Help talk:Preferences/Archive 1

Archive 1

See Also

Links to wiki pages have been generously distributed throughout the article. They are nearly 50 in number. Should they all be "additionally" mentioned in the "See Also" section? Can my fellow contributors please help me on this ? Sanjiv swarup 00:45, 3 April 2007 (UTC)

the policy is that if the article is linked in the body, it should not be in the see also section. The see also section contains additional links. Graeme Bartlett (talk) 05:55, 7 April 2009 (UTC)

"Prompt me when entering a blank edit summary"

Not sure if this is a place to comment on this (or whether anyone will see it and reply...) but wouldn't it be a good idea to enable this by default for anonymous users (and perhaps newly created accounts). That might stop anonymous users from randomly editing articles. ~~ [Jam]^[talk] 12:22, 18 November 2007 (UTC)

Go and Search buttons in Chick skin

Please excuse the cross posting -- not sure where this belongs.

The Go and Search buttons on the Chick skin spill over into the edit box (in which I am currently typing).

Could they be moved beneath the Search box (directly above the Toolbox label).

Robert Greer (talk) 14:01, 11 December 2007 (UTC)

Update

Is this page up to date? My misc settings seem to be a bit dfferent from what this page shows:

Threshold for stub link formatting (bytes):
Underline links:  Never Always Browser default

 Format broken links like this (alternative: like this?).
 Justify paragraphs
 Auto-number headings
 Show table of contents (for pages with more than 3 headings)
 Disable page caching
 Enable "jump to" accessibility links
 Do not show page content below diffs
 Show hidden categories

--Stefán Örvarr Sigmundsson (talk) 00:23, 9 May 2008 (UTC)

Rendering Math: "Recommended for modern browsers" setting

Why should I use this setting? What does it do? Where is it explained? CapnZapp (talk) 13:03, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

Ditto. what is it? --Yjo (talk) 01:41, 15 May 2008 (UTC)

Stub size default

What is the default value for "Threshold for stub link formatting (bytes):"? Thanks. -- Quiddity (talk) 18:24, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

Admin help

Hey, I'm the admin on the Anglo-Saxon wiki, and we're looking to edit the user interface so that the user can select to see ƿ/ȝ in place of w/ġ in his own user interface. This would be the easiest solution to our wiki's font preferences amongst the number of users we have. Would anyone be able to help me in this? --JamesR1701E (talk) 23:32, 3 January 2009 (UTC)--JJohnson1701 (talk) 23:31, 3 January 2009 (UTC)

Add link from Special:Preferences

Could a direct link be added from Special:Preferences to either Help:Preferences or meta:Help:Preferences? It must be a common page for people to want help on. — Richardguk (talk) 17:54, 3 February 2010 (UTC)

Is there not one? Probably best to ask at WP:VPT - people there may know what would need to be done.--Kotniski (talk) 10:14, 4 February 2010 (UTC)

Done. — This, that, and the other (talk) 07:00, 25 February 2010 (UTC)

The old discussion is at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 71#Add help links to Special:Preferences. Nothing was done then. It has been suggested again at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 135#Help link for Preferences. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:24, 21 October 2011 (UTC)

The recent discussion was archived at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 94#Help link for Preferences. MediaWiki:Preferences-summary was created with this message shown at Special:Preferences: "For information about the settings on this page, see Help:Preferences." PrimeHunter (talk) 00:48, 23 October 2011 (UTC)

Colors on links

Somewhere there is a preference to make the links appear in color, green for links to redirects, red for empty links, etc., and my preferences are set that way, but I know other editors who do not have the links in colors. Where is this preference set? --DThomsen8 (talk) 12:26, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

See Help:Link color, especially the Scripts at the end. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 12:34, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

Thank you. I am using the scripts already. What is the default for a newbie who has not set any preferences? Are there colors? --DThomsen8 (talk) 13:08, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

See top of same page. --Redrose64 (talk) 20:33, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

See the guide at User:Anomie/linkclassifier. If you want to change the default colors, see the link at the top of the "Legend" section, and the instructions ("Alternatively, you can copy the [...]") in the sentence directly above it.

(Note: I checked your pages, and you've only got the script installed in your monobook.js - if you're still using monobook, that's fine, but if you've switched to the current default skin of vector, you'll need to put the script (and any customized css) in the appropriate subpages. You probably know that, but just in case ;)

There are a few other handy tweaks, in my user style customization tutorial, which might help. -- Quiddity (talk) 20:47, 22 August 2012 (UTC)

Edit request on 3 September 2012

please change user name to VentureCapitalFundraiser VentuureCapitalFundraiser (talk) 15:04, 3 September 2012 (UTC)

You seem to be looking for this. Unfortunately, the promotional tone of your username won't go over very well. Please see this page as well. Thank you for your time.

Discuss-Dubious (t/c) 15:36, 3 September 2012 (UTC)

Editing the introductory section only

There was a flag that let me do this. What happened to it? It enabled an extra [edit] on the right.
I used that extra [edit] all the time.
It is particularly valuable when you want to edit the lead sentence of an article which is 200K in size.
Varlaam (talk) 16:31, 8 November 2012 (UTC)

The checkbox is on the "Gadgets" tab at the top of the "Appearance" section. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:33, 8 November 2012 (UTC)

What about Canadian English?

