Can the Special:WhatLinksHere function be improved?

Question

The "What Links Here" great to use but are there existing options I don't know about or can the functionality can be improved?

I was discussing the possible use of Special:WhatLinksHere tool with fellow wikitreers earlier and a couple of drawbacks of the function became apparent and prompted this call to help.

When a link to the Special:WhatLinksHere tool is clicked a page appears with a list of page ids that link to the specified wikitree page.

Specifically the two drawbacks I found are:-

1)    I can't limit the 'Whatlinkshere' list to just my watchlist.

2)    the 'Whatlinkshere' list shows a list pages by their wikitree id but doesn't show their page names.

It would be really helpful to be able to limit the output to just those pages on my watchlist and it would be much more user friendly if the list was a list of clickable page names rather than clickable page ids.

Any ideas anyone?

Comments

Personally, I like that the list shows the WikiTreeID for the pages, but would like to see the list arranged in alphanumeric order.

In what ways do you use this link, Veni? I've used it on free-space/Space pages to see the various profiles that I have linked.

I haven't used it for the people profiles, but can see how your ideas would be useful there. Hopefully we can generate support for functionality improvements for these links!

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Yes agreed- Alphabetical order would be great too!

I haven't used it in action much at all but have been assessing it's usefulness for one-name study sources etc., which is why a long list of ...

Joyner-345
Joyner-786
Joyner-123
isn't much use to me.  Also if I'm wanting just my Joyner relations (my watchlist) rather than all the Joyners in the neighbourhood - having the ability to select only my watchlist is vital.

Answer 1

What is this function? Don’t think I have heard of it before. Where do we find it and what does it do?

Comments

This is a wiki function that is enabled here on free-space profiles. It identifies the pages that link to a particular free-space page. For example: http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Special:Whatlinkshere/Space:Sultzbach_Family_in_Pennsylvania

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It is also enabled for pages other than Freespace pages such as:-

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Special:Whatlinkshere/Category:Queensland

http://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Special:Whatlinkshere/Wiki:Joyner-762

Answer 2

This is a standard WikiMedia feature, usually showing on the left side of the page, along with 'Special Pages', 'Permanent Link', etc.  The WikiMedia wiki software is what both WikiPedia and WikiTree use, although Chris has apparently customized it significantly, and dramatically changed the standard page layout.

Only Chris could say whether he wants to modify the code of the wiki software he is using.

Answer 3

I guess what's needed is virtual categories - lists of pages generated on the fly and then formatted as if they were category listings.