Strukturált Megbeszélések/Kivonás

This page is a translated version of the page Structured Discussions/Deprecation and the translation is 16% complete.

Structured Discussions (SD - Flow) is a deprecated extension. Users are advised to discontinue its use, and communities are encouraged to move their talk pages that use Structured Discussions to subpages and stop using them.

It 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 Structured Discussions (and possibly LiquidThreads) and replace them with DiscussionTools.

Structured Discussions is a complex piece of software that generates a lot of maintenance issues. Estimating the work required to adapt Structured Discussions to the IP Editing: Privacy Enhancement and Abuse Mitigation project revealed a very significant workload. In view of all these challenges, the decision was taken to inform the communities of the future deprecation of Structured Discussions.

The idea is to encourage communities to switch active Structured Discussions tools to the DiscussionTools talk page format. Then, the Structured Discussions pages would be removed from the wikis, at a yet to-be-defined date.

Projektfrissítések

  • - first internal document by Kosta Harlan (Staff software engineer, Growth team) and Benoît Evellin (Community Relations Specialist, attached to the Growth team) on sunsetting SD
  • - first meeting with Growth and Editing about SD deprecation
  • - Comparison table of the two tools.
  • - creation of the project page
  • - Data on usage of Structured Discussions
  • - Community discussions regarding archiving SD boards on wikis.
  • - Communication plan to assist communities archiving their Flow/LQT boards
  • - Communities are progressively informed of Flow/LQT's deprecation and are invited to move their pages using these tools as archived pages. These pages will be set to read-only mode soon after.
  • - Phase 0 wikis Flow/LQT pages are set to read-only.
  • Next - Phase 1 wikis Flow/LQT pages are set to read-only.
  • Next - Phase 2 wikis Flow/LQT pages are set to read-only.
  • Next - Convert Flow/LQT contents


A Strukturált Megbeszélések kivonása

The Wikimedia Foundation is working on changes to how IP editing is handled: IP Editing: Privacy Enhancement and Abuse Mitigation. Temporary accounts for unregistered editors will be a new type of user account. This requires changing how features we use to contribute to wikis works.

This work concerns all features, and it raises some challenges. The case of Structured Discussions (also known as “SD” or “Flow”) is one of them. This extension is used at a few wikis, that were progressively contacted in November and December 2023. Flow is a complex piece of software that was never quite finished, fits poorly into the MediaWiki architecture, and creates a significant number of technical errors.

A Strukturált Megbeszélések használata alacsony. 2023 augusztusában a DiscussionToolst naponta átlagosan 18 780-szor használták, a Strukturált Megbeszéléseket csak 250-szer, elsősorban a francia Wikipédián.

We considered several options to adapt Structured Discussions, including a full adaptation, or a partial adaptation where Temp accounts can respond but not create new conversations. All of them would take a lot of time and effort for a short-term benefit. Also, the Wikimedia Foundation's long-term plan is to remove Structured Discussions from the wikis, mainly due to the maintenance cost. As a consequence, we prefer to avoid adapting Structured Discussions to Temporary accounts.

We took the opportunity of work around Temporary accounts to question the concerned communities regarding the future of Structured Discussions.

DiscussionTools is the replacement for Structured Discussions. DiscussionTools is the default discussion system at all wikis. It allows anyone to start, reply or subscribe to a conversation. It provides a visual experience for wikitext-based conversations, and it covers the vast majority of features Structured Discussions offers.

The goal with this conversation is to respond to the community's questions regarding the archival of Structured Discussions.

The idea is to proceed in two stages:

  1. discussion pages using SD are archived as subpages. They are replaced by a classic discussion page. In this way, the most active pages will already be ready when we proceed to step 2.
  2. SD are removed from the wiki. Existing pages (including archived ones) will be converted to a format yet to be defined.

We encourage communities to start the first step.

A közösségeknek feltett kérdések

Starting at the end of November 2023, communities where Structured Discussions are still in use are progressively informed of the upcoming deprecation. We ask them the following questions:

  1. Are the reasons given for archiving structured discussions clear?
  2. Are the two steps outlined above for archiving and uninstalling structured discussions clear?
  3. If so, what is a reasonable timeframe for archiving pages for deinstallation? At present, deinstallation is not planned on our side (even if the second quarter of 2024 is mentioned), as we are waiting for the end of these conversations, which take place on multiple wikis.
  4. In your opinion, what format should pages currently using SDs be converted to when we proceed with the deinstallation of structured discussions?

Communities discussions report

Deprecation timeline

The deprecation will be performed as follows:

  1. Moving all Flow pages that aren't sub-pages as sub-pages[1]
    1. First this move is done by users. This way, users of active Flow boards have the opportunity to move active discussions to a classical new talk page.
    2. At a given date, a script will moves the remaining pages.
  2. Setting these pages in read-only mode.
  3. Converting contents to wikitext.

The two first steps are conducted by the Editing team starting October 2024. Wikis have been grouped by phases.

