Topic on Help talk:Paragraph-based Edit Conflict Interface

I've probably commented here before, but I just got another instance of this and felt compelled to talk about it. Every time I'm dropped into the EC tool, I'm totally befuddled as to how to proceed. I'm a software developer, I'm used to merge conflicts. Every merge conflict tool I've ever used has some way to say, "Keep this version", "Keep that version", "Keep both". I don't see any of that here. I see a box which shows "Conflicting comment", and another box which shows "Your comment", and no indication of how I'm supposed to proceed to select which, or both, I want to keep. I'm going to do what I always do; copy my text, abort the edit, and start again from scratch, pasting in my saved text.

I'll add that edit conflict resolution is something people do rarely. That means they don't remember the details of how the tool worked the last time they used it, so it's got to be totally obvious how things work in order to be effective. The developers who wrote the tool use it all the time, so it's hard to step back and ask themselves, "If I knew nothing about how this worked, would I be able to figure it out?"

I agree, and have been annoyed by this often. If it isn't going to give me useful instructions, why doesn't it just say, "Your edit has been aborted. You can copy it and try again"? ~~~~

I agree—I just bull my way through and seem to get random consequences—as if some critical timing issue picks an outcome with no meaningful interaction on my part. (What request initiated this beta offering what were the goals?

Totally confusing and useless.

The places where edit conflicts happen most are on very long talk pages that handle a multitude of different threads, such as for example the VP or ANI. But wouldn't expect the WMF devs to understand that, would you?

As per [[User:Rober McClenon|Robert]], why doesn't it just say, "Your edit has been aborted. You can copy it and try again"?

By the time one has figured out what to - and still left wondering - it's quicker and easier to copy your text, quit the page, reload it and paste your comment in the fresh edit mode display.