Introduce setting to decide whether desktop talk page sections are collapsed/expanded by default
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	• ppelberg
	Mar 7 2022, 4:32 AM

Description

Some talk pages are filled with a large amount of activity.

On these pages, a single discussion can span the height of a person's full desktop/laptop computer screen[i][ii][iii], making it difficult for them to see what other topics are being discussed on a given page without having to do a significant amount of scrolling.

Story

As someone who uses Wikipedia on a desktop device and encounters talk pages with large amounts of activity while reading and/or contributing to Wikipedia, I want to be able to decide to have talk page discussions (read: sections) collapsed by default, so that I can more easily see and understand all of the topics being discussed on a given page.

Requirements

Mockups

Prospective designs can be found in F34957121.

References

@Esanders wrote a proof of concept implementation for section collapsing on talk pages on desktop in https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/c/mediawiki/extensions/DiscussionTools/+/647717/6
@Klein raised this idea on mediawiki.org here

i. vi.wik: Wikipedia:Thảo_luận
ii. zh.wiki: Wikipedia:互助客栈/方针
iii. en.wiki: Wikipedia: Village pump (proposals)

Related Objects
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Status	Assigned	Task
Open	None	T249579 [EPIC] Usability improvements: make the actions, activity and content within talk pages easier to understand
Open	None	T269950 [EPIC] Topic Containers
Open	None	T269954 Enable talk page topics to be collapsed and expanded
Open	None	T303149 Introduce setting to decide whether desktop talk page sections are collapsed/expanded by default

Event Timeline

• ppelberg created this task.Mar 7 2022, 4:32 AM

Restricted Application added subscribers: Stang, Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptMar 7 2022, 4:32 AM

• ppelberg updated the task description. (Show Details)Mar 7 2022, 4:32 AM

• ppelberg added a parent task: T249579: [EPIC] Usability improvements: make the actions, activity and content within talk pages easier to understand.

• ppelberg updated the task description. (Show Details)Mar 7 2022, 4:40 AM

• ppelberg mentioned this in T269950: [EPIC] Topic Containers.Mar 7 2022, 4:42 AM

• ppelberg moved this task from Backlog to New Features on the DiscussionTools board.Mar 7 2022, 5:50 AM

Difficulties with section collapsing:

MobileFrontend has already implemented section collapsing, and we'd need to make sure any changes we make to the output don't interfere with it's transforms (either limiting when they're applied, or changing MF's behavior; MF uses a per-page-load reformatting hook for which we'd want to review performance)
Gadgets on talk pages might need to be updated to cope with different markup / behavior
Design complexity around pages that mix talk and non-talk sections (though this applies in general to all our section-level metadata)
UX complexities:
- following a link to a comment will seem broken to someone with collapsed-sections
- in-page search is broken with collapsed sections (including the Chrome link-to-highlight thing e.g.)

As an aside, I do think that section collapsing and the new floating-sidebar TOC plans are rather redundant. (With the floating TOC dodging these issues, mostly by virtue of not needing to meddle in the article content.)

• ppelberg updated the task description. (Show Details)Thu, Jun 2, 12:16 AM

• ppelberg added a subscriber: Klein.

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Ericliu1912. · View Herald TranscriptThu, Jun 2, 12:16 AM

• ppelberg renamed this task from Add support for section collapsing on desktop talk pages to Introduce setting to decide whether desktop talk page sections are collapsed/expanded by default.Thu, Jun 2, 12:18 AM

• ppelberg edited parent tasks, added: T269954: Enable talk page topics to be collapsed and expanded; removed: T249579: [EPIC] Usability improvements: make the actions, activity and content within talk pages easier to understand.

Maybe this ticket ought to/can be merged with T269954?

	F34957121: French_Topic_Container_-_Desktop_Collapsed_Full.gif
	Mar 7 2022, 4:32 AM

Introduce setting to decide whether desktop talk page sections are collapsed/expanded by defaultOpen, Needs TriagePublicActions