Forum:Watchlists versus Followed pages

Originally, any pages that I wished to monitor more closely were added to my watchlist. They were bolded on the recent changes list, and easily viewable on my watchlist page in the order that they were last edited. Now (as of a few days ago, when I hoped it was just a glitch), with this "followed paged" system, it seems that my former watchlist is permanently in "view and edit watchlist" mode with the added feature of letting the public view it, and more or less useless. Is there any way to kill this with fire, or turn it off? Edit: It seems that Special:Watchlist still exists, but is hidden with the default skin.-- 17:55, May 8, 2010 (UTC)
 * See discussion at w:User blog:Sarah Manley/Followed pages - a new way to stay up-to-date on your favorite wiki pages. -- 17:59, May 8, 2010 (UTC)


 * I agree with the sentiment from the linked discussion that this is fixing what wasn't broken. Biggest issue for me is it's replacing a page which has functionality that this new one doesn't provide.


 * I'm wondering why i can't see all edits to an article, not just the most recent. Pcj, your comments from that discussion seem to suggest that there should be a link to show all edits next to the article header, but i can't see one. Even if it did, the scope of the edits are limited by what? the followed pages list needs seperating by day just like the watchlist.
 * Also where is the indication for new changes you've not looked at? The watchlist does bolding, but as with all ridiculous web 2.0 wannabe stuff the text on this new page is overly big and bold already. Where are the different links for current diff and previous diff too? The colouring of the tabs on My Home are messed up as well -- on our default skin at least.


 * This really seems like another result of wikia injecting social networking aspects -- less practicality, more flashy, less informative -- into a wiki for no good reason. I'll be sticking to the functional and practical watchlist until this new one can even come close to matching what that one can do thanks, so wtb the watchlist back in the user links or get rid of it until it's properly been tested. :/ -- 15:41, May 9, 2010 (UTC)


 * I'd also like to point out an issue with using a lightbox. Too many people are writing javascript code which triggers on mouse 3 clicks -- unintentionally -- as well as 1. It's severly annoying me and preventing me from easily opening links in new tabs with a single click -- as mouse 3 is a common default to do so for some browsers. Get it fixed please. -- 15:44, May 9, 2010 (UTC)


 * Please post on the central wikia blog I linked, Wikia is not as likely to read here. You can add the watchlist back with JavaScript (see that post).  As far as the lightbox, that's probably fixable by JS as well.  You are having trouble opening images in a new window? -- 21:03, May 9, 2010 (UTC)
 * No fan of wikia, so me posting outside wowwiki is unlikely. Though i'm sure Kirkburn will read this, so job done imo. I saw the javascript restoration -- and css work arounds -- posted, but not really my ideal solution beyond a tempoary thing.


 * As to the lightbox, it's a problem on so many sites for many years. From the perspective of the scripts, mouse 3 clicks are considered the same as mouse 1, so when i click with mouse 3 which would normally open a typical link in a background tab, javascript links act incorrectly in various ways depending on what method has been used e.g., activating auto scroll and triggering the link -- often causing a horrible experience of scrolling randomly due to the page shifting position --, activating the link and opening the new tab -- namely the wow forums has this problem and things like coppermine for phpbb --, does nothing but activates auto scroll, does nothing and can't even right click to open in new window due to lack of providing a normal link for lack of javascript. Be nice to not see that trend continue when it should be a quick fix. -- 22:50, May 9, 2010 (UTC)


 * Mouse 3 = middle-click, right? I specifically checked that that's working on lightbox. A ctrl+click issue is known and should be fixed soon, but middle-click and right-click/menu were (and are) working for me.
 * MyHome tab design should also be getting some fixes soon. We had some unexpected issues with the order of CSS loading.
 * Yeah, it should be of no surprise that I read here too :) Just want you to know that we (I) am listening to your feedback. I'm sure you understand that I'm unable to satisfy everyone, but I do want to assure you that there are no plans to get rid of Special:Watchlist. It's an annoying extra step for the advanced users now to be sure, and I want to find a solution to that, but there is no risk of it disappearing in a more permanent fashion (unless we design something that can do everything it does, better). 22:28, May 10, 2010 (UTC)


 * Followed pages suck bad. That's all I need to say.
 * Also, the new section aside from the Watchlist is just useless, as others before me have stated.
 * If there's any way to completely kick this out, just like blogs and other shit was, I'll welcome it with eagerness.--Lon-ami (talk) 14:48, May 16, 2010 (UTC)

I just gotta ask... if the watchlist functionality can be "added back with JavaScript", why not do it the other way around, and have the follow functionality be the one added in with JavaScript? (That's an implementation/technical question, not a snark, really. Was it just a design decision?)  Or is it implemented that way already, and I just don't see it? I use the old wowwiki skin, and manage to avoid any new "follow" features except the changed "watch" tab name. I'm mostly content. --Eirik Ratcatcher (talk) 17:36, May 19, 2010 (UTC)
 * Mmm, I suspect Wikia thought the follow list would get a better reception than it did. -- 23:46, May 20, 2010 (UTC)
 * Hmm... Well, I did ask my question in a forum not frequented by Wikia's programmers. Nevertheless, I think that you're right, that the idea was "we'll keep on the old functionality kinda special, while presenting this new stuff."   But it seems counter intuitive to put yourself in a position of having to re-engineer existing features to provide backwards compatibility. --Eirik Ratcatcher (talk) 00:10, May 21, 2010 (UTC)