Talk:Talk pages project/2023

This page is for discussing the Talk pages project. The software interface on this page is Structured Discussions ("Flow"), which is not part of the Talk pages project.

Unsubscribing

Is there a way to clear out old subscriptions, other than doing it manually at Special:TopicSubscriptions? - FlightTime (open channel) 19:03, 2 January 2023 (UTC)

Do we need to? Is there still a 5,000 limit? ~ Doug Weller (talk) 19:36, 2 January 2023 (UTC)

@Doug Weller: I've noticed that you get a notice when a subscribed sections are archived, but if its not then it could in theory stay forever. - FlightTime (open channel) 20:37, 2 January 2023 (UTC)

@Doug Weller: “Is there still a 5,000 limit?”

• I want to limit the entries to current affairs, and some archived which I want to remember after years.
• All other resolved issues I do not want to be listed, collecting over decades.
• To answer your question:
  • The software will manage 10,000 entries, yes.
  • My skull will explode at 100.
• Guess: For whom the special page has been built to look at? For users or for the software? PerfektesChaos (talk) 18:43, 5 January 2023 (UTC)

Maybe adding AJAX to the "Unsubscribe" links could improve experience on Special:TopicSubscriptions. Matěj Suchánek (talk) 12:53, 7 January 2023 (UTC)

There is no bulk method of unsubscribing. It was discussed, but hasn't been built. Some features that I thought would be cool (e.g., auto-unsubscribing if there were no activity for n days) were not really popular with other editors. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 04:59, 10 January 2023 (UTC)

Is there any easy way how to unsubscribe in mobile view / android app? Community wishlist survey voting started and I had dozens of notifications and no acces to desktop for few days. JAn Dudík (talk) 10:09, 13 February 2023 (UTC)

JAn, try this link: https://meta.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:TopicSubscriptions Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 20:56, 14 February 2023 (UTC)

Just wondering

Just wondering, if I author thread, is it automatically added to my subscriptions? I think this would be a functionality that should be developed, if not already. Did a test here it was not added to my sub's. - FlightTime (open channel) 17:19, 14 January 2023 (UTC)

It behaves differently on your own User_talk: page, because you can't avoid being "subscribed" (the old way) to any edit on your own User_talk: page. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 20:11, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

Embedded HTML comments

The talk pages (on ENWP) now seem to include a lot of HTML comments containing Discussion Tools metadata even if I do not have the Discussion tools Beta gadget enabled.

• <!--__DTELLIPSISBUTTON__-->
• <!--__DTLATESTCOMMENTPAGE__{"id": ...
• <!--__DTCOMMENTCOUNT__2__-->
• <!--__DTAUTHORCOUNT__2__-->

Are these for short-term debugging or do they have a function?

If they have a function, can the comments be converted to attributes on existing DIV tags, so that user scripts can make use of them. — GhostInTheMachine ^{talk to me} 12:05, 27 January 2023 (UTC)

Are these comments still there? Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 20:11, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

Still — GhostInTheMachine ^{talk to me} 09:27, 12 September 2023 (UTC)

They are basically a debugging thing. We use these HTML comments as placeholders in the parser cache, then replace them just before rendering the page with interface elements in the correct user language. We don't clean them up if the relevant features are disabled, so that it's easier to distinguish when DiscussionTools is working but disabled, and when it's not working. We probably could though, as we've probably fixed all bugs like that a long time ago.

If you wanted to use this information in a user script, I would recommend using this API to fetch the metadata about the discussion: action=discussiontoolspageinfo&prop=threaditemshtml&excludesignatures=1&page=Talk:The_Fighting_Temeraire (and using Special:DiscussionToolsDebug/Talk:The_Fighting_Temeraire to preview them in a human-readable way). Matma Rex (talk) 20:04, 26 September 2023 (UTC)

Editing news 2023 #1

Read this in another language • Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

This newsletter includes two key updates about the Editing team's work:

1. The Editing team will finish adding new features to the Talk pages project and deploy it.
2. They are beginning a new project, Edit check.

Talk pages project

Some of the upcoming changes

The Editing team is nearly finished with this first phase of the Talk pages project. Nearly all new features are available now in the Beta Feature for Discussion tools.

It will show information about how active a discussion is, such as the date of the most recent comment. There will soon be a new "Add topic" button. You will be able to turn them off at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing-discussion. Please tell them what you think.

Daily edit completion rate by test group: DiscussionTools (test group) and MobileFrontend overlay (control group)

An A/B test for Discussion tools on the mobile site has finished. Editors were more successful with Discussion tools. The Editing team is enabling these features for all editors on the mobile site.

New Project: Edit Check

The Editing team is beginning a project to help new editors of Wikipedia. It will help people identify some problems before they click "Publish changes". The first tool will encourage people to add references when they add new content. Please watch that page for more information. You can join a conference call on 3 March 2023 to learn more.

–Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 23:18, 22 February 2023 (UTC) MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:18, 22 February 2023 (UTC)

How to implement Flow for my Wiki Talk pages

Hi :-)

I really like how the discussion page for this project uses the StructuredDiscussions interface. Is there some documentation on how to implement that?

