Topic on Talk:Reading/Web/Advanced mobile contributions/Flow

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T237204

I loved that Wikipedia introduced the Adavnced Mode in order to make it easier for us editors to edit pages we watch. Before, we had to manually edit the lage to revert vandalisms or have to click on the web version so that we'd be allowed to revert edits back.

But there's a change to the Advanced Mode that just didn't sit well with me. The new User Interface for Watchlist is similar to the User Interface for Recent Changes. Look, I get that Wikipedia wants to make it easier for us editors to spot changes made to the pages we watch, but this new UI for the Watchlist presents two problems: 1. The fact that it is redudant and unnecessary considering that if we wanted to see the recent changes, we'd just click on recent changes anyway; and 2. Most importantly, instead of being one click away from the pages we watch, we would have to type them into the the search bar now to be taken to the said pages. The new UI only shows the changes to the pages we watch but not the actual list of pages we watch which automatically redirects us to the said pages. The new UI does contain the list of those pages we watch, but it doesn't allow us to be redirected there. The new UI was designed for editors who are reactive rather than proactive - those who'd rather just see what others did instead of facilitating proactive editing. Like I said, I love the advanced setting, but after the change to the UI for Watchlist, I might just have to go back to the basic Wikipedia and trade in the ability to revert edits for a better UI for Watchlist. The basic versions still has the old UI for Watchlist.

I have to agree. I'm usually not the type of person who cries "Revert immediately!" when a change to the software happens, and I appreciate your efforts to bring advanced filters to mobile, but the old watchlist design fitted my needs much better than the new one, and I had to disable advanced mode completely, though overall I really liked it. My specific issues with the new watchlist design are:

• I have to scroll much more. First, I have to scroll past the whole form which is really long, even if you collapse the filter (and when I'm on desktop, I do not want to have it collapsed, so I'd have to collapse and uncollapse it every time if I change my device); secondly, the items on the watchlist are a bit larger than before, again requiring more scrolling.
• The new list takes longer to load, especially on limited mobile connections.
• The most prominent element in the new watchlist is the rollback button, which is the one element I never want to use from there.

I would be really happy, if the old watchlist could be kept as "quick overview" and be made default for users who like it better than the advanced mode.

I concur, in particular regarding the last two points. It is very easy to accidentally hit the rollback button. Not sure what is going on with the loading time, it seems similar to the slowness of the watchlist on mobile devices in desktop mode.

I created a task for it.