Wikipedia talk:Special pages

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This page should be linked from Special:Specialpages. Is there a mediawiki page I can edit? I tried editing MediaWiki:Spheading but the link did not work.--Patrick 11:09, 10 Aug 2004 (UTC)

I linked it from MediaWiki:Perfcached which links it to the cached ones and added a link to talk namespace as well. Obviously it won't work once live versions are used. -- User:Docu

Contents

[edit] Redirects to this page

I've started making a bunch of redirects to this page (Wikipedia:Upload file, Wikipedia:Random page, etc.) so that if someone (like me) specifically searches for Wikipedia:XYZ, where XYZ is one of the Special pages, they will be directed to a page containing not only a link to Special:XYZ but also (when applicable) links to help on the feature and (perhaps) an editable version of the relevant list. To me this makes a lot of sense. If you'd like to help, see the article's What links here page for the redirects that have already been created. (Of course, I'm not creating a redirect if Wikipedia:XYZ already brings up a meaningful page.) - dcljr 20:15, 29 Oct 2004 (UTC)

[edit] Should be user-friendlier

"Special pages" does not have a "redirect" entry - only broken and double redirects. There should be a special page (or if there already is, it should be listed here) on redirects; when and how to do them. Also, it would be nice if a sort of template were present (also on the double redirects entry). Kdammers 05:42, 12 October 2005 (UTC)

It sounds like you're talking about a "help" page about redirects, something like: Wikipedia:Redirect. "Special pages" are not help pages, they're (mostly) automatically-generated informational pages that can't be edited by regular users. - dcljr (talk) 23:27, 13 October 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Where to post comments on Special pages?

I added a few paragraphs explaining what Special Pages are to the top of this page. If someone thinks it would be more appropriate, they could certainly move that to a separate Help:Special pages page (which currently redirects here). I wasn't sure where to tell users to go if they want something changed about a Special Page -- Wikipedia:Village Pump? Wikipedia:Help Desk? If someone had suggestions that would be great. -- Creidieki 15:40, 13 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] how to edit special pages

Special pages cannot be directly edited by users; if you have a comment or suggestion about a special page, you should post it to (PLACE).

ROFL... thanks, that's hugely helpful.

Where is (PLACE)?

I think this information should be put on the special pages themselves, actually. Something like "To suggest an edit to this page, please place a note on [the X noticeboard/Village Pump etc]." I once suggested an improvement thus: Wikipedia:Village_pump_(assistance)#Updating_Special:Upload.

--pfctdayelise 14:49, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

  • I've been trying to suggest that a "Feedback" tab be added to special pages, just like the "Discussion" tab on nonspecial pages, but so far I haven't had any luck. I guess I'll submit a Bugzilla bug about it. -- Creidieki 18:22, 25 November 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Shortpages

How often is Shortpages generated? Two days ago I (among others) dealt with a few cases of vandalism where pages were blanked, and quite a few of them were reverted, but shortpages still looks the same. I understand the need to keep server load down, but it would be nice to see a refreshed Shortpages sometime soon. Or is it a problem at my end? I don't think it is, I'm not using a proxy server and I've cleared my browser cache. --LesleyW 04:22, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

[edit] Discussing Special pages

Of the (whopping) 47 "Special pages" listed at Special:Specialpages (plus Special:Specialpages itself), the following have links to talk pages prominently displayed on the Special pages themselves:

(All but Special:Recentchanges seem to use MediaWiki:Perfcached to provide the link along with some explanatory text.)

In addition, the following pages have links to other pages whose talk pages can be used for discussion, but they're not as obvious or explicit as the others:

But the following pages don't have any links to talk pages where they can be discussed:

Should this be fixed so that every Special page (except Randompage) contains a prominent link to an associated talk page? - dcljr (talk) 05:35, 21 January 2006 (UTC)

Yes, but I don't know where to go to request/make such a change. --ZimZalaBim (talk) 14:33, 20 September 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Updates

Almost every time I look at a special page, it is significantly outdated. It takes some effort (I think) to run the reports, so obviously they can't be updated on the whim of any passing visitor, but I think it would at least be helpful to mention when the page was last updated. Is this possible? Ardric47 04:42, 16 March 2006 (UTC)

Agreed. The Special:CrossNamespaceLinks page seems to be updated on the order of once every three weeks or so. Personally I think that's a bit too long a timespan (heck, I've probably visited and fixed 90% of the Userspace linked pages myself in the last 3 weeks) but at the very least it would be nice to know the last time the report was generated. --BinaryTed 15:59, 17 March 2006 (UTC)
Special pages seem to be mysterious things. I know that Wikipedia could be greatly damaged if an inexperienced user messed around with special pages, but I don't even know of a place to discuss them except on these talk pages. If I don't find more information, I'll ask on one of the Village Pump boards or something. Ardric47 00:46, 18 March 2006 (UTC)
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