| Amire80 added projects: ULS-CompactLinks, Wikidata. Amire80 added a comment. |
Little comment 1: Since the task was filed in 2013, another element was added to most pages near the languages in the sidebar: "X more", opening the compact language links panel. I am adding the #uls-compactlinks tag here, because even though this project didn't exist when the bug was filed, it is totally relevant in the context. I am also adding the #wikidata tag, because it has a lot to do with it.
Little comment 2: The following two tasks at least partially overlap with this one:
- T53355: Feature request for VisualEditor language setting +ULS +Wikidata interwikis
- T53431: Mingle Wikidata interwiki links with ULS to choose display and input while visiting the link itself
So, we now have two or three elements near the languages list:
- The cog, near the "Languages" title:
- Coming from the ULS extension. Used for choosing UI language, and configuring webfonts and keyboards. It was put there back in 2012 when the first version of ULS was developed. Of course, the association between the "Languages" title, familiar to most wiki editors (and possibly to many readers) was a factor in choosing this location.
- The Wikidata link at the bottom:
- It has the text "Add links" when the page is not linked to versions in other languages. Clicking it opens a dialog for adding the links without leaving the page.
- It has the text "Edit links" when the page is linked to versions in other languages. Clicking it goes to the item page in Wikidata.
- The Compact Language Links "''X'' more" button:
- Appears only on pages with 9 links or more, and only if the Compact Language Links preference is enabled. (It was in beta for a long time, but now it is default in Wikipedia in all languages, and in most other Wikimedia projects.)
- Clicking it opens a ULS panel with all the languages in which the page is available.
This is not ideal.
This is not ideal for a lot of reasons:
- Generally, three elements near the language the list feel like a bit too much.
- The cog is at the top, but the things that it includes are probably needed by fewer people. I'm saying "probably", because I don't have the numbers, but we can try to obtain them. Fonts and keyboards configuration is important in some languages, but completely unnecessary in a lot of others (at least in the current implementation; I have a lot of ideas for redoing webfonts support, but they are far from being implemented, and they are way beyond the scope of this task). One thing I'm sure of is the the other two elements are needed by users in wikis in all languages, and the cog—only in some.
- The language selector in "Display settings" under the cog includes all the languages, but it only selects the UI language. Even though the panel explicitly says what does it do, I suspect that some people—possibly a lot—select the UI language instead of the article language. I've seen it happening to a lot of people in workshops for new editors.
- As a follow up to the previous point: Changing the UI language is not currently available to logged-out users. The panel says so, and some people may even think that they can only read an article in another language if they log in. It may sound crazy, but it may be true.
- The title is not always actually "Languages". It is "Languages" in some wikis, but in others it is "In other languages", "This page in other languages", or something else.
- "Add links" and "Edit links" have the same location, but different text, and completely different behavior. I suspect that a lot of editors will appreciate editing wikidata sitelinks (i.e. languages) in a dialog similar to the one that is used for initial linking, thus making the functionalities similar. I've been hearing comments like this from a lot of users in a lot of languages for years.
- This is more of a guess than the previous point, but I further suspect that a lot of editors will appreciate a link to the Wikidata item page in a convenient location, possibly near the language list. "Edit links" is such a link already, but that's not what its title says. There is also a "Wikidata item" link buried elsewhere in the sidebar, which does largely the same thing. As an editor, it's one of the very few sidebar links that I actually use, although I might be very different from a lot of other people. This requires proper research.
- The "''X'' more" button appears in some cases, but not always.
- The language selector (ULS) and the language editor (WikidataClient's dialog) are related in their functionality, but they have a completely different interface design. It would be nice to bring their appearance closer to each other.
That's a lot of different issues. There's material here for a lot of different tasks and subtasks. Fixing them is desirable. It won't happen overnight, and it will require proper design work, and not just editors' or developers' intuition.
But yes, it's about time to start resolving it.
To @Krinkle's question—no, there's no proper roadmap at the moment. This very long comment is, hopefully, the first attempt to think of such a roadmap.
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To: Amire80
Cc: Aklapper, Jdforrester-WMF, Amire80, Arrbee, Krinkle, santhosh, Pginer-WMF, KartikMistry, Nikerabbit, Lahi, Gq86, GoranSMilovanovic, QZanden, LawExplorer, JGirault, Wikidata-bugs, aude, Mbch331, Jay8g
Cc: Aklapper, Jdforrester-WMF, Amire80, Arrbee, Krinkle, santhosh, Pginer-WMF, KartikMistry, Nikerabbit, Lahi, Gq86, GoranSMilovanovic, QZanden, LawExplorer, JGirault, Wikidata-bugs, aude, Mbch331, Jay8g
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