MediaWiki talk:Watchdetails

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Contents 1 Main page redesign 2 re: email confirmation 3 Dates 4 Link to clear the whole watchlist 5 ID 6 My edit, in case anybody is curious

[edit] Main page redesign

I'd like to spread the word about this redesign, and I believe a short notice here will inform more people than by using the usual channels. Is something like that ok? - Trevor MacInnis (Talk | Contribs) 14:03, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

He's threatened to go ahead and do it himself if nobody answers him.--HereToHelp (talk • contribs) 17:21, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

DON'T add this until an actual election starts. Community portal is a perfect spot for it, but it's not meant to clutter watchlists. Ral315 (talk) 08:06, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

Have they come up with a redesigh that follows the KISS priciple yet?Geni 19:06, 5 February 2006 (UTC)

No, they haven't. In fact, there's more infighting going on now than ever before. The "draft" design changes radically on a daily basis, and the stupidies (like having two search boxes on the page, right next to each other) are a sight to behold. Which is why it's NOT going on the site notice or this page. Raul654 08:37, 8 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree that this shouldn't be advertised here or on the site notice, but your apparent belief that you possess the authority to unilaterally issue such a proclamation is quite troubling.

Oh, and if you're going to rudely accuse of other people of engineering stupidities, you might want to spell the word correctly. —David Levy 18:33, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

[edit] re: email confirmation

I've added a note on this page regarding email confirmation Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Mail_server_blacklisted_by_SpamCop requirements that have very recently been enabled. Many users who have previously configured email may not be aware of the new requirement, and may not notice the change, as from their end the only diferance is not getting wiki email. xaosflux ^Talk/_CVU 06:04, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

I've added a link to Brion's announcement of the change on the village pump. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 14:06, 2 March 2006 (UTC)

I plan on removing this in 2 weeks, unless another option for distributing this information is made availible somewhere more effective then on this page. xaosflux ^Talk/_CVU 01:38, 3 March 2006 (UTC)

Why not put it permanently in MediaWiki:Prefs-help-email? People going to Special:Preferences might notice it more easily in that bright pinkish box. Splarka (rant) 08:18, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

That box may need some rewording, but a quick test showed that normal wiki links do not work in that area. xaosflux ^Talk/_CVU 03:13, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

True, but HTML code does, apparently (at least in 1.5, can't test 1.6 mahself), this might be better?:

• E-mail (optional): Enables others to contact you through your user or user_talk page without the need of revealing your identity. <strong>Be sure to <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Confirmemail">confirm</a> your email address, or you will not receive email.</strong>

Splarka (rant) 08:08, 5 March 2006 (UTC)

I tried an html variant, but it failed miserably, may have been a psace in the URL that i didnt use % characters on. -- xaosflux ^Talk/_CVU 02:04, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

You should be able to use an underline like: <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help:Email_confirmation">confirmation</a>. Although, for 1.6, html might be disabled there too. Maybe test just a <strong> tag? Splarka (rant) 06:23, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

NOTE:Please leave the confirmation notice here until 3/16/06. xaosflux ^Talk/_CVU 02:04, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Why March 16th? It's been here for over a week and a half now. Is there anything special about that date? Thanks! Flcelloguy (A note?) 16:13, 10 March 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, it's better then 03-15 =), I noted on the VPT article that we;d display this for "about 2 weeks"; but if we think it's been long enough we can remove it, the note on RC was only up for a few days, noting that it was already on here as well, as this is a brand new process my suggestion for 2 weeks was that it would be long enough for most editors that used wikiemail to see it, even if they were not readers of VPT or the mailing list. Some people don't get much wikiemail, and they might not notice that they are not getting email anymore. -- xaosflux ^Talk/_CVU 03:40, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

Hmm, OK. Just curious about the date, and whether there was anything special about it. OK, I guess it won't hurt to leave it on for a few more days, although I wouldn't object taking it off at this point. Thanks! Flcelloguy (A note?) 03:45, 11 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Dates

There was a request on the village pump to add the current date to the watchlist. I think it would be useful too. Sometimes, editors do not know what time "now" is when they open the watchlist up. Having the time there allows someone to determine how early or late the changes too place. We can remove the UTC/GMT links if we don't like them. --HappyCamper 04:57, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Except that Watchlist times follow your local time zone preference and so are not UTC, hence I don't see how that is helpful. Dragons flight 05:02, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Well, I use it to find the relative amount of time that has passed between the changes to the articles. It doesn't matter that it doesn't correspond to the local user's time. Hmm...well, we'll leave it as is. See you! --HappyCamper 05:05, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Not everyone modifies their account preferences to specify their local time. For example, anyone who wishes to maintain synchronicity between edit histories and signatures (among other conversational time references) will retain the default offset of 00:00. I've never changed it, and I have a difficult time understanding why anyone would want to (given the confusion that inevitably arises).

