Extension:WhoIsWatching

The WhoIsWatching extension allows to find out who is watching a particular page, and add others to watchlist for that page.

Rationale
Even though this notion goes against Wikipedia and Wikimedia privacy policy, some wikis may actually like to see which of its users are watching particular pages. This extension provides just such an interface at the bottom of every page. Additionally, this extension has an option to allow any user to add any page to any other user's watch list.

Installation
Make sure that ist installed as it is a prerequisite for this extension to work.

Configuration
You can simply start using the extension without changing anything else. The only additional configuration that is currently possible for the extension defines how to display the names of the users watching the pages. In SpecialWhoIsWatching.php, there is As the comment implies, depending on the value of this variable, you can display either the real names of the watching users or their wiki usernames. The reason some wiki's may want to switch over to the 'UserName' mode is if they do not require their members to have a valid real name.

Another configurable option in the extension is the ability to switch on/off the option to allow any user to add any page to any other user's watch list. This is done in SpecialWhoIsWatching.php, where there is

It is also possible to only display the count of watching people if the count is greater than zero. This is done in SpecialWhoIsWatching.php, where there is Finally, newer versions of this extension, while we attempt to be backward compatible, allow you to use permissions instead of global variables. By default, users in the sysop group have permission to see page watchers and add pages to anyone's watchlist. You can grant these permissions to logged in users, too, or any group you think needs it.

Usage
This extension also provides the  parser function showing the number of watching users of   plus providing a link to. This can be used with skins not supporting footer links or to create the WhoIsWatching link somewhere in a wiki page.

Known issues
The first time after a you submit a request to remove a page from the users watchlist, the user is still shown on the form. To get around this it is disabled and displayed with a red strikethrough.