Last modified: 2013-10-19 20:05:21 UTC
It's been several months since we launched the Thanks extension on enwiki and other projects. It's generally been a wild success (9600+ users on enwiki alone, and growing). However, people have continued to report that it is... A) less useful on History, where you know less about an edit and thus have a hard time judging whether you want to thank someone B) more noisy on History, where many links are lined up in a list We should consider removing it from History pages, even if we fulfill requests like bug 49541
(In reply to comment #0) > It's been several months since we launched the Thanks extension on enwiki and > other projects. It's generally been a wild success (9600+ users on enwiki > alone, and growing). However, people have continued to report that it is... > > A) less useful on History, where you know less about an edit and thus have a > hard time judging whether you want to thank someone > B) more noisy on History, where many links are lined up in a list > > We should consider removing it from History pages, even if we fulfill > requests > like bug 49541 Hi Steven, do you mean remove it from page histories? It's actually quite useful there. In fact, would that not be where it would be seen by most editors? Sorry if I've misunderstood.
(In reply to comment #1) > (In reply to comment #0) > > It's been several months since we launched the Thanks extension on enwiki and > > other projects. It's generally been a wild success (9600+ users on enwiki > > alone, and growing). However, people have continued to report that it is... > > > > A) less useful on History, where you know less about an edit and thus have a > > hard time judging whether you want to thank someone > > B) more noisy on History, where many links are lined up in a list > > > > We should consider removing it from History pages, even if we fulfill > > requests > > like bug 49541 > > > Hi Steven, do you mean remove it from page histories? It's actually quite > useful there. In fact, would that not be where it would be seen by most > editors? Sorry if I've misunderstood. Sorry for the confusion, I did mean page histories. It's totally possible more people see it on page histories than diffs, I don't know since we haven't tracked the source of the 'thank' action. I've just heard this request bandied about for quite some time - including when we first launched the feature. So I thought I'd bring it up for us to hash out. I don't feel strongly either way.
I personally think it's useful on the history page. I think some sort of opt-out or preference management would be a better option rather than removing it for those that may actually use it.
(In reply to comment #3) > I personally think it's useful on the history page. I think some sort of > opt-out or preference management would be a better option rather than > removing it for those that may actually use it. No user preference, please.
I don't think we should remove thanks from article history, as this positive feedback tool complements the negative 'undo' function effectively. Our research so far shows that the Thanks tool is useful for both new and experienced users, which suggests that we continue to keep it on article history, based on the latest findings posted here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Notifications/Thanks#Whether_to_have_a_preference_to_hide_.27thank.27 Some users recommend that we add Thanks in more locations, like the Watchlist or Recent Changes, which is an idea I also think we should consider. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Notifications/Thanks#Add_thanks_link_to_more_locations I also agree with MZ that we don't need a user preference for Thanks -- you can already opt-out from it in the Notifications preferences.
I would definitely support adding it to watchlists and recent changes. Usually the only feedback editors get are reverts and objections on talk pages. Most of the time, when people like something they just pass it by, and will only leave a note if they like it a lot. So this "thanks" button is very welcome as a quick way to say something positive. The more available it is, the better.
(In reply to comment #5) > I don't think we should remove thanks from article history, as this positive > feedback tool complements the negative 'undo' function effectively. > > Our research so far shows that the Thanks tool is useful for both new and > experienced users, which suggests that we continue to keep it on article > history, based on the latest findings posted here: > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Notifications/ > Thanks#Whether_to_have_a_preference_to_hide_.27thank.27 > > Some users recommend that we add Thanks in more locations, like the Watchlist > or Recent Changes, which is an idea I also think we should consider. > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Notifications/ > Thanks#Add_thanks_link_to_more_locations > > I also agree with MZ that we don't need a user preference for Thanks -- you > can > already opt-out from it in the Notifications preferences. Didn't realise there was an opt-out.
(In reply to comment #1) > > Hi Steven, do you mean remove it from page histories? It's actually quite > useful there. In fact, would that not be where it would be seen by most > editors? Sorry if I've misunderstood. So to do a little research on this, I poked around the logging tables for this feature. It turns out that on the backend, we track the source of a thank you. The results for data collected from 2013-06-01 to 2013-10-19 are: 12,867 diff 30,088 history 477 mobilediff That does not include email notifications, just Web delivery. I think the assertion that thank is useful on page histories is backed up by this data. Per that and the comments from people here supporting continued use on histories, I'm closing this.
