Template talk:Ln/Archive 2

Latest comment: 9 years ago by JohnBlackburne in topic Font in Pagelinks
Archive 1 Archive 2 Archive 3

Edit request on 9 September 2013

I just noticed how this template renders on pages with an actual background color (User:Technical 13#Pages I've Created Outside of my User: for example) and the | | sections look horrible. Mr. Stradivarius please set it back to <tt>...</tt> and see how it looks on a colored background... If that doesn't look presentable, perhaps |?

  • Tests
    • <code>(</code> stuff <code>|</code> stuff <code>)</code>
    • ( stuff | stuff )
    • <kbd>(</kbd> stuff <kbd>|</kbd> stuff <kbd>)</kbd>
    • ( stuff | stuff )
    • <small>(</small> stuff <small>|</small> stuff <small>)</small>
    • ( stuff | stuff )
    • ( stuff | stuff )
    • ( stuff | stuff )

Thanks for your attention. Technical 13 (talk) 20:04, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

Ah yes, that's not ideal - I've reverted for now. We shouldn't be using <tt>...</tt> tags, though, as they are not valid html 5. Can we get the same effect by using css somehow? — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 21:55, 9 September 2013 (UTC)
Hmm. I've put together a fix with <span>...</span> tags, giving this:
But that looks pretty strange on my system. Will come back to this later. — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 22:10, 9 September 2013 (UTC)
  • It might look a little better if the links were bold and had a little padding:
Beer ( e | t | h | p | lnk | w | l | pv90 )
(I used short code in this example for display purposes only) I think it is fine other than that. Technical 13 (talk) 13:56, 10 September 2013 (UTC)
Fair enough. I don't think the long version would look good with bold links, though. Any ideas on how we can have bolding just for the shorter links? — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 14:25, 10 September 2013 (UTC)
  • I must've overlooked your response and I just noticed my links weren't short anymore. What do you think about the unshortened characters always being bold like what is in the /sandbox and /testcases now?
  • Uncollapsed
  • Uncollapsed on background
  • Collapsed
  • Collapsed on background
  • Using sandbox
Thanks, Mr. Stradivarius! Technical 13 (talk) 19:15, 25 September 2013 (UTC)
I don't know, having a mixture of bold and non-bold like that looks pretty ugly to my eyes. I think we should find a way of de-bolding the default version before we enact this. — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 21:43, 25 September 2013 (UTC)
  • Okay I'll wrap the whole link section in a named span and remove the individual bolding on the sandbox later or tomorrow. Will depend on baby going to bed. Technical 13 (talk) 22:54, 25 September 2013 (UTC)
  • code added to sandbox from mobile device. looks like someone else added the {{toolbar}} template so that needs to be looked over. Technical 13 (talk) 23:21, 25 September 2013 (UTC)
  • Okay, Mr. Stradivarius, it's ready. None of it is bold by default. Users can Choose to add the following css to bold the whole toolbar or alternatively just the abbreviations (or do whatever they want to either or both). Toolbar has a class of "ln-condensed-link-toolbar", extra characters in links is still class "ln-condensed-link-list" and the left over characters that are used for the abbreviations is class "ln-condensed-link-abbr". They are all span elements (not that it matters much with such descriptive class names). Thanks! Technical 13 (talk) 01:04, 26 September 2013 (UTC)
    Ok, it is now   Done. Thanks for your patience! — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 09:30, 26 September 2013 (UTC)

Proposal for update of Template:La

I would like to update Template:La (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) to incorporate the changes I have made to Template:La/sandbox which will make it 40 characters shorter while adding a new link for administrators to go the the &action=delete page for the article. The new "delete" link as well as the existing "protect" link are .sysop-show restricted so they will not be seen by most non-administrators (who can't use them anyways). I'm fully aware of my ability to make such a change directly, but would like to get some consensus before doing so. I would also like this change to mark the start of a 30-60 trial where these new links and formating proving as useful could be used as an argument to incorporate them into Template:Ln (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs) for use in all of this series of templates. Thank you (Redrose64Mr. StradivariusWOSlinkerWikid77). Technical 13 (talk) 17:10, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

