When I go to "Enable Hovercards" to change my settings, it always defaults to "Read Quickly", even when I explicitly change it to "Monitor or Edit", save, then re-open the dialog to check the setting.
Tested in Firefox/Iceweasel 30.0
See Also: T71576: "Monitor or Edit" option apparently disables HoverCards entirely
This may not make sense to fix in isolation.
Prateek and I talked about some broader areas where the current UI may be confusing.
We also talked about possible parts of the solution, including dropping "Turn Previews off" and relying on the standard BetaFeatures UI for disabling beta features. That then simplifies the internal preferences needed, which opens up possibilities.
(In reply to Matthew in comment #2)
We also talked about possible parts of the solution, including dropping "Turn Previews off" and relying on the standard BetaFeatures UI for disabling beta features.
I had forgotten why we had added the settings in the first place while we were having our conversation. After speaking with Nick I remembered that we'll be making it a default feature (for all logged in and logged out users) on a few wikis that have shown interest.
Which is why we'll have to keep it the way it is. This pattern is being used by ReferencePopups too which is a gadget that is enabled by default for all users.
(In reply to Matthew in comment #0)
When I go to "Enable Hovercards" to change my settings, it always defaults to "Read Quickly"
I think this is justified. The link says "/Enable/ hovecards" and not "Open settings" so it is correct for it to select that option.
(In reply to Prateek Saxena from comment #3)
I had forgotten why we had added the settings in the first place while we
were having our conversation. After speaking with Nick I remembered that
we'll be making it a default feature (for all logged in and logged out users)
on a few wikis that have shown interest.
It can still be a normal preference on those wikis, defaulted to true. E.g. VisualEditor has multiple modes, including one where a regular preference is shown, and another where a beta feature is shown.
Which is why we'll have to keep it the way it is. This pattern is being used
by ReferencePopups too which is a gadget that is enabled by default for all
users.
Gadgets have very different UX considerations, since they can not use normal preferences.
Note, currently (in production) I see both popups (I think this is meant to be fixed by https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/141668/ , not yet deployed) and no "Disable HoverCards" link when in "Read quickly mode". This is arguably inconsistent, although you still have another way of disabling it (the gear).
@Mattflaschen-WMF I believe the options have changed. Would you please update the task Description as appropriate?
No longer applicable.
It's now just Disable/Enable.
There is another issue now (but it may be by design so I'm not filing yet): If you have the Navigation popups enabled, it always takes precedence. Before, I think there was a way to switch back to Hovercards without explicitly disabling NAVPOP.
This is still documented at https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Beta_Features/Hovercards : "The Hovercards settings panel enables logged-out users to disable it entirely, and enables logged-in users to choose between Hovercards, Navigation popups, or disabling both.", but that might just be a doc bug.
Thanks @Mattflaschen-WMF. I've updated that page to indicate that Navigation Popups takes precedence when both are enabled.