User story:

Opting out: As an editor who is registered for an event that goes for a long period of time (such as 1 month or 1 year), I don't want to see the modal after every edit during the event period, so that I can easily edit for non-event related content and do not need to constantly state that edit is not part of the event.

Automatic tracking: As an event participant, I want to be able to automatically associate edits with events in a way that is easy and low-maintenance (but with the ability to make adjustments & changes), so that I can focus on the edit rather than the association and so that I don't need to think about the association with each edit.

Background:

Some desires that we know and want to address are the following:

• Some editors want to opt out of tracking for some events: For example, some events may go on for 1 month or 1 year, and only a small percentage of edits done by the editor are for the event.
• Some editors want a more streamlined and automated way to associate edits with events. For example, some editors may be doing multiple edits for an event within a period of time, and they would find it annoying or unnecessary to associate an edit with an event after every time they publish an edit. They know what they plan to do, and they just want to set up a tracking system for a period of time and then forget about it (or pay minimal attention to it).
• Automation needs vary. Some people want all edits during the event period to be tracked for the event. Some editors only want their edits for a short period of time to be automatically tracked.
• Some editors may want to opt out of any edit to event association at all (whether the modal or event mode). In the current implementation of Collaborative Contributions, there is no way to opt out.

In the past, we explored the idea of allowing editors to set their tracking preferences for each individual event. However, this became quite complex, since editors can be registered participants for multiple overlapping events that end at different times while we only want to associate one edit per event. Due to these circumstances, it can be quite messy to have automated tracking preferences that are set per event.

Instead, we're now considering allowing editors to have 3 main options that apply to all events: modal after edit, event mode, or no tracking system (and they can just manually add edits to events). If they want to use a different system during a certain event period, they can go into preferences and change their selection at any time. But the idea is that they have one main way of tracking event edits, with the new option that we're considering being event mode.

As for how event mode may work, we already have an early concept of event mode that was developed by Alex H. As next steps, we now want to apply what we know about Collaborative Contributions to provide a more detailed and specific plan for how Event Mode could be used to handle the ability to allow automatic edit tracking for an event.

Like the modal after edit, an advantage of event mode is that it is wiki-agnostic. It does not require a specific editing interface to work, so it can also be used on wikis like Wikidata. It is also a separate experience that we can modify, so we can later add an event logo, progress bar, or other visuals.

How it could work:

New section in Preferences for Collaboration statistics:

• There can be a new section in Preferences > Editing > Collaboration statistics.
• It will have the following options (with one option selectable at a time):
  • Show modal to associate edits with events
  • Allow event mode to associate edits with events
• Default state can be modal after every edit, but it can be changed by users

Ability to pick if tracking on/off on per event basis:

• Editors can choose if they have tracking support enabled on a per event basis via Manage Event Registration, in the following way:
  • Default selection: "Allow me to associate edits with events when I'm editing."
  • Other selection: "Don't allow the association of edits with events when I'm editing."
• If editors pick "No automatic support," they can still manually add edits to an event
  • For example: Maybe they want the modal/event mode available for a shorter event, but perhaps they only want to do manual edit associations for a WikiProject that they very rarely contribute to or a larger event/challenge that goes on for a long period of time.

How users can learn that they can change tracking preferences:

Maybe there can be explanatory text at the bottom of the modal that says that they can change their tracking options via Preferences, with a link to the Collaboration statistics section.

How event mode can work:

• If an editor is on a wiki that has an active event with Collaborative Contributions enabled,
  • They can see an indicator in the corner of the screen, where they can turn on Event Mode
    • If one event only:
      • Maybe it can show name of event
      • If selected, event mode is turned on & automatic tracking of event occurs
      • When event ends, indicator for event mode disappears
    • If more than one event: Maybe it can say "Event mode available" or "Pick event"
      • If selected, they choose which event & automatic tracking of event occurs

Visual examples from past work:

Event mode off

Event mode on