Just make it a user preference

Difficulties
We often request, "Just make it a user preference", and similar. This list-essay aims to summarize some of the complexity with that path.

Every additional user-preference:
 * 1) Adds to the complexity of the [core/extension] code,
 * 2) increases the likelihood of bugs (either now or in the future)
 * 3) increases the long-term code-maintenance task
 * 4) increases the quantity of variations that ought to be tested, in both automated and manual code checks - each variation adds exponential new combinations
 * 5) Adds to the complexity of the Special:Preferences tabs (hence making everything a bit more difficult (or less likely) to be found)
 * 6) Adds to the UI translation backlog
 * 7) Adds to the already overwhelming documentation
 * 8) Adds new columns to the user-properties database table, which is already too large (T54777)
 * 9) Adds to the quantity of things that need to be considered, when contemplating any additional new features in the same feature-set

Hence, developers/designers/managers/etc are very hesitant to just make a new user preference every time [frequently!] that somebody asks for one.

Benefits
That said, I (and many of us) adore preferences, and I consider Firefox's "about:config" page to be generally DoingItRight™ as far as power-users are concerned (though it needs built in documentation, and I used to use an extension for that before it was abandoned).

I've written a bit more about this, at Talk:Requests for comment/Redesign user preferences, which I'll copy below:


 * An Ode to Options, A Paean to Preferences, A Serenade to Settings
 * Some mumblings about why user-preferences are important.

I want to see our Preferences menu become better organized, so that it can grow, with all the tweaks and powertools that some editors need permanently available - The things the various overlapping communities have built over the last 14 years, and continue to create and refine - So that newcomers can find what they're looking for without being overwhelmed, and so that new powerusers can find the brilliant tools they didn't know they wanted.

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When I sign up for a new website, I immediately go to the profile menu to see: What things I can turn on, and what I might want to turn off (either now, or in the future). When I install a new program, operating system, or game, I immediately look at the Preferences/Options menu. It tells me a lot about the software:
 * Technical vocabulary (concepts, keywords, and groupings),
 * what configurations the developers thought were useful but not crucial,
 * what options the various demographics of specialized-powerusers might need, that I might want to investigate or use.

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This wiki endeavour, requires tools that are as convoluted as photoshop or autocad, for many editors but not all. Newcomers often need something simple, as do casual-editors. We need Photoshop for powerusers, as well as MS Paint for the newcomers and casual editors. - (MS Paint is great! It's Welcoming, and easy to learn via experimenting, and easy to create simple (sometimes even complex) projects in!) - (Photoshop is great! A dense abundance of menus, a profusion of tiny and detailed-metadata, for those who need it! For those who spend many hours every day, for many years, working hard within it.) - We want and need both ends of the spectrum.