Community Wishlist Survey 2023/Editing/More functionality for the talk-page reply gadget

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

More functionality for the talk-page reply gadget

• Problem: The new talk-page reply/new section tool introduced a year ago took some getting used to at first, but now I can't imagine Wikimedia wikis without it. It has, for one, vastly eliminated the need to go back and correct typos that resulted in redlinks. Nonetheless I have found two ways in which it could bear improvement:
  • The default to the normal four-tilde signature. There are times (such as when issuing a level-1 warning, where the newer syntax automatically includes my name) where I'd rather end with the five-tilde sig (just the date and time). There are also times (like when filing a case at WP:3O) where editors are required to use the three-tilde version (unlinked username, date and time). Yet in order to do that with this gadget, it is necessary to go back in and edit the result manually after saving ... if you type in the three or five tildes, the result is added in addition to your signature.
  • The lack of an option (unless it's there and I don't know about it) to add an edit summary. In a potentially contentious discussion, I'd like to know more about what the other person is saying to me if I see in the history that they've made some 4-digit, bolded-green response before I actually read it (Though I could see this non-feature's utility in keeping people from writing hostile, insulting edit summaries, I think it's better that we let people by default write edit summaries; were we to add this feature it wouldn't be too hard to make it something that could be turned off for those who use it abusively). This is already possible
• Proposed solution: Make it possible to override the default sig when the editor manually types in just three, or five, tildes. And add a bar to write in an edit summary if the user desires.
• Who would benefit: Everyone, really.
• More comments:
• Phabricator tickets:
• Proposer: Daniel Case (talk) 21:35, 2 February 2023 (UTC)

Discussion

• @Daniel Case: I don't think the reply tool is a gadget. So I will move this to the Editing category. DWalden (WMF) (talk) 10:54, 3 February 2023 (UTC)
• Edit summaries can be added by clicking on "Advanced". ESanders (WMF) (talk) 12:52, 3 February 2023 (UTC)

  Oh, OK. But what about the sig options? Daniel Case (talk) 18:22, 3 February 2023 (UTC)

  Those are indeed not possible at the moment. ESanders (WMF) (talk) 12:54, 5 February 2023 (UTC)

• @DWalden (WMF): Shouldn't the summary part removed from the proposal? Also the title is not clear as to whether this is a wish for more functionality in the reply tool in general, or more specific. For example, I could use an ability to edit a comment I already made, but it is not clear whether that's covered by this wish (the body suggests not). Nardog (talk) 11:52, 6 February 2023 (UTC)

  The request is not specific in one proposal itself as one has been implemented. Thingofme (talk) 03:24, 12 February 2023 (UTC)

  Pardon me? I don’t get what you’re saying. Aaron Liu (talk) 05:44, 12 February 2023 (UTC)

Voting

•  Invalid. This should not have made it to phase 3. The title is pretty broad yet the body is about two very specific requests, one of which is already possible. Clarify the scope or archive it. Nardog (talk) 18:02, 10 February 2023 (UTC)

  All we have to do is remove the "edit summary" part, the rest of the thing is fine. Aaron Liu (talk) 20:29, 10 February 2023 (UTC)

  The title needs to be changed too. It misrepresents the proposal. Nardog (talk) 23:21, 10 February 2023 (UTC)

  @ESanders (WMF) Is there a way to remove the "edit summaries" part from the /Proposal page and have the translations thingamajigs be regenerated? Aaron Liu (talk) 20:34, 10 February 2023 (UTC)

•  Support being able to stop it from signing Aaron Liu (talk) 20:34, 10 February 2023 (UTC)
•  Support Agreed. SHB2000 (talk | contribs) 22:55, 10 February 2023 (UTC)
•  Support Jensbest (talk) 23:37, 10 February 2023 (UTC)
•  Support --NGC 54 (talk｜contribs) 01:08, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
•  Support Hanif Al Husaini (talk) 05:40, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
•  Support Geert Van Pamel (WMBE) (talk) 05:46, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
•  Support There should be custom edit summary and the ability to add bullets in the Reply tool. Thingofme (talk) 16:01, 11 February 2023 (UTC)

  @Thingofme As noted above you can add custom summaries in the reply tool by clicking on "Advanced". "Voting" style discussions (such as your bullets) are tracked in task T259865 and are not in this suggestion. Aaron Liu (talk) 16:06, 11 February 2023 (UTC)

  However voting should be possible for styles / bulleted comments like on the proposal page. Thingofme (talk) 16:25, 11 February 2023 (UTC)

•  Support Thomas Kinz (talk) 22:07, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
•  Support DSXG Plays (talk) 14:01, 12 February 2023 (UTC)
•  Support Thibaultmol (talk) 18:15, 14 February 2023 (UTC)
•  Support cyrfaw (talk) 12:09, 15 February 2023 (UTC)
•  Support —‍(ping on reply)—‍CX Zoom (A/अ/অ) (let's talk|contribs) 22:33, 17 February 2023 (UTC)
•  Support I can see tidle amount being a very helpful option 56independent (talk) 11:14, 18 February 2023 (UTC)
•  Support Mlajum (talk) 11:07, 19 February 2023 (UTC)
•  Support Eli0030 (talk) 14:26, 20 February 2023 (UTC)
•  Support Control presence of -- as well as the number of tildes. Chatul (talk) 12:59, 22 February 2023 (UTC)
•  Support Althair (talk) 03:57, 23 February 2023 (UTC)
•  Support. —— Eric Liu_（Talk） 04:01, 23 February 2023 (UTC)