Structured Discussions/Deprecation
This page is currently a draft.
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StructuredDiscussions (SD - Flow) are 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 StructuredDiscussions (and possibly LiquidThreads) and replace them by DiscussionTools.
The idea is to have DiscussionTools provide equivalent features of what StructuredDiscussions offers, so that current SD users would switch to DT.
This project has no formal deadline or plan.
Project updates
- 2022-06-08: 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
- 2023-03-14: first meeting with Growth and Editing about SD deprecation
- 2023-03-14: Comparison table of the two tools.
- 2023-03-29: creation of the project page
StructuredDiscussions 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 | |
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Type of tool | MediaWiki extension | Gadget/Userscript based on DiscussionTools | ||
Release status | Unmaintained | Maintained (Wikimedia Foundation) | Maintained (Volunteers) | |
Activation | Pending removal[1] | Wiki opt-in, user configurable | User opt-in and configurable | |
Visual editing | Not done | Done | Done | Not done |
Backwards-compatibility with wikitext | Not done | Not done | Done | Done |
Templates support | Done | Done | Partially done – Tables, templates and parser tags aren't allowed in replies in visual mode | Done |
Full history integration with the rest of the wiki | Done | Not done | Done | Done |
Mobile web support | Not done | Done | Done | Not done |
Mobile app support | Not done | Not done | Done | Not done |
Permalink to a given comment | Done | Done | Partially done – if the comment is not moved elsewhere.[2] In progress |
Discussion features
Interaction with talk pages and other comments.
LiquidThreads | Structured Discussions | DiscussionTools | Convenient Discussions | |
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Dedicated workflow for starting a new topic | Done | Done | Done | Done |
Topic and contents preload | Done | Done | Done | Done |
Indication of new comments when you read a topic | Not done | Not done | Done | |
Indication of edited comments when you read a topic | Done | Done | Not done | Done |
Each topic is a different pages/each conversation has a permalink | Done | Done | In progress[2] | In progress[2] |
Move topics between pages | Done | Not done – planned but not implemented | Partially done – via wikitext editing, breaks links.[2] | Done |
Include discussions on another page and reply to them there | Not done | Not done – planned, including cross-wiki transclusion , but not implemented | Done – via transclusion | |
Editing comments | Done | Done | Partially done – via wikitext editing the whole page or section. See T242562 and T245225 for the editing of individual comments. | Done |
Thank a comment from within the talk page | Partially done – via Page history | Done | Partially done – via Thanks in Page history. In progress – Work on supporting "Thanking" from the DiscussionTools UI is being tracked. |
Done |
Sort topics by recent comment | Done | Done | Not done | Not done |
Sort topics by start date | Done | Done | Not done | Not done |
Summarize a discussion at the top of it | Done | Done | Partially done – by editing opening comment. | |
Mark a message as read or unread | Done | Not done | Not done | Not done |
Show/hide (collapse) subthreads | Done | Not done | Not done | Done |
Notifications and interactivity
LiquidThreads | Structured Discussions | DiscussionTools | Convenient Discussions | |
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Highlight a set of unread comments | Not done | Done | Done – only when subscribed to a topic and using links from notifications | Done |
Subscribe to be notified about new comments to a topic | Done – via Watchlist | Done – via Echo | Done – via Echo or itself | |
Be notified when a new topic is started on a talk page | ||||
Auto-subscription to a topic you created | Done – default | |||
Highlight a quoted comment | Not done – can link to comments but only as standalone pages | Done | Done | Done |
Notification of edited comments | Partially done – only on your own comments | Done | Not done | Not done |
Maintenance and moderation
LiquidThreads | Structured Discussions | DiscussionTools | Convenient Discussions | |
---|---|---|---|---|
Direct access to user talkpage, contribs and more | Partially done – if linked in the signature | Done | Partially done – if linked in the signature | |
Hide (moderate) a comment | Partially done – no undelete UI | Done | Partially done – via undo/rollback (requires searching for edit in edit history) or archival templates, not included and requires editing wikitext | Done |
Hide or delete a topic | Done | Partially done – same as DiscussionTools | ||
Archiving discussions | Not needed | Not needed | Not done – see T337293
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Not done – Same as DiscussionTools, though moving topics can be used for manual archival. |
Report an inappropriate comment | Not done | Not done | In progress[3] | Not done |
Notes and references
- ↑ https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T332022
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Support for offering permanent links to talk page comments and topics is being worked on. Links to comments already exist but aren't permanent without Help:PermanentLink . See T302011. While DiscussionTools doesn't have a UI for acquiring links, Convenient Discussions does and can automatically generate PermanentLinks.
- ↑ T339247 – Create entry points for the Incident Report dialog with DiscussionTools