The linked to demo is using a old version of the patch. The latest one already addresses this: https://patchdemo.wmflabs.org/wikis/c647283588/wiki/Talk:Main_Page

In T284035#7125964, @Esanders wrote:

The linked to demo is using a old version of the patch. The latest one already addresses this: https://patchdemo.wmflabs.org/wikis/c647283588/wiki/Talk:Main_Page

Understood.

I'm going to move this to Design Review for @iamjessklein to look at as part of the holistic review of the feature she will be doing.

In T284035#7125964, @Esanders wrote:

The linked to demo is using a old version of the patch. The latest one already addresses this: https://patchdemo.wmflabs.org/wikis/c647283588/wiki/Talk:Main_Page

This is not actually resolved in the latest version, either. We only made the Space key (and the Enter key) activate the subscribe/unsubscribe buttons, which did not work in some earlier demos. But we did not implement the part where Space is only supposed to activate the button once, and then revert to scrolling the page.

I feel like that could be confusing, though. It makes sense if you're mostly using the mouse to interact and only scrolling with Space, but I think it would be unexpected if you're mostly using the keyboard to interact with the page.

Sunpriat brought up the watch star as an example that works like that, but it's actually a bit different – you can never activate it by pressing Space, only by pressing Enter. Perhaps that's what we should do for the subscribe/unsubscribe buttons, if we want to let the Space key scroll the page?

In T284035#7127295, @matmarex wrote:

In T284035#7125964, @Esanders wrote:

The linked to demo is using a old version of the patch. The latest one already addresses this: https://patchdemo.wmflabs.org/wikis/c647283588/wiki/Talk:Main_Page

This is not actually resolved in the latest version, either. We only made the Space key (and the Enter key) activate the subscribe/unsubscribe buttons, which did not work in some earlier demos. But we did not implement the part where Space is only supposed to activate the button once, and then revert to scrolling the page.

I feel like that could be confusing, though. It makes sense if you're mostly using the mouse to interact and only scrolling with Space, but I think it would be unexpected if you're mostly using the keyboard to interact with the page.

Sunpriat brought up the watch star as an example that works like that, but it's actually a bit different – you can never activate it by pressing Space, only by pressing Enter. Perhaps that's what we should do for the subscribe/unsubscribe buttons, if we want to let the Space key scroll the page?

I'm glad you teased out this nuance, @matmarex.

What you shared above leads me to think the optimal way of handling the interactions between the [ subscribe ] affordance, the spacebar, and scrolling the page is not yet clear. It also leads me to think that said "optimal" way will reveal itself once more people have had a chance to interact with the feautre.

As such, I'd like for us to revisit this task prior to offering topic subscriptions as an opt-out feature.