1%96%D0%BC%D0%BC%D0%B5%D1%80 . In a preview it looked well, however after saving my signature was added right after URL, and it become http://....--Kanzat, so "--" characters are now part of URL, which is wrong and URL is no longer valid. Thanks. Kanzat (talk) 10:00, 7 December 2020 (UTC)

Thanks for this note. Is the convention at the Ukranian Wikipedia to sign without a space (e.g., Sentence.--Name)? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 19:33, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

@Whatamidoing (WMF) As I see people usually insert a space. "Sentence. --Name" Kanzat (talk) 20:11, 8 December 2020 (UTC)

I’ve fixed the custom signature prefix that was set on uk.wiki with this edit.

I was able to then add a trailing link using the tool in this edit. ESanders (WMF) (talk) 10:25, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

This will still be an issue on ja.wiki where the lack of a space is deliberate. Filed T270259. ESanders (WMF) (talk) 10:44, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

Wondering...

... if this talk page for the reply tool should still be using StructuredDiscussions instead of the very reply tool we're all using/testing/developing :-) —MarcoAurelio (talk) 11:47, 14 December 2020 (UTC)

+1 Taavi (talk!) 10:17, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

Well, for this purposes I belive using structured discussions is better: you can easily follow a topic, track on phabricator,... Valcio (talk) 10:59, 7 January 2021 (UTC)

Wikipage topic-watching hasn't been built yet, but the {{Tracked }} template works of course. Alsee (talk) 16:31, 8 January 2021 (UTC)

Voting and signing up

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T259865

As a variant of this software, it could be perfect for voting and signing up to lists for users who aren't familiar with markup. I've previously done some experiments with using preload for signing up (template, in use), and for support/oppose (template, in use) but it's not exactly a smooth experience for newcomers.

Perhaps some magicword in the lead comment could alter the behaviour if its [reply] link, e.g.

• __VOTE__ could make the reply button replaced with a [vote on proposal] button that allows people to choose from support/oppose/comment
• __SIGNUP__ could be even simpler, just completely the comment box so that when someone saves, it just adds their signature T.Shafee(Evo﹠Evo)^talk 23:16, 16 December 2020 (UTC)

That sounds like a great idea! Zblace (talk) 04:03, 17 December 2020 (UTC)

Support Valcio (talk) 10:58, 7 January 2021 (UTC)

This is planned, but it's not entirely clear to me whether it will happen (i.e., this year). Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 23:52, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

@Mike Peel, this feature request seems a little bit related to the RFC you started at Wikipedia:Village pump (proposals)#RfC: Should we have Support/Oppose/etc. survey convenience templates?. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 23:53, 11 January 2021 (UTC)

Good luck! There's been quite a lot of opposition to that RfC, and I suspect the same would apply to this tool if deployed on enwp... Mike Peel (talk) 10:54, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

It might be more popular at w:en:WP:RFA than in an everyday discussion. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 04:14, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

Apparently if you try to use Support in a RFA, a bot comes along and removes it... [1] Mike Peel (talk) 17:47, 15 January 2021 (UTC)

I suppose that waiting for a bot is one way to address the problem of typing straight quotation marks. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 19:41, 23 January 2021 (UTC)

Tab stop

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T271773

The edit summary window should be the next tab stop after the editing window; e.g. so the user presses TAB once to jump to the edit summary window after finishing their comment. Overall this tool is a very welcome improvement; thank you. Levivich (talk) 18:08, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

I've been thinking about this. The edit summary field is collapsed/hidden for most editors, and mostly unused by editors. (A few people use it a lot, but most people use it never or rarely.) It would be undesirable to "lose" the cursor in an invisible/collapsed edit summary window, but I'm not sure if that would be a problem. The tab system might be able to skip it/detect when the edit summary is open. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 00:48, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

Pre-filled pings

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T250914

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T257391

One of the features I liked about reply-link script on enwiki is that it pre-filled a {u|username} ping template in the reply. It'd be nice to have this as a default or optional feature (and to be able to set which template it uses as some wikis have multiple). Levivich (talk) 18:09, 22 December 2020 (UTC)

This has been discussed. The team has also considered a different approach, which would give you a tickbox (either checked or unchecked by default). Imagine something like pinging via the edit summary, instead of needing to include a link to your username in the actual comment.