  • Strong support & use "views". The /sandbox version will use less than half (46%) of the current post-expand include size (limit: 2,000 kb), and since there is little hope of developers increasing the limit, then the /sandbox allows using over 940 {la} per page, versus the current {la} limited to 440 per page (8-character pagenames). In prior article-list pages, the hundreds of repeated {la} links have been a major problem, and so this doubling (2.2x) of capacity, in the /sandbox, might be even more valuable then the sysop-show hidden delete and protect links. The reformat runtime is likewise nearly twice as fast with the /sandbox (will be ~80/second). Also: Consider showing "views" rather than the awkward "page views (90d)" to allow even more instances of {la} per page. Many users will understand how "views" refers to pageviews. -Wikid77 (talk) 06:52, 18 November 2013 (UTC)

  • This looks like something that needs to be fixed in the site's CSS somewhere. What I assume is happening is that the CSS for the table of contents doesn't recognise the sysop-show class. The sysop-show class is defined in MediaWiki:Common.css, but I'm not sure what we would need to change to make the table of contents recognise it. — Mr. Stradivarius ♪ talk ♪ 04:53, 28 November 2013 (UTC)
  • I'm assuming it has something to do with the way that the mediawiki software makes the table of contents. It seems to parse out span attributes.
<li class="toclevel-2 tocsection-2"><a href="#Jake_Miller_.28rapper.29_.28edit_.7C_talk_.7C_history_.7C_protect_.7C_delete_.7C_links_.7C_watch_.7C_logs_.7C_views.29"><span class="tocnumber">1.1</span> <span class="toctext"><span>Jake Miller (rapper) <span>(<span>e<span>dit</span></span> | <span>t<span>alk</span></span> | <span>h<span>istory</span></span> <span>| <span>p<span>rotect</span></span> | <span>d<span>elete</span></span></span> | <span>l<span>i</span>nk<span>s</span></span> | <span>w<span>atch</span></span> | <span>log<span>s</span></span> | <span>v</span><span>iews</span>)</span></span></span></a></li>
I realize that makes the TOC look a little clunkier, and the only thing I can think of is maybe a line added to Common.js to remove the L* toolbar section from the TOC completely. Any objection to adding that if I figure out what needs to be added? Something like:
$('li.toclevel-2').each(function(){
	$(this).html($(this).html().replace('<span>(<span>e<span>dit</span></span> | <span>t<span>alk</span></span> | <span>h<span>istory</span></span> <span>| <span>p<span>rotect</span></span> | <span>d<span>elete</span></span></span> | <span>l<span>i</span>nk<span>s</span></span> | <span>w<span>atch</span></span> | <span>log<span>s</span></span> | <span>v</span><span>iews</span>)</span>',''));
});
seems to work for me in my sandbox, but if for some reason the template wasn't in a level 2 heading, it would fail. Technical 13 (talk) 06:18, 28 November 2013 (UTC)

New stats tool

this tool does everything that {{stats.grok.se}} did, and is documented at w:de:Wikipedia:Wiki ViewStats/API. As this template includes a link to the old stats website, I suggest we amend it to use the WMF labs hosted tool. However we also have {{Article links with page views}}, so with the addition of pageviews to this template, there is now quite a bit of overlap between this & that template.

What would be ideal is if we have a new Lua based template like Template:User-multi (based on Module:UserLinks) for page links, where callers can request a subset of available links, which means it can even support many variations easily (statstoday, stats30, stats90, grokstatsse30, etc) to suit various processes. There are quite a few internal link templates which could become options of a generic template; e.g. {{Lag}} only adds a Google search link. {{Rfdm}} has a few specific links, and another one is going to be added due to Template talk:Rfd2#Google link search. In Category:Internal link templates we find other link templates such as {{Link to page and redirects}} which adds a 'redirects' link. John Vandenberg (chat) 00:33, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

