[Foundation-l] privacy and usability of user talk pages (inc. LiquidThreads)

[Peter Coombe]

On 20 October 2010 07:07, MZMcBride <z at mzmcbride.com> wrote:
> Amir E. Aharoni wrote:
>> This is obvious to someone who has been using Wikipedia for some time,
>> but not so for newbies. I propose changing the "new messages" notice
>> to something like: "You have new messages on your public talk page
>> (last change)."
>
> I think this is obvious to most people. Perhaps the people who worked on the
> usability tests previously have insight into this, though.
>
> I also think saying "public talk page" will draw a misleading distinction in
> users' minds. That is, it suggests that there might be a private talk page
> (or any privacy on the wiki at all, for that matter).
>
> MZMcBride
>

Perhaps a better solution (if this is a common enough problem) would
be to edit http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Editnotices/Namespace/User_talk
to inform/remind people that messages they leave there are public. I
just checked and it seems it would stack ok with individuals' custom
editnotices for their talk page.

Anyone know if it's possible to get a Special:EmailUser link to only
show up when usable (like it does in the sidebar toolbox)? Would
improve it further.

Pete / the wub