Are you using it in the visual or wikitext source modes? In the visual mode (and hopefully, eventually, in both modes), if you type the @ symbol, you can easily search for the name you want to link. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 00:06, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

A tickbox would be nice, and/or a preference to set the default. I've been using it in source mode, I'll try it out in visual, didn't know about the @ thing. Thanks! Levivich (talk) 00:14, 12 January 2021 (UTC)

The prefs setting could go two ways: Does my pref make me defaultly ping all those other editors, or does it defaultly make everyone else ping me? What do you think? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 05:51, 13 January 2021 (UTC)

I think everyone would absolutely love the second one. I wouldn't want to set the preference if I could have the recipient set the preference for me. Levivich (talk) 05:56, 13 January 2021 (UTC)

I would love it if the person I'm replying to could set it for me and if I could set myself to "always ping". I'm forever trying to guess whether the fact someone didn't ping me means they hate being pinged to a discussion they're already participating in. I've seen people get quite annoyed by that, but my own preference is to be pinged every time I'm replied to.

Also if you've set yourself to always be pinged on reply, and someone replies to you and removes that auto-ping, it provides interesting information. :) Valereee (talk) 13:55, 30 January 2021 (UTC)

I asked about default-pinging editors at w:en:Wikipedia talk:Talk pages project#Experiences, and people have been enthusiastic about getting lots of pings. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 21:45, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Just one more thought to add to this: pinging in the text of the comment (i.e., starting this comment with "@Whatamidoing") is better, IMO, than just having a checkbox that would put the ping in the edit summary or somewhere other than the text of the comment. For two reasons: 1) the @username in the text of the comment makes it very clear who the comment is directed towards (clearer than just the indent level, and sometimes the indent level you need to use doesn't match who you're pinging or to whom you're addressing a comment or part of a comment), and 2) it creates a record on the page that a particular comment included a ping, so others see that in the future (whereas if it were in the edit summary, it would be much harder to find)... this can be useful later, and also useful for monitoring canvassing. Levivich (talk) 17:53, 1 February 2021 (UTC)

In that case, when I reply after you, but not specifically to you, then I could backspace over the ping to remove it.

Have any of you checked your contribs to see how often your talk-page replies (not starting a new section or correcting a typo, for which this wouldn't apply) include pinging someone? If we're voluntarily pinging people in 25% of replies, then I don't think we'd want to suggest it in 100% of replies. But if we're doing it in 75% of replies, then we probably should. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 21:48, 10 February 2021 (UTC)

Levivich, you might have seen this on enwiki, but for anyone else who's interested:

If you want to try out the toolbar for the wikitext 'source' mode, go to the end of Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing on your home wiki and tick the box for "Enable editing tools in source mode" Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 19:32, 12 May 2021 (UTC)

Error in Reply Tool

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T271774

@Whatamidoing (WMF) @PPelberg (WMF) Hello, try to reply in Visual mode. Write 99 add add subscript and small formating. Then write 66 and add superscript and small formating. Then publish post and there is <meta /> tag, see this diff. Patrik L. (talk) 12:35, 30 December 2020 (UTC)

I haven't been able to reproduce by following these steps. Does it happen for you consistently when you do this?

It's apparently not an isolated issue, here's another diff with a <meta /> tag: https://bn.wikipedia.org/?diff=4787950 (I just ran into it by chance, while looking at the largest edits made with DiscussionTools) Matma Rex (talk) 20:51, 2 January 2021 (UTC)

Now, I cannot replicate it too (see Patchdemo). It happened only one time at Czech Wikipedia. Patrik L. (talk) 21:23, 2 January 2021 (UTC)

I wonder whether there's something with copying and pasting – a bit of strange formatting getting lost? The bnwiki diff has 'blank' lines. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 01:37, 7 January 2021 (UTC)

I am not sure if I copied some text originally… Patrik L. (talk) 09:50, 7 January 2021 (UTC)

Well, it's in Phab now, and maybe one of the devs will have an idea about what's going on. Thank you so much for reporting this. I'm pretty sure that it would have been entirely missed if you hadn't said something. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 00:58, 12 January 2021 (UTC)