Template talk:No article text

Protected edit request on 22 March 2026

Line 13:	Line 13:
| {{TALKSPACE}} = a [[{{ns:Help}}:Using talk pages|talk page]]	| {{TALKSPACE}} = a [[{{ns:Help}}:Using talk pages|talk page]]
| {{ns:Category}} = a [[{{ns:Project}}:Categorization|category]]	| {{ns:Category}} = a [[{{ns:Project}}:Categorization|category]]
| {{ns:Help}} = a [[{{ns:Help}}:Contents|help]] page	| {{ns:Help}} = a [[{{ns:Help}}:Contents|help page]]
| {{ns:Portal}} = a [[{{ns:Project}}:Portal|portal]]	| {{ns:Portal}} = a [[{{ns:Project}}:Portal|portal]]
| {{ns:Template}} = a [[{{ns:Project}}:Template messages|template]]	| {{ns:Template}} = a [[{{ns:Project}}:Template messages|template]]

Inconsistency for help page dot.py 04:28, 22 March 2026 (UTC)

 Done * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 17:00, 22 March 2026 (UTC)

Edit request 16 May 2026

Please delete lines 32–35 of Template:No article text/sister projects:

<li>
  <div>[[File:Wikinews-logo.svg|30x30px|link=|alt=]]</div>
  <div>[[wikinews:Special:Search/{{#invoke:String|replace|source={{PAGENAME}}|­}}|Wikinews]] (news source)</div>
</li>

Wikinews is now closed; removing it here would be in line with changes to other lists of sister projects, such as Template:Wikipedia's sister projects (which additionally includes MediaWiki and Meta-Wiki, and was changed to link to Wikifunctions instead) and the wikimedia.org portal. PleaseStand (talk) 13:43, 16 May 2026 (UTC)

 Done * Pppery * _{it has begun...} 05:18, 17 May 2026 (UTC)

Remove "If a page was recently created here" purge link

This bullet point was added in January 2005. Shortly thereafter, following a talkpage thread, a purge link was added as well. The associated bugzilla ticket (bugzilla:2388) was declined in 2006.

I think purges are highly reliable today (see also Multi-DC § CDN purging on Wikitech which details incremental changes from 2015 to 2020) and we haven't had significant database lag in years (except when the site is read-only, which some monitoring tools report as lag, but during such time editing is disabled and purging is ineffective).

I think Template:No article text has become too dense compared to 2007 (example), and removing this line would be an improvement. Krinkle (talk) 19:07, 4 July 2026 (UTC)

 Done * Pppery * _{in solidarity} 18:12, 5 July 2026 (UTC)

Minor design update and simplification

Building on the previous thread, I looked at each part of the message and propose a minor update that cleans it up a bit.

Look at Proposal preview to compare different scenarios side-by-side such as articles, talk pages, and subpages (sandbox revision history).

Status quo:

Opening paragraph with upto three sentences: The main fact that the page does not exist. "Search for this title" link. An instruction to please read Wikipedia:Subpages.

Next we have a list of upto three main links:

• "Start this page" link (if permitted) followed by a suggestion to use the Article Wizard, or a sentence explaining why the user cannot create this page
• "Search for this title in existing articles" link (again)
• "What links here" link

Other reasons:

• "Purge" link, in case it was recently created
• "Search for this title" link (third time), with explanation and suggestion to create a redirect
• "Deletion log" link, to check if it was deleted

Proposal:

Opening paragraph with one sentence: The main fact that the page does not exist.

Two buttons: "Search existing articles" and "Start this page" (if permitted)

Optional notes:
A suggestion to use the Article Wizard.
An instruction to please read Wikipedia:Subpages.
A sentence explaining why the user cannot create this page.
"What links here" link.

Other reasons:

• "Search for this title" link (second time), with explanation and suggestion to create a redirect
• "Deletion log" link, to check if it was deleted

My thinking is as follows:

The "page does not exist" fact is unchanged and remains localised to namespace ("Wikipedia does not have a page/article/template by this name") with a special case for talk pages ("No messages have been posted for this user yet").

The opening then has a second sentence asking the user to search. Despite being in the opening, above the main three links, it feels buried because it starts starting towards the edge of the screen after the first sentence, and is split between two lines. It then explains why the user should search (to check for alternative titles or spellings). This explaination seems distracting and misplaced in the opening. This search sentence is currently omitted for talk pages. I propose we remove this sentence in favor of the search link among the main three links, and promote the latter to the top of the list in the form of a button.

The opening ends with an instruction to read the subpage guidelines before creating a subpage (only shown on subpages). This feels misplaced because it is before we encounter the "Start this page" link further down. Desite being on top, it is easily missed or skimmed past because its importance or relation to "Start this page" is not clear. I propose moving this below the "Start this page" button.

The "Start this page" link is unchanged, including the version for talk pages where it is labelled "Post a message to (username)" and links to section=new instead of plain action=edit. For user talk subpages this additionally has a regular "Start this page" link. I suspect the reason for both might to ease creation of talk pages for other use cases, such as saving a talk archive, or adding a page classification. But, this applies to all regular article talk and user talk pages as well, and we don't show both there. I argue the kind of person doing this work, would both know and prefer to simply click the "Create" tab, which is an easier and more consistent click target than this buried link. Users that don't yet know about talk archives or page clasifications are unlikely to learn about them through here, since all we say is "Start this page". Anyway, in the interest of minimizing change, I suggest we leave this unchanged.

For articles, the "Start this page" link is followed by "using the Article Wizard if you wish, or add a request for it." The Wikipedia:Article wizard is great. Wikipedia:Requested articles as a landing page is discouraging, because it leads with "This project is inactive" and is followed by an entire screen's worth of text before the search/request form. We may want to remove this in a future change, but I'll keep it for now to minimise the change. I do note that the Article Wizard is also linked from the editnotice above the action=edit link destination, so it may be redundant, but is probably worth keeping front-loaded here. I propose moving this sentence half to directly below the "Start this page" button.

The second "Search for this title" link is followed by either "in existing articles" or "in existing pages within the Template namespace". Similar to the version in the opening paragraph, this link is omitted for talk pages. I've kept this unchanged but propose shortening the wording to be more suitable for a button, by removing the repetition of the non-existing page title.

Lastly, we have "Other reasons". I moved it down a bit further visually by adding whitespace, and removed the purge link per the previous thread above. I've also un-bolded the "Deletion log" and other links because it felt unhelpful to both place them at the bottom of the message and yet draw attention to them through bolding. Bold text should be understandable on its own, and be worth skimming to without reading the rest. I don't think that applies to these. Note that in the 20 years since "Deletion log" was put here, MediaWiki now has a built-in notice (above the "No article text" message) informing readers on non-existing pages of deletions. Pick a recent example from Special:Log/delete to see what I mean. View it both logged-out and logged-in (MediaWiki:moveddeleted-notice and MediaWiki:moveddeleted-notice-recent, source). There is also a practice of informing editors on their talk page about nominating or speedy-deleting their creations (WP:OBOD, WP:TCHY). Anyway, again, as minimal change I merely propose we unbold the links and simplify the phrasing. Krinkle (talk) 16:46, 5 July 2026 (UTC)