Problem:
On a 3rd party MediaWiki installation, in the sidebar on the left, all [?] links by default point to the 3rd party website, except for the "Help" link which links to an external website, defined in
./languages/i18n/en.json: "helppage": "https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Help:Contents",
The horribly generic name of the link makes some visitors of 3rd party wikis think it offers "Help" on the topic which is covered by the wiki (especially if it's some software), not on MediaWiki. They might neither know nor care that the website uses "MediaWiki".
Recent examples:
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Topic:Uo7k6osuxr1jzd32 after clicking "Help" in the sidebar of http://octopus-code.org/wiki/Manual:Installation to get to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Contents and then seeing "See: Project:Support desk to ask a question."
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Topic:Uocol51zhuy70dfs after clicking "Help" in the sidebar of http://www.m5sim.org/ to get to https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Contents and then seeing "See: Project:Support desk to ask a question."
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Topic:Up5a3xxzacbmrete (http://www.impdb.org)
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Topic:Uphuc5mfelsjmnyo (?)
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Topic:Upj4jdwi4en9sq80 (NSFW)
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Topic:Upj6fhfxivvcfo8c (https://wiki.cosmicpvp.com/)
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Topic:Upjab4f8cpu71okv (https://pathofdiablo.com/)
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Topic:Uphc78o6pgiigvmd (https://wiki.blender.org/)
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Topic:Upsxomfyz1tfsoep (https://wiki.blender.org/)
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Topic:Uptvtln7s71opysx (?)
- https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Topic:Upuapv7yr6okt883 (https://wiki.blender.org/)
- ...or find gazillions of similar misunderstandings on https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Support_desk
Proposed actions:
- Rename Help to Help on MediaWiki by default. Currently languages/i18n/qqq.json defines "help": "General text (noun) used in the sidebar (by default).\n\nSee also {{msg-mw|Helppage}} and {{msg-mw|Edithelp}}.\n\nSee also:\n* {{msg-mw|Help}}\n* {{msg-mw|Accesskey-n-help}}\n* {{msg-mw|Tooltip-n-help}}\n{{Identical|Help}}". And languages/i18n/en.json defines "help": "Help". So this will likely require a new, separate string.
- Potentially also edit https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Contents to make clear that "ask a question" means "ask a question about the MediaWiki software". Because there is a world out there.
