[Wikipedia-l] "watch new and modified articles"->"watch new articles"

[Erik Moeller]

Brion-

you're correct, I forgot about the bundling. How about just having two  
options for the watchlist (new and modified) and another option

Watch conversations for [5   ] days

This would be a separate table that includes the expiry date, whereas  
watchlist would continue to work without it. As you say, the watchlist is  
more useful for long term observations. Talk pages would be added  
transparently to the talklist, without any requirement for user  
intervention.

The conversation watchlist could either be viewed as part of the normal  
watchlist (upside: usability, downside: watchlist has to be loaded  
unnecessarily in some cases) or as part of a separate "My conversations"  
list. The conversations could be displayed like this:

 My conversations

 Talk:Zombie
 *User:Eloquence - May 25 10:00 - ''zombies suck'' - diff
 *User:Brion VIBBER - May 25 10:30 - ''do not!''  - diff
 Talk:Main Page
 ...

The text in '' would be the edit comment; the list would show all edits  
since your last one. Alternatively, a shorter form:

 My conversations:
 *Talk:Zombie (3 new [[edits]] since your last one on ..)
 *Talk:MainPage (1 new [[edit]] since your last one on ..)

I think we really need a better way to keep track of discussions. People  
split up discussions across different talk pages because of our nifty  
message notification, or do stuff like "Please see .. for my response".  
This should not be necessary.

Regards,

Erik