Does the recommendation against selecting "en-GB - British English" as the language option also include "en-CA - Canadian English"? Set theorist (talk) 21:13, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Quite probably. I can't imagine that any of the non-US variants of the interface pages are maintained to the same level of attention that the US variants are. BTW en-CA is a new one on me: must have been added fairly recently. --Redrose64 (talk) 21:31, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

I have added "en-CA - Canadian English" as not recommended. That option did not exist when I wrote in October that "en-GB - British English" is not recommended. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:26, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Thanks for the clarification. Why are these language options available, if they are not configured? What needs to be done to configure the interface messages for each language option? Is there a link to documentation available somewhere? Set theorist (talk) 21:02, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

There are thousands of wikis using the same MediaWiki software as the English Wikipedia. MediaWiki has hundreds of language options with default MediaWiki messages. The English Wikipedia has made customized versions of many of the default messages, but usually only for the standard "En - English". These customized messages often give better information specific to the English Wikipedia, for example links to policy, process and help pages at the English Wikipedia. The editors of the English Wikipedia are not bothering to customize these messages for hundreds of languages. Users who choose "British English" or "Canadian English" are in the same situation as those who choose German or Chinese or whatever: They see the default MediaWiki messages for the chosen language. The reason British English or Canadian English is not recommended while nothing is said against German or Chinese is that the only benefit in British or Canadian English is a few words with different spelling, while the disadvantage of losing the customized English messages is considered significant. "Canadian English" may be a good choice at the German Wikipedia or Chinese Wikipedia if you have to go there and prefer Canadian. Those wikis will probably only customize MediaWiki messages in their own language, so you get the default MediaWiki message for any of "standard", British or Canadian English. I don't know whether it's technically possible to disable the option for British or Canadian at the English Wikipedia, but it would be a bit drastic. Users who have chosen them at another MediaWiki wiki would probably find it strange if they were not available here. See also Help:System message. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:47, 2 April 2012 (UTC)

Thank you for the very clear explanation. From mw:Localisation statistics I see that only a very small number of system messages are localized for the different English variants (32 for en-GB and 20 for en-CA, out of 2748 system messages altogether). There should be a system setting so that when using English Wikipedia with a variant English language option (en-GB or en-CA), the system messages default to the standard English option as customized in English Wikipedia, rather than the default MediaWiki message. Only if a particular system message is not customized by English Wikipedia would the system choose the localized version from MediaWiki over the standard English MediaWiki software version. Then it shouldn't be too hard for editors (manually) to take care of the remaining few discrepancies, where the customized English Wikipedia message contains words whose spelling needs to be localized. And even before this manual step is done, the situation would be closer than at present to what users should see when they choose a variant English option.

Also, where is it possible to read (or edit) the message files containing lists of all system messages:

• from MediaWiki, in standard English;
• from MediaWiki, in a localized language;
• in English Wikipedia, in standard English;
• in English Wikipedia, in a localized language?

I presume all but the first would be listed as differences from an earlier list. Set theorist (talk) 11:02, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

I'm Danish and don't understand the big fuss about variants of English. It sounds like a good idea if a wiki had a configuration option saying that en-gb and en-ca should show customized messages in en when en-gb and en-ca are not customized. It would probably require a change in the MediaWiki software. See Wikipedia:Bug reports and feature requests. I suspect this request would be considered minor and not get much attention from developers.

See meta:Special:AllMessages for the default MediaWiki messages. The English Wikipedia can change them in the MediaWiki namespace which can only be edited by administrators. For example, the message at top of page histories is MediaWiki:Histlegend for standard English, and MediaWiki:Histlegend/en-gb for en-gb (which simply transcludes the standard English in this example). MediaWiki:Histlegend/en-ca has not been created (even though it's a blue link) so it displays the default MediaWiki version shown at http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special%3AAllMessages&prefix=Histlegend&lang=en-ca. PrimeHunter (talk) 13:46, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

US/CA/GB differences will never be settled, so long as we disagree on such things as 3 April 2012 vs. April 3, 2012, whether "football" means just kicking the ball or can it be thrown as well; how the colors/colours red and white should be arranged (and whether blue should be there or not) etc. - Let's Call the Whole Thing Off. Anyway, English Wikipedia doesn't have any MediaWiki pages which have been customised for en-ca, and only a few are customised for en-gb. --Redrose64 (talk) 14:56, 3 April 2012 (UTC)

And the two en-gb cite error messages call the en messages— I created those as a test that seems to be working. Wikipedia:Database reports/User preferences shows the top language setting is es, and only three messages have been translated. ---— Gadget850 (Ed) ^talk 12:58, 24 May 2012 (UTC)

These distinctions are important.

Doesn't it bother you to no end that a Microsoft browser has a "Favorites" tab that does not rename itself?

Why do we need to look at spelling errors all day long when it can be avoided?

Varlaam (talk) 16:40, 8 November 2012 (UTC)

Signature/wiki markup check box text is confusing

I can't be the first one to get confused by the idea that an *un*checked box enables wiki markup, given that an unchecked box typically signifies absence or negation. The text is technically clear enough for someone who knows the system they're talking about and reads it carefully, but for a new user unfamiliar with what exactly wiki markup is the idea that "checking the wiki markup box" results in a plain text signature that bots like user:SineBot will correct after every Talk post is not clear at all. I think the text could be reworded to make it clear that checking it enables plain text signatures, and maybe to even include a a reminder about what Wikipedia considers best practice with regard to signatures. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Tcraven (talk • contribs) 02:54, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

The message comes from MediaWiki:Tog-fancysig. But it seems clear enough to me: "If checked, the above markup will be used for your name when you sign ... including any Wiki markup". --Redrose64 (talk) 16:10, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

I would like to believe that I was subconsciously baiting SineBot by forgetting to sign my post complaining about being SineBot shamed due to an unintentional plain text signature, but I really have no excuse. I'm sure making Talk page signatures automatic has already been discussed at length? Thomas Craven (talk) 03:12, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

