Thread:Talk:New editor engagement/Watchlists/reply (7)

On the contrary - the bolding (to which the green stars was a response) is an episode worth learning from. It tells us again that highly active Wikimedians don't like interface changes (remember Vector?). There was a big request for comment, concluding that the new (to English Wikipedia) watchlist highlighting be opt-in, as described in en:Wikipedia:Customizing watchlists.

What we should learn from this and previous episodes is basically that any interface change should
 * 1) be small enough that nobody notices or complains
 * 2) be small enough that grumblings don't lead to a "we won't stand for this" snowball of outrage
 * 3) be opt-in
 * 4) be opt-in for existing users, opt-out for new users
 * 5) be easily opt-out for all users
 * 6) be important enough to impose despite pissing people off

It's worth observing of course that this list doesn't apply in isolation; it depends on how much prior discussion and testing the interface change had. Given good testing and community collaboration in design for something that's clearly an improvement, even an imposed change that annoys quite a few people will eventually be accepted.