[WikiEN-l] Two small recommendations

Tue Mar 1 00:30:14 UTC 2005

I'm not sure where the most effective place to post recommendations
is, but here are two I have:

1. If you currently click the "Search" or "Go" button without typing
in a query, you get an ugly MySQL error. It ought to dump you into a
generic "Search" page or something like that. I can see no advantage
in giving the user a "badly formed search query" error. Surely this
can't be too hard to change?

2. If you put in a Wiki URL without the /wiki/ you get an ugly Error
404 and then a 5 sec. redirect. (i.e.
http://en.wikipedia.org/Albert_Einstein ->
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Albert_Einstein). Why? I see no reason
why it shouldn't just automatically redirect, unless there is some
tangible benefit for telling people that they left out the "wiki"
(when it doesn't seem to affect anything). Is there anything else they
could have possibly meant when typing in that query? Why chastise them
if we can fairly guess their intention?

FF