Editing Improvements & Changes

So after getting this wishlist request i thought maybe the Edit history and possibly the Edit Page features need more updating? The editors are the backbone of TV Tropes after all so i wanted to get some community feedback if the editors are wanting/needing any features to make the process easier or more efficient. Please let me know below.

Potential Upcoming Changes:

• Recent edits for troper link to actual edit instead of just the page.
• Add notifier for new edits of Followed pages.
• Randomizer Tool for Wick Checking: Wish
• Edit inactivity timer: if a user edit locks a page and does absolutely nothing for several minutes it will give a warning and then after several more minutes will auto-expire the lock so others may edit the page.
• Unclosed markup tags “eating” pages. Bug
• Make Edit Reasons mandatory for larger edits? (Needs crowner)
• Make Edit reasons appear in Preview mode
• Ways to detect Edit Wars and/or pop-up warning. Wish
• Comparison to current page when making an edit. Wish

Changes made so far:

• Visual Editing + Formatting Toolbar: Wish (Picture of mostly completed toolbar)
• Fix edit timer bug preventing new pages from being created when it runs out
• Page title visible when editing a page: Wish
• Unsaved changes warning when accidentally leaving edit screen
• Pagination for history pages Wish
• Search by troper for history pages
• Search by content for history pages
• Edit History Link Fix Wish
• Edit timer put on bottom as well Wish
• Editor Length Counter. Wish
• Additional Checkbox system of common edit reasons that auto populate input field

Edited by kory on Mar 15th 2024 at 12:40:45 PM

Not sure if this is possible but maybe a section editor? Like if you were editing a big page but didn't want to have to deal with the lag or just scrolling through so much. If we had edit buttons for each folder, we could click the one we're interested in and that would load the editor for only that folder as opposed to the whole page.

Hmm im not sure, i'll have to look into that and get back to you.

Random thought, should edit reasons be mandatory to submit? I see most edits don't even have one though.

Doesn't Wikipedia have something like that, at least on mobile?

It would be nice, but maybe only for deletions? IDK if the site keeps track of byte count between edits, but it's usually unexplained deletions that are a problem (hence Edit Reasons and Why You Should Use Them) so if the page registered an overall negative byte change, it should prompt an edit reason before being able to submit.

If that's not possible, then an overall requirement would be nice, at least IMO. Adding an example could be just be reasoned easily as "Crosswicking" or "adding an example". It's not like we need a paragraph for an edit reason xD

E: Maybe? I don't edit Wikipedia. It was actually something I noticed on the fandom.com wiki websites.

Edited by Hello83433 on Jul 13th 2023 at 10:33:35 AM

Maybe this Edit History link fix query I made not too long ago?

Oh thanks! Added to OP.

(This was mentioned in mod chat but might as well mention it here too) We have a visual editor that was restricted to mod side years ago shortly after it was released in 2017 because it wasn't ready to go live for some reason. Some thing d like bold, italics, strike through and image formatting works but there's certain things like folders and notes that don't + other minor issues. However, if we can iron everything out, it would be great to see it go public again!

Edited by MacronNotes on Jul 19th 2023 at 10:03:41 AM

Just curious, what does WYSIWYG stand for?

Also, here's an example page from one of the fandom wikis with the section editor I was talking about. That little pencil icon next to each heading edits the section.

It stands for "What you see is what you get."

Google up? WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) is a methodology to match the display with the final output (like printers reading .doc), now it means Visual Editor.

IDK I thought it might be TVT specific, like YKTTW *shrug*

Ya the name seems a bit on the strange side. How about we rename it to just "TV Tropes Editor"?

And for edit reasons being mandatory, what length should that be? What’s the shortest possible edit reason someone could have that makes sense?

Edited by kory on Jul 13th 2023 at 11:36:03 AM

I don't recall WYSIWYG being used anywhere but wysiwyg_source_editor.php 's name, so it may not be something anyone cares, though wouldn't mind if it was renamed without breaking anything.

As for edit reasons, I think we need to clarify for which edits they are required, because adding text or fixing typos is considered self-explanatory.

If the publish button can detect deletions before saving the oage but without resetting changes, probably larger than 0 triggering a popup is sufficient enough.

If we're going to have mandatory edit reasons, or edits are going to be set up to where an edit over a certain size triggers a prompt for an edit reason, it might behoove us to come up with a list of canned reasons that could be selected from a dropdown list. Things like "spelling/grammar fix(es)", "indentation fix(es)", "commenting out ZCEs", etc.

Edited by Willbyr on Jul 14th 2023 at 7:52:40 AM

Wait, there would still be a custom edit reason option, right? Some edit reasons are unique to certain entries and need special edit reasons. For example, when I do TRS wick cleaning, my edit reasons always look like this:

These reasons need to change depending on the trope in question—some tropes are cut, some disambiguated, some merged, some renamed, some have new restrictions applied, etc.

I assume there'd still be custom edit reasons, right Willbyr?

Ya we could have both a custom edit reason and a drop-down next to it with common reasons. Would just need a specific list of what those would be from an experienced editor.

Edited by kory on Jul 14th 2023 at 7:22:55 AM

Looking through if I have any wishes related to editing that aren't already in the list.

• side-by-side comparison when making a new edit.
• basically budget-version Visual Editor, which I recall elaborating in some else's query.
• The the byte counter, for safety reasons
• Checking history to find duplicate edits to reduce Edit War violations.

Also I like the idea of pasting one of the preset edit reasons while allowing to still manually type it. Probably the <select> can simply copy value into the edit reason box OnChange. Can't come up with a list at nighttime.

Edited by Amonimus on Jul 14th 2023 at 11:14:16 AM

Yes, definitely, I'd just like to have the option to have canned ones for quick use as well.

Edited by Willbyr on Jul 14th 2023 at 4:08:36 AM

Got it.

Question about detecting an edit war. So if someone resubmits the same edit twice that only ever means one thing, edit war? Would there ever be any other reason someone would submit the same edit more than once?

Edited by kory on Jul 14th 2023 at 5:03:43 AM

Well, it wouldn't count as an edit war if the troper discussed the edit and got consensus that they should go ahead with it, or if they're undoing an edit that objectively breaks a rule.

Should it be triggered anyways and then the warnings can be accessed on a case by case basis?

Right, for example, sometimes you'll see people hide the same Zero-Context Example twice because someone uncommented it without expansion, but that's not an edit war because the previous edit was considered a rule break.

Having it be flagged and decided case-by-case may work.

Edited by WarJay77 on Jul 14th 2023 at 8:09:22 AM

This site gets about 10,000 edits every single day. How often are there legit edit wars?