Last modified: 2014-02-10 23:38:59 UTC

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Bug 52810 - Remove "Justify paragraphs" user preference from MediaWiki core
Remove "Justify paragraphs" user preference from MediaWiki core
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Product: MediaWiki
Classification: Unclassified
User preferences (Other open bugs)
1.23.0
All All
: Normal normal (vote)
: ---
Assigned To: Tony Thomas
: design, easy
Depends on:
Blocks: 52807 28593
  Show dependency treegraph
 
Reported: 2013-08-13 17:43 UTC by MZMcBride
Modified: 2014-02-10 23:38 UTC (History)
14 users (show)

See Also:
Web browser: ---
Mobile Platform: ---
Assignee Huggle Beta Tester: ---


Attachments

Description MZMcBride 2013-08-13 17:43:49 UTC
The "Justify paragraphs" user preference should be removed from MediaWiki core.

This is an easy bug to resolve (marking it with the Bugzilla keyword accordingly). Anyone interested can look at <https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/27206> for a starting point for a new changeset (or un-abandon that changeset and rebase).
Comment 1 Andre Klapper 2013-10-13 16:49:54 UTC
(In reply to comment #0)
> The "Justify paragraphs" user preference should be removed from MediaWiki
> core.

Why? Incentives are generally welcome in bug reports.
Comment 2 MZMcBride 2013-10-13 18:24:40 UTC
(In reply to comment #1)
> Why? Incentives are generally welcome in bug reports.

I suppose it isn't particularly clear, but this bug flows from bug 52807, which flows from [[mw:Requests for comment/Core user preferences]].
Comment 3 Amir E. Aharoni 2013-10-17 20:45:11 UTC
MZ asked for my thoughts on this because I opened bug 28593 Many Years Ago. I don't have a strong opinion here. For what it's worth, I used to like the justify option and to enable it everywhere, but I am quite indifferent about it today. If it helps simplify the preferences and resolve other bugs, it can be removed.
Comment 4 Tony Thomas 2013-11-27 11:59:28 UTC
I would like to prepare a patch for this bug. Please assign the same to me.
Comment 5 Amir E. Aharoni 2013-11-27 12:41:44 UTC
(In reply to comment #4)
> I would like to prepare a patch for this bug. Please assign the same to me.

Just prepare a patch :)

See https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Patch
Comment 6 Technical 13 2013-11-27 12:49:33 UTC
Still unclear why this needs to be removed.  I happen to prefer justification of my paragraphs.  Maybe there is a way to continue offering this (without forcing it into a userscript) and resolve any lack of page real estate issues (which is a problem).
Comment 7 Tony Thomas 2013-11-27 12:52:29 UTC
(In reply to comment #6)
> Still unclear why this needs to be removed.  I happen to prefer justification
> of my paragraphs.  Maybe there is a way to continue offering this (without
> forcing it into a userscript) and resolve any lack of page real estate issues
> (which is a problem).

It doesn't look fit in the user preferences of mw-core, to me.
Comment 8 MZMcBride 2013-12-04 23:27:41 UTC
I believe there's consensus to remove this user preference.
Comment 9 Gerrit Notification Bot 2013-12-05 04:55:06 UTC
Change 99322 had a related patch set uploaded by 01tonythomas:
Removed "Justify paragraphs" from MW user Preference.

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/99322
Comment 10 Michael M. 2013-12-05 10:11:26 UTC
(In reply to comment #1)
> Why? Incentives are generally welcome in bug reports.

Just for the record, removing the preference was suggested by a user on de.wikipedia only yesterday. He provided a screenshot that shows how ugly infoboxes look like when the "justify paragraphs" preference is selected: http://s14.directupload.net/images/131204/znvc9sfb.png
Comment 11 MZMcBride 2013-12-10 01:50:11 UTC
Jared: thoughts on this? This is about the "justify paragraphs" option in MediaWiki core at [[Special:Preferences]].

I'm not sure we have great stats about user preferences right now. Help in that regard would be nice. :-)
Comment 12 Jared Zimmerman (WMF) 2013-12-10 02:01:23 UTC
We do have stats! Moiz (new ux) is working with analytics group to get usage stats currently.
Comment 13 MZMcBride 2013-12-10 02:09:59 UTC
For clarity, from [[mw:Requests for comment/Core user preferences]]:

---
gerrit:27206 Justify paragraphs — gadgetize?
  Yup. -— Isarra ༆

  This also tends to not work very well and break things. I vote kill with fire! 129.173.208.184 17:20, 24 September 2012 (UTC)

  I agree. Just kill it. Matma Rex (talk) 16:37, 29 September 2012 (UTC)

  Not sure how useful this is anyway. - Jc37 (talk) 01:30, 18 October 2012 (UTC)
---

However, there was apparently a glimpse of stats at Gerrit change #27206 that suggests that this may be a wontfix. There may be too many people who actively want to keep this user preference.

