Extension:LiquidThreads

LiquidThreads (LQT) is an extension for MediaWiki that implements a threaded discussion page system.

The original code was developed by David McCabe under sponsorship from the Google Summer of Code 2006, the Commonwealth of Learning, and Wikia. However, David McCabe is no longer involved with this project.

The original LiquidThreads code has been substantially improved and augmented by Andrew Garrett at the Wikimedia Foundation since May 2009. The latest stable release of the LiquidThreads extension is LQT 2.0, described on this page. LQT 2.0 is the version currently being used on several Wikimedia wikis, and was used in the strategic planning process.

In January 2011, work on LiquidThreads 3.0 was begun at the Wikimedia Foundation. LQT 3.0 is currently being developed, with Andrew Garrett as the lead developer.

Last commits by Andrew Garrett to LQT3 (lqt-updates) branch were done in September 2011. At the moment there is only some maintenance work for new MediaWiki Versions done by User:DaSch. Development is on hold.

Development of LQT3 can be tracked in this branch.

User documentation
To activate LiquidThreads on a specific page on a wiki where LiquidThreads is opt-in, add   to the page's source code. To deactivate LiquidThreads on a specific page on a wiki where LiquidThreads is opt-out add   to the page's source code.

Comprehensive user documentation will be developed when LiquidThreads has a finalised (or remotely stable) interface.
 * FAQ and
 * Extension help page.

Rationale
Wiki discussion pages have some advantages over web and Usenet forums. They allow use of the entire wiki syntax - from images to wiki links to transclusion. It is possible to refactor entire discussion pages.

Web forums offer a number of advantages over the MediaWiki talk page model:
 * Threads can be displayed in different views: flat, nested, sorted by date, subject, etc.
 * The user only needs to click a "Reply" button or link in order to respond to a comment. Manual indentation is not required. Quotations from the source comment can be inserted automatically.
 * Comments are automatically signed and dated.
 * Avatars are possible. (but not yet created)
 * The user can watch individual threads or be notified about responses in threads.
 * Comments and threads can be displayed individually, without the surrounding page.
 * Old comments are archived automatically and invisibly, with permanent links easily available.
 * Search for author, subject, date, etc. is possible
 * Individual threads can have categories.
 * It is relatively easy to manage related discussions in a subject-specific forum, whereas MediaWiki talk pages always follow the "one discussion page per subject page" model.

LiquidThreads aims to unite the advantages of both forum types, and to add some unique discussion features to boot.

Installation

 * 1) Download tgz file to your extensions folder $IP/extensions. For non-recent MediaWiki versions (e.g 1.6.x and below) don't use SVN.
 * 2) Extract the downloaded tgz file to your extensions directory $IP/extensions/LiquidThreads
 * 3) Add   to your wiki's $IP/LocalSettings.php (ensure this is added after $IP is assigned)
 * 4) Run update.php script in your MediaWiki maintenance folder $IP/maintenance to create necessary tables in MediaWiki database (your designated database user needs to have CREATE rights on your MediaWiki database):
 * 5) Installation can be verified through Special:Version

API
API documentation

Example

 * Test Page for playing around with the Liquid Threads interface.

Sites that use LiquidThreads

 * see here for sites that use this extension

Other links

 * Bugzilla ticket for LiquidThreads deployment
 * English Wikipedia LiquidThreads article
 * Wikimedia Commons LiquidThreads pictures