The RESTful API mentioned in the above linked API doesnt appear to work. See toollabs:wikiviewstats/de/wikipedia/30/Theodor_Fontane. John Vandenberg (chat) 00:42, 21 January 2014 (UTC)
  • Hey there John! I'm very much interested in the API for this. Any idea when that might be working? I love the layout and have a few suggestions for enhancements further down the road... I'd be happy to make some changes to this template (and any other that is using stats.grok.se). Just give me a list of change "X" to "Y" on "Z" and I'll make sure they all get done. Technical 13 (talk) 01:50, 21 January 2014 (UTC)
    They are accepting feedback over at deWP; e.g. de:Wikipedia_Diskussion:Wiki_ViewStats#RESTful_API. John Vandenberg (chat) 03:49, 21 January 2014 (UTC)
    Sadly, I don't know a word of German. I'm hoping to have an API I can use for User:Technical 13/SandBox/getPageViews.js that will throw back the wikicode to make a comparison table to use in discussions on wiki. Can you possibly ping me when the API is working so I can try it out? Thanks! Technical 13 (talk) 03:58, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

My German isnt much better :P Anyway, as I suggested in my first post here, I have created {{page-multi}}, which uses MediaWiki:PageLinks (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs). It doesnt support all the linktypes needed by the 'ln' template, or the others I mentioned, as I want to collaborate with the UserLinks developers before going too much further. John Vandenberg (chat) 12:29, 21 January 2014 (UTC)

Display error

{{Pagelinks}} is used by {{mfd2}}, which caused this mess. So I have implemented it on top of {{page-multi}}. Let me know if there are any problems. (In the process of looking for minor differences, I saw that the documentation uses 'log' whereas the template code is displaying the link name 'logs'). John Vandenberg (chat) 08:47, 28 January 2014 (UTC)

I've found one difference - if the link includes a # anchor, the old {{pagelinks}} would ignore it, whereas page-multi will display it, and the links will include it, but all links work correctly. e.g. [1] John Vandenberg (chat) 08:59, 28 January 2014 (UTC)

Templates categorised as Stubs

22 templates have today appeared in Category:Stubs: a lot with names like "Ln", plus {{pagelinks}}. I can't work out how. The first one {{La}} hasn't itself been edited since November 2013, but presumably something is being transcluded which has been accidentally put into the stubs category. Please could someone who understands the templates fix whatever needs to be fixed. Thanks. PamD 16:23, 28 January 2014 (UTC)

Just noticed that it happened before - see above #Stub_status_of_templates? PamD 16:29, 28 January 2014 (UTC)
I'm investigating it now. John Vandenberg (chat) 16:46, 28 January 2014 (UTC)
I am pretty sure that this has fixed it, but it may take a while for the pages to drop out of the category. John Vandenberg (chat) 17:07, 28 January 2014 (UTC)
Thanks. There are now just Pagelinks plus two others remaining in the stub category. They file, and the others filed, under "C" for some reason. Weird. PamD 23:37, 28 January 2014 (UTC)
They have all disappeared from the category - im not sure why it takes so long, but it is what it is. Thanks for reporting this problem so promptly so it could be fixed before it caused any damage. John Vandenberg (chat) 08:36, 29 January 2014 (UTC)
Yea, but the affected pages were the template page itself (and /doc pages), not the template invocations. I assume the categories of the template are not updated until all template invocations have been re-rendered. i.e. I purged the /doc , and the category was removed from the rendered /doc page, but it still appeared on the category page ~ a day later. I dont understand why the re-rendered template page can't be pulled out of the category. John Vandenberg (chat) 14:37, 29 January 2014 (UTC)

Edit request on 3 March 2014 (to {{la}})

Please change the code [[Talk:{{{1}}}|<span class="ln-condensed-link-abbr">t<span class="ln-condensed-link-list">alk</span></span>]] to [[{{TALKPAGENAME:{{{1}}}}}|<span class="ln-condensed-link-abbr">t<span class="ln-condensed-link-list">alk</span></span>]] so it works for all namespaces. Where this is being used on Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard, the links to the talk pages of the disputed pages are breaking when they're not in mainspace. Cathfolant (talk) 06:10, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

