Extension:DiscussionTools/Comparison

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Various extensions and tools have emerged over the years to improve the support MediaWiki offers people to communicate with one another on-wiki: Structured Discussions (Flow), LiquidThreads , DiscussionTools and Convenient Discussions.

This page offers an overview of these various extensions and how the features they offer compare to one another.

Comparative Review

Main characteristics

Status of each tool, and their integration to the wiki's key features.

	LiquidThreads	Structured Discussions	DiscussionTools	Convenient Discussions
Type of tool	MediaWiki extension			Gadget/Userscript based on DiscussionTools
Release status	Unmaintained		Maintained (Wikimedia Foundation)	Maintained (Volunteers)
Activation	Pending removal^[1]		Deployed on all wikis as the default discussion system.^[2] User configurable (including opting-out).	User opt-in and configurable
Visual editing	N No	Yes	Yes	N No
Backwards-compatibility with wikitext	N No	N No	Yes	Yes
Templates support	Yes	Yes	Partial – Tables, templates and parser tags aren't allowed in replies in visual mode	Yes
Full history integration with the rest of the wiki	Yes	N No	Yes	Yes
Mobile web support	N No	Yes	Yes	N No
Mobile app support	N No	N No	Yes	N No
Permalink to a given comment	Yes	Yes	Yes – if the signature of the comment is not altered.^[3]	In progress

Discussion features

Interaction with talk pages and other comments.

	LiquidThreads	Structured Discussions	DiscussionTools	Convenient Discussions
Dedicated workflow for starting a new topic	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Topic and contents preload	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Indication of new comments when you read a topic	N No	N No	Yes
Indication of edited comments when you read a topic	Yes	Yes	N No	Yes
Each conversation has a permalink	Yes	Yes – Each topic is a different page.	Yes – By linking to the title, or by using the first comment's permalink.^[3]	In progress^[3]
Move topics between pages	Yes	N No – planned but not implemented	Yes – via wikitext editing; title and signature mustn't be altered during the move.^[3]	Yes
Include discussions on another page and reply to them there	N No	N No – planned, including cross-wiki transclusion , but not implemented	Yes – via transclusion
Editing comments	Yes	Yes	Partial – via wikitext editing the whole page or section. See T242562 and T245225 for the editing of individual comments.	Yes
Thank a comment from within the talk page	Partial – via Page history	Yes	Partial – via Thanks in Page history. In progress – Work on supporting "Thanking" from the DiscussionTools UI is being tracked.	Yes
Sort topics by recent comment	Yes	Yes	N No	N No
Sort topics by start date	Yes	Yes	N No	N No
Summarize a discussion at the top of it	Yes	Yes	Partial – by editing opening comment.
Mark a message as read or unread	Yes	N No	N No	N No
Show/hide (collapse) subthreads	Yes	N No	N No	Yes

Notifications and interactivity

	LiquidThreads	Structured Discussions	DiscussionTools	Convenient Discussions
Highlight a set of unread comments	N No	Yes	Yes – only when subscribed to a topic and using links from notifications	Yes
Subscribe to be notified about new comments to a topic	Yes – via Watchlist	Yes – via Echo		Yes – via Echo or itself
Be notified when a new topic is started on a talk page	Yes – via Watchlist	Yes – via Echo		Yes – via Echo or itself
Auto-subscription to a topic you created	Yes – default
Highlight a quoted comment	N No – can link to comments but only as standalone pages	Yes	Yes	Yes
Notification of edited comments	Partial – only on your own comments	Yes	N No	N No

Maintenance and moderation

	LiquidThreads	Structured Discussions	DiscussionTools	Convenient Discussions
Direct access to user talkpage, contribs and more	Partial – if linked in the signature	Yes	Partial – if linked in the signature
Hide (moderate) a comment	Partial – no undelete UI	Yes	Partial – via undo/rollback (requires searching for edit in edit history) or archival templates, not included and requires editing wikitext	Yes
Hide or delete a topic	Partial – no undelete UI	Yes		Partial – same as DiscussionTools
Archiving discussions	Not needed	Not needed	N No – see T337293 Requires 3rd party bots for automatic archival Requires wikitext editing or 3rd party gadgets for manual archival	N No – Same as DiscussionTools, though moving topics can be used for manual archival.
Report an inappropriate comment	N No	N No	In progress^[4]	N No

References

↑ https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T332022
↑ A few wikis have Flow as the default discussion system.
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 ^3.3 DiscussionTools has its own system of permalinks based on signatures, while Convenient Discussions can automatically generate PermanentLinks.
↑ T339247 – Create entry points for the Incident Report dialog with DiscussionTools

[1] ttps://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T332022

[2] A few wikis have Flow as the default discussion system.

[permalink-3] 3.0 ^3.1 ^3.2 ^3.3 DiscussionTools has its own system of permalinks based on signatures, while Convenient Discussions can automatically generate PermanentLinks.

[4] T339247 – Create entry points for the Incident Report dialog with DiscussionTools

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