Phase Wikis Moving all Flow pages as sub-pages Setting Flow pages in read-only mode Converting contents to wikitext
Phase 0 commonswiki, cswiki, enwiki, eowiki, frwiktionary, hewiki, kkwiki, metawiki, pawiki, ruwiki, specieswiki, svwiki, test2wiki, tewiki, nowiki, outreachwiki Script ran on not defined
Phase 1 bswiki, elwiki, euwiki, fawiki, fiwiki, frwikiquote, frwikisource, frwikiversity, frwikivoyage, idwiki, lvwiki, plwiki, ptwiki, urwiki, viwikisource, zhwikisource to be added to be added not defined
Phase 2 arwiki, cawiki, frwiki , mediawikiwiki , orwiki, wawiki, wawiktionary, wikidatawiki, zhwiki, cawikiquote, fiwikimedia, gomwiki, kabwiki, ptwikibooks, sewikimedia to be added to be added not defined


Structured Discussions and DiscussionTools Comparative review

Main characteristics

Status of each tool, and their integration to the wiki's key features.

LiquidThreads Structured Discussions DiscussionTools Convenient Discussions
Type of tool MediaWiki extension Gadget/Userscript based on DiscussionTools
Release status Unmaintained Maintained (Wikimedia Foundation) Maintained (Volunteers)
Activation Pending removal[2] Deployed on all wikis as the default discussion system.[3] User configurable (including opting-out). User opt-in and configurable
Visual editing  N Nincs kész   Kész   Kész  N Nincs kész
Backwards-compatibility with wikitext  N Nincs kész  N Nincs kész   Kész   Kész
Templates support   Kész   Kész   Részben kész – Tables, templates and parser tags aren't allowed in replies in visual mode   Kész
Full history integration with the rest of the wiki   Kész  N Nincs kész   Kész   Kész
Mobile web support  N Nincs kész   Kész   Kész  N Nincs kész
Mobile app support  N Nincs kész  N Nincs kész   Kész  N Nincs kész
Permalink to a given comment   Kész   Kész   Kész – if the signature of the comment is not altered.[4]   Folyamatban

Discussion features

Interaction with talk pages and other comments.

LiquidThreads Structured Discussions DiscussionTools Convenient Discussions
Dedicated workflow for starting a new topic   Kész   Kész   Kész   Kész
Topic and contents preload   Kész   Kész   Kész   Kész
Indication of new comments when you read a topic  N Nincs kész  N Nincs kész   Kész
Indication of edited comments when you read a topic   Kész   Kész  N Nincs kész   Kész
Each conversation has a permalink   Kész   Kész – Each topic is a different page.   Kész – By linking to the title, or by using the first comment's permalink.[4]   Folyamatban[4]
Move topics between pages   Kész  N Nincs készplanned but not implemented   Kész – via wikitext editing; title and signature mustn't be altered during the move.[4]   Kész
Include discussions on another page and reply to them there  N Nincs kész  N Nincs készplanned, including cross-wiki transclusion , but not implemented   Kész – via transclusion
Editing comments   Kész   Kész   Részben kész – via wikitext editing the whole page or section. See T242562 and T245225 for the editing of individual comments.   Kész
Thank a comment from within the talk page   Részben kész – via Page history   Kész   Részben kész – via Thanks in Page history.
  Folyamatban – Work on supporting "Thanking" from the DiscussionTools UI is being tracked.
  Kész
Sort topics by recent comment   Kész   Kész  N Nincs kész  N Nincs kész
Sort topics by start date   Kész   Kész  N Nincs kész  N Nincs kész
Summarize a discussion at the top of it   Kész   Kész   Részben kész – by editing opening comment.
Mark a message as read or unread   Kész  N Nincs kész  N Nincs kész  N Nincs kész
Show/hide (collapse) subthreads   Kész  N Nincs kész  N Nincs kész   Kész


Notifications and interactivity

LiquidThreads Structured Discussions DiscussionTools Convenient Discussions
Highlight a set of unread comments  N Nincs kész   Kész   Kész – only when subscribed to a topic and using links from notifications   Kész
Subscribe to be notified about new comments to a topic   Kész – via Watchlist   Kész – via Echo   Kész – via Echo or itself
Be notified when a new topic is started on a talk page
Auto-subscription to a topic you created   Kész – default
Highlight a quoted comment  N Nincs kész – can link to comments but only as standalone pages   Kész   Kész   Kész
Notification of edited comments   Részben kész – only on your own comments   Kész  N Nincs kész  N Nincs kész

Maintenance and moderation

LiquidThreads Structured Discussions DiscussionTools Convenient Discussions
Direct access to user talkpage, contribs and more   Részben kész – if linked in the signature   Kész   Részben kész – if linked in the signature
Hide (moderate) a comment   Részben kész – no undelete UI   Kész   Részben kész – via undo/rollback (requires searching for edit in edit history) or archival templates, not included and requires editing wikitext   Kész
Hide or delete a topic   Kész   Részben kész – same as DiscussionTools
Archiving discussions   Nem szükséges   Nem szükséges  N Nincs kész – see T337293
  • Requires 3rd party bots for automatic archival
  • Requires wikitext editing or 3rd party gadgets for manual archival
 N Nincs kész – Same as DiscussionTools, though moving topics can be used for manual archival.
Report an inappropriate comment  N Nincs kész  N Nincs kész   Folyamatban[5]  N Nincs kész


Használati adatok

2023 augusztusában átlagosan:

  • A DiscussionToolst naponta mintegy 18 780 alkalommal használják.
  • A Flow-t mintegy 250-szer használják, elsősorban a francia Wikipédiában.
  • A LiquidThreadst kevesebb mint egyszer használják naponta.

Megjegyzések és hivatkozások

  1. We assume that any sub-page is an archive.
  2. https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T332022
  3. A few wikis have Flow as the default discussion system.
  4. T339247 – Create entry points for the Incident Report dialog with DiscussionTools