1086623 - Do not prompt users to provide an edit summary every time they update the Mozilla wiki

Status: RESOLVED WONTFIX

(Websites :: wiki.mozilla.org, defect)

Description

[Matt Thompson (@OpenMatt :OpenMatt)]

* Recent changes to the Mozilla wiki prompt users to add an edit summary every time that make an update to a page. I'd like to advocate for rolling that back. I think it was better before. 

* I understand the intent here, I think -- encouraging people to follow best practices. But I find this change a pretty big interruption to my daily workflow. 

* I use the wiki a lot. I update it a lot. Forcing users to hit the "save" button or check an additional "minor edit" checkbox every time I update a page is a pretty big slow-down to my work. 

* Maybe you can check with other regular users and see what they think. Thanks!

Comment 1

[Gordon P. Hemsley [:GPHemsley]]

This behavior is controlled by a preference. We opted to turn it on by default to encourage people to follow best practices. If this is a major interruption to your daily workflow, then perhaps your daily workflow needs reanalysis.

That being said, you can easily turn it off if you want to:

Preferences > Editing > Editor > Prompt me when entering a blank edit summary

Comment 2

[Matt Thompson (@OpenMatt :OpenMatt)]

"Preferences > Editing > Editor > Prompt me when entering a blank edit summary"

Thank you! Just what I needed. 

p.s. This has become one of my favorite Mozilla quotes of all time: 
"If this is a major interruption to your daily workflow, then perhaps your daily workflow needs reanalysis." 

Behavioral modification through lousy UX -- what a great idea! :)

Comment 3

[Christie Koehler [:ckoehler]]

We know the UX for the reminder isn't great and we'll work on improving it. 

However, Gordon has a point in that edit summaries are a critical tool for maintaining the wiki and it's important that active contributors provide them.

If you find that you're seeing the reminder a lot, I encourage you to ask yourself why it is you're not providing information about your edit. While annoying at first, I found that having this reminder instilled in me the habit of writing edit summaries and that doing so quickly felt like no extra effort.

If you're curious why edit summaries are so important for maintaining MozillaWiki, scan through Recent Changes[1] and try to verify each edit as legitimate or not. Generally, edits with summaries, even brief, are much easier to verify than those with out. Same thing for the history of individual articles.

[1] https://wiki.mozilla.org/Special:RecentChanges