Talk:Main page

Instructions on checking the user name

The issue with Special:ListUsers is that it displays results even when the name in question is not available. For example, foobarthisnamedoesnotexist still lists all user names starting with foo. -- Alad (talk) 21:36, 26 May 2016 (UTC)

You can go to User:Foobarthisnamedoesnotexist instead, but no idea how to describe the 4 possible cases (account does not exist, account exists but the page doesn't, the page exists but account doesn't, both things exist). -- Lahwaacz (talk) 21:49, 26 May 2016 (UTC)

There's also Special:PrefixIndex, e.g. foobarthisnamedoesnotexist, but the downside is that it also shows subpages. — Kynikos (talk) 09:39, 27 May 2016 (UTC)

Well, it's a little like letting new users play dice to find a free name first, but still useful to work around the issue, e.g.

"In order to create an account, check if your desired user name or a suitable alternative is available."

Actually, what should be the primary place to inform about how to register? The main page? Then, we should crosslink it from ArchWiki:Contributing#Improving and maybe even add a redirect for "account registration". --Indigo (talk) 12:14, 27 May 2016 (UTC)

The PrefixIndex shows existing user pages, not user accounts. -- Lahwaacz (talk) 12:22, 27 May 2016 (UTC)

Ok, yes, it's no help then. --Indigo (talk) 12:38, 27 May 2016 (UTC)

Interlanguage links need to be sorted alphabetically

See Help:Style#Interlanguage links. -- Blackteahamburger (talk) 15:14, 13 July 2020 (UTC)

Solved. -- Kynikos (talk) 23:19, 13 July 2020 (UTC)

@Kynikos Can you give me the Bots user group? I want to automatically update interlanguage links in the translated version of the Main page. -- Blackteahamburger (talk) 02:45, 14 July 2020 (UTC)

That'd be for a separate bot account, if you meant to save several dozens or hundreds of edits; there's no problem if you sync the interlanguage links in Main-page translations with your main account. -- Kynikos (talk) 23:00, 14 July 2020 (UTC)

I mean this, please give my main user Bots user group, otherwise 30 seconds is too slow. -- Blackteahamburger (talk) 01:10, 15 July 2020 (UTC)

Ooh, ok, the 30-second delay is a deliberate limitation built into Wiki Monkey for non-bot users to discourage using it for extensive undiscussed changes.

If you don't want or can't have continuous access to internet to leave the bot perform the edits while you do something else (which is how Wiki Monkey's bot was intended to be used by regular users), I guess I can put your User in the Bots group temporarily, if you give me a time window when you intend to run the bot.

I think Lahwaacz also periodically runs wiki-script's interlanguage.py script, but I'm not sure if it can be restricted to only a particular title.

We can also discuss supporting a User:Blackteahamburger.bot with bot rights, if you're interested in running automated maintenance jobs more regularly.

-- Kynikos (talk) 23:43, 15 July 2020 (UTC)

Lahwaacz said that the bot cannot parse the magic word at the top of the page [1], so the bot cannot work. I can use SimpleReplace plugin to update interlanguage links.

I am really interested in running automatic maintenance tasks, but I don’t know how to do it :(

-- Blackteahamburger (talk) 01:29, 16 July 2020 (UTC)

Did you like any of the options that I proposed above? -- Kynikos (talk) 17:43, 18 July 2020 (UTC)

I don't really like using SimpleReplace extensively, because it is too error-prone (parsing the MediaWiki markup properly with regular expressions is extremely hard or even impossible). But I think the SynchronizeInterlanguageLinks plugin would actually work here, I'm only not sure if it would give the same results as wiki-scripts for any page. interlanguage.py from wiki-scripts does not work here because of mwparserfromhell's issue so the ultimate solution would be fixing that. -- Lahwaacz (talk) 20:02, 18 July 2020 (UTC)

The SynchronizeInterlanguageLinks plugin sometimes does not completely update the interlanguage links [2], so it is better to fix the problem. (SimpleReplace plugin does make mistakes sometimes...) -- Blackteahamburger (talk) 01:09, 19 July 2020 (UTC)

After so many years, it would be easier to rewrite SynchronizeInterlanguageLinks from scratch than fixing it... -- Kynikos (talk) 06:29, 19 July 2020 (UTC)

Interlanguage link for Catalan is missing

I guess this link isn't added automatically by bots due to the importance of the page. The Catalan version is here. Rdvdev2 (talk) 18:33, 22 July 2023 (UTC)

Reduce Width of Left Nav-Pane to Eliminate Wasted Space

The new look is fine, but the left navigation-pane is too wide resulting in over 1" of wasted screen real estate on my laptop. It would be more on larger displays. Is there a way we can reduce the width to recover the blank space in the left nav-pane? I'd a lot rather have that space used by content in the main area than just sitting empty on the left side. It it possible? Can it be a user-configurable option? Thoughts? David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. -- Rankin Law Firm, PLLC (talk) 21:55, 12 August 2023 (UTC)

