Topic on Extension talk:LiquidThreads

Some implementation root flaws (wikitext on many pages) and varying opinions; some bugs.

Disclaimer: I'm sorry for the offensive subject. I try to be as constructive as I can.

1. The whole idea of threaded messages is wrong. Look at how people use it: Everything is a single branch of messages going deeper and deeper. Everybody knows it's a stupid idea to put an answer somewhere in the middle of the thread and nobody does it. Nobody will see your answer there (bugzilla:20543). I know the current discussion style (using nested lists) in the Wikipedia projects has the same problem. The point is: LiquidThreads does not fix any of the problems we have with the current discussion style in the Wikipedia projects.
2. It's a mess. Everything is scattered around millions and millions of tiny little sub-pages. Don't tell me this is an implementation detail and I don't have to care about. Why am I able to see this if I don't have to care about?
3. There is no history. When I try to access a history all I get are useless single-entry lists like this.
4. It's impossible to use without JavaScript. Sure, you are able to access the messages even with JavaScript disabled. But again it's a mess. You can't use it. It looks like a lazy AJAX experiment gone horribly wrong.
5. It's so damn slow. Every click takes seconds. Often even without an AJAX spinner animation. And you have to click hundreds and hundreds of links.
6. Nothing is shown in my watch list (bugzilla:20541).
7. When I clicked "read" everything is gone from my new messages page. There is no way to go back to the latest discussions.
8. I can't choose what I want to read first.
9. When I unwatch a discussion it is not removed from my new messages page (bugzilla:21732).
10. Editing a message (for example to fix a typo or to add something) is almost impossible. It gets messy very, very fast. The date of the message does not change so nobody will notice I added something. All I can do is to add a new message which makes the mess even more painful. Again, I know the current discussion style in the Wikipedia projects has the same problems. Again, LiquidThreads does not fix any of these problems.
11. I hate the sliding jQuery animations. You are wasting my time! When I click something I want to see it. Now. A link entitled "more" should show more. It's not entitled "start fancy animation" (bugzilla:25039).

Great. I hate regular talk pages. Much more than I hate LiquidThreads.

So what are you going to do about it? :).

Exactly!

1. I disagree that is stupid. I see no point in putting a reply in the end if I'm comment about one of the first comments (to which no one else replied)

3. Have you tried the "history" link on top of the thread?

6. Everything is shown in the Special:NewMessages (including the messages you said on first item nobody would notice)

8. How so? Why not?

10. Sure they will. It appears on Special:NewMessages.

11. Bug 30401?

3. What is this supposed to be? Where are the "prev" and "compare revisions" links? Where are the "undo" links?
6. Special:NewMessages is a mess. Especially with JavaScript disabled.
8. At Special:NewMessages everything is shown on a giant page. I can't choose which topic is more important for me and what I want to read first. I can't order it. Even when I try to collapse the threads they do not collapse but are shown as a useless "mini" threads instead, still wasting space.
10. See 6.

New Bug: The "preview" button is broken. I have to click twice to see the preview (browser is Opera 12.02).

3. The "prev", "undo" and "compare revisions" are available for each reply. But I don't think they make much sense for the thread as a whole.

"Why I hate liquid threads" number 13: I had read a new message. I even wrote a reply. But the top navigation bar still tells me there is a new message. What new message? The one you just replied to.

Number 14: The nesting of the gray boxes looks ugly. See this box. The top border line is missing. Why are there even boxes?

Number 15: Again I had one of these AJAX spinners on the screen forever. Literally. No timeout. Not even a hint on what's going on or even if something is going on or not. Just that fake animation that is in no way connected to the real action.

Number 5 again: Why takes rendering a preview so damn long? It's less than half the time if I show the preview of a regular wiki page.

Thank god that the preview works. It's been completely broken for a long time (well, it surely felt very long).

Number 12 seems to be missing. Allow me to add a candidate: There is no "Show changes" when i am editing a message.

16. You can't change the location (URL) of a thread.

17. When the title of a thread changes, the new value applies retroactively to all older revisions.