Here's one idea for how to rephrase it:

@matmarex in this mockup, what is the bit "Restore all default settings (in all sections) in red? Is that going to be a checkbox that automatically resets? Is that final copy?

Update: I talked to @DLynch and learned that this is a

built-in core-mediawiki preferences page feature

so even though I think that it looks like an error, I will not address this at least within this ticket.

I made a few very small tweaks to what @matmarex has here. You can see them in this spreadsheet

Based on my understanding, the qqq copy is standard for this kind of page element so I don't think we need to touch it.

Change 713316 had a related patch set uploaded (by Bartosz Dziewoński; author: Bartosz Dziewoński):

[mediawiki/extensions/DiscussionTools@master] Clarify the references to talk pages in notification preferences

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/713316

Change 713317 had a related patch set uploaded (by Bartosz Dziewoński; author: Bartosz Dziewoński):

[mediawiki/extensions/Echo@master] Clarify the references to talk pages in notification preferences

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/713317

Change 713316 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/DiscussionTools@master] Clarify the references to talk pages in notification preferences

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/713316

Change 713317 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/Echo@master] Clarify the references to talk pages in notification preferences

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/713317

Test wiki created on Patch Demo by JKlein (WMF) using patch(es) linked to this task:

https://patchdemo.wmflabs.org/wikis/90de0d1779/w/

This looks consistent with the other copy on the page now. 👍

Thanks @ppelberg

I think of it as this:

Comment is the main message copy. There are two ways to comment: 1. a new topic or 2. a reply to an existing topic.
I've slightly tweaked the copy again to try to communicate that more succinctly in the copy. If you have feedback, please share it here and update the copy doc.

Updates (I've bolded the new copy here)

• Comment on my user talk page
• Notify me when someone posts a new topic or a reply on my user talk page.
• Comment on subscribed talk page topics
• Notify me when someone posts a reply on any talk page in a topic I am subscribed to.

In T286954#7295920, @iamjessklein wrote:

Thanks @ppelberg

I think of it as this:

Comment is the main message copy. There are two ways to comment: 1. a new topic or 2. a reply to an existing topic.
I've slightly tweaked the copy again to try to communicate that more succinctly in the copy.
If you have feedback, please share it here and update the copy doc.

I added the feedback I have below; I didn't have access to edit/comment on the sheet you linked to above at the time of writing.

Note: Please consider what I've proposed blow as a suggestion. Ultimately, I default to you to decide what copy you think will be most effective at leading people to understand what impact adjusting these settings will have on their experience.

@ppelberg my only concern here is that "Edits" is a confusing concept to a new or junior contributor who probably doesn't understand the difference/relationship between a "comment" "reply" and an "edit". So, one way to address that is to change everything except the Echo-pref-tooltip-edit-user-talk (the tooltips which explain what the message means). Here's a screenshot from the preferences copy doc.

over to @ppelberg to review and either thumbs up or down this latest proposal.

@ppelberg In my opinion, the fact that you get notifications for every edit to your user talk page, rather than only for comments, is a bug, and I'd rather not document that in this message. (I don't really feel too strongly about it though, as long as the distinction between your user talk page and talk page subscriptions is clear, so I'd be okay with your version too.)

In T286954#7315586, @matmarex wrote:

@ppelberg In my opinion, the fact that you get notifications for every edit to your user talk page, rather than only for comments, is a bug

It’s definitely intentional, otherwise there was no nominornewtalk user right (assigned to bots). I personally consider this a feature, as any heuristics that tries to tell comments and other edits apart is inherently only up to 99% correct, and missing a talk page message because the sender forgot to open a new section and to sign it would be really unfortunate.

TLDR: I've added the copy changes I think we should implemented to the task description's newly-created === Copy changes section. Detailed response below.

Detailed response

In T286954#7314813, @iamjessklein wrote:

@ppelberg my only concern here is that "Edits" is a confusing concept to a new or junior contributor who probably doesn't understand the difference/relationship between a "comment" "reply" and an "edit".

While I share this concern, I understand this ticket to be scoped towards making it easier for people to distinguish between the, previously-written, Talk page message and Talk page subscription notification events.

With the above in mind, I think we can consider addressing the potential confusion Junior Contributors might encounter when trying to understand the difference/relationship between a "comment," "reply," and an "edit" at a later time. Here is a ticket for this work. T290702.

In the meantime, I assume it will be least confusing to Junior Contributors if the event name (e.g. Edits to my user talk page) and the tooltip associated with it (e.g. Notify me when someone edits my user talk page.), use consistent language (e.g. "edits" and "edits" vs. "edits" and "new topics" or "replies").

As such, between now and when we prioritize work on T290702, I think the echo-category-title-edit-user-talk should read as follows:

In T286954#7315586, @matmarex wrote:

@ppelberg In my opinion, the fact that you get notifications for every edit to your user talk page, rather than only for comments, is a bug, and I'd rather not document that in this message.

I'm glad you raised this. Although, I'm not sure we know enough at this point (per the point @Tacsipacsi raised in T286954#7316170) to say for certain. As such, for now, I think it is simplest and least confusing for the setting to describe the way the system actually works and consider changes to this behavior at a later point, in the newly-filed T290701.

Sounds good to me.

Change 721390 had a related patch set uploaded (by Bartosz Dziewoński; author: Bartosz Dziewoński):

[mediawiki/extensions/Echo@master] Clarify the references to talk pages in notification preferences (#2)

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/721390

Change 721390 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/Echo@master] Clarify the references to talk pages in notification preferences (#2)

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/721390

The copy within settings doesn't seem to be implemented as expected. See table below. Screenshots are from: cs.wiki.

Message name	Expected copy	Current behavior	Implemented as expected?
echo-category-title-edit-user-talk	Edits to my user talk page		Yes
Echo-pref-tooltip-edit-user-talk	Notify me when someone edits my user talk page.		Yes
echo-category-title-dt-subscription	Talk page subscription		No
echo-pref-tooltip-dt-subscription	Notify me when someone posts a new comment in a topic I am subscribed to.		No

Oh, I didn't notice you put that table in the description… I only looked at the one in T286954#7343562.

Change 724351 had a related patch set uploaded (by Bartosz Dziewoński; author: Bartosz Dziewoński):

[mediawiki/extensions/DiscussionTools@master] Clarify the references to talk pages in notification preferences (#2)

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/724351

Change 724351 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/DiscussionTools@master] Clarify the references to talk pages in notification preferences (#2)

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/724351

Test wiki on Patch demo by JKlein (WMF) using patch(es) linked to this task was deleted:

https://patchdemo.wmflabs.org/wikis/90de0d1779/w/