Those who do opt to select an appropriate offset already know what their local time is (and can apply this information to the displayed edit times), so they can simply ignore the UTC indication (which is useful to the rest of us, especially when we're first starting out). —David Levy 05:26, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

I still fail to see how it is useful to add a timestamp to the top of the watchlist given that now is always going to be just somewhat later than the most recent watchlist change anyway.

That's why I referenced someone "starting out." A user with hundreds or thousands of pages on his/her watchlist can simply look at the time of the most recent edit, but someone with only a few watched pages might not have any edits from within the past hour. And of course, a newbie is also less likely to remember the difference between his/her time and UTC.

Given that A) I don't see what purpose it serves, and B) it is potentially confusing to have conflicting timestamps for anyone with a time zone set,

Encountering such a disparity is unavoidable, except for users who never read discussion pages. In fact, this should be less confusing, given the UTC link.

I would prefer that it not be added. However, I won't stand in the way if there is a groundswell of support for it. Dragons flight 05:46, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

Likewise, I won't push for it if there's significant opposition. —David Levy 06:01, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

I was just thinking alot about a clock, and personally would love to see the current wikitime all the time, such as on Sitenotice. I've added a clock to my userpage User:Xaosflux/WikiClock and refer to it all the time, to know when it currently is. Was even going to bring it to VPP, but thaught that having a dynamic entry like that in mediawiki would ruin page caching...any thaughts? xaosflux ^Talk/_CVU 06:07, 6 March 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Link to clear the whole watchlist

Is that any admins that can add a link to clear the user's watchlist? thank you. (the link is at Special:Watchlist/clear)--Shinjiman ⇔ ♨ 14:03, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

Done. —David Levy 14:18, 20 April 2006 (UTC)

I believe that link to clear the whole watchlist is not appropriate on the watchlist itself. A user should see it only when he/she clicks on "display all items". Comments? Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 22:53, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

This has become a part of the default MediaWiki message. It should be noted that clicking on the link results in the display of a confirmation screen, so accidental invocation is harmless. —David Levy 23:47, 1 August 2006 (UTC)

I am not sure I follow you. What do you mean by "default MediaWiki message"? Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 00:21, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

The MediaWiki software includes default text for all of the MediaWiki messages (which can be edited). The current default text for MediaWiki:Watchdetails contains a "Remove all pages" link. (This was not always the case.)

I am aware that it is harmess, what I am trying to say that the watchlist is not the right place for it.

At least to me, it appears that you should first express a desire to edit your watchlist, by clicking on the "display or edit watchlist" link, to be given the option of "removing all items" from your watchlist. Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 00:21, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

The link is on that page too. To me, it makes sense for it to be in both locations. Someone might want to clear a bloated watchlist without being forced to load the entire thing. —David Levy 00:34, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Most likely that someone will first wonder what the heck is on his watchlist to start with, before doing a blank wipeout, which is irreversible. Any strong feelings if I remove the link from the main watchlist page while keeping it in the "edit watchlist" page? Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 01:29, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

I have no objections over this. It is much better to first express the desire to edit our watchlist. I feel this is much "safer". --Siva1979^{Talk to me} 01:41, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

How so? —David Levy 01:43, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

I don't have strong feelings one way or the other, but I would prefer to keep the link. I suggest that you solicit additional feedback at the village pump. (This talk page doesn't receive a great deal of traffic.) —David Levy 01:43, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

I asked at the village pump, let us see what comments will come. Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 03:06, 2 August 2006 (UTC)

Well, there were no other comments in a day and a half, in spite of my post at village pump. I took the initiative of removing the link to "clear the watchlist" from the watchlist.

I perfectly agree with David that the link is important; above I have been arguing (persuasively I hope :) that the right place for that link is in the context of editing one's watchlist, and not before.

Let us see if removal of that link attracts other comments. Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 23:05, 3 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] ID

Please add a <div id="arbcom-election-2006"></div> to the message for compatability with CSS. GeorgeMoney (talk) 00:07, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

Done —Mets501 (talk) 01:52, 4 November 2006 (UTC)

[edit] My edit, in case anybody is curious

I wanted to somehow convey that not exactly everybody can be a candidate in the ArbCom election. That is, you have to have 1,000 edits here as of October 1. I didn't think it was necessary to link the new clause to provide detail, since it's right at the top of the main election page. --Merovingian ※ Talk 10:16, 9 November 2006 (UTC)