[EPIC] Generate Human-Readable Change-logs in Wikipedia Watchlists
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	Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE
	Feb 12 2025, 1:46 PM

Description

Epic

As an editor, I want to see a human-readable changelog in the watchlists so I don’t have to interpret complex property codes or Q numbers.

Objective:
Provide clear and structured changelogs of edits from Wikidata's data to Wikipedias in order to improve comprehension of changelogs on Wikipedias.

Background
Changelogs on Wikipedia (a.k.a. edit summaries but different from the other edit summaries where editors summarize what changes they made) contain excessive technical terms and do not use simple, human-readable language. We assume that changelogs that concisely describe changes in a way that a new editor can understand should improve clarity and increase engagement with Wikidata-related changelogs. We hope user testing confirms that most editors find the new changelogs/ summaries easier to understand and feel more confident engaging with tracking changes on articles.

Acceptance Criteria:

Changelogs use full descriptions instead of property codes (e.g., "Added occupation: physicist" instead of "P106:Q169470").

Success Metrics
Usability testing shows improved comprehension of changelogs compared to current edit descriptions.

Images

Screenshot from 2025-02-13 12-58-22.png (1×1 px, 418 KB)

Details

Other Assignee: • WMDECyn

Related Objects
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Status	Assigned	Task
Open	Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE	T386200 [EPIC] Generate Human-Readable Change-logs in Wikipedia Watchlists
Resolved	Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE	T386348 Investigate How Wikidata Edits Appear on Wikipedia Changelogs
Resolved	Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE	T394377 Learn how often we see very long Wikibase item labels on Watchlist
Invalid	Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE	T386350 Collect and Analyze Current Changelog Formats
Resolved	Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE	T386351 [Product] Define Success Metrics for Improved Changelogs
Open	LarissaHonsek	T398811 [UX] Create In-System Survey for Measuring Success Metrics for T386200
Open	Danny_Benjafield_WMDE	T398813 [Comms] Ensure Survey Message is Translated into Local Languages
Resolved	SuzanneWood-WMDE	T386353 Investigate Multilingual Constraints of Improving Wikidata Edit Summaries on Wikipedia Watchlist Pages
Open	Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE	T386355 Explore engineering considerations for Hover-Based Information Display in Wikipedia Watchlist Pages
Resolved	Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE	T386356 Implement Readable Changelogs on Wikipedia Watchlist Pages
Resolved	Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE	T386374 [Design] Define mapping from technical to human readable formats
Invalid	Danny_Benjafield_WMDE	T388669 Investigate how change logs are grouped
Resolved	• JoelyRooke-WMDE	T388670 Scope which extensions/settings/bots affect how change logs are displayed
Resolved	Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE	T388685 Show labels for properties and items on Wikipedia watchlist summaries
Resolved	Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE	T393442 Create feature flags for resolving Wikibase item labels on Watchlist
Resolved	• JoelyRooke-WMDE	T395138 Prefetch labels and descriptions for resolved edit summary labels
Resolved	• JoelyRooke-WMDE	T395674 Post-acceptance cleanup for adding labels to Wikidata recent changes
Resolved	SuzanneWood-WMDE	T395673 Post-rollout monitoring for adding labels to Wikidata recent changes
Resolved	Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE	T396624 Test directionality of text in beta for the labels change
Resolved	LarissaHonsek	T397256 [UX] - Design Proposal for Visual Changes to the Edit Summary with Icons
Open	Danny_Benjafield_WMDE	T399465 [Comms] Community Announcement: Visual Changes (Icons) to Wiki Search Results Pages (Pilot + Global Rollout)
Open	Neslihan_Turan_WMDE	T397258 Implement Visual Changes to Edit Summary Based on UX Proposal
Open	Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE	T392081 [UX] Investigate possible hover-over functionality improvements for wikidata related entries in the wikipedia watchlist
Open	Danny_Benjafield_WMDE	T392218 [Comm] After UX interviews, consult the community feed into the design of the changelog mapping
Resolved	SuzanneWood-WMDE	T392469 Add tracking for P and Q number links in the summary
Resolved	Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE	T395676 [UX] Strategy for very long Wikibase item labels on Watchlist
Open	Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE	T398535 [Engineering] Survey for sucess metrics
Resolved	Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE	T400484 [Product] Post rollout metrics check for labels

Event Timeline

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE created this task.Feb 12 2025, 1:46 PM

Restricted Application added a subscriber: Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptFeb 12 2025, 1:46 PM

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 12 2025, 1:51 PM

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 12 2025, 1:59 PM

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE updated the task description. (Show Details)

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 12 2025, 2:02 PM

SuzanneWood-WMDE updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 12 2025, 2:04 PM

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 12 2025, 2:04 PM

SuzanneWood-WMDE updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 12 2025, 2:07 PM

• JoelyRooke-WMDE updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 12 2025, 2:19 PM

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 12 2025, 2:20 PM

Bugreporter updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 12 2025, 2:21 PM

• WMDECyn renamed this task from Generate Human-Readable Summaries in Wikipedia Recent Changes to [EPIC] Generate Human-Readable Summaries in Wikipedia Recent Changes .Feb 12 2025, 2:21 PM

• WMDECyn added a project: Epic.

