Requests for comment/Core user preferences

An evaluation of user preferences (Special:Preferences) in MediaWiki core.

Generally
Tabs on top still a good idea? Kind of stack weirdly. Maybe need vertical tabs in a sidebar thing?

Stats about usage of these preferences is desperately needed.

User profile

 * Username &mdash; no (change) link
 * Number of edits (link to Special:Contributions?)


 * Language option &mdash; move up to top?


 * E-mail preferences are weirdly situated... combine into a generic "Communications" section?

Appearance

 * Link underlining &mdash; gadgetize?
 * Threshold for stub formatting &mdash; gadgetize?


 * Disable browser page caching &mdash; why does this option exist?
 * Show hidden categories &mdash; always show for logged in users; kill user pref?
 * +1. Matma Rex (talk) 17:58, 23 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Justify paragraphs &mdash; gadgetize?
 * Auto-number headings &mdash; gadgetize?


 * Enable collapsing of items in the sidebar in Vector skin &mdash; wtf
 * I actually use this, the collapsed items look ugly to me. But I agree it should be killed or gadgetized. Matma Rex (talk) 17:58, 23 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Eliminate math preferences? gadgetize?

Date and time

 * Can't all of the date and time formatting be done in JS?


 * Move time offset to user profile section?

Editing

 * Size of editing window has no preview option
 * Show preview on first edit &mdash; gadgetize?
 * This is supposed to work right away without any extra load. Doing such a thing will destroy the feature with http latency and page jumps. You can't gadgetize it. Daniel Friesen (Dantman) (talk) 17:23, 23 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Enable section editing via [edit] links &mdash; why is this a user pref?
 * Enable section editing by right clicking on section titles (requires JavaScript) &mdash; gadgetize?
 * Mark all edits minor by default &mdash; gadgetize?
 * Prompt me when entering a blank edit summary &mdash; gadgetize?
 * Use live preview (requires JavaScript) (experimental) &mdash; kill from core?
 * We actually have some plans to fix one of the issues with live preview some time soon. Daniel Friesen (Dantman) (talk) 17:23, 23 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Actually, it should probably be enabled for everyone, it was even suggested on the design list recently. Recent improvements I coded up made this usable, there's a tracking bug and a rewrite by Krinkle now pending on gerrit. Matma Rex (talk) 17:58, 23 September 2012 (UTC)


 * Warn me when I leave an edit page with unsaved changes &mdash; hmmm
 * Enable input method &mdash; wtf does this even mean????
 * Ambiguously named. The "input method" refers to IME (Input Method Editor). This is added by Narayam. Daniel Friesen (Dantman) (talk) 17:26, 23 September 2012 (UTC)

Beta features
Why does this section still exist?


 * Enable enhanced editing toolbar &mdash; stop supporting the old toolbar; come on; gadgetize?
 * People still use the old toolbar and like it. Matma Rex (talk) 17:58, 23 September 2012 (UTC)
 * Enable dialogs for inserting links, tables and more &mdash; hmmm

Recent changes
Hmmm.

Watchlist
Hmmm.

Search options
Hmmm. Another per page results option? Hmmm.

Misc
Why does this tab exist?


 * Random diffs section... related to editing? Put it in that tab?
 * Omit diff after performing a rollback &mdash; why does this option exist again? sensible defaults...
 * Because when I added that feature a few people complained that it slowed down the loading of the rollback page when they made a lot of rollbacks of things like page blanking. Daniel Friesen (Dantman) (talk) 17:17, 23 September 2012 (UTC)

WikiLove should be a gadget, surely.

Gadgets
Fine.

Threaded discussion
LQT wtf bbq.

Contests

 * Show a link to My Contests in the user menu.

A whole tab for this? Seems disproportionate and excessive. Really outside the scope of this RFC, though.

Edit review
FlaggedRevs wtf bbq.

Related bugs

 * 40346 &mdash; Convert some MediaWiki user preferences into JavaScript gadgets (tracking)