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Hide watchlist link when you have nothing watched?
Closed, DeclinedPublic

Description

Hiding the watchlist when you have nothing watched could reduce clutter for new users. Done right, the appearance of the link when you watch your first thing will help you understand the point of the watchlist.

There is no way to add something to your watchlist *from* your watchlist, so there's no point in going to an empty one.

When you click the star, having the watchlist appear with JS would tie the star to the watchlist nicely.

However, this idea should be discussed with the community, since the personal tools are very visible.


Trello card: RdndhuI9

  • column: Bucket o' Mess
  • labels: UI & UX Design (purple)

Event Timeline

Hiding stuff is one of the stupidest things you can do on a website.

"There is no way to add something to your watchlist *from* your watchlist, so there's no point in going to an empty one."

You can edit the raw watchlist from a link there ("Edit raw watchlist"), which allows adding things. There is also "View and edit watchlist", which is more user-friendly but only allows removing things.

Perhaps another solution would be to implement a user-friendly watchlist editor, and feature it prominently if someone visits Special:Watchlist without anything watched.

Hiding stuff is one of the stupidest things you can do on a website.

I agree it should not be automatically hidden, an option could make sense if this really has to happen.

By the way, new users have never the watchlist empty (T51719)

Boldly declining per previous comments.