• WMDECyn updated the task description. (Show Details)

Defining success?
Feedback
Anecdotal (messages of support on talk pages, project chat)
Survey (measurable)
Pre-work buy in (votes / approval of work area)
More meaningful interaction with the edit summary
Conversely, less interaction and platform switching just for readers to understand changes
More adoption of Wikidata in WP articles
Less conflict, disputes on WD inclusion

Bugreporter mentioned this in T118935: [Bug] Entity ids not formatted in Wikibase watchlist edits in client.Feb 12 2025, 2:22 PM

• WMDECyn renamed this task from [EPIC] Generate Human-Readable Summaries in Wikipedia Recent Changes to [STORY] Generate Human-Readable Summaries in Wikipedia Recent Changes .Feb 12 2025, 2:22 PM

• WMDECyn edited projects, added Story; removed Epic.

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 12 2025, 2:25 PM

Bugreporter updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 12 2025, 2:28 PM

• WMDECyn updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 12 2025, 2:29 PM

Maintenance_bot added a project: Wikidata.Feb 12 2025, 2:30 PM

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE renamed this task from [STORY] Generate Human-Readable Summaries in Wikipedia Recent Changes to [STORY] Generate Human-Readable Change-logs in Wikipedia Recent Changes .Feb 12 2025, 3:24 PM

putnik subscribed.Feb 12 2025, 9:23 PM

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE renamed this task from [STORY] Generate Human-Readable Change-logs in Wikipedia Recent Changes to Generate Human-Readable Change-logs in Wikipedia Recent Changes .Feb 13 2025, 11:56 AM

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE claimed this task.

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE updated Other Assignee, added: • WMDECyn.

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE edited projects, added Epic; removed Story.

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE updated the task description. (Show Details)

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 13 2025, 11:59 AM

WMDE-leszek awarded a token.Feb 17 2025, 7:03 PM

WMDE-leszek subscribed.

• WMDECyn renamed this task from Generate Human-Readable Change-logs in Wikipedia Recent Changes to [EPIC] Generate Human-Readable Change-logs in Wikipedia Recent Changes .Feb 19 2025, 7:07 AM

Hey @Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE

"Disambiguiation"

Can you please clarify that we are looking in the right place for this epic - the epic says "Recent changes". There are two pages which are quite similar looking but have different kinds of change logs.

This is the Recent changes page:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:RecentChanges?hidebots=1&hidecategorization=1&limit=500&days=3&urlversion=2

This is the Review history page - to get to this, on a specific page of dog, we click 'View history' and we get to this page "Review history"
https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dog_(disambiguation)&action=history

There are quite a few differences to the format of the change logs in each of these pages
For example, whether it starts with 'diff' or has a 'revert' button

So, is this epic about "Recent changes" and not "Review history"?

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE added a comment.Feb 20 2025, 12:07 PM

This comment was removed by Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE.

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE renamed this task from [EPIC] Generate Human-Readable Change-logs in Wikipedia Recent Changes to [EPIC] Generate Human-Readable Change-logs in Wikipedia Watchlists.Feb 20 2025, 1:31 PM

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE updated the task description. (Show Details)

SuzanneWood-WMDE changed the status of subtask T386348: Investigate How Wikidata Edits Appear on Wikipedia Changelogs from Open to In Progress.Feb 21 2025, 1:06 PM

Preimage subscribed.Feb 25 2025, 2:45 PM

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE updated the task description. (Show Details)Feb 26 2025, 3:13 PM

Pigsonthewing subscribed.Mar 17 2025, 10:12 PM

Samwalton9-WMF subscribed.Mar 27 2025, 11:43 AM

• JoelyRooke-WMDE closed subtask T386348: Investigate How Wikidata Edits Appear on Wikipedia Changelogs as Resolved.Mar 31 2025, 8:37 AM

SuzanneWood-WMDE mentioned this in T392469: Add tracking for P and Q number links in the summary.Apr 23 2025, 10:59 AM

SuzanneWood-WMDE closed subtask T386350: Collect and Analyze Current Changelog Formats as Invalid.May 15 2025, 12:49 PM

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE changed the status of subtask T386351: [Product] Define Success Metrics for Improved Changelogs from Open to In Progress.May 22 2025, 11:44 AM

SuzanneWood-WMDE closed subtask T395676: [UX] Strategy for very long Wikibase item labels on Watchlist as Resolved.Jun 11 2025, 12:43 PM

Ifeatu_Nnaobi_WMDE closed subtask T386353: Investigate Multilingual Constraints of Improving Wikidata Edit Summaries on Wikipedia Watchlist Pages as Resolved.Jun 26 2025, 4:42 PM