Talk:Talk pages project/Replying/2023

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

Edit permission for talk pages only

Hi, o use Talk Page I need to add edit permission. However I cannot give write access to users. Is there a way to give edit access to Talk and not the page? 167.249.93.102 (talk) 16:54, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

Yes, give write access and then protect the page but not the talk page.   — Jeff G. ツ 16:57, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

protecting the page will only give sysop permission, need more groups to be able to edit 167.249.93.102 (talk) 17:42, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

Yes, see Manual:$wgNamespaceProtection. You could enable edit access for all users, then use that config to restrict editing of non-talk namespaces to specific group. Matma Rex (talk) 16:59, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

I will follow this line, thank you 167.249.93.102 (talk) 17:44, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

tanks 167.249.93.102 (talk) 17:44, 12 January 2023 (UTC)

Being able to add dashes before sig

Would be nice if I was able to add two -- right before my sig. TerraCodes (talk) 09:27, 19 January 2023 (UTC)

You can put them inside your signature at Special:Preferences.   — Jeff G. ツ 11:00, 19 January 2023 (UTC)

You can also use --~~~~ if you don't want your signature to have dashes in. --Ferien (talk) 17:11, 19 January 2023 (UTC)

_{(edit conflict)} You can also just type --~~~~ – if you add your signature at the end of the comment manually, the tool won’t add it once again. Tacsipacsi (talk) 17:12, 19 January 2023 (UTC)

@Jeff G.Hi, do you mean special:Preferences -> User profile tab -> Signature section, then how? I see two options therein:

• [Your existing sigunature]: or the default one with (talk) link added;
• [New signature]: <- could you point me to a page where to learn and wikify your sig followed with "(user:talk link)", don't you? Omotecho (talk) 14:28, 20 January 2023 (UTC)

@Omotecho: Please see Help:Signatures#Customized signatures.   — Jeff G. ツ 12:22, 25 January 2023 (UTC)

Unable to reply on pages with templates in section titles

The reply tool is not able to post replies on page with templated section titles (Buttons and input boxes can be generated, but cannot be published), like zh:Wikipedia:管理员布告板/其他不当行为, is this normal behavior? SunAfterRain 10:50, 22 January 2023 (UTC)

Thanks for the report. This looks like a bug.

Section titles generated by a template should work fine. In this case, it looks like the problem is triggered by the language variant markup used inside of the template, and how it affects the section ID. MediaWiki's old parser (used when displaying pages) generates different ID than the new parser (Parsoid; used when saving replies), and because of that the tool doesn't know where to put the reply.

For example, this section: [[:zh:Wikipedia:管理员布告板/其他不当行为#UjuiUjuMandan（討論_·_貢獻_·_封禁日誌_·_全域-{zh-hans:账号信息;zh-hant:帳號資訊}-）|https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:管理员布告板/其他不当行为#UjuiUjuMandan（討論_·_貢獻_·_封禁日誌_·_全域-{zh-hans:账号信息;zh-hant:帳號資訊}-）]]

…has a different ID in the new parser's output: https://zh.wikipedia.org/api/rest_v1/page/html/Wikipedia%3A管理员布告板%2F其他不当行为#UjuiUjuMandan（討論_·_貢獻_·_封禁日誌_·_全域）

I'm afraid this may be quite difficult to fix in the reply tool.

However, maybe you can avoid the issue by making some small changes to the {{vandal}} template or the page. I'm not an expert in language variant support, but I think you might be able to move the language variant markup outside of the template, to a global or per-page definition somewhere? That might fix the problem. Matma Rex (talk) 14:27, 22 January 2023 (UTC)

Thank you for your assistance in identifying the problem, and your suggested method has been submitted to the community for discussion, and I hope the Parsoid team can fix this problem. SunAfterRain 15:35, 22 January 2023 (UTC)

Edit comment "reply"

I think it is a little bit anoying that it by default is written "svar" ("answer" in English) in the edit comment when you reply on a discussion with this tool. Is it posible to get it removed? Reason: I always writes edit comments, and when you edit articles you have to explain what you do. When answering in a discussion it is the same: Good to explain. If you then needs to remove the "svar", or so every time it is annoying. Better delete that and have a popup if you forget to write an edit comment, I think. Else it is a nice discussion tool. (If you answer, please ping me in so I will see it.). Best regards, Adville (talk) 13:43, 3 February 2023 (UTC)

...or let the word "svar" be shadowed. Then you may choose to save without writing anythin, or you may start writing direct and it will be deleted and replaced direct. (it is differnet tecniques writing on cell phone or computer). Adville (talk) 13:49, 3 February 2023 (UTC)

I've checked a couple of wikis, and it's not common for people to provide meaningful edit summaries on talk pages. At the Swedish Wikipedia, here's what I see in Special:RecentChanges for discussion pages today:

