Wifedogging

This essay contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. Essays may represent widespread norms or minority viewpoints. Consider these views with discretion. Essays are not Wikipedia policies.

Shortcut: WP:DEVICES

This page being edited on an iPad

The 21st century has brought us a wide range of technology that we can use to access the internet far from the confinement of our own homes. Along with this access comes the ability to edit Wikipedia anywhere we are. On the bus. On the train. In the waiting room. By the poolside. Even while away on vacation.

First came the laptop computer. Laptops vary in weight and ease to transport, but regardless, can be moved around between places without hooking and unhooking wires.

Then came the smartphone. All smartphones are easy to transport. But smartphones are hard to type on, and the ease of editing Wikipedia varies, being impossible on some. But this has improved over time.

And now there are a new range of tablet computers, most notably the iPad. Tablet computers have existed for some time, but the iPad has made them popular, and provided a screen and keyboard matching the size of a laptop computer all in a single pound.

The ability to edit anywhere may have increased Wikipedia editing altogether. The volume of editing has declined as Wikipedia has been more "written" and closer to "complete," but the increase to access in editing may counter this loss. There is no way to know for certain.

Issues

IP editing

Anonymous editing, also known as IP editing, produces a 4-part number identifying the editing and tying the editor to other contributions. IP edits make up a significant percentage of edits. But when this occurs, there is no way of knowing if the same person made all these edits, especially if they have not been made in immediate chronosuccession.

An IP editor who "gets around" may produce edits under a lot of different IP addresses with no way of tracing them all to a single person. This is especially the case in one who uses wi-fi for their connection in many places. For one who uses a 3G connection, all the edits may appear to come from one or two IP ranges.

Of course, this is not a major problem when editing is done in good faith. Only when editing gets disruptive is the "mobile vandal" a problem.

Uploading

It is currently not possible to upload a file, such as a picture taken with the device itself, onto Wikipedia with any iOS device (iPhones and iPads). It is possible, however, to upload images on Android devices, once a user has logged in using the Desktop view.

If you are traveling out of town, and taking only a portable device with you, you can do as much text editing as possible using the smartphone or tablet. Once you get back home, you can concentrate on more details such as pictures.

References

Many smartphones lack the ability to copy-paste, though the iPhone and many other newer devices can. This makes it hard to include references in an article.

If you make an edit or create an article and plan to add sources later, try to leave a note on the discussion page or in hidden text to let others know of your intentions. This may not be accepted by all, but at least if others know of your plans, your edit may stick.

Slowness

Editing from a phone is slow. Editing text, cut and pasting - even reading what is already on the page is much slower. Do small regular edits to reduce edit conflicts.

Scrolling

Scrolling on an iOS touch screen device can be done with one finger, this is common in the edit window. To reduce the amount of scrolling required enlarge the window in your profile setting(if you logged in), the setting is found in 'my preferences', 'Editing' tab. Set size of editing window:Rows to a large amount such as 80.

Wikipedia apps

On many devices, apps for Wikipedia are available that enable the reading of the most recent version of any article in the presence of an internet connection. Some of these enable both reading and editing; others reading only.

Wapedia

Wapedia is a version of Wikipedia that appears on mobile devices allowing reading and sometimes editing of articles.

See also

• Help:Mobile access