{{la}} should only be used for articles. I have edited the noticeboard page to use {{lu}} instead. -- John of Reading (talk) 08:53, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
Oh ok, sorry. And thanks. Cathfolant (talk) 16:09, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
  • John of Reading/Cathfolant, where Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard may have talk pages of disputed pages in any namespace, I'm not sure that {{La}} or {{Lu}} is appropriate. I'm thinking that either {{Ln}} should be used directly or a new template (maybe {{CoINlinks}} or something should be used to automatically detect the namespace and use the proper links no matter what (even if it is Book:Foo the dispute is about or some such). What do you both think of that? If that is desired, I'll dig more deeply into it and specifics can be discussed. — {{U|Technical 13}} (tec) 19:12, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
John of Reading/Technical 13 - Now wait a minute. {{lu}} appears to be for user links, and the noticeboard was using {{la}} for links to pages - not users - so how can it be replaced with {{lu}}? If {{la}} is for articles and {{lu}} is for users, obviously neither of those is appropriate, no. {{ln}} seems ok, but I wonder if it should use {{TALKPAGENAME}} for shortness and simplicity, though that would break probably all its existing uses. Cathfolant (talk) 20:21, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
Also, there seems to be some sort of thing where people are maybe automatically adding {{la}} with stuff on wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard - don't know how that works; maybe it's in some instructions somewhere? Anyway, whatever is causing people to use {{la}} should probably be fixed too. Cathfolant (talk) 20:25, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
@Cathfolant: {{lu}} is for links to pages in the "User:" namespace, for example User:John of Reading/Sandbox (edit | talk | history | links | watch | logs). For links relating to user accounts, there are other templates such as {{User}} or {{Userlinks}}, for example John of Reading (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log).
At Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard the button at the top "create discussion" preloads the edit window with an {{la}} template for the article and a {{userlinks}} template for the user. Unless Technical 13 can work some cleverness, the "la" will sometimes need manual correction if the user creating the report doesn't fix it. -- John of Reading (talk) 21:43, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
Ah, thanks. That preload thing should be fixed, then. Cathfolant (talk) 22:08, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
The page preloading {{la}} is Wikipedia:Conflict of interest/Noticeboard/Template. Any objections to changing it to {{ln}}? Cathfolant (talk) 22:11, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
  • {{Ln}} isn't really "suppose" to be used directly, which is why I'm suggesting that I could build a specific {{CoINlinks}} for the project. I'm in math class at the moment and have three dr. appointments tomorrow and Oracle DB class.... Wednesday I have an all afternoon seminar for Access (it's an online class I'm doing and my study group wants to bang out like 7 weeks of work in an afternoon to get ahead and not worry about it), but I can probably create this by Wednesday morning. — {{U|Technical 13}} (tec) 22:53, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
Sounds good. I hope the doctor appointments and the seminar go well. Cathfolant (talk) 01:48, 4 March 2014 (UTC)
  • Okay, so I'm looking this over... What I'm noticing is that a preload template is used, and currently, it is not possible to pass parameters to preload templates. This is about to change (well... There is a patch in for review to make it so that preload templates can take parameters; see Bugzilla:12853 if you're interested), and as such I'm going to start coding {{CoINlinks}} (you can move it later if you want or create a redirect from {{Coinlinks}}) to be able to take that into consideration. I'm also going to adjust the <input>...</input> section where the "click here" button to create a new report is so that as soon as this new ability is available, it will be used as a default fallback option when someone submits a request without "all" the needed information. I'm also going to consolidate the page and user links into the same template to reduce expansion depth and size as much as I can, as I have seen issues with these things on other boards (expensive parser functions usually are the big one that cause breaking issues, but the other two are often not far behind). Anyway, I'll notify the project once everything is coded and ready to gain a consensus to use the new template and preload. I can send a quick notice with Mass message sender for this purpose. This may take me a couple days as I juggle this project with real life and there is really no rush on parts of it until that patch I mentioned has been merged (which means it will be available within a couple weeks but we'll have a date). — {{U|Technical 13}} (tec) 14:46, 5 March 2014 (UTC)

