Structured Discussions/Deprecation
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StructuredDiscussions (SD - Flow) is used on a few wikis. This extension is not maintained. DiscussionTools (DT) is the default discussion system on wikis now.
The Growth team (SD maintainers) and the Editing team (DT maintainers) have started thinking about how to deprecate StructuredDiscussions (and possibly LiquidThreads) and replace them with DiscussionTools.
The idea is to have DiscussionTools provide equivalent features of what StructuredDiscussions offers, so that current SD users would switch to DT.
This project has no formal deadline or plan.
Project updates[edit]
- 2022-06-08: first internal document by Kosta Harlan (Staff software engineer, Growth team) and Benoît Evellin (Community Relations Specialist, attached to the Growth team) on sunsetting SD
- 2023-03-14: first meeting with Growth and Editing about SD deprecation
- 2023-03-14: Comparison table of the two tools.
- 2023-03-29: creation of the project page
- 2023-09: Data on usage of StructuredDiscussions
StructuredDiscussions and DiscussionTools Comparative review[edit]
| StructuredDiscussions/Flow | LiquidThreads | DiscussionTools | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dedicated workflow for starting a new topic |  Done
|
Done
|
Done
|
| Dedicated workflow for adding a new comment | Done
|
Done
|
Done
|
| Subscribe to be notified about new comments to a topic | Done (via Echo)
|
Done (via special page)
|
Done (via Echo)
|
| Be notified when a new topic is started on a talk page | Done (via Echo)
|
Done (via special page)
|
Done[1]
|
| Auto-subscription to a topic you created | Done (default)
|
Done (by watchlisting)
|
Done (default for new users)
|
| Each topic is a different pages/each conversation has a permalink | Done
|
Done
|
 In progress[2]
|
| Hide (moderate) a specific comment | Done in reading mode
|
delete (but no undelete UI) |  Partially done via undo/revert
|
| Hide (moderate) a topic | Done in reading mode
|
delete (but no undelete UI) | Partially done via undo/revert
|
| Move topics between pages |  Not done (planned but not implemented)
|
Done
|
via wikitext editing, breaks permalinking |
| Include discussions on another page and reply to them there | Not done (planned, including cross-wiki transclusion, but not implemented)
|
? | Done
|
| Backwards compatible with wikitext | Not done
|
Not done
|
Done
|
| Thank a comment from within the talk page | Done in reading mode
|
Partially done via Page history
|
Partially done via Thanks in Page history[3]
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| Sort topics by recent comment | Done
|
Done
|
Not done
|
| Sort topics by start date | Done
|
Done
|
Not done
|
| Summarize a discussion | Done
|
Done
|
Requires templates |
| Mark read / unread | Not done
|
Done
|
Not done
|
| Show/hide (collapse) subthreads | Not done
|
Done
|
Not done
|
| Supported editors | wikitext and visual editing | wikitext editing | wikitext and visual editing (the latter with limitations) |
| Templates support | Done
|
Done
|
Partially done not all templates are allowed in replies in VE mode
|
| Permalink to a given comment | Done
|
Done
|
Partially done if the comment is not moved elsewhere
|
| Topic and contents preload | Done
|
Done
|
Done
|
| History fully integrated to the rest of the wiki | Not done
|
Done
|
Done
|
| Indication of edited comments when you read a topic | Done
|
Done
|
Not done
|
| Notification of edited comments | Done
|
Done on your own comments only
|
Not done
|
| Direct access to user talkpage, contribs and more | Done
|
Partially done if linked in the signature
|
Partially done if linked in the signature
|
| Highlight a quoted comment | Done
|
Not done (can link to comments but only as standalone pages)
|
Done
|
| Highlight a set of unread comments | Done
|
Not done
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Done (only when subscribed to a topic and using links from notifications)
|
| Mobile web support | Done
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Not done
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Done
|
| Mobile app support | Not done
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Not done
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Done
|
Data on usage[edit]
In August 2023, on average:
- DiscussionTools is used about 18,780 times per day.
- Flow is used about 250 times per day, mainly at French Wikipedia.
- LiquidThreads is used less than once per day.