MediaWiki’s new discussion system in testing on Wikimedia Labs

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I’m very excited to announce that LiquidThreads, the next-generation discussion system that I’ve spent the last few months developing for the Wikimedia Foundation, is now in beta testing on liquidthreads.labs.wikimedia.org.

Image (1) Screen-shot-2009-09-30-at-4.37.41-PM.png for post 3788
Sample of the LiquidThreads interface


The current ad-hoc wiki-page system for discussion has reached its limits, and we’ve been developing a more structured, yet just as open, alternative.
LiquidThreads cleans up the post/reply workflow, and manages the mechanics of discussions, such as archival, history, refactoring, and quoting, freeing up user time for getting real work done. LiquidThreads also integrates per-talk-page and per-thread searching of discussions into the interface. Most interestingly, you can watch individual threads, and keep abreast of new developments in dicussions and topics you’re interested in, without having to visit every page you’re interested in on a regular basis.
I want to stress that LiquidThreads is still in active development. As such, feedback is very welcome, and essential to make sure that LiquidThreads continues to be improved, with a view of deploying it on our production sites very soon. As such, please send feature requests, bug reports, and other constructive comments to the feedback page (which is a LiquidThreads discussion page, of course).
So, head to the test wiki and give it a go yourself. Feedback should be addressed either directly to me (first initial last name at wikimedia dot org), or by filing a bug on bugzilla (but do check the list of existing bugs before doing so).
Andrew Garrett, Contract Developer

Archive notice: This is an archived post from blog.wikimedia.org, which operated under different editorial and content guidelines than Diff.

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Why is it being tested on both the labs and the 3rd usability sandbox?

Still needs a facelift

It’s certainly looking much nicer than the last time I saw it—it looks more wiki-like now, and the chrome’s not as overwhelming. I’m still leery of a shift to this system, but the improvements so far certainly help. 🙂