There have been several discussion about making talk page sigs automatic; but has always been decided against. There are times when a talk page edit should not be signed - these include amending an existing post (per WP:TPO or WP:REDACT), adding WikiProject banners or other header items (as here) or setting it up as a redirect (as here). --Redrose64 (talk) 16:10, 13 February 2013 (UTC)

Time offset - please add capital of one of top 2 most populous countries in the world

In preferences for time offset please add Asia/Beijing. Why would Shanghai be listed and not Beijing?Sthubbar (talk) 22:15, 22 March 2013 (UTC)

Sandbox

I've noticed that whenever I go to my Preferences settings, there's no direct link to the Sandbox at the top. Is this a bug, or is there some purpose for this (maybe it's just my browser, which is Internet Explorer 8). It doesn't bother me in any way, but I'd like for this to be clarified. 069952497a^{Comments and complaints}_{Stuff I've done} 00:55, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

This is deliberate, implemented deep within the core MediaWiki software as a security measure. Because your email address is displayed on the preferences page, no "gadgets" or "user scripts" are loaded; among them is the gadget that adds the "sandbox" link. This ensures that a compromised gadget or script cannot misuse your email address. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:24, 29 March 2013 (UTC)

Proposal

I imagine our page as an overview, while meta maintains details. — CpiralCpiral 23:10, 21 April 2013 (UTC)

For example, as I read the questions on this talk page, I tweek the proposed page. I assume they read meta, and then asked us a good question. In this way I see an overview approach as acceptable. — CpiralCpiral 06:19, 23 April 2013 (UTC)

Sandbox draft of overview approach

This page is an overview of user preferences. For details on each choice, see meta:Help:Preferences. This page is about documentation of user preferences. For feature requests or for technicalities, there is Wikipedia:Village pump. Preferences are settings made by a logged-in user that control that user's account and various aspects of the user's viewing and editing environment. To access the preferences page (having logged on), click "Preferences" (at the top of every page with the default skin), or navigate to Special:Preferences. Along the top of the preferences page are a number of tabs whose activation will display their various groups of settings. For example, you might wish to adjust the "Thumbnail size" (under "Appearance/Files") to fit your viewing screen, for it will affect the default size at which many Wikipedia images on your screen will be displayed. Each Wikimedia wiki, including each language edition of Wikipedia, has separate preference settings. Some details are different at the English Wikipedia. The "Save" button is not required for every tab, it is for the preferences page itself. Save applies the changes made in all tabs, per session of preference page interactions. "Restore all default settings" will harmlessly load another page which will then offer the button to restore all preferences in every tab, to default values. If you only wish to undo unsaved changes during the current session, click "Preferences" again. The default settings are aimed at beginners. Intermediate editors tend to make more rules for themselves, such as "warn me if I forgot an edit summary", and advanced editors will have need to change there settings to suit the style they have settled on. Options may change with software versions. User profile Change your password. Stay logged in for 30 days at a time. Change how your signature looks. If you like how another user made their signature, edit that talk page, then apply that style to your own username. It is not recommended to select the British English or Canadian English language options ("en-GB - British English" or "en-CA - Canadian English") because many interface messages have been customized for U.S. English Wikipedia ("en - English"), and in fact, this language option only has an effect on interface messages and does not affect article text. Appearance Change the web browser experience, including: Change your skin. Customize your own CSS or JavaScript page. Bail out of features and experiments, such as banners and other page behaviors. Limit the size of images. Make paragraphs justified. Number section headings. Choose PNG, TeX, or MathJax for displaying mathematical formulas Date and time Change the timestamps style in talk space, and say which timezone they'll refer to. Editing The wiki caters to editors with many options, including how to initiate an edit and what there edit page looks like, including: The number of rows in the wikitext frame. Editing toolbars. Editing applications. "Prompt me when entering a blank edit summary" into the database. A preview that can change as you type. A way to edit without markup at all, in a WYSIWYG window. Recent changes Recent changes refer to pages in the database. Every time a wiki page is edited, and changes were actually made, a record is kept of the difference. For example, a page history shows the revisions for that particular page. But recent changes can report on more than just the revisions of a page, or an entire wiki, they can also report on the recent changes of an editor (their contributions). The user preferences for recent changes are the style in which these lists of revisions will appear: Length of the list Time window of the list Grouping methods of the list The watchlist has even more finely tuned preferences, because like the edit window, it is often a core tool for editors. Watchlist The watchlist preferences are both recent change preferences and offer controls on types of edits, users, and pages, and the time window of "recent" changes that show up. Search Choose the namespaces to search. Choose how the search box buttons and frame appear. Change whether the drop-down-list appears suggesting existing page names. Misc Change whether "diffs" are accompanied by an actual page view of the earlier version or not. Make WikiLove messages easy to send. These will post a pleasant picture and provide an edit summary for your message on a user's talk page. Make course pages more or less prominent while you surf Wikipedia. Gadgets Gadgets are JavaScript contributed by users, not the software that runs Wikipedia. If you see tabs on the Preference page your web-browsers already has JavaScript enabled. The gadgets go through an authoritative process before they appear on the list. The only issue with them are preferences. There are scores of gadgets for: Browsing Language translating Media files, search results, and diffs Twinkle admin tools for the advancing editor Teahouse for the new editor question Mouse-over on an inline citation, to see it Editing Citation modifying/expediting/proving Colorizing wikitext; Character toolsets Categorizing; Reviewing new articles; Filing disputes The Wiki Editor, WikEd, and WikEdDiff Appearance Editing the introductory section. Admin tools; Changing and adding to page layouts and controls Displaying diffs, or animations, or your very own local time on all timestamps Enabling an external search engine for searching Wikipedia Show the assessed class of an article, Featured, A, B, C, etc. Compatitiblity Font and JavaScript support Advanced Regular expression tools Tracking software bugs Patrolling recent changes Pending changes For an explanation of what pending changes are, see Wikipedia:Pending changes. These settings are for advanced editors who have a detailed understanding of the five pillars and of the templates used to mark judgments on the page. Pending changes refers to the style of the presentation of new page "curation" tools: curation toolbar and new pages feed, and how recent changes appear on the page history of certain pages that have been configured for protection by reviewing any changes before they are applied to the public version of the page. For an example of a page history showing the pending changes feature, see Special:PendingChanges. Notes

