About [[MediaWiki:Passwordreset-pretext/en]]
The original english sentence reads: "Enter one of the pieces of data below"
As far as I understand it, it could mean one of several things:
- The "pieces of data" are given anywhere other than "below" and the input box where one of those "pieces of data" is to be entered is below this sentence. (Meaning below is grammatically linked to enter)
- The "pieces of data" are given below and the input box is given below the data. (Meaning below is grammatically linked to pieces of data)
Which (if any) of these is correct?
I've looked up the use of this message in the UI, and I think it makes very little sense. I'll look into it further.
If I remember rightly, this change was from when I changed the passwordreset dialogue so it could, in principle, take the user's email address as well as, or instead of, their username. So whereas before the message said something like "enter your username below" and there was one field below which takes the username, now this text displays above one or more fields, at least one of which needs to be completed, and the message does not know which routes are available, so it needs to refer to some vague noun rather than specifically "username".
Thank you. I understand that English doesn't have a proper singular for "data" or "information", but isn't this maybe unclear even in English? I'm not a native speaker so I can't say. Still not ideal due to mw:Localisation#Avoid references to screen layout and positions, I guess, but can be considered closed (documentation expanded).
Thanks :)