Talk:Talk pages project/Replying/2021/08

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

Long-overdue feedback

I finally wrote my first message using this, after reply-link was unable to reply to a certain comment. This. Is. AWESOME! Hats off to everyone who worked on it. Beautiful user experience. It's everything I wish I could have done! Enterprisey (talk) 08:09, 4 August 2021 (UTC)

This feedback is meaningful coming from the person (read: you!) whose work helped inspire what we've been able to create.

This is all to say: we appreciate how generous you've been as a collaborator¹ and I hope you see the work you've done on the reply-link in how the Reply Tool looks and functions.

It's this precise interaction – a community-created tool providing the foundation for us, Foundation staff, to develop a feature that can be scaled to provide value to all volunteers – that I hope we will see more of as time goes on ^ _ ^

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1. I remember that first video call you, @Esanders (WMF), @JKlein (WMF), and I had where you shared how you went about creating the reply-link. PPelberg (WMF) (talk) 18:15, 4 August 2021 (UTC)

Thank you for taking the time to share this feedback. As @PPelberg (WMF) said, this work was massively informed by the work that you did and I consider the success of the feature a shared victory. I wrote a little post a while ago about how we've been approaching the project. I truly hope that you continue to stay active in the project - good feedback or constructive we need to hear from the source. JKlein (WMF) (talk) 13:33, 9 August 2021 (UTC)

Unable to reply to comment

When I reply to Oshwah's comment here, I get

The "reply" link cannot be used to reply to this comment. To reply, please use the full page editor by clicking "Edit source". RoySmith (talk) 13:44, 4 August 2021 (UTC)

It looks like all comments on that page behave like that. It's because of bug T287040. Matma Rex (talk) 14:07, 4 August 2021 (UTC)

Doesn't work with preformatted text

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T251633

If you use a tag such as ‎<syntaxhighlight>...‎</syntaxhighlight> that uses preformatted text in a reply, the reply tool will attempt to indent each line within that tag. This means that unwanted :s or *s will show up in the pre-formatted text. The only indentation should occur outside the tag, not within it. Ahecht (talk) 15:00, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

Just noting that I've observed this behavior, as well. There are a limited number of html tags that make sense would contain multiple lines, so I don't see why an explicit fix couldn't be implemented. MPants at work (talk) 15:07, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

Looking at it further, there are a bunch of special cases here:

• ‎<syntaxhighlight>...‎</syntaxhighlight> correctly indents as an entire block, so it needs a single indent mark outside the tag.
• ‎<poem>...‎</poem> ignores indents outside the tag, so it needs each line indented, but the indent on the first line must go inside the tag, or that line won't indent.
• ‎<pre>...‎</pre> simply breaks when they have multiple lines and you try to indent them, so the tool shouldn't try to indent it at all. Ahecht (talk) 18:18, 5 August 2021 (UTC)

I suppose phab:T251633 deals with this. Matěj Suchánek (talk) 07:54, 10 August 2021 (UTC)

Error with Shift button

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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User NhacNy2412 in the Vietnamese community reported a bug: "When I press Shift button, the cursor will jump back to a random place in the paragraph. Press once and it jumps back once. The place it jumps back usually is the text/link that I pasted in. When I use the old Vector, this error happens only when I paste something, but now when I use the new Vector, it also happens when I bold or italicize texts".

Please check the video here and help her fix it. Thank you so much. Bluetpp (WMF) (talk) 04:00, 9 August 2021 (UTC)

hi @Bluetpp (WMF) – can you please ask @NhacNy2412 to repeat the steps shown in the video with Safemode enabled and share whether doing so resolved the issue? Below are instructions for enabling Safemode that you can share.