Note: This was implemented on April 24.

I agree that it is an improvement over the soft-redirect to meta, that was all we had for many years.

The only tweak I would suggest, is to further embolden/highlight the link to the meta page, so that newcomers are not confused. Otherwise, the initial italicised line could be mistaken for a disambig hatnote, and skipped over. –Quiddity (talk) 20:49, 30 April 2013 (UTC)

User profile: all options

• Basic information
  • Username:
  • MediaWiki:Uid
  • Member of groups:
  • Number of edits:
  • Registration time:
  • Global account:
  • Gender used in messages:
  • Password:
    • MediaWiki:Tog-rememberpassword; where $1 is 30
• Internationalisation
  • Language (Warning: Selecting a language other than 'en - English' will prevent you from seeing localized parts of the interface on the English Wikipedia, and you may see inaccurate external translations.):
• Signature
  • Your existing signature:
  • Signature:
• Email options
  • Email (optional):
  • Email confirmation:
  • Your email address was confirmed on $2 at $3.; where $2 is the date and $3 is the time
  • Allow other users to email me
  • Send me copies of emails I send to other users
  • Email me when a page or a file on my watchlist is changed

 Gadget850 ^talk 10:48, 3 May 2013 (UTC)

Intermediation

If this page has links in the subsections to the respective Special:prefs and Meta:prefs subsections, then it could act as an intermediary, the go-between for the simple Special:prefs descr., and the detailed Meta:prefs descr.. But there is a problem if the browser, does not open new pages in a new tab. For example, concerning Preferences → Editing → Details = meta:Help:Preferences#Editing, here is the problem: If this page acts as an intermediary—it grows more tempting after my recent edit—and the user Clicks Gadgets to go to special:myprefs#Gadgets, then left arrow to go back here, then clicks on a meta:prefs#Gadgets, then that obliterates the special:myprefs#gadgets page in the browser history. (As a comparison, the new "live preview" option at that Editing link preserves the pages "in front" when you do a Show preview.)

The alternative is making the reader read the whole page or handle the whole page. I'd rather not. In fact, we might get more edits to subsections if we keep the links to the respective subsections. After all, the selections documented here are just opinions. I think they are notable as per the most questioned ones on the talk page, or the most mentioned ones on other talk pages. But we may lack notable opinions, or have un-notable opinions. So I'm thinking these opinionated omissions or inclusions may be better corrected by lots of editing the links help facilitate.

Documenting the possible confusion would be a drastic step, caused by my recent edit (the links to meta:prefs added to the subsections). If the browser opens links in a new tab because it is set to do so, (or if the user Ctrl- or Cmd-clicks), then there is no problem. Personally, I like the links, but then I don't like over-documenting. Should we provide a possible confusion for those unfamiliar with this common browser behavior? — CpiralCpiral 19:49, 8 May 2013 (UTC)

Other tools

I wonder if the recent edit is acceptable. By creating the section Other tools, I meant to do two things. 1) Distinguish the two talk pages: ours, and Wikipedia talk: Special:Preferences. 2) Make room for other editors to share comparable tools, or highly favored tools, not on the Specdial:Preferences page. By having a section Other tools, this page comes of its own, becoming an overview of Special:Preferences, but perhaps representing the most remarkable tools (or patches) at WP:Tools#Browsing and editing also. Other tools only has one sentence now, but... — CpiralCpiral 00:01, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

Edit request on 3 June 2013

68.229.184.94 (talk) 15:51, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

Not done: please be more specific about what needs to be changed. -- John of Reading (talk) 16:20, 3 June 2013 (UTC)

Quick edit summaries

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section. A summary of the conclusions reached follows.

I'm moving this discussion to its proper place at MediaWiki talk:Gadget-defaultsummaries.js#Removing_unsourced_content. Please comment there, rather than here, sorry for the inconvenience. — TransporterMan (TALK) 16:12, 10 July 2013 (UTC)

---

At Preferences:Gadgets:Editing there is a checkoff preference for "Add two new dropdown boxes below the edit summary box with some useful default summaries". When enabled, one of the quick preference selections is: "Removing unsourced content". Due to a change in WP:BURDEN back around October, 2012, this summary is inadequate and its use would be, arguably, a violation of policy, which says, "When tagging or removing material for not having an inline citation, please state your concern that there may not be a published reliable source for the content, and therefore it may not be verifiable."

References

Could it be changed to read "Removing unsourced content, no published reliable source may exist, thus perhaps not verifiable", which would now seem to be the minimum statement allowable for this particular edit summary? (Just for the record, let me note that I am on the record at the WP:V talk page as feeling that this requirement is ridiculous, a position which I still maintain, but I'm not trying to be pointy by making this request, but truly only trying to help editors avoid stepping into a pitfall by using the tools provided by WP.) Regards, TransporterMan (TALK) 14:05, 10 July 2013 (UTC)

Perhaps it would be simpler for it to removed instead? To save anyone else having to do the search: the list is hard-coded in MediaWiki talk:Gadget-defaultsummaries.js, so that's where the edit would be needed. -- John of Reading (talk) 14:54, 10 July 2013 (UTC)

The discussion above 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.

