Community Wishlist Survey 2023/Archive/History of all pages I've read while I'm logged in
History of all pages I've read while I'm logged in
Outside the scope of Community Tech
- Problem: There's no easy way to backtrack the articles that I've read (i.e. opened in my browser), unless I open my browser history. Won't (fully) work if I'm on multiple device and/or multiple browsers. Can't possibly remember all the articles I've read, yet sometimes I remember I was reading it at December 2022 (for example). So a history of all Wikiverse pages (global, multiprojects) would provide a solution to this.
- Proposed solution: Just like in ytube, we have a history of all the videos we watched, it would be great if we have a list of articles we've read, and when we read it. (a cross of browser history x watchlist) assuming we're logged in.
- Who would benefit: People who are avid Wikipedia reader and would sometimes go back to the article they read in the past that they've read. In its later incarnation of this feature, maybe we could add how many bytes are in those articles, and how many minutes we spent reading them, then at the end of the year, it would automatically compile a list of articles we've read this year, how long are their bytes (or word counts!), and how many hours have we spent on reading them. This is the Wiki-equivalent of bragging how many books you've in that year.
- More comments: Currently the closest thing we have is Special:Contributions, where it listed all the pages I've (read and) edited. But in the Special:Reading history I envisioned, the list of articles read and articles edited could be combined together.
- Phabricator tickets:
- Proposer: ✒ Bennylin 10:23, 1 February 2023 (UTC)
Discussion
- I know it's a long shot brainstorming idea, but I would like others to comment on this idea. Has this ever occurred to you: ("Oh, I wish I remember the article I read that day!") or in similar vein?
- Sounds like a privacy minefield. Andy Mabbett (Pigsonthewing); Talk to Andy; Andy's edits 17:44, 1 February 2023 (UTC)
- Agreed, this is a privacy nightmare and data that many foreign governments would love to have and to get their hands on. I don't really see a way to implement this safely, other than locally in the browser (which is what the browser history does). The mobile app does also keeps that data in your device, properly sandboxed and non-transferrable. Now that can be implemented in the browser as well of course and I would actually like that as an idea. BUT, you'd have to find some way to encrypt the data or something, as especially desktop computers much more often are shared between multiple users (schools, libraries etc). Its much more likely that the browser unintentionally leaks your interests to another user, than your own mobile device. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 14:36, 2 February 2023 (UTC)
- It could be implemented as an opt-in option. Users who choose to activate it will be given an appropriate warning about the privacy-relared issues. The user may subsequently opt-out, which will erase the list permanently; trying to opt-out will cause the user to get an appropriate warning. Animal lover 666 (talk) 21:52, 2 February 2023 (UTC)
- Also, allow a user to remove specific entries from the history. And the data should never be accessable even to cueckusers - only the user him/herself, or devs as needed for development. Animal lover 666 (talk) 22:19, 2 February 2023 (UTC)
- It could be implemented as an opt-in option. Users who choose to activate it will be given an appropriate warning about the privacy-relared issues. The user may subsequently opt-out, which will erase the list permanently; trying to opt-out will cause the user to get an appropriate warning. Animal lover 666 (talk) 21:52, 2 February 2023 (UTC)
- Agreed, this is a privacy nightmare and data that many foreign governments would love to have and to get their hands on. I don't really see a way to implement this safely, other than locally in the browser (which is what the browser history does). The mobile app does also keeps that data in your device, properly sandboxed and non-transferrable. Now that can be implemented in the browser as well of course and I would actually like that as an idea. BUT, you'd have to find some way to encrypt the data or something, as especially desktop computers much more often are shared between multiple users (schools, libraries etc). Its much more likely that the browser unintentionally leaks your interests to another user, than your own mobile device. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 14:36, 2 February 2023 (UTC)
- Duplicate proposal has been redirected here: Community Wishlist Survey 2023/Archive/Create a history of previously viewed pages SWilson (WMF) (talk) 12:24, 6 February 2023 (UTC)
- We reviewed this proposal and we asked the Legal team for input. Due to privacy concerns, we are archiving this proposal. Thank you for participating in this survey! HMonroy (WMF) (talk) 21:40, 8 February 2023 (UTC)