Help talk:Watchlist

Legend

The Watchlist Legend seems to contain items that are somewhat misleading or perhaps out-of-date:

• The "r This edit may be damaging and should be reviewed (more info)" line is not covered at section of this help page covering legend items, and moreover requires the user to install a beta extension, through a somewhat advanced process that most users are not likely to do, to actually display in one's list. That's not immediately apparent (even when clicking "more info"). It seems misleading to include it as a legend item for all users, who may reasonably interpret the lack of r flags in their watchlist to indicate that none of the edits are potentially damaging (we know how true that is, of course).

• "D This edit was made at Wikidata" - I no longer see the option to show Wikidata edits (which I remember existing at one time, and it's still described in the Options section of this help page); is this still a flag that can ever show up on the watchlist? I know I haven't seen it anytime lately.

• Related: under "Options" is the ability to show/hide "page categorization". I don't know what that functionally means and it doesn't seem to be covered here.

I don't know if this is the right place to raise this issue, please let me know if it's more appropriate elsewhere. FWIW, I have my watchlist Expanded and Enhanced. Antepenultimate (talk) 20:36, 25 September 2016 (UTC)

I didn't even know of the existence of those flags before you mentioned them here. I guess I don't look at the watchlist legend often enough. That said, I could see this being a minor problem to some. Dustin (talk) 21:16, 25 September 2016 (UTC)

Yeah, to be clear, I don't think this is a massive issue. Though I figure if it's confusing to me (I consider myself to be reasonably experienced), then I'd worry about how it may appear to a brand-new user, who would be most likely to need the legend and help pages to try and figure out this crazy place. At the very least, there's an opportunity to update this Help page to stay current with what users are encountering, but I don't consider myself enough of a Watchlist expert to make changes myself. Antepenultimate (talk) 21:36, 25 September 2016 (UTC)

I'm working on an update. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:46, 25 September 2016 (UTC)

Does [1] help? Your link "somewhat advanced process" is about how a wiki powered by MediaWiki can install the Ores extension. It's installed here at the English Wikipedia and users can easily enable it for their account at Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatures. PrimeHunter (talk) 21:58, 25 September 2016 (UTC)

Yes, thank you! That is a very thorough update and answers all of my questions. (I'll admit that I Ctrl-F'd "Page Categorization", and therefor missed the guidance that already existed that did not use that exact phrase - so that was my bad, though it's easier to find now, for sure.) And definitely my ignorance of extensions shows in that I did not realize that the process for ORES was for wikis, not users! Thanks for clearing up why "Wikidata" changes are no longer an option as well. All in all, thanks for such a quick yet thorough response! Antepenultimate (talk) 23:15, 25 September 2016 (UTC)

The page says "Tab at top of page: When viewing a page, click the star symbol between the 'View history' tab and the search box at the very top of the page, to respectively add or remove the page from your watchlist." but I don't see any marker for watching, and as far as I know, I'm using the default skin. There doesn't seem to be a "watch" item under the adjacent "Tools" pulldown either. DWorley (talk) 22:59, 7 March 2024 (UTC)

OK, my mistake: I was looking at Wikipedia in a tab that I had not refreshed since I had logged in. DWorley (talk) 23:04, 7 March 2024 (UTC)

Double spaced

The article information in my watchlist is now double spaced. This is the first time this has ever happened. I didn't changed any of the settings for my watchlist. Is this a glitch or an intended change? I want my watchlist to return to being single spaced. SMP0328. (talk) 01:37, 29 June 2018 (UTC)

Discussed at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#crazy watchlist. PrimeHunter (talk) 01:41, 29 June 2018 (UTC)

For the record, the discussion is archived at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 166#Thursday's software release issues, 28 June (1.32.0-wmf.10). —⁠andrybak (talk) 00:08, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

space

I don't know where to say it, so I am trying here. It seems that in the watchlist, and maybe other places where edit summaries appear, there is no space between the page name and date. I believe this is new, as I would have noticed it before, but maybe I wasn't looking. Gah4 (talk) 01:45, 8 November 2019 (UTC)

Discussed at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)#Bad separators on multiple pages. PrimeHunter (talk) 03:59, 8 November 2019 (UTC)

For the record, the discussion is archived at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 177#Problems with separators and semicolons on RecentChanges, Watchlist, History and Contributions. —⁠andrybak (talk) 00:14, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

Modifying limitations

Hi - in Help:Watchlist#Limitations, it suggests you can't watch categories. Yet isn't this what [[2]] does, if you put in a category name? TimTempleton ^{(talk) (cont)} 23:04, 13 May 2020 (UTC)

Quote from Help:Watchlist#Limitations, additional emphasis mine:

Watching a category page will pick up changes to the text of the category page itself. If "Hide categorization of pages" is disabled at Special:Preferences § mw-prefsection-watchlist, or "page categorization" is unchecked after "Hide:" on the watchlist, then it will also show pages being added or removed from the category. However, it will not report changes to subcategories or member pages contained in the category.

Watchlists can be configured to monitor immediate categorization relationships, changes to "children" of the category. But watchlists don't show changes of more distant categorization relationships, i.e. "grandchildren". —⁠andrybak (talk) 00:39, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

Any edit that changes a number or numbers without an edit summary should be flagged "r"

This is an extremely common form of vandalism. There is never a reason to change numbers without leaving an edit summary. —DIYeditor (talk) 18:30, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

I've started a discussion at WP:Village pump (technical)#Numerical changes without edit summary should be flagged "r" in watchlist. —DIYeditor (talk) 19:22, 29 April 2023 (UTC)

For the record, the discussion is archived at Wikipedia:Village pump (technical)/Archive 205#Numerical changes without edit summary should be flagged "r" in watchlist. —⁠andrybak (talk) 00:14, 8 March 2024 (UTC)

Watching versus subscribing?

Could someone please add an explanation of the difference between watching an article or subscribing to an article? I see the words as synonyms. David Spector (talk) 20:17, 29 July 2023 (UTC)

I am still seing "subscribe" links on sections, but no explanation of how subscribing is different from watching. "Subscribe" seems to be undocumented and mysterious. If it is similar to Watching, why isn't it described in this Help article? David Spector (talk) 01:19, 27 October 2023 (UTC)

"Subscribe" links on sections is a relatively new feature, from 2021–2022. See WP:SUBSCRIBE for details. —⁠andrybak (talk) 00:42, 8 March 2024 (UTC)