List ALL the special:preferences defaults

We need to mark the defaults.

I asked above, years ago, what the default stub-size is (never answered). I've seen dozens of threads at VP and Helpdesk, asking what the defaults are for different aspects. There was this recent thread at WP:VPT#Proposal: mark default gadget as "default".

Ideally we mark the defaults, in the mediawiki core, so that all wikis can benefit. (Versus, us hacking together a custom fix).

Marking ALL the Special:Preferences defaults, on every tab, would be helpful. There's the "Restore all default settings" button-of-doom which wipes out all our customizations (except email-address, afaik), but often I'll want to make sure that I'm seeing a page the way most other editors do, eg. setting thumbnail size defaults (What are they currently? 220px?). I know I've changed a few options at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing, but I'm not sure which...

A few defaults are mentioned in the page itself, and a few are mentioned at Help:Preferences and mw:Help:Preferences, but not many, and the docs are not always up-to-date. It would be best if they were all marked within the Special:Preferences page/tabs itself, and automagically updated when a sysop changes the default itself.

I think bugzilla:17188 is asking for this, but seems to be forgotten about (I shall prod at it, now). The only other bugs I can find that touch on this, aren't specifically aimed at this question, though some do mention it in comments within. (bugzilla:18961, bugzilla:33327, bugzilla:33695).

How to mark the defaults

Options:

• A coloured-text marker, e.g. "(default)", as suggested by User:קיפודנחש at the VPT thread, which is possibly the best method. Place it either after the check-box/form-field, or after the description.
• A mouse-over tooltip. Marking checkboxes are "default on" or "default true" or "default checked". Downside: Requires user-discovery.
• That used by [about:config] in mozilla projects, where user-customized items are marked in bold text (but that would probably be a lot more complicated to implement, and isn't immediately intuitive).

Question: Any there any other ways you can suggest?

Thanks. –Quiddity (talk) 05:02, 20 June 2013 (UTC)

In Commons:Special:Preferences there are superscripted ^d markers for the default options. That might be the best solution, for now.

Any knowledgeable admin want to make a test-account-with-default-preferences (to check the current defaults against), and update our mediawiki page(s) to use this? (wherever that would occur) –Quiddity (talk) 21:28, 3 July 2013 (UTC)

Update: I've started a thread at mw:Thread:Project:Support desk/User Preference descriptions - Where stored & changed, and where documented? - How to mark the "defaults"? which hopefully has all the details in one spot, and as clear as possible. –Quiddity (talk) 20:09, 10 July 2013 (UTC)

Gadgets

The gadgets tab seems to be missing. As a result, I cannot use Twinkle, HotCat, or any other tools I usually edit with. 069952497a (U-T-C-E) 12:51, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

Yeah, me too. What's going on? --FutureTrillionaire (talk) 13:24, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

Discussed at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Where is Gadgets ? PrimeHunter (talk) 13:35, 14 July 2013 (UTC)

How to turn off new banner

Recently a new banner has appeared, taking more than 10% of the height of my display.  There is a hide button which by itself takes up 2 of the 5 lines (40%) of the message.  This hide button is only useful if Javascript is enabled, but displays even when Javascript is disabled.  I thought I had turned off banner prompts in my Preferences, but I can't find the button.  Thanks, Unscintillating (talk) 12:26, 3 August 2013 (UTC)

There are different types of notices. Maybe you think of "Suppress display of the fundraiser banner" under Gadgets. For the current banner and many others (I cannot say what you will miss in the future), try adding this to Special:MyPage/common.css:

.mw-dismissable-notice {display: none;}

PrimeHunter (talk) 13:01, 3 August 2013 (UTC)

• That worked, thanks!  Unscintillating (talk) 14:29, 3 August 2013 (UTC)

Date-Format Preference Not Honored on Talk Pages

Within my user preferences, I've chosen YYYY-MM-DD (ISO 8601 / big-endian). Yet my signature and others' in Talk pages appears as DD-MM-YYYY ("European" / little-endian). History pages are showing my correct preference, as is my watch-list.

Anyone know where I could report this bug or request this feature? Anyone know why Wikipedia defaults to a non-ISO format, and where can I discuss changing this default? Thank you! Startswithj (talk) 02:09, 5 September 2013 (UTC)

History/Watchlists are pages that are generated from a database, on each page-load, so can be formatted in any way we each prefer, with equal ease.

On the other hand, talkpages and articles contain plain text, that is usually served from a Cached copy, and is often ambiguous in format (eg 02-02-2002), so it would be far more complicated, and far more resource-intensive, to attempt to reformat for every user. Hence that won't ever be configurable. [I have hazy memories of parts being configurable, back in 2005-2008? I'm trying to repress those arguments/discussions. See here and here, and dozens of the archived talkpages here, if you'd like some frustrating reading.]

As for why Wikipedian signatures use little-endian, I would guess we settled on it for reasons of "most important data-point closest to the comment itself" (ie time of day), but I'm not sure where or when the specific discussion(s) occurred.

HTH. –Quiddity (talk) 05:14, 5 September 2013 (UTC)

The page was wrong. I have fixed it.[1] PrimeHunter (talk) 10:59, 5 September 2013 (UTC)

Thanks for that page-correction and link to existing JS feature, @PrimeHunter!

