Community Wishlist Survey 2022/Watchlists/Temporarily unwatch a page for a set period of time

Random proposal ►◄ Watchlists The survey has concluded. Here are the results!

Temporarily unwatch a page for a set period of time

Problem: Occasionally pages that are rarely edited become news items and see large scale editing (e.g. due to the death of the subject). This causes the watchlist to get swamped, and means changes to other pages may get missed. A user may want to stop watching that page for a time until the page has stabilised.
Proposed solution: Allow individual pages to be unwatched for a selected length of time.
Who would benefit: Users who watch a lot of pages
More comments: This is the reverse of watchlist expiry that was implemented recently.
Phabricator tickets: phab:T299227
Proposer: Voice of Clam (talk) 18:45, 12 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Discussion

I created phab:T299227 for this. — xaosflux ^Talk 15:49, 14 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]

If you don't want to watch a page when it gets really busy, why are you watching it at all? That just doesn't make any sense to me. Spinning Spark 10:08, 5 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
@Spinningspark: Personal preference. I have my watchlist set to view all changes, not just the latest, so if a page receives a large number of edits, it floods my watchlist and I may miss changes to other pages. If a page is undergoing a large number of edits in a short time then any vandalism will be picked up quickly even if I'm not watching it. Voice of Clam (talk) 08:17, 8 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
That's how I have my watchlist set too. If a page is really busy, that means more has been written on it and I am more interested in reading it rather than less. If you are only interested in vandalism you have better options for filtering your watchlist than entirely turning it off. There are filters for likely, and very likely to have problems. Or you can highlight those categories as an option in your preferences. An article is just as likely to be vandalised while it is being actively improved/expanded as at any other time. More so in fact; the increased activity may well be because the subject has been in the news recently in which case it will be a magnet for vandals and trolls. You're concerned about missing changes, so you turn off a page with lots of changes. That's just illogical, as is relying on other editors to spot any vandalism. Those editors are not looking for vandalism, they are writing improvements. You are the one looking for vandalism but you have just shut your eyes to it. Spinning Spark 13:45, 8 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]

Voting

Support I have had to do this several times when I've had to manually unwatch and rewatch a page. This would be beneficial in my book. Dolotta (talk) 19:53, 28 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support — Draceane ^talk_contrib. 22:16, 28 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support Izno (talk) 00:06, 29 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support as proposer. Voice of Clam (talk) 08:38, 29 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support Lone Warrior 007 (talk) 10:14, 29 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support Arado Ar 196 (talk) 10:44, 29 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support Aca (talk) 15:21, 29 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support — Omnilaika02 (talk) 19:53, 29 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support Agus Damanik (talk) 01:49, 30 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support — Kitrsjlhf (talk) 05:33, 30 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support TheInternetGnome (talk) 08:33, 30 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support JPxG (talk) 01:01, 31 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support Dreamy Jazz ^{talk to me | enwiki} 14:55, 31 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support IAmChaos (talk) 21:47, 31 January 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support Temporary unblock, removal of rights, etc. should be getting in Thingofme (talk) 10:27, 2 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support EN-Jungwon 10:37, 3 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Oppose Not seeing the point of this. Spinning Spark 10:09, 5 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support I don't think I'd need or use this, but I can see how other people would. Better to make some fixed time lengths available so you don't forget to rewatch it. Daniel Case (talk) 19:38, 5 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support --Ciao • Bestoernesto • ✉ 02:48, 6 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support--Vulp❯❯❯here! 09:11, 6 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support —— Eric Liu_（Talk） 10:15, 6 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support —Thanks for the fish! ^{talk•contrib} (he/him) 17:11, 6 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support Ayumu Ozaki (talk) 03:42, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support Agreed, I could see potential uses for this, at least occasionally. paul2520 (talk) 18:59, 7 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support Heanor (talk) 13:31, 8 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support — DaxServer (t · c) 14:59, 9 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]
Support Wikiusuarios (talk) 20:22, 10 February 2022 (UTC)[reply]