Author: jibegod

Description:
This option should be added to the MediaWiki software, in which for all
inter-wiki article links displayed on any given article page, there should be a
javascript (or whatever) text-popup that presents a summary of the article that
is being linked to. This would provide a vastly improved browsing experience for
people who are reading a certain article and don't feel like / don't have the
time to open up the entire article for each related topic. Often, when browsing
Wikipedia, I find myself reading a very long article, opening each article link
along the way (in order to familiarize myself with the topics and concepts being
discussed in that article). In a very short time, my Firefox tab bar is
completely full with Wikipedia article tabs, to the point where i've lost track
of which article was related to what part of the original article I was reading.
This mouse-over summary option lets users quickly get acquainted with what the
current article is refering to without having to completely shift gears. Also,
I've been browsing and in opening each article link (for the purposes I've
described above), I get engrossed in the new article, completely forgetting
about the first one. It's debatable as to whether or not this is useful, as it
surely promotes learning and further exploration of Wikipedia, but it surely is
counterproductive to people trying to finish a specific article.

In summary, please add summaries (the text on every article page between the
article title and the contents box) which are activated by a mouse-over on an
inter-wiki article link. Any subsequent article links contained within the
summary text would be disabled for that mouseover (possibly represented in bold
or grey-bold).

Thanks,
-Jesse

Version: unspecified
Severity: enhancement