If there still exists a current forum for discussing WP's ongoing decision to default to little-endian dates, I'd love to be pointed to that place.

Best regards to all, cheers. Startswithj (talk) 17:55, 5 September 2013 (UTC)

UTC clock, up-to-date documentation

As was noted in 2008, this page seems out of date in what it lists. There is still an entry for "Change the default thumbnail size"; I can't find that among the options presented, however.

Of greater importance to me is the behavior of the excellent clock that displays UTC time in the personal toolbar. This is invaluable; it allows me to look at a timestamp and compare it to the clock, then compare that to my local time, all without having to do any calculations. The unfortunate thing is that the clock disappears on my Watchlist and when viewing Difference between revisions pages. Actually, in checking just now, it seems to have disappeared altogether. Are there choices in preferences that disable it? Thanks for any help.—D'Ranged 1 ^VTalk 06:34, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

Update. I had chosen one of the Beta features, "Compact personal toolbar"; apparently it took the same space as the clock. One I de-selected it, the clock came back in all the needed places. Should I have a go at updating the documentation about what choices are currently offered? (Since it's been out of date for four years.)—D'Ranged 1 ^VTalk 14:54, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

I'm not sure it's a good idea to try to maintain details of gadgets here. Gadgets are wiki-specific, in our case the English Wikipedia, but users of other wikis may use our help page. Gadgets can be edited, added or removed by local administrators with no input or testing from developers. A given gadget may have issues with some browsers, settings, etc. Special:Gadgets shows the clock gadget is at MediaWiki:Gadget-UTCLiveClock.js which loads code from mw:MediaWiki:Gadget-UTCLiveClock.js, so the place to report issues would be mw:MediaWiki talk:Gadget-UTCLiveClock.js. Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering has the option "Thumbnail size" for me. Don't you have it? PrimeHunter (talk) 22:45, 26 May 2014 (UTC)

Thank you; I do. I was looking for it elsewhere. The tab is named "Appearance", but the url is "-rendering". The documentation lists justifying paragraphs under the same tab, but it's actually on my Gadgets tab in a Appearances section. If other wikis have different options, I think it should be up to them to create their own help pages. Not having accurate documentation is frustrating. There are enough things for new editors to try and figure out without having to deal with incorrect documentation on top of it.D'Ranged 1 (talk) 01:15, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

Updating the non-gadget info is fine. Justify paragraphs and some other preferences were removed by the developers in February. See Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 123#Removed preferences. Some users wanted justify paragraphs back and a gadget was created at the English Wikipedia. Individual wikis can only make gadgets and not add options in other places in preferences. Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets already has a description line per gadget. It is this I don't think we should add details to here. But "Make paragraphs justified" should certainly be removed from Help:Preferences#Appearance. Same for any other options which are no longer present. PrimeHunter (talk) 08:45, 27 May 2014 (UTC)

Disabling new media viewer

I need to view images in the old style, not this new system where images are so small. At MediaWiki, they say that I can change this in my Preferences but I don't see an option to view images in the traditional style. This new system doesn't allow users to zoom in and so I can't read text on images that, in the old system, I could enlarge. Where is this option to disable this new feature? Thanks. Liz ^{Read! Talk!} 21:25, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

"Enable Media Viewer" is now a default and can be changed at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-rendering. mw:Multimedia/About Media Viewer still describes the former system where it was a Beta feature. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:15, 5 June 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 10 August 2014

Punlok007 (talk) 08:38, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

Null request; no action. --  Gadget850 ^talk 10:51, 10 August 2014 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 9 April 2015

Jy4825312 (talk) 02:14, 9 April 2015 (UTC)

Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format. Kharkiv07^Talk 02:29, 9 April 2015 (UTC)

Adding custom signature

When I try to customize my signature (I want to to say "Neigh" instead of "talk" after my name) it keeps saying the submitted info is not correct. This is EXACTLY what I typed into the submission box on the Preferences page: White Arabian mare talk#124;Neigh). I tried several variations on that, put Neigh in quotation marks and got nothing. I want my signature to say, White Arabian mare (Neigh). Can anybody please tell me what I'm doing wrong? Thanks,White Arabian mare 01:39, 14 September 2015 (UTC)White Arabian mare White Arabian mare 01:39, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

Enter [[User:White Arabian mare|White Arabian mare]] ([[User talk:White Arabian mare|Neigh]]) to produce: White Arabian mare (Neigh). PrimeHunter (talk) 01:48, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

Thank you, I got it to work. I'm an idiot about coding things, LOL. White Arabian mare (Neigh) 14:58, 14 September 2015 (UTC)

Minor edit by default

Hi! I would like to mark my edits on en.wiki minor by default, but I didn't find where to check on the preferences. Can you help me? --Pequod76 (talk-ita.esp.eng) 22:51, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

Mh! I have found https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T26313. Gosh... --Pequod76 (talk-ita.esp.eng) 22:54, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

Then maybe you also found the script at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 78#Preference to mark all edits minor by default asked to be removed in bugzilla:24313. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:02, 5 October 2015 (UTC)

Remove pointless checkbox

The checkbox that says "Widen the search box in the Vector skin." is pointless and should be removed. GeoffreyT2000 (talk) 04:44, 30 January 2016 (UTC)

This talk page is for discussing what Help:Preferences should say. The mentioned option is under Gadgets at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets, so it can be discussed at Wikipedia:Gadget/proposals. It was added at Wikipedia:Requests for comment/May 2010 skin change/Bug reports#Wider search box. PrimeHunter (talk) 22:09, 30 January 2016 (UTC)

