swalling wrote:

The precise list of major languages I could find with this issue:

• es
• it
• ru
• ja
• pt
• pl

I asked Jared, and his suggestion was to simply rewrite the button to the shorter "Reset password" in English.

The current text is definitely too long for the primary button (or for any button at all), but just changing it to "Reset password" would be a bad idea as we'd lose any information about how the reset mechanism works on that page. The information would have to be included elsewhere on the page.

It might be acceptable to change it to "Send new password" (instead of "Email…"), as the former should be easily translateable to other languages, while "email" usually can't be translated as a verb and translators have to use constructs such as "Send me the new password by e-mail" (literal translation back to English of the Polish version); the Spanish one is even worse, substituting "electronic mail" for "email" (I'm not sure if that's the usual translation for Spanish or just a weird thing in this one message).

(In reply to comment #2)

The current text is definitely too long for the primary button

(Of course I mean the translated text. The original is okay, apart from the email-as-a-verb issue which makes the size of translations balloon.)

The new design has help text explaining how the process will continue "You'll receive an email" https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Password_reset we could use the same text now, prior to that design being implemented.

I know that "Reset Password" is a subtle white lie, since you're not actually resetting it just yet, but I'd argue that it is the action that the users are looking for. Where as "Send Password" could be a bit scary, send where? as plaintext? plus the page title is Password reset.

Hm, yeah, it doesn't actually send the password.

swalling wrote:

(In reply to comment #2)

The current text is definitely too long for the primary button (or for any
button at all), but just changing it to "Reset password" would be a bad idea
as
we'd lose any information about how the reset mechanism works on that page.
The
information would have to be included elsewhere on the page.

It might be acceptable to change it to "Send new password" (instead of
"Email…"), as the former should be easily translateable to other languages,
while "email" usually can't be translated as a verb and translators have to
use
constructs such as "Send me the new password by e-mail" (literal translation
back to English of the Polish version); the Spanish one is even worse,
substituting "electronic mail" for "email" (I'm not sure if that's the usual
translation for Spanish or just a weird thing in this one message).

Can we say "Reset password" for the button, and update the explanatory text at the top of the form?

Right now it just says: "Fill one of the fields to reset your password."

We could say: "Fill one of the fields to receive a temporary password via email." which is more accurate.

swalling wrote:

(In reply to comment #6)

Can we say "Reset password" for the button, and update the explanatory text
at
the top of the form?

Right now it just says: "Fill one of the fields to reset your password."

We could say: "Fill one of the fields to receive a temporary password via
email." which is more accurate.

Ugh, also, the grammar is bad in both the current and new. It should say:

"Fill in one of the fields..."

(In reply to comment #5)

Hm, yeah, it doesn't actually send the password.

Actually that's not true. It does sent a temporary password, as Steven mentioned.

(In reply to comment #6)

Can we say "Reset password" for the button, and update the explanatory text
at the top of the form?

Right now it just says: "Fill one of the fields to reset your password."

We could say: "Fill one of the fields to receive a temporary password via
email." which is more accurate.

This sounds like the best solution.

swalling wrote:

S Page,

Since https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/65346/ was yours, can you please fix this? I already assigned the bug to you.

The solution is a simple text change mentioned in comment 6

Change 98733 had a related patch set uploaded by MegaAlex:
Change the reset button text in Special: PasswordReset to 'Reset Password'

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/98733

Change 98733 merged by jenkins-bot:
Change the reset button text in Special: PasswordReset to 'Reset Password'

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/98733

Unrelated to this bug, but was changed at the same time:

(In reply to comment #6)

We could say: "Fill one of the fields to receive a temporary password via
email." which is more accurate.

As Siebrand said, I don't think the new text here is more accurate nor sensible: «the "temporary" part is TMI in this stage. This information should be in the password reset email, unless we expect the users to carry over this information through the process». The adjective should be removed.

Well, but saying "Fill one of the fields to receive a password email." would be very bad, as it would imply that we will mail the user his own current password, which in turn would imply that we store passwords in plaintext. Luckily we don't do either of these things, and we shouldn't make it seem like we do.

The current text is fine to me; feel free to improve it, but please preserve this distinction.

swalling wrote:

(In reply to comment #13)

Well, but saying "Fill one of the fields to receive a password email." would
be
very bad, as it would imply that we will mail the user his own current
password, which in turn would imply that we store passwords in plaintext.
Luckily we don't do either of these things, and we shouldn't make it seem
like
we do.

The current text is fine to me; feel free to improve it, but please preserve
this distinction.

I agree with Bartosz here.

As a user, if you tell me you're going to email me a permanent password via email, this seems insecure, since email services are notoriously easy to access.[1] Better to be clear with the user in this case, even if it's redundant with the text of the reset email sent to them.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sarah_Palin_email_hack