Topic on Talk:User Interaction Consultation/Bookmarks/read later

I'm not clear what would be wanted in bookmarks that isn't already available in watchlists. But if there is something extra required then why not expand the watchlist system? There are many many ancient requests for improvements to the watchlist system such as being able to create sub lists or to just watch threads or sections. That should solve the rare occasion where an existing editor with thousands of articles on their watchlist wants to create some bookmarks.OK that requires people to register and have an account, but accounts are free. Though we would need to change some policies such as the usurpation of inactive accounts if there were some active reader accounts that didn't edit.

Thanks for bringing this up. The reading team has discussed this quite a bit. I think the conclusion arrived at is that both use cases rely on the same underlying data structures (groups of entities: articles, sections, revs or otherwise). However, 'group of things' is a very generic notion in CS and the purpose, features and experience of both are quite different. If I am watching an article for revisions, that is very different from saving an article for later reading or offline usage--an optimal layout and set of features are quite different. So, the team I think broadly discussed that while some core architecture might be re-used, the development paths of both are likely different.

Another factor we considered was purely logistical. As we planned to develop a feature for saved articles to be saved in groups on Android (this feature is almost finished), the Android team discussed collaborating with the community tech team, as they were planning watchlist work. After the team's discussed, it became clear that opening up watchlists to perform separate surgeries at the same time would be a real issue, so the Android team backed off... This doesn't mean that core architecture couldn't be re-used in the future.

Happy to discuss further.

I agree needs are very different. Being able to track updates in reader-friendly way (considering more the information units than the modified characters) could help people to rely more on Wikipedia when checking live events and news (without having to refresh the browser).