What + Why
As described in Community Wishlist W338 ("Add the 'hide templates' option to What links here page"), editors need a way to filter out links on Special:WhatLinksHere that are induced by template transclusion, rather than written directly into a page's wikitext.
Details
User story
- As an editor cleaning up links to a disambiguation page, I want to hide all pages that only link here because of a template, so I can focus on articles with genuine direct links that need my attention.
Goals
Primary goal: Reduce the time and effort editors spend manually identifying direct wikitext links among template-induced noise in Special:WhatLinksHere, making link-cleanup workflows significantly faster.
Metrics to watch:
- Reduction in time-to-complete for disambiguation link-fixing tasks (qualitative, via editor feedback).
- Adoption rate of the new filter (server-side: rate of requests with hidetemplate=1 vs. total WhatLinksHere requests, post-launch).
Success looks like: An editor visiting Special:WhatLinksHere for a heavily-transcluded link target (e.g. a page linked from a widely-used navbox) can click one button to reduce a list of 500+ results to only the ~10 pages with direct, actionable links.
Research findings / data
- Long-standing demand: T5241: Transclusion should produce tree-like results in "What links here" was filed over a decade ago and has accumulated significant community support. The 2022 Community Wishlist Survey proposal ("Allow filtering of WhatLinksHere to remove links from templates") received strong support. W338 in the current Wishlist system continues to track this need.
- Related wish 185 (Show links from template inclusions separately in WhatLinksHere, just like links to redirects) describes a complementary presentation approach: showing template-transcluded links as a collapsible sublist under the template entry, mirroring how redirect-induced links are already displayed. This is worth considering as a UX variant or companion feature.
Designs:
Links or screenshot of design - tbc
Subtasks:
- Initial step: label links on WhatLinksHere with (direct link), (transcluded link) and the preexisting (transclusion) and (redirect)
Open Questions:
- do we need any schema changes to the link table? to be confirmed
- identify if we need a new endpoint or use an existing one
- differentiate from "hide links"
Previous tasks:
- T301648: Allow filtering of WhatLinksHere to remove links from templates
- T5241: Transclusion should produce tree-like results in "What links here"
- T14396: "what links here" should list the template, not the pages that use it