The block message shown for a partially blocked user begins: "Your username or IP address has been blocked from editing this page. You can still edit other pages on this wiki".
This is potentially misleading, since:
- It may imply to the user that they are able to edit articles. This may not be the case, e.g. if the user is blocked from the Main article namespace - which may be the most common type of namespace block, as demonstrated in a recent research showcase: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/File:First_Insights_from_Partial_Blocks_in_Wikimedia_Wikis.pdf
- It implies that the block error was thrown because the user was trying to edit. In fact many actions can lead to a block error being thrown. We have overridden this message for Special:EmailUser (which is problematic: T226990), but not for other actions.
Ideas of what we could do instead
To solve (1):
- state that they may be able to edit other pages on this wiki
- state that they may be able to perform other actions on this wiki
- not comment on the likelihood of what else they are able to do
To solve (2):
- remove the reference to editing from the first sentence, e.g. "Your username or IP address has been blocked from doing this." - the message is still different from the sitewide blocked message, which states "Your username or IP address has been blocked".