Topic on Talk:Talk pages project/Replying/Flow

T250295: Alert people when new comment(s) posted in a discussion they are replying within

The Editing Team is in the midst of planning an improvement to the Reply Tool that will alert you, in real-time, when someone posts a new comment in the discussion you are drafting a comment within.

This way, you can decide whether the new comments that have been posted warrant you making changes to the comment you had been drafting.

Before moving forward with implementing this functionality, we had a question for you all...

Question

Do you think being alerted when a new comment is posted within the discussion (read: == H2 ==) you are drafting a comment within will be helpful? Do you think it will be distracting?

Note: thank you to @Sdkb and @MichaelMaggs for resurfacing this issue in Topic:Woomtgg3secx6r2h,

Yes, I would find that helpful. I often have the same problem. I could see that it might be distracting to some people, but if it were something that could be turned on and off that would take care of that.

Agreed; having this as a setting in mw-prefsection-editing-discussion would be nice.

I could see that it might be distracting to some people, but if it were something that could be turned on and off that would take care of that.

Great observation, @Valereee. We agree with you in thinking there is a balance to be found that makes it so these alerts equip people with information they can use to improve the comments they are drafting.

For now, we think the "only show alerts when new comments are posted in the same section" approach will be a strong enough filter to make the alerts valuable to people who are receiving them.

Although, if this approach ends up causing alerts to be sent that distract people, I'm thinking we can consider improvements like:

• Making the alerts optional (as you proposed)
• Adjust the scope of the changes people are sent alerts about. More in T300216

@PPelberg (WMF): Yes; this would be helpful. I don't think it would be distracting if done correctly (I'm imagining a little icon or dot somewhere non-intrusive).

(I'm imagining a little icon or dot somewhere non-intrusive).

+1! We're imagining the kind of "alert" that you would notice in your peripheral vision.

I'm glad you mentioned this feedback explicitly for it's the reminder I needed to document where/how we've been thinking the alert ought to appear.