On 1/20/09 1:40 PM, Platonides wrote:
They could benefit from drafts, but in that case
better to do it on the
browser itself. IMHO we still need some kind of saving into firefox
storage, for cases like a read-only db. Instead of 'You can't save, the
site is read-only'->'Save-draft'->'No, you can't, the db is
read-only',
'You can't save, the site is read-only'->'Save-draft'->'The
site is
read-only, the draft has been saved into your browser'.
Client-side storage would be fantastic (and avoid unnecessary server
round-trips). We discussed this in original planning but didn't get
round to implementing it yet.
A completely different approach could be to allow
anyone to view other's
drafts. As a new feature, it could be accepted as it is, without
treating it as a completely privacy section. Normal wikipedians won't
mind of people seeing the article as they're writing in. However, the
auto-save-draft may conflict with it.
I wouldn't be comfortable with that, especially for discussion pages. I
also wouldn't be comfortable with my e-mail client showing everybody my
drafts of my e-mails...
I'm sure I'm not the only one who sometimes writes things they delete
for a very good reason before pushing save. ;)
A possible option would be to have a checkbox (probably on
Special:Drafts itself, to avoid cluttering the edit page and to avoid
accidental clicks) to mark drafts as public. This would be especially
useful when combined with bug 17067, the ability to create drafts of
protected pages, a user could make a draft, mark it as public, then link
to it for an admin to add to the page.
--
Alex (wikipedia:en:User:Mr.Z-man)