I regularly clear my watchlist. I wish I could do the same to topic subscriptions. I could not find an interface to do that. Is there a page that lists all topics I have subscribed to?
Topic on Talk:Talk pages project
Not yet, but I hope there will be within a week or two (it will be called Special:TopicSubscriptions). In the meantime, you can track the development at phab:T273342 or try out it at a demo wiki (you can either register a new account, or log in as the existing user Alice with password patchdemo1). If you have any thoughts about the new special page, make sure to share them so that the developers can take them into account in the final version!
One of the open questions is: What do you want on that page? Do you want a "delete everything" button? A way to figure out what's old and what's new? Sort by page name or namespace? By how recently you (or someone) commented?
Before your question, I just wanted to have it on my Special:Watchlist and Special:EditWatchlist. However, after reading through that phabricator ticket I found the additional functionalities very appealing. Chinese Wikipedia has a bot that maintains a "topic list" on each of the Village Pump's subpages, which is well received. I think having a Special page like that should be handy.
Chinese Wikipedia has a bot that maintains a "topic list" on each of the Village Pump's subpages, which is well received
@MilkyDefer the bot you are referring to above sounds interesting...are you able to share a link to it? I'm curious to learn more about what functionality it offers people.
@PPelberg (WMF): it is User:Cewbot, operated by User:Kanashimi. It maintains a topic list in a separate subpage, which is then transcluded into the main page.
- The user page of cewbot in zhwiki: w:zh:User:Cewbot
- The source code of this function: GitHub
- Example: w:zh:Wikipedia:互助客栈/消息/topic list (updated regularly by cewbot) lists current discussions happening on w:zh:Wikipedia:互助客栈/消息. The former is also transcluded into the latter.
- More examples: commons:Commons:Bots/Work requests, w:ja:Wikipedia:削除依頼/ログ/今週
More examples: commons:Commons:Bots/Work requests, w:ja:Wikipedia:削除依頼/ログ/今週
Oh, these examples are wonderful, @MilkyDefer! I'm grateful that you thought to mention this bot because it is precisely the kind of tool that I think could help inform how Special:TopicSubscriptions could evolve.
A couple of resulting questions for you...
Do you actively use any of the "topic lists" Cewbot generates? And if you do, can you share what you find useful about these lists?
@PPelberg (WMF): Yes, I particularly like the way that topic list tells me when the last edit is. By using different colors, I can understand when a comment is added more quickly than reading the raw timestamp. Also, the link directly to the discussion is also useful.
The "topic list" has some other functional information on some pages. For example, on w:zh:WP:GAC, where people vote to decide whether an article could be a good article, the topic list has the live voting status listed, which is also useful. But for general discussions, the direct link and colored background is what I find most useful.
I would like to suggest that Special:TopicSubscriptions could add the background color feature. Also, if there is a topic that has new comments but I haven't visited, that entry could be marked in bold. The last-edit-time could link to that particular comment, is also preferred.
Thank you for sharing this additional context, @MilkyDefer. Responses to some of what you shared below...
I particularly like the way that topic list tells me when the last edit is.
But for general discussions, the direct link and colored background is what I find most useful.
...topic that has new comments but I haven't visited, that entry could be marked in bold. The last-edit-time could link to that particular comment, is also preferred.
The three bits of functionality you named above was precisely the kind of information I was seeking. I've added these ideas to this new ticket in Phabricator: T295208: Make it easier to identify discussions with comments you have not read.
The "topic list" has some other functional information on some pages. For example, on w:zh:WP:GAC, where people vote to decide whether an article could be a good article, the topic list has the live voting status listed, which is also useful.
Can you share what you find useful about a community page like w:zh:WP:GAC containing a list of the discussions/votes going on within it? Asked another way: what does this table/list help you to do?