Structured Discussions/Deprecation

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

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  N Not done (planned but not implemented)   Done via wikitext editing, breaks permalinking
Include discussions on another page and reply to them there  N Not done (planned, including cross-wiki transclusion, but not implemented) ?   Done
Backwards compatible with wikitext  N Not done  N 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]
Sort topics by recent comment   Done   Done  N Not done
Sort topics by start date   Done   Done  N Not done
Summarize a discussion   Done   Done Requires templates
Mark read / unread  N Not done   Done  N Not done
Show/hide (collapse) subthreads  N Not done   Done  N 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  N Not done   Done   Done
Indication of edited comments when you read a topic   Done   Done  N Not done
Notification of edited comments   Done   Done on your own comments only  N 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  N Not done (can link to comments but only as standalone pages)   Done
Highlight a set of unread comments   Done  N Not done   Done (only when subscribed to a topic and using links from notifications)
Mobile web support   Done  N Not done   Done
Mobile app support  N Not done  N Not done   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.

Notes and references Edit

  1. See T263821 (desktop) and T332730 (mobile).
  2. Support for offering permanent links to talk page comments and topics is being worked on. See T302011.
  3. Work on supporting "Thanking" from within the talk page is being tracked in T249893.