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Community Wishlist Survey 2023/Miscellaneous/Add a new content model for member lists

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Add a new content model for member lists

  • Problem: When users join a user group, a WikiProject, etc., they usually sign on a particular page or section. However, users can be renamed. And after the renaming, the signatures on various pages won't change automatically. It can lead to trouble when trying to find a particular user on a list, especially after the renaming didn't leave a redirect behind.
  • Proposed solution: Develop a new content model or extend MassMessage lists, so that users can more easily sign up for a project. The page stores the user's user ID (and other data like timestamp). When being viewed, the page shows the signed users' current usernames.
  • Who would benefit: Users who sign on pages before renaming, users who wish to navigate others via lists on wikipages.
  • More comments:  
    1. The content model should allow "edit source." (i.e., if it uses JSON, we should be able to edit the JSON file.)
    2. Entries should include user ID (automated), note (optional), timestamp (automated). Should allow strikethrough and postscript (useful when user is announcing departure).
    3. Since some users would like to quit and join again, it should allow multiple signatures from one user.
  • Phabricator tickets:
  • Proposer: 魔琴 (talk) 09:56, 26 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

  • Hi @魔琴:. This wish includes a lot of technical detail. I think it might be wise to rename it into something like "Allow changing signatures in old content" or something that at least be more understandable to the general voting audience ? —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 23:37, 26 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
    @TheDJ: I fear one will misterpret "changing signature" as the action you do in Special:Preferences. How about "Develop a sign page which auto-updates after username change"? --魔琴 (talk) 02:59, 27 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

I think changing wikitext in old content would be way off here. It sounds like this needs 2 parts, that may not be "very hard":

  1. Have a way to stamp your userid to a revision (e.g. 魔琴 --> 14127964)
  2. Have a function to retrieve the current username for an id (e.g. 14127964 --> 魔琴)

Then someone could "sign" a page, and the display would be able to show their username. @魔琴: is that what the root of what you are looking for is? (i.e. that is, it isn't really about what style of 'signature' you have configured in prefences). The API is already able to access all of this, so it isn't secret - there just isn't a magic function for it. Of course, if this is in a page revision it wouldn't dynamically update until a purge or subsequent edit occurred. — xaosflux Talk 15:17, 27 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

@Xaosflux: Yeah, I think that's an economical way to do it. Suppose we have parser functions {{userId}} and {{username}}, we can sign with {{username:{{safesubst:userId}}}} or something like that. --魔琴 (talk) 16:04, 27 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I think both of those magic words can be implemented quite easily. What makes this wish difficult is updating the HTML whenever the signature changes. In doing this we have to invalidate the cache. For someone like Xoasflux who has 13,000+ talk page edits on just one wiki, that's potentially 13,000+ pages that need to be re-parsed. User's signatures should not have this kind of effect of the job queue, which is why we discourage using templates in signatures.
Also worth mentioning is the talk pages project, which essentially cements the use of wikitext in on-wiki communication. If we were to change how signatures work, I can only assume mw:Extension:DiscussionTools (or at least the reply tool) would need to be radically reworked as well. MusikAnimal (WMF) (talk) 20:59, 30 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@MusikAnimal (WMF): I don't mean changing the signatures on talk pages. I'm talking about the "members list" some WikiProjects or User Groups are using to list the users who participate in them. Like w:en:Wikipedia:WikiProject Chile#Members or Persian Wiki User Group#Participants. But the parser functions would be abused, now I'm aware of. Maybe a new content model, which would restrict the usage, would be better? --魔琴 (talk) 02:25, 31 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@魔琴 Ah, I'm terribly sorry I misread this! That seems considerably more "doable" than auto-updating signatures across a whole wiki :) I don't really know exactly how hard adding a new content model would be, but it seems probably within Community Tech's scope.
I realize in your problem statement you clearly say "When users join a user group, a WikiProject, etc., they usually sign on a particular page or section", which I somehow skimmed over, but would you mind if we rename your proposal? A more fitting title might be "Add a new content model for signatures". I wonder what "SignPad" is and if that is that something voters need to be aware of? MusikAnimal (WMF) (talk) 03:58, 31 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@MusikAnimal (WMF): I think it would be great! But maybe the word signature will still lead to misunderstanding. How about "member lists" instead? --魔琴 (talk) 05:12, 31 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Even better! I agree, saying "signatures" could lead someone else thinking you meant replacing signatures everywhere, and we don't want to give that impression!
Before we rename it, let me run this by the team again tomorrow. With the scope now clarified and much smaller, I think we can probably move it back into Miscellaneous. Apologies again for the hasty assessment of your proposal. MusikAnimal (WMF) (talk) 05:24, 31 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
That would be great. Thank you for your effort. --魔琴 (talk) 10:39, 31 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Done, and no problem :) MusikAnimal (WMF) (talk) 21:12, 31 January 2023 (UTC)[reply]

Voting

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