• (K3)
• no edit summary
• no edit summary
• (Arkiverar min användardiskussionssidaför januari 2023.)
• (Arkiverar min användardiskussionssida för januari 2023.)
• no edit summary
• (Arkiverar 2022)
• no edit summary
• no edit summary
• no edit summary
• no edit summary
• no edit summary
• no edit summary
• no edit summary
• no edit summary
• no edit summary
• no edit summary
• (+ några referenser)
• (k3)
• no edit summary

I have excluded all edits from the Reply tool and its New Topic tool. If the editor includes the automatic section heading, but nothing else, I recorded that as no edit summary. 70% of my sample has no edit summary. If that is typical for the Swedish Wikipedia, then I'm not sure that removing svar would be an improvement. The choice really seems to be between svar and nothing.

(This page is in Flow, which auto-pings people who have commented in a thread.) Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 23:37, 7 February 2023 (UTC)

"Reply" button in User talk

For your information. CC @Wojsław Brożyna Patafisik (WMF) (talk) 11:36, 27 February 2023 (UTC)

Separation of two replies at the same level of indentation

It ought to add an empty line between them. Otherwise people miss the first signature and attribute authorship to the second. Card Zero (talk) 15:56, 20 March 2023 (UTC)

Ability to wrap a tag around the signature

Specifically the "small" tag. Used when making an off-topic remark or joke. The whole reply can be wrapped in the small tag, but the signature will be added automatically at full size, which is wrong. Card Zero (talk) 15:59, 20 March 2023 (UTC)

@Card Zero: You can sign inside the small tag, and the feature will not add a full size signature.   — Jeff G. ツ 16:59, 20 March 2023 (UTC)

Some bug in "add topic"

There is some bug in the "Add topic" functionality, at least in Swedish user talk pages. If there is a automatic message from WMF in the talk page:

• the new subject dialogue, both title and text, starts below the WMF message
• Also the title input frame ends up in more places.
• when publisihing, the topic is placed in the botton and an "Add topic" dialogue is placed under promting to write a new title.

This has been tested on several browsers, see here: w:sv:Wikipedia:Wikipediafrågor.

Please feel free to start a new topic on my talk page, to see what I try to describe and feel fre to experiment there:

w:sv:user talk:LittleGun, and press "Nytt ämne" for "Add topic" LittleGun (talk) 10:20, 24 May 2023 (UTC)

Thanks, I filed T337476 and we'll get it fixed. Matma Rex (talk) 13:00, 25 May 2023 (UTC)

A special tag to insert a reply button

In the "Wikipedia:Articles for deletion" of Chinese Wikipedia, [:zh:Wikipedia:頁面存廢討論/記錄/2023/07/02#30%E5%A4%A9%E5%90%8E%E4%BB%8D%E6%8E%9B%E6%9C%89Template:Notability%E6%A8%A1%E6%9D%BF%E7%9A%84%E6%A2%9D%E7%9B%AE at least one batch] is added each day, with multiple subsection and a signature at the end. Therefore, each subsection is unsigned and the Reply tool is not available. I want to allow a special HTML tag, magic word or template to insert a recognized request element, allowing a reply button under this line. YFdyh000 (talk) 14:36, 2 July 2023 (UTC)

YFdyh000: I see "reply" links to the right of each signature in that section. This tool is designed for replying to the posts of people, not to subsection headlines. You may, of course, "edit source" or "quick edit", as appropriate.   — Jeff G. ツ 14:57, 5 July 2023 (UTC)

I'm expecting it to allow showing and replying to a dummy invisible signature, as sometimes need to vote in subsection without signature. YFdyh000 (talk) 04:41, 6 July 2023 (UTC)

YFdyh000: unsigned votes are not legitimate.   — Jeff G. ツ 09:47, 7 July 2023 (UTC)

This is misunderstood. I mean, suppose user A initiates a poll with three subsections, then another user should be able to quickly [Reply] to a section, even if there are no comments in that section. YFdyh000 (talk) 10:35, 7 July 2023 (UTC)

@YFdyh000: Every subsection A creates should have a brief explanation with signature that can then garner replies.   — Jeff G. ツ 19:38, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

This is a work around, but multiple discussions in Chinese Wikipedia accept replies / votes without first signatures, the user has to manually editing page. YFdyh000 (talk) 19:59, 19 July 2023 (UTC)

The team has talked about a "voting" mode, but this work will not happen during the next year. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 22:36, 25 September 2023 (UTC)

Incorrect reaction to pressing the Shift button

When I type my reply, and then press Shift to start a new sentence, my cursor jumps to the beginning of the line. Perohanych (talk) 17:39, 30 August 2023 (UTC)

Testing whether it is still happening here. This sentence was typed immediately after the preceding one. The fault seems to be intermittent as it is not happening now. Pbsouthwood (talk) 03:23, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

Yes. The problem is intermittent. And I can't understand what it depends on. Perohanych (talk) 07:03, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

I have had the same problem for what seems like years. I reported it so long ago I no longer remember where or when, but nothing has happened to improve the situation. It seems to kick in after any change which required cursor position to be moved manually, which is a common thing. It makes the feature unusable for anything that one might want to change or correct before saving. Pbsouthwood (talk) 03:19, 31 August 2023 (UTC)

@Perohanych, The first thing to do is to check for a gadget at the English Wikipedia called "GoogleTrans" and turn that off. If that's not enough (or if you haven't ever used that), then try testing it in safemode. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 22:35, 25 September 2023 (UTC)

Can't type some alphabets on Commons?

