Extension:LiquidThreads

LiquidThreads is an extension that implements a new discussion page system. The original code was developed under sponsorship from the Google Summer of Code 2006, the Commonwealth of Learning, and Wikia. It is close to completion, and being worked on by Andrew Garrett under contract with the Wikimedia Foundation. It is currently being tested and used on some Wikimedia wikis and may eventually be deployed on all Wikimedia sites.

Installation

 * 1) Download the files from SVN and place them under $IP/extensions/LiquidThreads
 * 2) Add the required tables to the database: php maintenance/sql.php extensions/LiquidThreads/lqt.sql (your designated database user needs to have CREATE rights on your MediaWiki database)
 * 3) Add  into your wiki's LocalSettings.php
 * 4) Installation can be verified through Special:Version

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.
 * 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 content page" model.

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

Redesign
LiquidThreads is currently undergoing a redesign. You can read about these changes here. Your comments are appreciated.

Addressing
Each thread has a unique and permanent wiki title, so they can be linked to: e.g., Thread:Talk:Main_Page/Thread 1.

API
LiquidThreads adds a 'threads' list module to retrieve thread details.

Parameters
 * : The thread id to start enumerating from
 * : The thread id to stop enumerating at
 * : The direction in which to enumerate (older, newer)
 * : The maximum number of threads to list
 * : Which properties to get
 * : Limit results to threads on a particular page(s)
 * : Limit results to threads by a particular author(s)
 * : Limit results to threads with the given root(s)
 * : Limit results to threads corresponding to the given summary page(s)
 * : Get threads with the given ID(s)
 * : Get threads with the given ID(s)

Example

Comments/feedback
I assume this section is where I can write my feedback?


 * 1) Old talk pages are not migrated into the new system.
 * That sucks, but it's not an easy problem to solve.
 * 1) Does 'you have new messages' still work?
 * Yes.
 * 1) if enotif is installed, can user be notified by email whenever a new topic or comment is added on a discussion page of a page included in his watch list and/or answers a comment of his?
 * 2) What about moderation? There doesn't seem to be any way to delete abusive, obscene, off-topic or spam comments. Will that function be available to admins and bureaucrats?
 * 3) What is the purpose of letting posts be editable by other users? No other forum software does anything like that and I fail to see its utility. It's a recipe for edit wars. Yes, the edit history is available, but users should not have to go through histories in order to see if words attributed to a user were in fact inserted by someone else. If a post is signed by a user, which is automatically done in LiquidThreads, it should be editable only by that user.

Search of WikiEducator Google Group discussions

 * "liquid"
 * "LQT"

User comments

 * LQT (James Neill, WikiEducator)

Sites that use LiquidThreads

 * Wikimini.org (used by children 8-13, all talk pages - Example)
 * strategy.wikimedia.org (in places)
 * English Wikinews (in places)
 * English Wiktionary (in places)
 * MediaWiki.org (here - in places)
 * translatewiki.net (all talk pages)

Other links

 * Bugzilla ticket for LiquidThreads deployment
 * LiquidThreads on English Wikipedia
 * LiquidThreads on Wikimedia Commons