By the way, the screen recording is a big help – thank you for including it. ^ _ ^

Enabling safemode

1. Revisit the page where you experienced the issue
2. Add the safemode parameter (?safemode=1) to the URL. E.g. https://vi.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Th%E1%BA%A3o_lu%E1%BA%ADn?safemode=1
3. Open the Reply Tool
4. Try drafting a comment PPelberg (WMF) (talk) 04:32, 9 August 2021 (UTC)

@PPelberg (WMF) Hi, after following your instruction with the safemode, that user found out that maybe the problem is caused by GoogleTrans gadget: "Open a popup window allowing the translation from Vietnamese to other languages (use the cursor to highlight then press Shift)", because when using safemode or turn this gadget off, the error doesn't happen anymore.

So I guess it's fixed, thank you so much for your help! I just figured that fixing errors will be way easier if you guys can "see" the problem, so! Bluetpp (WMF) (talk) 07:48, 9 August 2021 (UTC)

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

Edit certain replies functionality

T245225: Implement editing specific comments

I'm not sure if this would be within the scope of this tool but it would be interesting to have a similar button to the "Reply" one with "Edit" for each specific reply in a conversation, basically treating them as specific sections in an article. The reason I say this is because there are a lot of times in which I want to be able to edit my last comment because of a typo or another minor change and for that basically I have to scroll up to the top, press edit for the whole section, scroll back to the bottom again... In long conversations it gets really tiring.

I believe that the less people have to interact with the source code of conversations, the better it would be, especially for new users. Right now this tool almost completely removes the need for that kind of interaction. Fixing typos and similar changes though force you to start editing the whole section through source code so... (Maybe this kind of functionality could be provided only on the last answer.) Klein Muçi (talk) 03:08, 10 August 2021 (UTC)

hi @Klein Muçi – this page is a great place to talk about the prospect of introducing functionality that would enable people to edit specific comments. I particularly appreciate how vivid the description [i] you shared for when you would use this functionality and why you would value it.

So you're aware: we have not yet prioritized work on implementing this functionality. Although, in the meantime, I've added what you shared to the ticket in Phabricator where we are gathering ideas for how this could be implemented.

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i. "...I want to be able to edit my last comment because of a typo or another minor change and for that basically I have to scroll up to the top, press edit for the whole section, scroll back to the bottom again... In long conversations it gets really tiring." PPelberg (WMF) (talk) 04:38, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

CAPTCHA

Help, I don't know how to answer the CAPTCHA when replying. It just says "Captcha:..." and doesn't tell me what to answer. Firestar464 (talk) 10:10, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

where ? —TheDJ (Not WMF) (talk • contribs) 11:38, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

Miraheze. Firestar464 (talk) 12:45, 11 August 2021 (UTC)

You will have to talk to that third-party wiki's staff. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 20:22, 31 August 2021 (UTC)

Complex indentation

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T265750

Should the reply tool be able to "understand" complex indentation? Long conversations could have complex degrees of indentation for different reasons. Here is an example of a conversation like that. (Maybe see source code to better understand what I mean.) Notice that in the same answer 2 degrees of indentation are used by the same user where one is reserved for giving technical examples. This confuses the tool and if you reply with it, you'll end up in the same level as the technical examples, which is not something that you want (you'd want +1 more level than that or +2 in total). Klein Muçi (talk) 18:52, 12 August 2021 (UTC)

I think that phab:T265750 would solve this problem, by making it easy for editors (on desktop, probably not mobile) to manually adjust the visual appearance. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 21:01, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

Notice and design

• There is a notice: By clicking "Reply", you agree to our Terms of Use and agree to irrevocably release your text under the CC BY-SA 3.0 License and GFDL. I think it is irrelevant, intrusive and annoying. Terms of Use already covers this, I think. Why this notice needed everywhere? It makes loss of lot of space as well.
• [] Watch This Page can be moved to top, next to Visual/Source OR next to Cancel/Reply.
• And Summary:[Box....] can be single line.
• Please think about making whole thing smaller. BTW, I liked Reply tool and its development in positive direction. Regards, Nizil Shah (talk) 06:02, 17 August 2021 (UTC)

