Last modified: 2011-03-13 18:06:25 UTC
[[en:Special:Contributions]] called without the target parameter just shows "No target". It would be a(nother) just "nice to have" feature if the special pages would provide the valid syntax for this page. It maight be a good idea to include a "tag" (?) / "selector" called "Syntax" at the top of EVERY page, not only for special pages but also for the pages in the other namespaces. Wikipedia is an "open" world. This is valid both for the articles, the documentation, the "knowledge" and the "good to know's". (Peronlay) I think putting a "Syntax" "tag" (?) / "selector" at the top of the pages would be the most appropriate place, usefull, easy to find, easy to update (from documentation point of view) and so on. If a project specific text field containing links relevant to that project (in that language), [[meta:]] and so on should be included is another issue to discuss. What do you think about this? Regards Reinhardt Bugs related (somehow) to this: bug 884 (about providing more information at the "Bad title" page)
See also (about documentation) [[en:User talk:IMSoP#appendix_4]] == [[User talk:IMSoP#appendix_4]] == [[User_talk:IMSoP#appendix_4]] <> [[User talk:IMSoP#appendix 4]] (the last one misses the anchor). Regards Reinhardt
I can see where you're coming from with this, but generally speaking the software should make it unnecessary to construct these URLs anyway - the software should generate them when you click the appropriate part of the syntax. Of course, anyone writing a bot, or doing something particularly complex with templates, would benefit from knowing how to generalise, but usually clicking through a couple of examples should be enough to find out. As for the specific example of the error produced by a special page that needs a particular parameter, perhaps the best thing would be a message like "This page shows the contributions of a particular user, but no user was specified." and provide a box where the name of the user can be typed in. In fact, it could just say "Type in the name of the user for whom you wish to see contributions: " and forget that, as far as the software is concerned, this is an error. As I say, the user should generally not be required to know the internal URL "syntax", they should just be given an interface that constructs it for them.
Agreed with Rowan's comments; please file separate bugs for each special page which doesn't provide a useful prompt when visited directly but should.
