User:Benc/Feature requests

The following are feature requests that I've thought up and submitted to the MediaWiki page on SourceForge.net. I've a bachelor's in Computer Science and know PHP and SQL, so I really should come up with implementations sometime...

Submitted[edit]

Allow anchors[edit]

Feature request [1] submitted on 05:52, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Note: Angela pointed out that this can be accomplished with <div id="whatever"></div>, so I downgraded the priority of this request. It would still be nice to have a non-kludge solution.

Please add a wiki tag that functions like an HTML anchor <a name="Whatever"></a>. I'm not sure what it should look like, though. Perhaps one of:

<anchor name="Whatever">
<anchor:Whatever>
{{anchor:Whatever}}
__ANCHOR__ [[Whatever]]

There is not a great deal of practical use for this tag, because section names are automatically made into anchors. However, non-section name anchors do have their uses.

For example, in the English Wikipedia's community pages, the Wikipedia:Deletion policy page is lengthy, so each policy is a row in a table. Converting the table to subsections would make the page way to long. However, it would be very useful to be able to link directly to each aspect of the policy, in order to help newer wiki users understand it.

Wikipedia talk:Deletion policy#Refactoring page to help prevent invalid VfD listings

Automatic citation link[edit]

Feature request [2] submitted on 05:52, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)

A link in the footer (down by the copyrights, timestamp, and disclaimers) labeled "Cite this article|page|whatever" be very useful. It make the life easier for students using wikis as sources for their papers. Ease of citation is a good way to ensure that wikis actually get cited, which will generate more traffic, which will generate better content, and so on.

The way I envision this feature working is that when a user clicks the "Cite this article" link, a small pop-up window would be generated, containing a proper citation for the current revision of the article in a number of popular formats (e.g., APA, MLA, MHRA).

Counts by namespace for Special:Whatlinkshere[edit]

Feature request [3] submitted on 09:06, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Note: I've written a Python script for this until the feature gets implemented server-side.

Please add a count by namespace (treating redirects as their own namespace) for the Special:Whatlinkshere page. Namespaces without any pages linking here would not be listed. Example:

< Ambrosia
The following pages link to here:
{{regular list of articles}}
----
Count by namespace:

12 from Main
1 from Talk
2 from User
2 from Wikipedia
1 redirect
18 total

Filter self-contributions in watchlist[edit]

Feature request [4] submitted on 05:52, 15 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Note: this feature request had already been submitted by User:VampWillow a couple months ago; I simply seconded it.

Please add an option to user settings to hide self-contributions on that user's watchlist. Users know what pages they have edited themselves ("my contributions"); listing self-contributions on Special:Watchlist adds unnecessary clutter.

Generate "You have new messages" for user talk subpages[edit]

Feature request [5] submitted on 02:02, 19 Aug 2004 (UTC)

Note: if this feature is implemented, my doorbell would work. :-)

Currently, the "You have new messages" is generated only when a user's talk page is updated. It would be cleaner if this message was generated whenever *any* of the user's talk subpages was updated, too.

This would prevent vandalism on archived pages. It would also allow users to more easily maintain more than one user talk page if they desired. For example, one for thank yous, one for older-but-ongoing discussions, and one for general comments.

Not yet submitted[edit]

These feature requests are currently half-baked. I'm still working on them. :-) Of course, if you have any suggestions, please hit up my talk page.

Alt-click on a link skips straight to edit page[edit]

Good idea, I think. Just have to word it and submit.

Change how blanking pages works[edit]

Also a good idea, I think. Just have to word it and submit.

When a user blanks a page, they often think they're deleting it. New functionality:

If it's the user's own User or User talk namespace, delete the page (after confirmation).
Disallow blanking; when a user tries to blank a page send them a namespace-specific message. (e.g., in article namespace, refer to vfd) Actual messages could be stored in MediaWiki namespace.
Silently allow blanking (default)

Color disambig/redirect links differently[edit]

Still thinking about this one. This would help stomp out links to disambig pages. It would have to be a user setting as many would find it annoying. Also, disambigs are a creation of the Wikipedia itself, not its software, right? Hmm...

Shift-click "Go" and "Search" to open up in new window[edit]

Good idea, I think. Could this be done with a custom javascript file, though?

Category inclusion/exclusion[edit]

Directives that would go on the category page to help make categories more useable:

__EXCLUDE__ (namespaces)

or:

__INCLUDE__ (namespaces)

Common use:

__EXCLUDE__ (Template)

to prevent templates that contain [[Category:Whatever]] from being listed in the category.