Separating direct preference usage and level to which people _actually care_ about having this functionality is, of course, tricky.
Comment 14 Gerrit Notification Bot 2014-01-29 05:13:29 UTC
Change 99322 merged by jenkins-bot:
Removed "Justify paragraphs" from MW user Preference.

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/99322
Comment 15 MZMcBride 2014-01-29 05:20:44 UTC
Thanks, Tony and Aaron!
Comment 16 Technical 13 2014-02-07 11:04:21 UTC
This isn't resolved. People are complaining ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Village_pump_%28technical%29#Text_justification ) and this was supposed to have a gadget option replacement before removed from core ( Comment 13 --  [[gerrit:27206]] ).
Comment 17 Brad Jorsch 2014-02-07 12:39:29 UTC
I see one person in comment 13 who wanted a gadget, and three who said to just kill it.

But a gadget would be simple enough, it just needs one line of CSS (copied from Gerrit change #99322's diff):

 #article, #bodyContent, #mw_content { text-align: justify; }

Or people could copy that to their [[Special:MyPage/common.css]].

Creating gadgets is really the province of local wiki communities, not MediaWiki development, so I'm going to re-close this bug since the necessary code for a gadget is stated here now.
Comment 18 Teles 2014-02-07 21:04:28 UTC
Can somebody please put here the link where the consensus happened? An user is asking me why this change was accepted and this option removed from his preferences. I can't find the answer here. Thanks.
Comment 19 David E. Siegel 2014-02-07 23:48:36 UTC
It seems to me that such changes should not be made without clear consensus in a widely-advertised discussion which should be linked in the bug before it is actioned. Please revert this "fix".
Comment 20 Gerrit Notification Bot 2014-02-08 00:02:15 UTC
Change 112151 had a related patch set uploaded by Parent5446:
Revert "Removed "Justify paragraphs" from MW user Preference."

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/112151
Comment 21 MZMcBride 2014-02-08 00:04:51 UTC
(In reply to comment #18)
> Can somebody please put here the link where the consensus happened?

Comment 13 of this bug report contains such a link.

(In reply to comment #19)
> It seems to me that such changes should not be made without clear consensus
> in a widely-advertised discussion which should be linked in the bug before it
> is actioned.

Was there clear consensus from a widely advertised discussion to add this user preference?
Comment 22 Technical 13 2014-02-08 00:24:07 UTC
I agree this should be reverted and a better option presented.
Comment 23 Technical 13 2014-02-08 01:36:52 UTC
(In reply to comment #21)
> (In reply to comment #18)
> > Can somebody please put here the link where the consensus happened?
> 
> Comment 13 of this bug report contains such a link.

Oh, you mean the comment that says that this would be offered as a gadget before it was removed from core?
Comment 24 MZMcBride 2014-02-08 03:13:17 UTC
(In reply to comment #23)
> (In reply to comment #21)
>> Comment 13 of this bug report contains such a link.
> 
> Oh, you mean the comment that says that this would be offered as a gadget
> before it was removed from core?

It takes about two edits to make this a gadget. If there's a particular wiki in which you'd like to have this, I'd be happy to help a local admin make it possible (the technical directions are in comment 17). We should probably update [[mw:Snippets]]. Perhaps we should even make providing a snippet a requirement before merging changes like this.

I'll note you can also customize your personal user experience using per-user CSS or JavaScript. Quite soon on Wikimedia wikis you'll be able to do this globally (i.e., across all public Wikimedia wikis).
Comment 25 MZMcBride 2014-02-08 03:18:45 UTC
(In reply to comment #24)
> We should probably update [[mw:Snippets]]. Perhaps we should even make
> providing a snippet a requirement before merging changes like this.

I created [[mw:Snippets/Paragraph justification]].

> Quite soon on Wikimedia wikis you'll be able to do this globally (i.e., across
> all public Wikimedia wikis).

This is bug 57891, by the way.
Comment 26 Erwin Dokter 2014-02-09 13:27:27 UTC
Technical 13, you know better then to reopen a bug to revert its original purpose; it badly breaks Bugzilla workflow due to tracking dependencies. So I'm reverting the title and closing this. Feel free to open a new bug report.

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