Problem: When starting the Wikipage one has to click the search field before entering the search text
Who would benefit: All persons who would like to search the Wikipedias - no disadvantage for users who use the links on the page (where a click is necessary anyway)
Proposed solution: Set the FOCUS of the cursor to the SEARCH field upon loading the Wikipedia page(s).
This historically has been controversial on en.wp. Most editors (as opposed to readers) find this autofocus behavior annoying and there have been several discussion on this topic in the past there. I do think those discussions haven't been had in a while however. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 09:30, 24 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
One problem with this is that the keyboard would no longer work for page navigation using the arrow keys or Page Down (at least on Mac OS). This would be better as a user script. Jonesey95 (talk) 14:31, 29 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
This isn't a good idea as it'd significantly reduce the accessibility rating of every article on-wiki by interefering with keyboard navigation, as all keypresses would go into the search box. Auto-focus works well where the auto-focused action is intended to be the primary or only action on the page and no keyboard navigation is necessary, neither of which are true on articles. --Deskana (talk) 23:33, 30 November 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I agree that this wouldn't be a good default for all users. I, for example, have the "Search as you type" feature enabled in my browser which enables me to simply start typing to find something in a web page. This proposal would interfere with that when I'm reading Wikipedia. Silver hr (talk) 02:16, 1 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
This will affect accessible users. Users who frequently use the search box only need to press the Tab key or an enabled widget/userscript.--YFdyh000 (talk) 23:03, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
I am frustrated due to this proposal's complete ignorance of users with accessibility issues. This function exists as gadgets that can be enabled on some wikis (which can be ported to other wikis easily), or you could make use of the accesskey keyboard shortcut, or use the "Jump to search" function on Vector. There are just so many existing ways that won't affect accessibility. H78c67c (talk) 01:25, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose It would require javascript to interact with one's cursor, a better alternative is to use a keyboard shortcut to quickly activate the search bar. I do not support your idea specifically. MarioSuperstar77 (talk) 20:21, 8 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose I wouldn't mind this being an option that's turned off by default, but I do not support this being the default behavior. It would interfere with finding text in pages for those people who have enabled the Search as you type option in their browsers. Silver hr (talk) 00:03, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose I don't spend nearly as much time searching Wikipedia as I spend moving from one article to another using links, and there are a lot of them. Tyrekecorrea (talk) 18:34, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
@JackPotte: There's a similar gadget on many Wikipedias, for example on the English Wikipedia it's "Focus the cursor in the search bar on loading the Main Page"; this could be modified to extend to all pages if desired. It doesn't appear to be on the French Wikipedia, but it could be easily copied over. --Deskana (talk) 23:30, 9 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Strongest possible Oppose. No. Please. You can use the accesskey shortcut if you want to get to the search bar fast. In addition, due to the current layout on the Vector skin, the search bar is actually after the main content, and I absolutely do not want to spam my tab key just to focus on the link I want to navigate to. H78c67c (talk) 01:15, 10 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose, except as an option, and one that is off by default, since in many browsers this will interfere with keyboard-based page control, in-page searching, hotkeys, etc. I would also need to be a per-skin basis (one might want this in a mobile view but not desktop). Mostly just opposed, because the likely utility of this will be very low and for a small number of people, so the devs should not waste resources on it. — SMcCandlish ☺☏¢ >ʌⱷ҅ᴥⱷʌ< 08:11, 15 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose for the Google homepage, or a login page, this makes sense. However there are lots of other things going on in Wikipedia apart from search, and this would be unexpected/unwelcome for most users who interact frequently using keyboard, eg PgDn would be broken. Jdpipe (talk) 05:48, 17 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose: please, please, no. Mainly because it hijacks keyboard page scrolling as mentioned by others. But note also that on a touch-screen system like a tablet or kiosk this would cause the soft keyboard to pop up every time a page is opened. Pelagic (talk) 13:00, 18 December 2020 (UTC)[reply]
Support Imetsia (talk) 18:57, 8 December 2020 (UTC)
Oppose It would require javascript to interact with one's cursor, a better alternative is to use a keyboard shortcut to quickly activate the search bar. I do not support your idea specifically. MarioSuperstar77 (talk) 20:21, 8 December 2020 (UTC)
Comment Good point, this should be a configuration option. Martinkunev (talk) 14:31, 9 December 2020 (UTC)
