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Technology report

Left-aligned edit links and bugfixes abound; brief news

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By Jarry1250
The change in design currently being tested

Historically, the links for editing individual sections of a page have been aligned to the right hand side of the page, distancing them from the sections to which they refer. At the same time, having left-aligned edit links next to each header has been an available gadget on the English Wikipedia. In 2009, the Wikimedia Usability Initiative suggested making the left-aligned variant the default for all users, but although Wikia switched over and reported an increase in section editing the change was never implemented on WMF wikis.

In renewed efforts to increase the number of editors on Wikimedia projects, on 9 March the Foundation's usability and engineering departments began a joint week-long study of the editing impact of any switch to left-aligned edit links. To achieve this, they began to collect anonymous click data from readers, some of whom will be temporarily switched to the left-aligned style. If successful, this test could prove to be the first of many such experiments (Wikimedia Techblog). Developer on the project Trevor Parscal added that the current tests would be strictly quantitative and would be "followed up with additional research that will better assess the more subtle effects of such a change... these are experiments... just guidance as we explore ways to improve the usefulness of the site."

In response to privacy concerns, the blog post also added that "if any editor would like to abstain from participating in this and other experiments in the future, they can select the 'Exclude me from feature experiments' option in their user preferences."

Further bug fixes highlighted

After numerous bugs were found in the wake of the deployment of MediaWiki 1.17 almost a month ago, developer Robert Lanphier chose to highlight some of the issues that had recently been resolved (Wikimedia Techblog).


When the category sorting changes come into effect, they should enable non-English wikis to have their categories sorted in a more logical order, rather than have letters with diacritics sorted after Z.

In brief

Not all fixes may have gone live to WMF sites at the time of writing; some may not be scheduled to go live for many weeks. Users interested in the "tarball" release of MW1.17 should follow bug #26676.

  • Okawix, a new piece of software designed to allow users to read Wikipedia articles offline on their mobile devices, has entered its beta testing phase and would like to get more testers on board (Wikiwix blog).
  • Calls were put out for potential Google Summer of Code applicants to put their names forward. Students could work either on MediaWiki or Semantic MediaWiki; the programme, which runs from April to September, attracts funding of 5000 USD per student (wikitech-l mailing list).
  • The ability to export articles in an openZim format was integrated into the "Collection" extension (wikitech-l mailing list). The integration forms part of the Foundation's efforts to make Wikimedia wikis more available in offline formats.
  • After long discussion surrounding bug #24313, the preference for uniformly marking all one's edits as minor by default has been removed from the English Wikipedia. The removal was designed to discourage its use. As a result of bug #27403, however, users may temporarily find themselves "locked in" to their old preference even if it was set to true. A process of notification is underway.
  • Registration for the Berlin Hackathon is now open. The annual meetup will feature "more hacking and less talking" this year (wikitech-l mailing list).
  • Blocking usernames including spaces should now work correctly (bug #28017).
  • Gerard Meijssen blogged about bug #19412, which refers to PHP's failure to interpret dates in languages other than English.
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  • Maybe it's just me, but left-aligned edit links look unprofessional to me. Powers T 15:10, 15 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • Beware Hawthorne Effect: I realize it might sound good that more people used section-edit links when moved to the left, but they would look "weird" there, and hence more people will notice them to click, and if people know they are being observed then their performance often improves, as being on "their best behavior" (the Hawthorne Effect, when factory lighting was increased, or lowered, and productivity improved either way). Consequently, after people get accustomed to left-side "[edit]" then move edit-buttons back to the right-side and then more people will use them there: why? ...because they would again look different, more noticeable in the newer location. To challenge this, move edit-tabs to center, or even further right, and check the usage. Also, while we're experimenting, put a random do-nothing button saying "[click here]" in the middle of an article, and count how many do. Huh. Meanwhile, also compare to an occasional reminder that clicking each "[edit]" button will allow much faster editing of each section, and compare the effect of try-talking-to-me reminders, as well as shifting things around the page, to shock a user's attention. -Wikid77 16:28, 15 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
    • The vast majority of Wikipedia readers (in excess of 99%) don't edit. (Compare the number of page views to the number of edits.) The fundamental question is whether moving the edit link to be next to the section title will encourage some of these non-editors to consider editing. So a good design for this test would include the following: (1) separate those who do click into two groups, based on IP address - those who are at an IP address where an edit has occurred in (say) the past year, and those who are not; and (2) count both clicks and edits, not just edits, because our horrible editing interface clearly dissuades a large percentage of potential editors (once they see it), but it's still noteworthy if a person takes the initiative to start an edit, even though they don't finish it. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 20:12, 15 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • I found the left-aligned link to be a distraction while reading, creating minor confusion about whether the word "edit" was supposed to be part of the header or not. Yes, I could eventually get used to it but - - why? The benefits don't seem to justify the disruption. Rossami (talk) 17:31, 16 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  • Left-aligning the edit links would prevent them from bunching, a usability problem, which in my opinion is a good enough reason to make the switch. 155.99.231.77 (talk) 01:12, 17 March 2011 (UTC)[reply]
  1. Jarry is right, a feature should not be justified as a work-around to a bug (fixed or not).
  2. The assumption is that we want more people to edit. This is true, but it is not a blanket wish (for example there will doubtless be more vandalism too, which we would rather not have). So I hope the additional research covers the quality of the edits as well as the qunatity.

Rich Farmbrough, 17:45, 20 March 2011 (UTC).[reply]

  • Is there a way to revert this change via some LocalSettings.php or CSS settings? The left-aligned edit links are really distracting from the content and I find them not very nice to look at. Thanks, 194.246.123.103 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 03:33, 2 July 2011 (UTC). - PEBKAC. Fortunately, even with MW 1.17 the edit links appear to be aligned on the right side. Sorry for the noise :( -- 194.246.123.103 (talk) 18:55, 12 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]
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