You can either wait until we deploy MediaWiki 1.40, which has a button to toggle between full-width and narrow layouts, or switch back to the "old look" in your user preferences. — Lahwaacz (talk) 06:11, 13 August 2023 (UTC)

Thank you will wait. Another issue is the "Dark Mode" background is Way-Too-Dark and provides a contrast crash with the text. It is currently using #04070A. A much better choice would be #18191D (or something close). That way the Dark Mode is easier on the eyes and not the same glaring harsh contrast as the Light-Mode black on white. The background color of #111317 from areas on THIS page would also do fine. Something along those lines instead of #04070A David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. -- Rankin Law Firm, PLLC (talk) 01:51, 4 September 2023 (UTC)

Dark Mode Background is Way Too Dark - Harsh Contrast with Foreground

The Dark-Mode background color is way too dark and creates a harsh contrast with the foreground colors that is very hard to look at. It's like a gloss-black reflection in your face. Dark-Mode currently uses #04070A as the background-color. It would be much better if you used something like #18191D or even the #111317 used in areas of this form. A softer dark background-color is much easier on the eyes - especially older eyes. As the background-color is currently set, there is no eye-strain reduction achieved by the Dark Mode. Consider a Dark Mode background-color that will reduce eye-strain. David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. -- Rankin Law Firm, PLLC (talk) 01:57, 4 September 2023 (UTC)

man page

I think there should be a link for the arch official man pages Matthewq337 (talk) 23:16, 6 December 2023 (UTC)

The link is already on https://archlinux.org/ (between "Wiki" and "Installation Guide"), I guess it's enough — andreymal (talk) 00:14, 7 December 2023 (UTC)

Idea: Tip of the day

Some other wikis, e.g the NetHack wiki have a tip of the day on their main page. In their case, it is fetched via the random true rumor template, which bases on common.js I think we could benefit from something like that, too. Sample tips (pls no bikeshed yet on them), which are not strictly all tips but hints:

• Did you know that /usr/bin/ip supports color with -c? $ ip -c -br a is quite pretty.
• Pacman sure loves candy…
• .pacnew files are sometimes a ticking time bomb. Take care of them on a regular basis to prevent issues.
• Common readline keybinds are well worth learning. Since readline is so commonly used in applications, you will be able to apply the newfound efficiency aplenty.

Once determined that this is a feature we want, we could start working on a longer list of tips, editable by autoconfirmed users (since it is displayed on the main page I recommend to put at least some slight protection on it).

Another small "issue" would be that the arch-wiki-docs package will probably only display one per month. NetSysFire (talk) 08:03, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

To me it sounds like a nice feature to have, although I would have reduced the frequency to a "Tip of the week" unless we manage to have a sizeable backlog of tips.

The fact that it's going to be added to arch-wiki-docs is not an issue IMO, as the package already has other "non-content" pages like ArchWiki:News.

Here's a few tips (the first of which I shamelessly stole from nl6720):

• There is a hidden vi available from /usr/lib/initcpio/busybox vi.
• When constrained on space, remember you can avoid installing all translations provided by packages.
• Rarely used services can often be socket-activated instead of keeping them idle all the time.

I had a few more ideas, but they kinda duplicate General recommendations. This is probably an instance where it would be OK, but I'd like to hear what y'all think (I had in mind clearing pacman's cache, sorting mirrors, enabling TRIM on SSDs).

Do we want to avoid external links? If not, there are some fun reads like https://www.ee.torontomu.ca/~elf/hack/recovery.html.

-- Erus Iluvatar (talk) 09:27, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

Regarding "although I would have reduced the frequency to a "Tip of the week" unless we manage to have a sizeable backlog of tips.":

I'd make this a "fake" tip of the day just as nethackwiki does. If you refresh their main page, you'll get a new rumor.

This does need javascript though. NetSysFire (talk) 16:31, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

So just a "Random tip" then :P

Sounds fine to me too.

-- Erus Iluvatar (talk) 17:45, 16 June 2024 (UTC)

Sounds good, can you come up with an implementation plan? 😸

It would also be nice to make the title configurable, so sometimes it would be e.g. Tip of the day, sometimes Tip of the year to overemphasize its importance, or Quote of the day to use the system for something slightly different.

— Lahwaacz (talk) 12:32, 24 June 2024 (UTC)

I really like this idea. It would be easy to have these tips in fortune-mod-archtips and Archers would love scripting them. Vim fans are already having fun with fortune-mod-vimtips^AUR. Thanks for suggesting this. --AvidSeeker (talk) 13:58, 26 June 2024 (UTC)