Structured Discussions/Rollout

From the main page:
 * Wider release to more WikiProject and community discussion spaces on English Wikipedia and other projects, on an opt-in trial basis

2013-02-18 we enabled Flow on a test page on metawiki in preparation for deploying it on m:Programs_talk:Evaluation_portal/Learning_modules talkpage, this led to some unhappiness.

We should identify the criteria for enabling Flow on a page and the process for doing so.

Some community members object to Flow "invading their wiki", but if you don't interact with the Talk page that becomes a Flow board, there is little apparent change to the wiki.

Upcoming

 * 2014-03
 * Talk:Compact Personal Bar


 * 2014-04
 * Flow on m:Programs_talk:Evaluation_portal/Learning_modules and other requested Meta pages.
 * maybe a lottery for communities wanting to enable Flow on their pages' Talk pages.
 * Beta feature for user to enable Flow on their User_talk page

Done

 * 2014-03-25


 * 2014-03-20
 * Talk:Beta Features/Hovercards
 * The discussion pages for all new Beta Features will be Flow-enabled.


 * 2014-02-18
 * first Flow page on meta: m:Talk:Flow/Developer test page
 * mw:Talk:Winter (talk page for design refresh) and mw:User talk:Jorm (WMF)


 * 2014-02-03
 * first Flow pages on enwiki: en:WikiProject_talk:Hampshire, en:WikiProject_talk:Breakfast, also en:Wikipedia talk:Flow/Developer test page


 * 2013-12-11
 * first Flow pages on mediawikiwiki: mw:Talk:Flow, mw:Talk:Sandbox, also Talk:Flow_QA. Enabling the extension was tracked in.

Prior

 * See Flow/Interactive prototype

Ways in which enabling Flow affects a wiki
Flow does not affect any non-special pages of a wiki other than the page(s) where Flow has been deployed.


 * Feeds

You will see slight differences in Flow entries in:
 * RecentChanges
 * Special:Contributions
 * Watchlist
 * Special:Log

We're working to make those entries look more like page edits.


 * History

Each Flow topic has its own history. The Flow board is currently the history of topic-level changes. We're working to make it look and behave more like a page history.


 * Moderating content

Currently, deletion and suppression are done from the Flow board, by using the action menu next to a topic or post. In the future, we will move deletion and suppression actions to the history to make them work more like RevisionDeletion


 * Pagelinks, imagelinks, categorylinks, etc.

This functionality is not yet implemented, but work on it is currently in progress.

Steps in enabling Flow on a talk page
From https://trello.com/c/23lOl7v5/76-enable-flow-on-meta-programs-and-some-mw-org-design-pages, we'll refine it. This is for the first Talk page on a wiki that is Flow-enabled.


 * 1) Announce that Flow is going to be enabled on some Talk page, mention test page for wiki comes first.
 * 2) Add to Deployments calendar, usually in our Tuesday Flow window
 * 3) ready Flow-enabled template
 * 4) if this is the first Flow board on the wiki, pick a wiki page for testing, e.g. m:Talk:Flow/Developer_test_page
 * 5) prep config change adding test page
 * 6) deploy config change, test test page
 * 7) prep config change to enable Flow on the actual talk page
 * 8) Immediately prior to deploy: Archive the existing pages:
 * 9) Page-move the existing talkpage to [OldName/Archive 1].   (do not leave a redirect; or, delete the redirect after moving)
 * 10) Add a template to the top of the archived talkpage. (archive at mww,  at enwiki and meta)
 * 11) Deploy config change
 * 12) Edit the header of the talk page that has become a  Flow board:
 * 13) * add Flow-enabled, link to the archived page