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Why it took a long time to build the tiny link preview on Wikipedia

blog.wikimedia.org

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Re: Why it took a long time to build the tiny link preview on Wikipedia

#111

Post by brazzledazzle »

megaman22 wrote: post #69
mappu wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Alternatively, if it's a feature you don't like: If the metric is high, users are spending too much time on it. Also, it is responsible for every single frustration that users have with your product. If the metric is low, the feature can be safely removed (see: Windows Start menu).

> If the metric is low, the feature can be safely removed (see: Windows Start menu). That turned out really well... Whoever is responsible for putting the touch start screen on Windows Server is responsible for 90% of my frustrations...

The best way to run Windows Server is without a desktop installed, using PowerShell to manage it. Even one-offs. You might know this but it’s worth saying just in case. Also worth noting that some server applications assume/require a desktop during install or operation (usually because they’re trash).

Re: Why it took a long time to build the tiny link preview on Wikipedia

#112

Post by mrtksn »

fapjacks wrote: post #11

That preview window has been a lifesaver. Honestly, as someone with ADD (or ADHD or whatever it's called these days), Wikipedia is a fucking minefield. I regularly have many Wikipedia articles open in sometimes ten or twenty different windows, each with anywhere from twenty to fifty tabs (I open a new window to delineate a completely new tangent, or if opening a new tab will cause the tab icons to disappear, otherwis…

Back in the day I learned Javascript to create a Firefox extension called budaneki[1] that does basically that. It got quite popular but I abandoned it later since I no longer needed and didn’t have a business model.

Today I’m very happy with the Safari on MacOS as you’re can preview links. I like the Wikipedia implementation a lot, but as a Safari, I’m already used to have it everywhere.

[1] https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/budaneki/

Re: Why it took a long time to build the tiny link preview on Wikipedia

#113

Post by thought_alarm »

tombrossman wrote: post #97

One of the best things about ad blockers is that they are really just general purpose content blockers. Want to disable this permanently? Here's an Adblock Plus-compatible filter to block the div if you find it annoying. Tested and working on uBlock Origin: ! Disable link preview popups on Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org##.mwe-popups It's just a div with the class ".mwe-popups", and using your ad blocker will persist the…

You can disable them by clicking the little gear icon on the pop up itself. I figured that out by googling aroung for half an hour.

It's just wretched, backwards UI all around.

Re: Why it took a long time to build the tiny link preview on Wikipedia

#114

Post by ckoerner »

stedaniels wrote: post #13
cantrevealname wrote: post #5

One downside is that when I move the cursor along while reading an article all sorts of links now pop up at me. What I mean is using the mouse or trackpad to keep my place in the article; sometimes I drag the cursor to highlight the text, especially when skimming. Surely I'm not the only one who does this?

There should really be some "hover intent" going on if there isn't already and it just needs tweaking maybe?

IIRC the delay value is set at 500ms before a preview is shown.

Re: Why it took a long time to build the tiny link preview on Wikipedia

#115

Post by ckoerner »

KenanSulayman wrote: post #38
sdoering wrote: post #18

Wow. Had just read that and then saw the feature first time while browsing over a list page. Was moving my curser down the list and when ever I wanted to click a link, the above link hat popped up the layer, highjacking my click and leading me to the wrong page. What a great way of destroying the user experience with a beautifully over-engineered feature that is utterly crap while actually trying to use the underlyin…

"a [...] over-engineered feature that is utterly crap" I'm not usually trying to police this kind of thing, but is there a way you could have phrased this without discrediting the work of a lot of people whose goal is to help others? I'm sure you'd get both a little bit hurt inside and defensive when someone in your team calls your code "utterly crap." That said, I'm very sure they will be happy to hear about your fe…

As someone who works on the team that built this feature, thank you for saying this.

As for feedback, we've had 4 years of it and welcome more. Check out the FAQ and if you have something constructive to say, leave a note on the talk page.

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Page_Previews#FAQ

Re: Why it took a long time to build the tiny link preview on Wikipedia

#116

Post by ckoerner »

saagarjha wrote: post #47
_delirium wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's what I meant, the previews are on by default for not-logged-in users, but appear to be off by default for logged-in users (or at least the preference was set to 'off' for me).

I'm seeing them in both cases.

Perhaps you had enabled the beta feature and when the feature went to production the setting was kept enabled? Check under Preferences>Appearance>"Reading preferences".

Re: Why it took a long time to build the tiny link preview on Wikipedia

#117

Post by ckoerner »

Artemis2 wrote: post #80

Learned from this article that they make their Grafana dashboards public: https://grafana.wikimedia.org/dashboard/file/varnish-http-er... The variety of metrics and the sheer volume of those is awesome to explore! (e.g. frequent peaks to 20M requests per minute)

We're very transparent (I work for the Wikimedia Foundation).

You can see the specific dashboard for the Page Preview feature here (Last 6 hours):

https://grafana.wikimedia.org/dashboard/db/eventlogging-sche...

Re: Why it took a long time to build the tiny link preview on Wikipedia

#118

Post by ckoerner »

rurban wrote: post #16

As the major other php wiki implementor, phpwiki, I can add my input to this. I've implemented such an ajax page preview and also a page inliner (for expanding page trees via ajax) about 10 years ago. It was major work, because you essentially send a stripped down page in xml, so it needed some architectural changes to separate the various page templates properly. In the end it needed 2 months work. phpwiki has a pro…

> mediawiki on the other side is horribly undesigned spaghetti code

But like my mom's spaghetti, it's my favorite. :)

Think you can make it better? https://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Work_with_us

I work for the Wikimedia Foundation, but this subtle snark is my own, and may not reflect the views of the Foundation.

Re: Why it took a long time to build the tiny link preview on Wikipedia

#119

Post by jaysonelliot »

JorgeGT wrote: post #4

TL;DR: they had to choose a thumbnail and summary. I have been using WikiWand for years, which not only did that but also makes reading Wikipedia much better. Maybe I'm the only one but I have the hardest time reading paragraphs with lots of words per line. Previously I had to resize the browser each time I had to read something in Wikipedia :|

Came here to say the same thing about Wikiwand.

I've been using it about a year now, and it has radically improved my experience reading Wikipedia.

As you point out, it's had a smoothly working link preview feature all along, as well as a beautiful, usable reading experience. Not flashy or over-designed, just clean and elegant. I get a little caught off-guard now when I see a Wikipedia page without it.

Re: Why it took a long time to build the tiny link preview on Wikipedia

#120

Post by SeanMacConMara »

rootlocus wrote: post #102
SeanMacConMara wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Uhm, no. It just means that people are hovering over links with their mouse. in my case every single time was by accident whilst moving the mouse around, off of other text I was trying to read. frankly, its bloody annoying it covered the text i was reading the search for yet another "disable" setting begins....

The popup has a little gear icon in the bottom right. You can disable it from there.

cheers!
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