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Echo: The "You have new messages" link should go to a diff and/or subsection of the user's talk page where the talk page resides
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Description

Problem

The orange "You have new messages" talkpage-message Notification, currently leads just to the top of the user's Talk page. (Ie. [User talk:Quiddity])
This is potentially confusing and makes it harder for users to locate the new message.

image.png (146×566 px, 21 KB)

Proposed solution
  • Tapping on "new messages" should take the user to the specific subsection (if known, and if there's just one new message); and
  • Append the message with a "(view changes)" link which takes the user to the diff (if subsection is unknown, or if there are multiple new talkpage messages).

(Note: This essentially follows the same message format as shown to users of the gadget to "Display a floating alert for new talk page messages" (link to gadget on enwiki)

One user has requested that it *always* lead to the diff, which /would/ be more consistent, but I also understand the desire to not confront everyone with a diff (VE, newcomer friendliness, etc etc). ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Notifications#Two_clicks_instead_of_one:_Why.3F )

Event Timeline

bzimport raised the priority of this task from to Medium.Nov 22 2014, 2:29 AM
bzimport set Reference to bz56475.

The WMF core features team tracks this bug on Mingle card https://mingle.corp.wikimedia.org/projects/flow/cards/395, but people from the community are welcome to contribute here and in Gerrit.

(In reply to comment #0)

The orange "You have new messages" talkpage-message Notification, currently
leads just to the top of the user talkpage. (Ie. [User talk:Quiddity])

This is one of the things I probably miss the most about the OBOD, that I could get a direct diff to the new edits.

It should lead to either:

  • the subsection (if known, and if there's just one new message), or
  • to the diff (if subsection is unknown, or if there are multiple new

talkpage
messages).

From a code standpoint, either of these are probably doable.

One user has requested that it *always* lead to the diff, which /would/ be
more
consistent, but I also understand the desire to not confront everyone with a
diff (VE, newcomer friendliness, etcetc).

I don't think always going to the diff is a good idea, for some of the reasons you mentioned.

Adding a "You have new messages (diff)" thing to the personal tools menu would be icky and add some more clutter. I don't know where else we could add the link.

CC'ing Jared for some design input.

I could have sworn this was a duplicate bug... I may be remembering the bug about the Echo drop-down nav thing not including a "view changes" link.

(In reply to comment #3)

I could have sworn this was a duplicate bug... I may be remembering the bug
about the Echo drop-down nav thing not including a "view changes" link.

You're probably thinking of bug 54391 - which I've been told is just to do with the email bundled diff (or something).

Change 94506 had a related patch set (by Aude) published:
Link "You have new messages" to user talk diff

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/94506

Change 94506 abandoned by Aude:
Link "You have new messages" to user talk diff

Reason:
since ext.echo.alert.js is deleted, shall try new approach :)

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/94506

aude removed aude as the assignee of this task.Dec 1 2014, 6:04 PM
aude set Security to None.

Notes:
Functionality: The gadget on Enwiki ("Display a floating alert for new talk page messages" (.js/.css)) provides the desired link.
E.g. For 2 test messages at my talkpage, it provides a "view changes" diff link that shows both of them.
It displays the link (and a plain link to the top of the talkpage) in a floating-top-center overlay.

image.png (669×886 px, 255 KB)

Design: As discussed above, the main question is how to integrate this link with the existing "New message indicator", because we probably don't want to have the default link to go to a diff (because that's extra confusing for a newcomer who was writing in VisualEditor, and receives some huge welcome or warning templates (e.g. semi-relevant example pulled from recentchanges showing 2 changes)).
Options include:

  1. add a "(view changes)" link to the end of the existing New message indicator. -- This would make it a bit longer in English, but still not too bad. The French default is a good example of a longer string, as is the French for "View changes". [demo below]
  2. add a "(diff)" link to the end [...]. -- This would potentially confuse newcomers. It's short in English, but quite a bit longer in some other languages.
  3. add either of those options below the existing New message indicator. -- Kinda messy?
  4. other??

A (hacked-HTML) demo of option #1 would look like this in French:

image.png (740×1 px, 341 KB)

  1. Add an icon "diff" just after the regular message.
RHo renamed this task from Echo: The "You have new messages" link should go to a diff and/or subsection to Echo: The "You have new messages" link should go to a diff and/or subsection of the user's talk page where the talk page resides.Sep 27 2018, 4:50 PM
RHo updated the task description. (Show Details)

Change 683932 had a related patch set uploaded (by Bartosz Dziewoński; author: Bartosz Dziewoński):

[mediawiki/extensions/Echo@master] Link to the section (if known) from the orange banner

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/683932

Change 683932 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/Echo@master] Link to the section (if known) from the orange banner

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/683932

@matmarex: would it be accurate for @Ryasmeen and I to think that this patch has the following impact?

Impact

  • This patch does make it so when someone clicks/taps the new messages yellow banner they are taken to the precise location on the talk page where that new comment was posted.
  • This patch does not make it so said new comment will appear highlighted in blue. [i]

i. The blue highlight depends on T281590 being resolves as you noted in gerrit: Together with the changes proposed in T281590, this would allow linking directly to individual messages (and highlighting them), rather than just the section

Yes. (But I have one pedantic clarification: it takes you to the top of the section, rather than precisely to the message.)

ppelberg claimed this task.