Add a "Gadgets" tab to scowiki preferences page

How can one add a "Gadgets" tab to the scowiki preferences page? (I'm an administrator there, it's a small wiki). --AmaryllisGardener ^talk 19:27, 15 July 2016 (UTC)

I have a Gadgets tab at sco:Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-gadgets. The only gadget currently there is HotCat. This is controlled by sco:MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition which I see you created a few minutes before posting here. I guess the tab wasn't displayed when there were no gadgets and the software needed a little time to register the creation. The feature is documented at mw:Extension:Gadgets. PrimeHunter (talk) 23:34, 15 July 2016 (UTC)

wikipedia

How long does it take to set up a new wikipedia page? teresa muse (talk) 00:31, 10 May 2016 (UTC)

I want get help so I can fight again Shernandez 86 (talk) 07:02, 6 September 2016 (UTC)

WW2

Vets Larry Snyder 12:30, 25 September 2016 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Fishmaster22 (talk • contribs)

how to add photo

how to add a photo? Violin tide (talk) 01:36, 9 October 2016 (UTC)

@Violin tide: See Help:Files - Mlpearc (open channel) 15:59, 9 October 2016 (UTC)

The new "Search" tab

Can someone please add information about the settings in the recently-added "Search" tab? Guycn2 · ☎ 15:32, 23 October 2016 (UTC)

My grandfather fought on the Le Bassee Canal along with Dorset Regiment in France what I amnesia looking for is details of battle in the area 1914to 1915 or a book that guides detail and photoes Stephen Biggs (talk) 11:25, 12 November 2016 (UTC)

CC BY-SA 3.0

GFDL Nguyenlac013 04:15, 19 December 2016 (UTC) — Preceding unsigned comment added by Nguyenlac013 (talk • contribs)

i want to learn

how add and upload a photo here

saad (talk) 07:05, 30 November 2016 (UTC)

@Md Sazzad Ul Haque Saad: I've posted some information on your talk page. -- John of Reading (talk) 07:41, 30 November 2016 (UTC)

What rent to own properties are like and pricing values are Heatherfouse (talk) 19:38, 4 June 2017 (UTC)

Password doesn;t work

I just tried to log in to get some forms and my password didn;t work. I tried to change it but had no luck Cane please help?? Thank you Janet Parigini, NV Eta — Preceding unsigned comment added by 2602:306:BC69:6DA0:3D8F:14E:3668:C446 (talk) 21:01, 14 June 2017 (UTC)

Hi! If you're having trouble logging in to Wikipedia then perhaps Help:Logging in would help. But since you are logging in "to get some forms" it sounds to me that you are trying to log in to some other website or service, in which case you need to contact the administrators of that site. I have removed your email address from your post here to protect your privacy. -- John of Reading (talk) 03:47, 15 June 2017 (UTC)

Sarath US

Sarath US he is a Malayalam writer . He is born in Kerala( state of Indian Union ). He completed his graduation in MSM college Kayamkulam (Aleppy) and also he completed Bachelor of Business Administration and Master of Business Administration in Madurai Kamaraj University . He wrote small rimes and some other novels — Preceding unsigned comment added by Sarath US (talk • contribs) 12:14, 21 June 2017 (UTC)

Where is the "change the number of character rows and columns in the edit box" feature?

I can't find it in my "Editing" section of preferences. --Loginnigol 09:44, 4 July 2017 (UTC)

It has been removed. I know little CSS but you can try something like this in your CSS:

textarea {height:10em; width:50em;}

The width resizes to full for me but the height works. PrimeHunter (talk) 12:25, 4 July 2017 (UTC)

So it's gone? I guess the only option left is to the CSS tweak thing. OK thanks for the heads-up, PH --Loginnigol 12:36, 5 July 2017 (UTC)

Semi-protected edit request on 7 October 2017

Indah pernasari (talk) 00:31, 7 October 2017 (UTC)

Not done: it's not clear what changes you want to be made. Please mention the specific changes in a "change X to Y" format. SparklingPessimist ^{Scream at me!} 01:42, 7 October 2017 (UTC)

Roses in the Snow

I wrote this song. In Wikipedia it only lists Emmylou Harris as the person who recorded it. How do I get my name listed as the songwriter. Ruth.Franks (talk) 08:21, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

Roses in the Snow (edit | talk | history | protect | delete | links | watch | logs | views)

@Ruth.Franks: The Wikipedia article is about the album. In the "track listing" section, the first track is the song Roses in the Snow, and Ruth Franks is shown as its writer. The name has been there since 2006. -- John of Reading (talk) 13:22, 20 December 2017 (UTC)

Additional gadget option

How does one go about having another gadget added to preferences? Code is already available and very simple. The purpose is to allow users to see short descriptions in desktop read view. · · · Peter (Southwood) ^(talk): 09:21, 30 March 2018 (UTC)

Wikipedia:Gadget#Proposals says: "New gadgets should be proposed at the technical Village Pump". Administrators with gadget knowledge can make the required edits. I see the gadget only has to add this css:

.shortdescription { display:block !important; }

PrimeHunter (talk) 12:33, 30 March 2018 (UTC)

Where is the Edit-box size settings?

By that I mean the number of rows that is visible by default (I already know one can adjust the size by dragging the lower right corner but I'm trying to not to have to do that every time I edit).