Template-protected edit request on 19 July 2014 {{lx}}

Please undo the last edit, there was no consensus to remove the separators, and changing them to regular spaces will allow line wrapping, which I oppose. — {{U|Technical 13}} (etc) 15:11, 19 July 2014 (UTC) — {{U|Technical 13}} (etc) 15:11, 19 July 2014 (UTC)

The last functional change to this template was in 2007. Are you sure you have the right template? -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 16:27, 19 July 2014 (UTC)
My bad; the edit request concerned {{lx}}. But I disabled the request, as this seems to need some discussion. -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 16:35, 19 July 2014 (UTC)
  • Correct, the template is {{Lx}} and I'm requesting the bold change that breaks the way the template works be reverted and then it can be discussed. — {{U|Technical 13}} (etc) 02:23, 20 July 2014 (UTC)
Please don't cite procedures as reason. Just discuss this with Sardanaphalus. -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 07:56, 20 July 2014 (UTC)
  Done I have reverted the change since there was no initial consensus for such a change to a highly visible template. @Saranaphalus: is directed to seek consensus first and have someone else apply the change. —cyberpower ChatOnline 08:02, 20 July 2014 (UTC)
Wow a lot happens when a page doesn't get reloaded. Sorry, for overriding you Edokter.—cyberpower ChatOnline 08:03, 20 July 2014 (UTC)
  • Would the change be acceptable if the spaces were made non-breaking? Sardanaphalus (talk) 08:28, 20 July 2014 (UTC)
    • I wouldn't object, but I think it would be wise to get a wider consensus before changing this highly visible template. — {{U|Technical 13}} (etc) 11:51, 20 July 2014 (UTC)
      • "Being bold" seems the most efficient way to see if there might be a consensus not to do something, so shall I proceed accordingly...? Sardanaphalus (talk) 09:56, 21 July 2014 (UTC)
        • No. I feel WP:BRD should not apply to template protected highly visible templates. Every edit made to those causes an increase in server load as it tries to keep up. As such if we treated template protected pages as articles, it starts to cause a disruption. That's why it's important to make sure the change is supported FIRST then applied. :-)—cyberpower ChatOnline 10:25, 21 July 2014 (UTC)

Redirects to here

The following 93 pages redirect here

93 redirects
  1. Template talk:Article
  2. Template talk:Lwt
  3. Template talk:Lt
  4. Template talk:La
  5. Template talk:Lnt
  6. Template talk:Tln
  7. Template talk:Lat
  8. Template talk:Ltt
  9. Template talk:Lc
  10. Template talk:Lf
  11. Template talk:Lft
  12. Template talk:Lw
  13. Template talk:Lx
  14. Template talk:Lht
  15. Template talk:Lut
  16. Template talk:Lu
  17. Template talk:Lpt
  18. Template talk:Lp
  19. Template talk:Lmt
  20. Template talk:Lm
  21. Template talk:Lct
  22. Template talk:Lit (band)
  23. Template talk:Li
  24. Template talk:Pagelinks
  25. Template talk:Lafd
  26. Template talk:Lh
  27. Template talk:Lbt
  28. Template talk:Lb
  29. Template talk:La/doc
  30. Template talk:La/sandbox
  31. Template talk:La/testcases
  32. Template talk:Lat/sandbox
  33. Template talk:Ltt/sandbox
  34. Template talk:Lu/sandbox
  35. Template talk:Lx/doc
  36. Template talk:Lx/sandbox
  37. Template talk:Lx/testcases
  38. Template talk:Lt/doc
  39. Template talk:Lu/testcases
  40. Template talk:Lf/sandbox
  41. Template talk:Ln/sandbox
  42. Template talk:Lt/sandbox
  43. Template talk:Ln/doc
  44. Template talk:Pagelinks/doc
  45. Template talk:Lat/doc
  46. Template talk:Lnt/doc
  47. Template talk:Lw/doc
  48. Template talk:Lttxt
  49. Template talk:Lttxtt
  50. Template talk:Lmd
  51. Template talk:Lmdt
  52. Template talk:Lft/doc
  53. Template talk:Lf/doc
  54. Template talk:Lafd/doc
  55. Template talk:Lc/doc
  56. Template talk:Lct/doc
  57. Template talk:Lu/doc
  58. Template talk:Lwt/doc
  59. Template talk:Lut/doc
  60. Template talk:Lbt/sandbox
  61. Template talk:Lm/sandbox
  62. Template talk:Lh/doc
  63. Template talk:Lbt/doc
  64. Template talk:Lb/sandbox
  65. Template talk:Lct/sandbox
  66. Template talk:Lafd/sandbox
  67. Template talk:Lmdt/doc
  68. Template talk:Lht/doc
  69. Template talk:Lh/sandbox
  70. Template talk:Lb/doc
  71. Template talk:Lmt/sandbox
  72. Template talk:Lft/sandbox
  73. Template talk:Lnt/sandbox
  74. Template talk:Lht/sandbox
  75. Template talk:Lc/sandbox
  76. Template talk:Lmd/doc
  77. Template talk:Lm/doc
  78. Template talk:Lmt/doc
  79. Template talk:Lmdt/sandbox
  80. Template talk:Lmd/sandbox
  81. Template talk:Lttxtt/doc
  82. Template talk:Lpt/sandbox
  83. Template talk:Lpt/doc
  84. Template talk:Lut/sandbox
  85. Template talk:Lp/doc
  86. Template talk:Lw/sandbox
  87. Template talk:Lttxt/sandbox
  88. Template talk:Lwt/sandbox
  89. Template talk:Lp/sandbox
  90. Template talk:Lttxtt/sandbox
  91. Template talk:Lttxt/doc
  92. Template talk:Pagelinks/sandbox
  93. Template talk:Pagelinks/testcases

