MediaWiki talk:Watchdetails

Main page redesign

I'd like to spread the word about this redesign, and I believe a short notice here will inform more people than by using the usual channels. Is something like that ok? - Trevor MacInnis (Talk | Contribs) 14:03, 5 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

He's threatened to go ahead and do it himself if nobody answers him.--HereToHelp (talk • contribs) 17:21, 5 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

DON'T add this until an actual election starts. Community portal is a perfect spot for it, but it's not meant to clutter watchlists. Ral315 (talk) 08:06, 8 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Have they come up with a redesigh that follows the KISS priciple yet?Geni 19:06, 5 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

No, they haven't. In fact, there's more infighting going on now than ever before. The "draft" design changes radically on a daily basis, and the stupidies (like having two search boxes on the page, right next to each other) are a sight to behold. Which is why it's NOT going on the site notice or this page. Raul654 08:37, 8 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I agree that this shouldn't be advertised here or on the site notice, but your apparent belief that you possess the authority to unilaterally issue such a proclamation is quite troubling.

Oh, and if you're going to rudely accuse of other people of engineering stupidities, you might want to spell the word correctly. —David Levy 18:33, 9 February 2006 (UTC)[reply]

re: email confirmation

I've added a note on this page regarding email confirmation Wikipedia:Village_pump_(technical)#Mail_server_blacklisted_by_SpamCop requirements that have very recently been enabled. Many users who have previously configured email may not be aware of the new requirement, and may not notice the change, as from their end the only diferance is not getting wiki email. xaosflux ^Talk/_CVU 06:04, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I've added a link to Brion's announcement of the change on the village pump. —Ilmari Karonen (talk) 14:06, 2 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I plan on removing this in 2 weeks, unless another option for distributing this information is made availible somewhere more effective then on this page. xaosflux ^Talk/_CVU 01:38, 3 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Why not put it permanently in MediaWiki:Prefs-help-email? People going to Special:Preferences might notice it more easily in that bright pinkish box. Splarka (rant) 08:18, 4 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That box may need some rewording, but a quick test showed that normal wiki links do not work in that area. xaosflux ^Talk/_CVU 03:13, 5 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

True, but HTML code does, apparently (at least in 1.5, can't test 1.6 mahself), this might be better?:

E-mail (optional): Enables others to contact you through your user or user_talk page without the need of revealing your identity. <strong>Be sure to <a href="/wiki/Special:Confirmemail">confirm</a> your email address, or you will not receive email.</strong>

Splarka (rant) 08:08, 5 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I tried an html variant, but it failed miserably, may have been a psace in the URL that i didnt use % characters on. -- xaosflux ^Talk/_CVU 02:04, 6 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

NOTE:Please leave the confirmation notice here until 3/16/06. xaosflux ^Talk/_CVU 02:04, 6 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Dates

There was a request on the village pump to add the current date to the watchlist. I think it would be useful too. Sometimes, editors do not know what time "now" is when they open the watchlist up. Having the time there allows someone to determine how early or late the changes too place. We can remove the UTC/GMT links if we don't like them. --HappyCamper 04:57, 6 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Except that Watchlist times follow your local time zone preference and so are not UTC, hence I don't see how that is helpful. Dragons flight 05:02, 6 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Well, I use it to find the relative amount of time that has passed between the changes to the articles. It doesn't matter that it doesn't correspond to the local user's time. Hmm...well, we'll leave it as is. See you! --HappyCamper 05:05, 6 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Not everyone modifies their account preferences to specify their local time. For example, anyone who wishes to maintain synchronicity between edit histories and signatures (among other conversational time references) will retain the default offset of 00:00. I've never changed it, and I have a difficult time understanding why anyone would want to (given the confusion that inevitably arises).

Those who do opt to select an appropriate offset already know what their local time is (and can apply this information to the displayed edit times), so they can simply ignore the UTC indication (which is useful to the rest of us, especially when we're first starting out). —David Levy 05:26, 6 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I still fail to see how it is useful to add a timestamp to the top of the watchlist given that now is always going to be just somewhat later than the most recent watchlist change anyway. Given that A) I don't see what purpose it serves, and B) it is potentially confusing to have conflicting timestamps for anyone with a time zone set, I would prefer that it not be added. However, I won't stand in the way if there is a groundswell of support for it. Dragons flight 05:46, 6 March 2006 (UTC)[reply]