Topic on Talk:Structured Discussions

We're releasing a new feature this week: Mark as resolved, an update to the moderation feature formerly known as Lock. It's out now, and you can test it out on Talk:Sandbox.

There were a couple problems with Lock that we wanted to solve:

• There were two fields -- a topic summary, and a reason for locking -- and it wasn't really clear which one you should use when you're closing a discussion.
• The visual difference between locked and open topics was a bit confusing; it wasn't obvious which one you're supposed to be paying attention to.
• When you're scrolling down the page looking for open threads, you had to scroll through closed threads to find them.

In the new feature, when you choose "Mark as resolved" in the topic menu, a checkmark is added next to the topic title, and you're prompted to write a summary for the conversation. When a topic's resolved, the entry fields go away, and you can't write new posts. Resolved topics are collapsed by default, just showing the title, date and the summary. You can click on the header to see the whole conversation.

If you reopen a resolved topic, you're prompted to add a summary, or edit the existing summary. You can also add, edit or delete existing summaries at any time.

There's an additional piece that will be out in a couple weeks -- a byline for the summary, so you can see who wrote it, or who last edited it.

I hope you like the new feature, and please let me know what you think!

Neat! :-)

Where "Cancel" button? This is strange. 1) I tried to close the first topic "New topic" (Mattflaschen-WMF ) in the sandbox 2) In "New topic" no button "Skip summary", but there is in other topics 3) From the menu choose "cancel the closing thopic", I think that the closure has not happened, but in the history I closed it and restored. 4) I want to see the conversation to write a summary and do not remember there was towards the end of the conversation 5) When I click "cancel the closing thopic" in menu the edit summary does not disappear, but remains

I like its new simple interaction flow :-)

It is not at all obvious that you can expand the "solved" thread to read it by clicking on the background box (there's not even feedback with the mouse cursor to show that it's clickable). Either an "expand" button or an entry in the menu should be added.

I think a good design for this would be a call-to-action button or link besides the summary; expanding the thread to see the comments after reading the thread's summary seems a primary action.

"It is not at all obvious that you can expand" I agree

Also, the text in the Terms of use notice is wrong. It says "By clicking "Summarize", you agree to...", but the button label is "Update summary".

Is there a way to generate both labels from the same string, so that they will always be in sync even when a designer changes the copy? This is a bit that can never be wrong, as it has legal implications.

@Сунприат: The idea is that once you select "Mark as resolved", then the topic is resolved. There isn't an extra "are you sure, click Cancel or OK" step. The prompt to add, update or skip the summary is separate -- you can choose any of them, and the topic is still resolved. But it looks like that wasn't clear for you, which is good feedback for us to know.

Also, you were selecting "Reopen topic" while you were still involved in resolving it -- that didn't occur to us as a thing someone would try. :) I'll see if we can make "reopen" inactive while the summary is being edited.

@Diego Moya: Yeah, it's not really obvious that you can click to expand. I'm glad you guys brought it up, we'll talk about what we can do. The same for Сунприат's point about the messages collapsing while you're writing the summary. I bet we can do something for that as well.

Also, Diego - thanks for catching the Terms of use inconsistency! You have sharp eyes, and I appreciate it very much. :)

Clicking in the area that says '3 comments. timestamp' doesn't do the click to expand, only clicking other parts. chrome 43.0

"2) In "New topic" no button "Skip summary", but there is in other topics"

I believe this is because there already was a summary.

"3) From the menu choose "cancel the closing thopic""

There is no "cancel the closing topic" (with either spelling) in the i18n. What localization are you using? Perhaps there is a mistranslation of 'Reopen topic'.

so I have no choice. if I click on the green button resume updated. create a new record without any changes as zero correction, but with a record in history. What if I do not want to change the resume and all wrote in the last post ...

Oh, there have replaced Unlock https://translatewiki.net/w/i.php?title=Special:Translations&message=MediaWiki%3AFlow-topic-action-unlock-topic%2Fru

I really like it. It makes more sense than lock topics, it helps browsing on pending ones, but I miss a filter in the table of contents for resolved/pending topics.