They include not just a whole slew of template, an documentation pages, but also talk pages for sandboxes and test cases. Is this a good idea? All the best: Rich Farmbrough00:38, 25 August 2014 (UTC).

You'll find that many of the redirs for /doc, /sandbox and /testcases were created by AnomieBOT (talk · contribs). This was because newbies were often starting disussions at these formerly-nonexistent talk subpages, thus creating a page with about two watchers, and six months on, wondered why they had no replies. Accordingly, when a template gets a /doc, /sandbox or /testcases created, within a day or so, AnomieBOT creates the corresponding talk page as a redir to the main template's talk page. Anomie (talk · contribs) may have more on that. --Redrose64 (talk) 16:21, 25 August 2014 (UTC)
Ah, what a shame. The no-replies situation is of course important, and one that has been exercising my mind for some time. This is not the solution. All the best: Rich Farmbrough20:08, 31 August 2014 (UTC).
@Rich Farmbrough: Though what was mentioned above may be the case, one of those that you listed was blatantly incorrect: Template talk:Lit (band), given that the main template page does not redirect to any page in the "Ln" family. For that reason, I blanked that redirect. Steel1943 (talk) 15:09, 26 September 2014 (UTC)
Thanks for that. All the best: Rich Farmbrough16:57, 26 September 2014 (UTC).

Template-protected edit request on 3 October 2014

It appears that the talk page link in Template:La does not work when the linked page happens to be a talk page. When the given parameter is itself a talk page, the button for talk should not show up. Gparyani (talk) 16:32, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

  •   Not done: @Gparyani: If you are trying to link an article talk page, the template that should be used is {{Lat}}, not {{La}}. (There are no "fixes" to make since the template is working as designed; please refer to Template:Ln/doc for the chart of templates to use for each specific namespace.) Steel1943 (talk) 17:20, 3 October 2014 (UTC)

Template:Lx

This (the current) sandbox version of Template:Lx replaces the ambiguous-looking vertical-bar/pipe separators with {{{separator|&#32;}}} (i.e. with a definable separator defaulting to a space) and also introduces {{{parensize}}} for use when the parenthesis has more presence than the template link preceding it. Okay to implement and document? Sardanaphalus (talk) 23:07, 17 November 2014 (UTC)