Regarding point 1, the community takes licensing very serious and while it is in the ToU, we want people to make informed and active decisions. The community has on multiple occasions actively demanded these notices are shown as edits are made, when WMF designers forgot about them. —TheDJ (Not WMF) (talk • contribs) 09:51, 17 August 2021 (UTC)

• Legal insists; we don't have a choice.
• Editors asked for this extra/redundant watch button.
• The Summary:[Box] is one line – on my computer screen/width. Would you like to post (or e-mail) a screenshot to me, if you see something different?
• Do you want a smaller box for typing, or do you want everything else smaller (e.g., buttons)? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 21:04, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

Fonts in text entry box do not scale with browser base font size

If I change the font size in Chrome's Settings/Appearance panel, the text in the entry box does not scale with the rest of the text on the page. The attached screenshots were done in Chrome Version 92.0.4515.159 (Official Build) (x86_64) on MacOS 11.5.2 (20G95) RoySmith (talk) 17:25, 21 August 2021 (UTC)

The reply tool uses the exact same font settings as the normal wikitext editor, and it also does not respect the browser font size. Matma Rex (talk) 17:50, 23 August 2021 (UTC)

Opened T289519 RoySmith (talk) 18:01, 23 August 2021 (UTC)

Actually, I found existing tasks about this problem:

• For the reply tool: T251469
• For wikitext editors in general: T245476

I'll merge yours into the second one. Matma Rex (talk) 00:10, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

Spacebar works a low percentage of the time

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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I keep having to retry it or backspace over the previous letter and retype quickly.   — Jeff G. ツ 11:26, 23 August 2021 (UTC)

Are you having this problem elsewhere? And are you, by any chance, using a relatively recent Mac laptop? I had to have the keyboard on my MacBook Air replaced. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 04:58, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

@Whatamidoing (WMF): No, it is a software keyboard on my Puffin Browser Pro (v4.7.3) on my iPad 3. If I type "test " 10 times in a row, the space fails 9 times, even though the keyboard clicks and dims when I press the spacebar as normal. In Google Chrome (v37.0.2062.60) on that iPad, the reply link doesn't even show up. It works fine in Chrome on my Win10 laptop. These tests were all conducted on https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Deletion_requests/Files_uploaded_by_2mohmmad#Files_uploaded_by_2mohmmad_(talk_·_contribs)_3 , a section I last edited on a page in project space.   — Jeff G. ツ 10:57, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

In Google Chrome, are you on the mobile website, or the desktop website? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 16:56, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

@Whatamidoing (WMF): On my iPad: desktop & mobile; landscape & portrait; logged-in & anonymous. On my laptop: I'll get back to you soon.   — Jeff G. ツ 22:44, 24 August 2021 (UTC)

Whatever browser you use on an iPad, the internals that render the actual web are always Safari and the iOS. Can you get the version of Safari and the version of iOS you use on that iPad ?

And do you have any gadgets and/or user scripts enabled ? —TheDJ (Not WMF) (talk • contribs) 10:05, 25 August 2021 (UTC)

Safari is "Bundle Version 8536.25", but can't establish a secure connection to any WMF site. iOS is 6.1, JB (all attempts to update have failed). On my laptop, the reply link does not show up in mobile view or when logged out, only in desktop view while logged in. Portrait mode is not an option. My gadgets and scripts have nothing to do with my ability to do anonymous editing.   — Jeff G. ツ 12:15, 25 August 2021 (UTC)

"iOS is 6.1" well there is your problem :D That's not an officially supported device/OS version any longer. —TheDJ (Not WMF) (talk • contribs) 18:27, 25 August 2021 (UTC)

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

Permission "edit-talkpages" for anonymous guests

I want everybody to read and to comment (on talk-pages) every article/page but I have to restrict editing articles/pages to logged-in users only. Everybody means anonymous guests too. I guess I'm not the only one with this requirement. - Are there any plans to create a permission "create talkpage" and "edit talkpages" for "*" so I can false the permission "edit" without loosing the ability to "talk"? ERosser (talk) 08:42, 30 May 2025 (UTC)