First of all, I really like the notifications. And I want more of them! I find it especially powerful to not need to visit my watch list to see if there is something said in a discussion I follow. But I still have to do that to see if there is a new discussion started on some page I am particularly interested in. For these pages, I would like to auto subscribe to all new sections. Since it was so easy to unwatch a topic straight from the menu, I don't mind getting many notifications. I still find it likely to save me many clicks and loading time of pages.
Topic on Talk:Talk pages project/Notifications/Flow
We appreciate you stopping by to share this feedback, @Ainali! A response to the points you raised below...
First of all, I really like the notifications. And I want more of them! I find it especially powerful to not need to visit my watch list to see if there is something said in a discussion I follow.
This is helpful context for us to know about. Related to it: can you share why you prefer learning about whether something new was said in a conversation by way of receiving a notification rather than by way of visiting your watchlist?
In the meantime I've added a note to the ticket where we are considering introducing the ability for people to be able to subscribe to be notified whenever a new section/discussion is added to a talk page.
Yes, since the notification is shown in any Wikimedia tab, I would notice it much earlier than if I have to switch to the tab where I have my watchlist. It is also similar to other platforms where I have conversations. I get notified wherever I happen to be (and for the best ones, I can also select what to be notified about).
Ah, this is helpful! To make sure I'm internalizing what you are describing, can you please read the below and let me know if I've interpreted what you've said in ways that are different from what you meant?
The way I am interpreting the comment you made above.
"I prefer learning when something new is said in a conversation via notifications because notifications are visible to me wherever I am on Wikipedia. The watchlist on the other hand requires that I a) remember to check it and b) leave where I am in order to know if someone has said something in a conversation I'm interested in."
Also, out of curiosity: it sounds like while you're editing Wikipedia you have the page you are editing open in one tab and your Watchlist open in another tab. Assuming this is accurate, are there any other Wikipedia pages you typically have open in tabs while you're editing?
I have at least one tab open of Wikidata, Wikimedia Commons, Swedish Wikipedia, English Wikipedia and Meta at all times. Usually several of each. Having them open and switching to them feels easier than switching to the tab. I have the watchlists as the default open page, and then any that have things I would like to read or come back to edit later.
This also reminds me that some other platforms (Mattermost, Slack, LinkedIn, Gmail) can give a visual clue in the favicon that there are notifications, so that if I would happen to be somewhere else knows that something has happened).
This additional context is helpful; I appreciate you sharing it, @Ainali and I'm sorry for how long it's taken me to respond here.
I've documented the idea you are raising of including some kind of "visual clue in the favicon" within Phabricator here: T1188#7486621.
Jan, do you think that, if they did this, you would see fewer article edits, or make fewer edits to articles?
Good question. I don't know. I imagine that I would be more active in discussions. That naturally leads to less time to make edits to articles. But hopefully those edits will now have fewer errors and instead be made with a clearer consensus. How it actually will play out, I can't really tell.
Last year, Peter told me about some research at Wikia/Fandom. They made it easier to comment on talk pages. The result was more talk, but no improvements to articles.
I would like this feature, and for me it should be completely separate from the watchlist. The reason why I like the topic notifications is that I don't have to (and don't want to) watchlist talk pages (e.g. local Village pumps). I would like to be able to "subscribe to a talk page" and get notification of new topics and their titles, but I don't want to be automatically subscribed to all new topics on the page.
One of the things they're looking at is automatically subscribing you to all discussion sections you start, no matter what editing tools you use. This means you could leave a warning message on a newcomer's talk page with a script (does fiwiki have a tool similar to w:en:Project:Twinkle?), and be automatically subscribed to that. (It wouldn't work with MassMessage, however.) Would that work for you?
We don't have Twinkle or any similar tool. Automatic subscription to self-started discussions could be a good idea, especially if it works the same way as watchlisting, so that you can choose if you want to subscribe to every discussion you started or do it manually each time.
hi @Ainali! A quick update to share that the functionality you started this thread seeking will be available within the next week.
There will soon be a new "Subscribe" button that appears in all desktop skins. When clicked, you will be notified whenever a new topic is started on this page.
Note: bringing this functionality to mobile will need to happen a bit later, once some technical issues are worked out.