The vertical bar is not ambiguous, it is traditionally used as a link separator. Adding these two options also are option-creep. If anything, we should dump the monospace font and harmonize all lx template presentations, using hlist to format the link . -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 06:25, 18 November 2014 (UTC)
  • The vertical bar is not ambiguous? A capital "I" in a sans-serif font such as Arial jumps to mind; then a lowercase "L"; then... Perhaps its use as a separator is one of those traditions from which it's time to move on.
I'd also prefer no "option-creep", but realize other people may prefer (in this case) a different separator and/or parenthesis size.
I too was wondering why the <code>/monospace font was used here, but perhaps it's to fit certain contexts..?
Sardanaphalus (talk) 16:14, 18 November 2014 (UTC)
Regarding the monospace font, see #Font in Pagelinks above. --Redrose64 (talk) 18:07, 18 November 2014 (UTC)
I saw that section and asked a question there, as yet unanswered. I can see no justification for using monospace text and a number of problems with it.--JohnBlackburnewordsdeeds 18:12, 18 November 2014 (UTC)

Font in Pagelinks

The output of {{pagelinks}} differs according to whether it's listing links for a subject page or a talk page:

It's natural that you'd want the second link to differ. But why are different fonts used? --Redrose64 (talk) 23:36, 12 August 2014 (UTC)

I have no idea; why should they differ in the first place? -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 08:41, 13 August 2014 (UTC)
What I mean is that one set of links shows with a proportional font, the other set is monospaced. That is the difference that I am questioning. --Redrose64 (talk) 13:54, 13 August 2014 (UTC)
I know. I question any difference, even the one you find natural. -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 19:22, 13 August 2014 (UTC)
By "it's natural that you'd want the second link to differ", I mean that for a set of links relevant to a subject page, one of those links should be the talk page of that subject page (this is the second link generated by {{pagelinks|Template:Pagelinks}}), and for a set of links relevant to a talk page, one of those links should be the subject page of that talk page (this is the second link generated by {{pagelinks|Template talk:Pagelinks}}). The second link says "talk" in the first case, and "subject" in the second. They are different, and correctly so - I don't have a problem with the text. I question the font family. --Redrose64 (talk) 19:37, 13 August 2014 (UTC)
Then we're on the same page. -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 21:16, 13 August 2014 (UTC)
Right, I've got it. It was this edit by Technical 13 (talk · contribs). The edit changed the links to monospace font by broadening the scope of the existing monospace markup on parentheses and pipes. The only related discussions that I can find are #Edit request on 9 September 2013 and #Proposal for update of Template:La, which are for {{la}}, not {{lx}}. But why did the parentheses and pipes need to be marked up as monospace at all? The use of monospaced pipes goes back to 17:53, 28 March 2006, and monospaced parentheses to 18:11, 28 March 2006. --Redrose64 (talk) 23:03, 13 August 2014 (UTC)
Simplify it as much as possible, but no more. All the best: Rich Farmbrough00:39, 25 August 2014 (UTC).

Just revisiting this as I noticed the inconsistency of this on WP:MFD. Why is it using monospace for talk pages and only those? It's using a smaller font than the monospace you get with code and together with link colouring is far less readable, while because it's monospaced it takes up more horizontal space than the default font which is normally sized. It would look much better and be much more readable if the fonts all matched, without these unnecessary font and size changes.--JohnBlackburnewordsdeeds 22:27, 13 November 2014 (UTC)

I changed {{Lx/sandbox}} to use the regular, but smaller font. How does that look? -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 19:39, 18 November 2014 (UTC)
Seems to be working: I've created the above two examples using the sandbox and they're the same except for the font. I assume this fixes it for other namespaces that were using monospace. Is the smaller font how it was before, or what the monospace font was trying to achieve? It looks ok to me but if it's a new change some people might object.
--JohnBlackburnewordsdeeds 20:50, 18 November 2014 (UTC)
There are other templates in the family that also use monospace, they will all need to be changed. I don't know how it was before, but the smaller font has been used in other templates, so I don't expect much opposition. -- [[User:Edokter]] {{talk}} 20:59, 18 November 2014 (UTC)
I don't think so either. Probably best to go ahead as it's definitely an improvement then if there are any concerns/complaints address them.--JohnBlackburnewordsdeeds 23:54, 18 November 2014 (UTC)