As part of the designs to improve the filtering system of Recent Changes (T142785), we want to optimise the interaction for repetitive use of filters. That is, making it easy for users to quickly filter again and again adjusting or changing completely the set of filters of interest without having to start from scratch each time.
There are different cases that fall under this area:
- **Access filters that the community considered to be often useful for any user.** This is currently supported by [[ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki:Recentchangestext | a list of links ]] the community adds at the top of the Recent Changes page (editable by local admins). For example, the "Mobile contribs" link loads the Recent Changes page with the "mobile edit" tag added.
- **Access filters that the users considered useful for themselves.** Users interested on a regular review activity (e.g., help newcomers making good-faith but not good contributions), may find convenient to have a quick access to those sets of filters. Currently it is supported by bookmarking specific sets of filters.
- **Access recently explored filter variants to perform small adjustments and tweaks to the current set of results.** As users experiment adjusting their results, they may need to add, remove and add again some filters. Quickly adding back some of the filters they removed recently could facilitate the process. Currently tags make it easy to remove existing filters, but adding them back has only limited support by the browser back/forward button.
- **Access default properties the user considers useful for any exploration.** Some filter properties may be obvious for some users at any activity. For example, a user may be always interested in Wikidata edits. Currently this is supported by the preferences page where the default inclusion of some filters can be indicated.
# Proposed solution
The concept of review feed as a"quick filters" as easy to access user-defined sets of filters for a specific review activity can help to support the above needs.
Users can quickly switch across different reviewing activities without the need to set all the individual filters again and again.
[[ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Recent_Changes_designs_-_optimize_for_repetition.pdf | Possible scenarios]] illustrate how the general idea can work. A mockup below captures some of the key steps:Users can quickly switch across different reviewing activities without the need to set all the individual filters again and again.
{M194}[[ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Recent_Changes_designs_-_optimize_for_repetition.pdf | Possible scenarios]] illustrate how the general idea can work.
**Using quick filters**
**Using review feeds**
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- A review feed is defined by (a) a name and (b) a set of filters (or highlights).|{F5221725}|{F5221727}|
- When a review feed- A quick filter is selected, all the filters associated to that feed and only those became the active filtersdefined by (a) a name and (b) a set of filters (or highlights).
- The Activ- When a quick filter is selected, all the filter panel shows the name ofs associated, and only those, became the active feedilters.
- The list of feeds can be displayed collapsed or expanded:Active filter panel shows the name of the active quick filter.
-- When the list of feeds is collapsed, the most common feeds can be accessed with options to get to the expanded list. The number of filters to show initially and the criteria to do so has not been detailed yet (we can select the two feeds most often used, allow users to "pin" as many as they need, etc.).
-- When the list of feeds is expanded, Users have direct access to some of their quick filters from the Recent Changes page. all the feedWhen many filters are displayed in a listefined, with the active feed selected.
**Special feeds**users will need to to expand the list.
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|{F5040339}| {F5040341}|- The list of quick filters can be displayed collapsed or expanded:
- The "New feed" represents the implicit initial feed that a user works with initially until it is saved as a new feed with a name.- When the list is collapsed, the most common filters can be accessed with options to get to the expanded list. The number of filters to show initially and the criteria to do so has not been detailed yet (we can select the two filters most often used, allow users to "pin" as many as they need, It is represented with a non-filled version of the bookmark icon regular feeds useetc.).
- The "Default view" allows users to adjust the defaults.-- When the list is expanded, This feed is shown at the end of the list with a special cog icon.all the feeds are displayed in a list, changing the default filters won't affect the existing defined feeds (since the changes may be against the intent those feeds were created with) or the sets of filters users may get through a link/bookmarkwith the active feed selected.
**Creating review feeds**
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- When the "new feed" is modified from the default valuesinitial filters are modified, an option to "add a new feed"as quick filter" (as well as an option to clear the filters) become available.
- The "add a new feeds quick filter" option, creates a new feed withquick filter based on the currentt active filters and let's the user name it. The recently created feed will become the one selected.
**Updating review feeds**
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- When the active filters of a feed are modified, options will be provided to "restore" or "update" the feed from the active filters area.
-- A "modified" indicator will be shown next to the feed name in the active filters area for clarity.Changing defaults**
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- The "restore" action will set the active filters to those from the current feed,- A quick filter can be defined as default. reverting any cThat will make it to be selected when the Recent Changes the user madepage is initially accessed.
- The "update" action will set the current activ- Other options are available from the filters for the selected feedmenu to allow users to rename, updating itdelete and unset as definitionault.
**Filter suggestions**
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- The filter panel includes a new "suggested filters" section. This section provides quick access to some filters that may be relevant. aA suggestion may involve more than one filter to be added.
- Filters recently removed are suggested for users to quickly add them again if needed. This will facilitate the back and forth exploration. Only a few of the recent filters removed will be suggested, and the suggestions will never include a filter that is already among the active ones.
- The default filters will be also suggested when they are not present in the active filters. This makes it easy to add default filters that were removed, but also to update feedsquick filters that were created before the defaults were changed.