Page MenuHomePhabricator

Structured tasks: reconsider watchlist defaults for new accounts
Open, Needs TriagePublic

Description

We believe that newcomers would benefit from developing a watchlist and receiving notifications when articles on their watchlist are changed. That's because seeing those dynamics would help them understand how the wiki process works, and may encourage them to return to the articles they've edited to continue their work.

It seems that the default for new accounts on most wikis is that they do not have the "watch this article" box checked on their edit summaries and if the user does check it, it does not send them emails about changes.

We should consider altering both of those default settings for new accounts so that newcomers develop a watchlist and receive emails. This change would need to be discussed with communities.

For more background, see T289547: Structured tasks: give users options for watchlist.