Forum:Wikipedia Links

Forums: Index > Watercooler > Wikipedia Links

Question: Is it better to make Wikipedia links look like external (sabot) or internal links (sabot)? There are arguments for either arrangement. If they look external, they let the user know that there is no internal page reference. If they look internal, the page may look a little better. Personally I prefer the external look. It lets me know right away that by clicking, I'm headed off site. Either way, I believe it is best to be consistent. Other opinions?

Jmattera (talk) 21:42, 19 May 2014 (EDT)

Some of the reason for preferring the internal links is historical. For a very long time the wiki was hosted as Wikia, a spin-off project from Wikipedia. The idea behind Wikia was to provide a location for all the Wikipedia articles that didn't really fit into Wikipedia. The encouragement from the Wikia staff was to use the Wikipedia internal links. Over time Wikia has moved away from that original mission, and the Traveller Wiki has moved here. So my original brain process of thinking of the Wikipedia and The Traveller Wiki as two halves of the same Encyclopedia has not been changed.

I agree we should be consistent. And I'm happy to accept consensus on this matter. Tjoneslo (talk) 16:10, 20 May 2014 (EDT)

I see that we agree, but I don't see this forum as being very active. Rather than wait for a consensus, why don't you just make the decision. The site I had maintained was very sensitive about having users know when they were headed off-site. You have more experience with your site and know your audience better. I would feel comfortable with going with what ever you recommend.

98.169.175.185 20:14, 20 May 2014 (EDT)

Well, I like the wikipedia: style links, which is why I changed the link in your other article. Currently all of the links to wikipedia are in the Wikipedia link style. So they are consistent currently.

The wikipedia links do have a slightly different color of blue/purple for the links. If you really want the wikipedia style links to have the external link marker on it, you can do the following:

• Create a new page User:Jmattera/common.css.
• Add the following text to the new page:

.mw-body a.extiw, .mw-body a.extiw:active {
    color: #3366BB;
    background: url("data:image/png;base64,iVBORw0KGgoAAAANSUhEUgAAAAoAAAAKCAYAAACNMs+9AAAAVklEQVR4Xn3PgQkAMQhDUXfqTu7kTtkpd5RA8AInfArtQ2iRXFWT2QedAfttj2FsPIOE1eCOlEuoWWjgzYaB/IkeGOrxXhqB+uA9Bfcm0lAZuh+YIeAD+cAqSz4kCMUAAAAASUVORK5CYII=") no-repeat scroll right center rgba(0, 0, 0, 0);
    padding-right: 13px;
}

• Save the page and refresh your browser window (instructions will be on the page).

Tjoneslo (talk) 21:35, 20 May 2014 (EDT)