I'm sure my keyboard works well with my Windows 10 interface, and on editing Wikipedias, however when using this feature on Wikimedia Commons, It looks like I can't type these alphabets and quotations anymore: R/r, O/o, P/p, S/s, L/l, C/c, and equal (=). Also I can't type slash (/) and minus (-) via left part of keyboard, but work for me via right part. Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 02:04, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

Also, the four "direction" buttons ←↑↓→ can't work for some days. Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 02:06, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

Hli, @Liuxinyu970226, just curious as I am working on double byte convertible keyboard, a third party/generic hardware:

>:Also I can't type slash (/) and minus (-) via left part of keyboard, but work for me via right part.

Do you refer left to alphabet keys, qwerty or any alignment, while right to ten-key area on your keyboard hardware?

First thought the firmware is not updated, but it is very small possibility... What is your hardware for keyboard manufactured by third party to your Desctop/mobile device? Or the one that came with the computing hardware?

FYI, My setting is un-standard, applying a third party keyboard default Windows to Mac Desktop and sometimes iMac, maybe that divides conditions with your case. Omotecho (talk) 02:28, 2 September 2023 (UTC)

Moreover, this matter looks like occurs on their Deletion requests, but doesn't occur on Village Pump. I'm wondering if there's a gadget made conflict configurations block me from using this test feature properly? Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 23:07, 10 September 2023 (UTC)

1.Yep; 2. A generic USB cable keyboard, branded as "COLORFUL". Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 04:17, 5 September 2023 (UTC)

Have you tried safemode to see whether gadgets are interfering? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 22:34, 25 September 2023 (UTC)

Three pet peeves

I am a big fan of the reply project, this has been a really nifty addition. But having used it for many months, I am running into a few issues that really bug me.

1. This reply thing remembers a comment if you close out of it. And that is sometimes a good thing. But sometimes, I just wish it would forget that I want to reply! I will often write up a reply, and then decide against sending it. But clicking cancel doesn't discard it. I'll reload the page and it will automatically re-open the last message I was working on. I no longer want to send it. Discussion has moved on. But now, everytime I visit the page, its borked because it immediately tries to load my last draft comment. This is even worse on mobile: if I try to draft a comment on mobile, and then don't send it, that will break the section in question totally. Like, I won't even be able to expand the relevant section anymore. So if y'all could allow me to actually just delete a draft comment, that'd be nifty.
2. Outdenting. Reply link has a problem in very long discussions: it jsut keeps adding a colon. But eventually, that makes text unreadable, especially on mobile. So the solution for that is to like, idk, every 7-10 or so replies reset the colons to zero and use Template:Outdent to show the discussion is still linked. I know Enterprisey's old replylink script did that, so perhaps the code could be imported from it...?
3. Pinging. A feature of Enterprisey's script that I heartily miss in this tool is that it automatically would ping the user you were replying to. Now, I have to manually do it. I know you have the little "plus person" tool, but that doesn't save me much time. I'd rather that it automatically tag the person whose post I am replying to.

Again, appreciate all the work y'all do, and would love if there was time/energy to tackle some of these issues :) CaptainEek (talk) 00:12, 1 December 2023 (UTC)

I realize I should clarifying the pinging thing: I just want automatic name insertion, like as in Enterprisey's. I don't want it to ping regardless. CaptainEek (talk) 00:28, 1 December 2023 (UTC)

@CaptainEek: 1 can be solved with the "Cancel" button and then confirmation. 3 can be solved by hitting the "@" key, which generally gives the username of the person you are replying to, or a choice of users to pick from. Click the right user. Pinging is the right thing to do now, that's why we have Extension:Echo on many wikis.   — Jeff G. ツ 00:47, 1 December 2023 (UTC)

See, when I press cancel, it doesn't always work. I'm not sure what's up with that? And thanks for the @ symbol hint! I didn't realize that was a thing. And to further clarify, when I insert the name, I do want it to ping. So yes, that is working as expected. CaptainEek (talk) 01:16, 1 December 2023 (UTC)

@CaptainEek: You're welcome!   — Jeff G. ツ 09:40, 23 December 2023 (UTC)