I had some problems with the DiscussionTools extension like not getting a subscribe button next to the Topic headings. Also, I’m not getting notifications when changes are made on Talk pages I follow (although Echo is installed).

StructuredDiscussions works great though, but as of now I wasn’t able to “link” my wiki pages to a Flow Discussion Board in an elegant way.

Any help really appreciated!

Kind regards Shaker0351 (talk) 10:21, 19 March 2023 (UTC)

What exactly problem do you have? Did you try install this extension? Is it success? Can you set configuration options? Do you see some errors? wargo (talk) 21:48, 14 April 2023 (UTC)

Bullets as option for replies

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T259865

Is it possible to set bullets as a checkbox option for replying? Because some discussions (RMs and RfCs at least) get a lot of single replies to the same post, the preferred format is to open each reply with a bullet for ease of reviewing different editors’ comments. HTGS (talk) 23:11, 10 May 2023 (UTC)

Yes, I like to use a bullet in this way and so would use this option. Andrew Davidson (talk) 07:13, 11 May 2023 (UTC)

The Editing team has talked about this, but unfortunately I don't think it will happen any time soon. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 04:40, 13 May 2023 (UTC)

Translations needed

Hello, all,

The final A/B test for DiscussionTools is underway, and it is likely that it will meet all of its metrics.

Assuming that it does, the Editing team will be planning deployments. I would like to encourage editors to opt-in early, instead of waiting for the deployments. Towards that end, if you speak a language other than English, please see:

• https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Special:Translate&group=Centralnotice-tgroup-Discussion_Tools_tryout&task=view&language=en&filter=%21translated&action=translate

and add or proofread your favorite languages. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 23:13, 24 May 2023 (UTC)

Keeping track of subscribed talk pages

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

I noticed that, with the recent fulfilment of phab:T263821, a feature was added that allows you to subscribe to any new discussions that are started on a talk page. This is super useful! I'm employing it at pages like w:WT:Teahouse (where I want to know about discussions about the Teahouse itself but not to be notified or have it show up on my watchlist every time someone asks a question).

However, there currently appears to be no way to keep track of which pages I've subscribed to new topics for. Given that this is a sort of quasi-watchlist feature (similar to incoming links, something we've long wanted), I'd find it useful to see a list of all such pages.

I would use this list to help identify possible additions (i.e. seeing the list might remind me of similar pages I'd like to add but haven't yet) and to more easily prune (i.e. I might notice pages I no longer want to subscribe to). Its presence would also be nice in the sense of reassuring me that I have control over my data should I ever want to use it (similar to how I appreciate the existence of w:Special:EditWatchlist listing all the pages I watchlist, even if I never use it other than to create a data backup every year or so); this might have GDPR-compliance aspects.

Would it be possible to create a special page listing all the pages I've subscribed to new topics for? Sdkb ^talk 23:01, 9 August 2023 (UTC)

There's Special:TopicSubscriptions, which is linked from Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-echo. Nardog (talk) 00:39, 10 August 2023 (UTC)

Ah, that's exactly what I'm looking for! It's not particularly easy to find, but glad to know it exists. Cheers, Sdkb ^talk 23:19, 11 August 2023 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

You can press ⌘⏎ to submit your comment

@PPelberg (WMF):

I've run across an irritating bug for ~10 days now when I add a link. The correct path is:

• Type [[ to open the link dialog.
• Type the name of the link.
• Press Return to select the correct page and close the link dialog box.
• Feel happy.

What I'm getting instead is:

• Type [[ to open the link dialog.
• Type the name of the link.
• Press Return to select the correct page.
• Get a warning box (underneath the editing area) that says "You can press ⌘⏎ to submit your comment."
• Take hands off keyboard (grrr) and click the blue "Insert" button to close the link dialog box.
• Feel irritated. WhatamIdoing (talk) 15:47, 23 October 2023 (UTC)

See phab:T326500#9265496. Tacsipacsi (talk) 17:45, 23 October 2023 (UTC)

Mmm, yes. Thank you for saying something about this, @WhatamIdoing. And +1 to what @Tacsipacsi shared: we've got a fix for this issue that will arrive to en.wiki next Thursday (2 Nov) or the Thursday after that (9 Nov). PPelberg (WMF) (talk) 01:33, 26 October 2023 (UTC)

It'll be the 9th - the patch only wound up getting merged yesterday, so it'll be riding next week's train. DLynch (WMF) (talk) 22:12, 2 November 2023 (UTC)

This is what happens when I'm not whining about these problems in meetings, right? ;-p WhatamIdoing (talk) 22:54, 2 November 2023 (UTC)

Adding the ability to use discussion tools to the Wikipedia application

(I am one of the active users of Farsi (fa) Wikipedia) Most of my activity is through the Wikipedia application, unfortunately the discussion tools are not available in the Wikipedia application and this is a negative and bad point. Renamed user 45789865fa0214736c62b15b685ab131 (talk) 14:08, 13 December 2023 (UTC)