Talk:Structured Discussions

Structured discussions (Flow) is used on this page (documentation).

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We asked the help of an administrator, and he found a solution by moving my page.

Hello,

When I have rencently tried to disable the structured discussions option in my preferences, the message "Fatal exception of type Flow\Exception\InvalidDataException" has appeared. If anyone can help me to find a solution,

Thanks you in advance!

My discussion page

Fixed (template removed).

At https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Citoid, there is a notice at the top of the page asking me to comment on the "new" Flow tool "over he coming months". Can this be removed, unless the discussion is actually being reopened?

I'm apparently not allowed to fix myself:

"This action has been automatically identified as harmful, and therefore disallowed. If you believe your action was constructive, please inform an administrator of what you were trying to do. A brief description of the abuse rule which your action matched is: Block editing board descriptions for project and help pages" HLHJ (talk) 19:12, 20 November 2022 (UTC)

Resolved via AbuseFilter extension.

Hi! I noticed that there some users who spam and Structured Discussions pages making links to their websites. How can I prevent them doing this using AbuseFilter extension?

For structured discussions you'll need separate/duplicate filters with the Filter group set to flow (or whatever you set $wgFlowAbuseFilterGroup to).

One of the biggest secondary utilities of talk pages, such as WikiProjects on Wikipedia is the ability to easily search the archives and the talk page(s). This is ever so often used when linking to consensus, previous discussions and general tasks that have to do with using old discussions. Discussion with a sleek interface is great, but it's just as important to refer back to old ones.

So how would I go about doing this in Flow? For one, the "older topics" doesn't appear until scrolled all the way to the bottom (and ever then, only a portion), so I cannot free-text search. There isn't even a table of contents for headers that I can see. The default MediaWiki search did not have any hits to older topics I tried to search for. Of course, there are no obvious search boxes here, so I'm assuming it's not just me unable to locate it. In fact, how will the old content pre-Flow integration be searched (which is in some places 15 years of discussions and consensus building)?

I originally wanted to post this at local English Wikipedia WikiProject as this is a major impedance to an actual use case of the system, at least for me.

Hellknowz: Search in general, is one of the major features that they've been holding off on, because the new Extension:CirrusSearch is in the process of being deployed everywhere (details at mw:Search). Once that is in place and settled, the Flow devs will be devoting some concentrated time into implementing search for Flow content, and including old archived talkpage content.

Regarding infinite-scroll pages, and the difficulty of using ctrl-F, those concerns have been raised before, and there's no firm decision at the moment, but a variety of options. There are some technical notes at Flow/Functional Specifications/Search and Filter, and I'll nudge the team to discuss it again, or to update me if I've forgotten something.

Quiddity (WMF): Thanks for reply. I guess there is no way to search presently if deployed for testing.

Is there any news on this?

Flow (the software used on this page) isn't under active development, so new features are not being added.

As a work around, putting your search terms plus site:mediawiki.org into your favorite search engine usually works for me.

So if we're using this for a user talk page or a project chat page, there's just no way to provide an archive search?

At most WMF-hosted wikis, all the namespaces are indexed by all of the major web search engines, so it should work on both User_talk: and Project_talk: pages.

I think we must be talking at cross purposes here.

It's common practice on WMF projects to provide an archive search box, like the one seen at the top of wikidata:Wikidata:Project_chat/Archive. I'm not seeing how it is possible to add such a search box on pages that have switched to using StructuredDiscussions, and I don't see how to reproduce it with third party search engines.

There is no perfect method of recreating that, and it can't be done on wiki at all for Flow pages. However, you can usually get close to it with a search like whatamIdoing VisualEditor/Feedback site:mediawiki.org. That would find threads containing my username on the page VisualEditor/Feedback at this website.

OK. I'm still struggling to see how to set up an archive search link for, say, wikidata:User_talk:Bovlb. I don't seem to be able to find any of it in Google.

Unfortunately, if Google isn't indexing the pages, then that workaround won't work.

OK. The lack of search seems to be a major barrier to recommending wider adoption. Do you have any suggestions for how I could escalate this concern?

I agree that it is a major shortcoming. Unfortunately, active development of this software stopped several years ago. New features, such as integration with search, are not being added. The software will probably be considered for "sunsetting" (removal).

Hi! Are those templates still needed or can be removed?

How do I disable this soul-crushing "feature"? – Ilovemydoodle2 (talk) 14:13, 20 July 2022 (UTC)

Hi! I have turned the function on on my talk page , but the Flow is still not displayed on the page. Can anyone help me?

How did you turn the function on?

I turned the function on via settings.

Where exactly? Which options exactly (exact name)? Please provide clear steps to reproduce and links.

This is where the option is located.https://zh.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:%E5%8F%82%E6%95%B0%E8%AE%BE%E7%BD%AE#mw-prefsection-betafeatures

Hi! I was recently renamed globally, but the structured discussion board at no:User Talk:Abuluntu was not moved automatically. I have disabled the beta function in my settings, but would like the board archived under my new talk page. Is anyone able to help me?

Trizek I spotted your name in another relevant discussion similar to this, maybe you could help?

Problem solved, no further need of assistance

Glad to know that you found a solution! Let me know if you need anythings else.

On testwiki, I accidentally enabled the "Structured Discussions on user talk" beta feature which converted my talk page to Flow. Is there a way to undo that?

Disabling the beta feature didn't work. Trying to change the content model from Special:ChangeContentModel also didn't work.

How do you make visual editor default inside Flow instead if wikieditor.

I have VE set as default on main namespace but I still get wikiteditor as default in flow talk pages.

Just switch to VE, create a new topic or a reply and next time it will be the default editor.

To be more specific:

• I'm virtually certain that the initial default is VE.
• After that, Flow remembers and defaults back to whatever editing mode you used(*) last time.

(*) In order to "use" a mode you need to make some sort of change in that mode, and click save. Typing in wikitext mode, switching to visual, and saving with no new changes, would count as wikitext mode.

@TitusiMW, you mean in a Wikimedia wiki, or in a third-party wiki?

In a Wikimedia wiki, you have to switch to visual editing mode and the wiki remembers this choice. In another configuration, it may be different.

That's true

@TitusiMW

Instructions on how to switch from the source editor to the wikitext editor while using Flow

My question was for a private hosted wiki. I understand how to switch between modes. I woould like to make VE default for all users of my wiki. Is there a way to do that?

I wish you luck with that. We have been asking the WMF for a way to make wikitext the default, and the WMF doesn't want to fix the dysfunctional "start in an effectively random mode" design.

Set order in wgFlowEditorList

Hi, @Wargo, could you provide an exact example?

@Wargo I dont think that really works. I already have

$wgFlowEditorList = array( 'visualeditor', 'none' );

But this only makes VE available. WikiEditor is still the default editor until each user specifically switches to VE.