Misplaced Pages

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by WhatamIdoing (talk | contribs) at 23:54, 10 June 2013 (Shouldn't promise a long-term prefs setting). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Why is this change being made?

The biggest barrier to making the first edit, and therefore the biggest barrier to beginning the path that could lead to someone becoming a valuable, experienced member of the community, is the complex wikimarkup used by the old editing window. To increase the number of successful first attempts at editing, we need a better editing system.

When is this change being made?

As of March 2013, the hope is to change the default editor for most namespaces at most Wikipedias and other WMF projects to the new VisualEditor by July 2013.

What if I hate it?

For now, you can go to Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing and turn it off. After it becomes the default, then anyone can simply click "Edit source" rather than "Edit" to use the old editor. Of course we can't predict what might happen far in the future, but, at this time, there are absolutely no plans to remove the old editor.

Is this being forced on the community by some outsiders?

Misplaced Pages editors have asked for this type of improvement since at least 2004. Previous discussions include 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and more.

How was the community notified of this upgrade to the Mediawiki software?

• Multiple announcements in the Signpost throughout 2013, such as here and here.
• Multiple announcements at the Misplaced Pages:Village Pump (technical) in 2012 and 2013, such as here, here, here, here, etc.
• At the Teahouse, Editor assistance, New contributors' help page, and Help desk. (April 2013)
• At Help:Editing (April 2013)
• At three dozen of the biggest WikiProjects (May 2013)
• At the Community Bulletin Board (May 2013)
• In person at the Amsterdam Hackathon 2013, where features related to categories, templates, references and images were worked on (May 2013)
• At WikiProject Accessibility and WT:ACCESS. (June 2013)
• Watchlist notice for all registered users about this general announcement (June 2013)

Isn't this going to irritate existing editors?

Even tiny changes cause temporary disruption for existing users. Research has generally shown that most people adapt quickly to changes, within days for small changes and within a few weeks to larger changes. And anyone who doesn't like it can always switch back – see above.

Can't the editors here order the developers to turn this off?

No. It is the official policy of the English Misplaced Pages that the editors are not in charge of the website or its software. See WP:CONEXCEPT: "Some matters that may seem subject to the consensus of the community at the English-language Misplaced Pages (en.wp) are, in fact, in a separate domain. In particular, the community of MediaWiki software developers, including both paid Wikimedia Foundation staff and other volunteers, and the activities of Wikimedia Commons, are largely separate entities...These independent, co-equal communities operate however they deem necessary or appropriate, such as adding, removing, or changing software features, or accepting or rejecting images, even if their actions are not endorsed by editors here."