I remember it was manipulatable from the preferences. Yet now I can't find anythign about it anywhere in the preferences, nor on this "help" page --Loginnigol 08:33, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

@Loginnigol: Many rarely used preferences have been removed. Try for example this in your CSS:

textarea {height: 40em;}

Your signature should link to your account per WP:SIGLINK. The easiest method to make a valid signature is to remove the checkmark at "Treat the above as wiki markup" at Special:Preferences. PrimeHunter (talk) 09:39, 18 June 2018 (UTC)

name change

my name al skin (talk) 18:27, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

al skin: You are probably looking for Wikipedia:Username policy#Changing your username – Finnusertop (talk ⋅ contribs) 18:42, 15 March 2018 (UTC)

How to upload photos

Www.st.cecilia church, tanikella , khammam (talk) 20:34, 9 June 2018 (UTC)

Protection for privacy Cassandra Gray (talk) 21:34, 23 June 2018 (UTC)

Thanking people who are welcoming me

Thank u Cassandra Gray (talk) 22:09, 23 June 2018 (UTC)

Cassandra Gray, you can personally thank any logged in editor for a specific edit by clicking on "Thank" in the edit history. Cheers, · · · Peter (Southwood) ^(talk): 06:31, 24 June 2018 (UTC)

Log in

Hi how do I log in And1405 (talk) 15:29, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

@And1405: You were already logged in when you asked. See Help:Logging in if you have problems. PrimeHunter (talk) 18:31, 31 October 2018 (UTC)

QUTION

What i do MANIPARI (talk) 08:56, 20 September 2018 (UTC)

Why the information is not getting

Sudhagani yellaiah Goud (talk) 12:37, 20 November 2018 (UTC)

Proposal to move pronoun setting to Basic info

Your feedback would be welcome at the discussion at WP:VPR#Proposal to move pronoun preference to Basic info. Thanks, Mathglot (talk) 20:44, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

Proposal to implement 12-hour clock

Since many people use the 12-hour clock over 24-hour, it should be implemented.

–Adamilo (talk) 04:36, 8 January 2019 (UTC)

@Adamilo:, that is already available in preferences, on the appearance page. Mathglot (talk) 20:49, 19 September 2019 (UTC)

On the gadget preferences list we need links to the talk pages of individual gadgets

It is no wonder that many gadgets flounder for long periods of time before being improved.

Feedback has to be given while gadget use is fresh in one's mind.

A big factor in Wikipedia's huge success is that people can give feedback on talk pages without having to look elsewhere for the talk page link. -- Timeshifter (talk) 14:49, 22 December 2019 (UTC)

Auto-completion of edit summary

Any control of the autocompletion for edit summaries? --Smokefoot (talk) 16:24, 22 August 2020 (UTC)

Changing Wikipedia Username

Is there a way to change your public username rather than just your signature? If so, can you help me with that?𝕱𝖑𝖔𝖜𝖊𝖗𝕻𝖊𝖙𝖆𝖑𝖘 (talk) 01:29, 2 September 2020 (UTC)

@Lindjosh: Yes, see Wikipedia:Changing username for advice and instructions. -- John of Reading (talk) 06:15, 2 September 2020 (UTC)

Default currency

I would like to have a default currency in the settings to be used in template code. Trigenibinion (talk) 12:52, 31 December 2020 (UTC)

Edit link for introductory section.

Can anyone please explain why this isn't enabled by default? Where do we have to ask to get this changed? --David Biddulph (talk) 14:57, 27 May 2021 (UTC)

@David Biddulph: It's a gadget set in MediaWiki:Gadgets-definition#appearance so we can decide it locally. The large majority of users are only readers and it's considered ugly next to the page name. A suggestion to only enable it for registered or autoconfirmed users may be better received. PrimeHunter (talk) 19:33, 27 May 2021 (UTC)

preferences for watchlist expiry?

I digged down to the bottom of the help pages, and found this: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Watching_pages#Watchlist_Expiry

However, no page (so far) I've seen even briefly mentions the question I hope is obvious:

How do I tell Wiki I want my clicks on the watchlist "star" to default to, say, 3 months, instead of the current default: permanent-but-with-a-popup?

In other words, I want to

a. get rid of the popup asking additional details each bloody time

b. change the default to perhaps 6 months instead of permanent (so a. can happen)

I sincerely hope I'm not the first one ever asking this, and that I have just not found the discussion which you may now link me to :-)

Best wishes, Zapp

PS. X-posted to the above Mediawiki page.

And oh, my signature, to sign off: CapnZapp (talk) 12:10, 11 June 2021 (UTC)

Skins

Clicking on the preview link next to a skin name also selects the radio button. This is incorrect behavior. Mike Richardson (talk) 12:39, 26 March 2022 (UTC)

HELP!

What is that one setting type where it changes the color of the text when it's an embed or a code. For example:

{{smiley}}

fdsjoisjd fijodi fds

~~~~

I know it's not the Syntaz Highlighter Jack Reynolds (talk to me!) (email me!!) 13:42, 11 February 2021 (UTC)

How to add my positions

Manugopal17 (talk) 21:41, 3 April 2022 (UTC)

New design for Special:Preferences on mobile web

Hi - my team at WMF has been working on exploring new designs for Special:Preferences on mobile web over the past month. We want to enable mobile users to access their preferences but we think this page needs a redesign first. Please share your thoughts on the designs we've posted on our project page. Samwalton9 (WMF) (talk) 12:58, 15 June 2022 (UTC)

Apparence topic is duplicated : as a tab and in the Gadget tab

I find it rather difficult to search for Appearance settings as they appear in a preference tab, but also in the Gadget tab, which is the one I usually forget and look for (to enable or disable the dark mode). Some consistency would help newcomers, but also people (like me) who know the feature exist but can't simply find it. samusz (talk) samusz (talk) 08:42, 20 March 2023 (UTC)