This task represents the work involved with introducing ways for people to become automatically subscribed to topics and by extension, being notified when new comments are posted in said "topics."
=== Objective and theory of change
**Objective**
This work is intended to increase the likelihood Junior and Senior Contributors know when someone is talking to them.
**Theory of change**
We think that:
- //If// people can decide to automatically receive notifications when new comments are posted in topics they've participated in...
- //Then// they will be able to more easily and quickly identify comments requiring a response
- //...and// be more likely to respond to those comments in a timely manner.
=== Background
We've run multiple usability tests with Junior Contributors throughout the design and development of different #discussiontools features. As part of these tests, we've asked participants – when applicable – how they would expect to know when someone responds to something they have said on a talk page.
All of the participants who answered this question have stated that they expected to automatically receive some kind of notification. This work is a direct response to these findings. //More details in T273908.//
=== User stories
- As a Junior or Senior Contributor who is starting a new discussion on a talk page that is not my own user talk page, I want to immediately be made aware when another person says something in said discussion, so that I can seize an opportunity to talk with another person who may have valuable information to share about a topic/question/idea/decision/etc. I have expressed an interest in.
- As a Junior Contributor or Senior Contributor who commented in a discussion on a talk page that is not my own user talk page, I want to be made aware when another person says something in said discussion, so that I can know about new information people have to share about the topic/question/idea/etc. I have expressed an interest in.
=== Requirements
- The editing interface people are using to start a new discussion or post a new comment should not impact the behavior being described above.
-- ~~There should be no cases when a single event causes people to receive redundant notifications.~~ **<-- This will be addressed in T276990**
- The functionality should be implemented in such a way that now, or in the future, people have the ability to change what conversations they are and are not automatically subscribed to on a conversation-by-conversation basis and a across all conversations.
- The software should consider a "discussion"/"conversation" to be any `== H2 ==` section that exists on pages used for hosting conversations (e.g. talk pages, pages in `wgExtraSignatureNamespaces` namespaces... more in T249036).
=== Open questions
- [ ] 1. What happens in cases where someone responds to the authors of two separate comments [in the same section] without tagging either of them? //See the example @Tacsipacsi described in T254263#6334962 //.
- [ ] 2. How do we ensure people are aware that automatic topic subscriptions exist and understand how they can enable/disable the feature?
- [ ] 3. Where is the preference for automatically subscribing to topics surfaced?
-- Is it exposed in `Special:Preferences` as a setting people interact with to govern how automatic topic subscriptions behave across all talk pages they engage with?
-- Is it exposed within the Reply and New Discussion Tools themselves thereby giving people the ability to opt-in/out of being automatically subscribed to a conversation on a case-by-case basis?
-- Are there settings in both places (e.g. a setting `Special:Preferences` and an additional setting within the tools for people to make ad-hoc adjustments to that global/default setting)?
- [ ] 4. How – if at all – might the existing `Watch this page` setting within the two tools' `Advanced` shelves impact peoples' understandings of what notifications they will receive from conversations they've participated in and/or started?
=== Done
- [ ] All `Open questions` are answered
- [ ] All `Requirements` are implemented
----