ToME Wiki-- ReenenLaurie 2004-08-16 14:47:01
This is all about the 'optional' comment when making changes.
I often forget to add a comment to a change, and sometimes you can add something like "Note for Neil" or something like that on the comment if you remember. So the person for who the message is left can notice it on RecentChanges already, and don't have to sift through lots of things that doesn't interest him.
My proposal is that if the optional comment line is empty, to bring up an input box, (java style if possible), asking if you are sure you don't want to make a comment.
Another wiki I am on has the option of clicking 'Minor edits', and that then adds the text "Minor Edit" to the comment. Then in the RecentChanges you can select to not see the 'Minor edits".
Maybe your comment reminder could also be a checkbox like 'send mail notification' and 'remove trailing...' have 'remind me to comment?' (default checked).
I will typically add a comment if I remember. And I think most people would, and this makes browsing recentchanges much quicker.
(later): Like when I first posted this... I forgot to comment... 
GregSweetman: I agree on the Minor Edits part, I've seen / used that before on other wikis and it works well. (Typos and such)
As for the other, I think I would find it more annoying than helpful. If I'm correcting a typo, I don't want to have to double my workload by clicking another confirm button for changing an 'i' to an 'o' 
MayLith: Please, no java popups or confirmations! I despise popups, and I make enough edits as it is. The last thing I want to do is to be slowed down even more. The box to enter your comments is only 4 lines down from where you are typing (on a new post, anyway); just get into the habit of looking there.
Re: minor edits: My 'minor edit' notice is to not enter anything in the comment box. YMMV.
ReenenLaurie: I'll check the acronyms for YMMV. I'm getting in the habit (slowly), but if you keep getting annoyed with a pop-up you'll probably get into the habit faster.
I also don't always comment when replying to a post such as this one, as my name will appear on the thread in RecentChanges, and that's notice enough. I used to enter 'comment' each time, but I became concerned that if everyone did that, RecentChanges would get very cluttered, so I stopped. (Perhaps that's a silly concern.) Now I'll make a note if I have something specific to point out.
ReenenLaurie: GregSweetman, no you are misunderstanding me. If you typed a / in the comment box, then nothing would, 'pop-up'. It's only when you left it open. Maylith, that is why I said that it should be Optional with a selectionbox at the bottom of the screen. So users who don't want to use it don't. But it was just a suggestion, I just know I would find it convenient.
GregSweetman: Oh, I was under the impression that if you just went into a page, changed a single letter in the content, and hit save then it would popup. This either means I have to put something in the comment box to prevent that, or click the confirm button, both of which increase the keypresses for that total edit by 50%
ReenenLaurie: It would pop-up if you have (in your cookie settings) selected the 'Remind me to Comment' box just under the 'save changes' button. But if you had not set that (global per user) variable then it would not pop-up for a comment. You could even (on the popup) have a place where you could change the pop-up default behaviour ("Don't show this message again" kinda thing).
GregSweetman: Oh, I see. You are suggesting adding an option to the UserPreferences page to dictate whether or not to default this reminder popup to come up? Well, that could be useful for some I suppose. I wouldn't use it personally, but it seems you would so perhaps someone can code it?
ReenenLaurie: Yes you understand what I am saying perfectly now. IMHO it's like they say in management... it's a nice-to-have. I believe options and flexibility is important.
MayLith: As a user preference, I could probably tolerate (barely) the stink of it, though I would insist the entire thing be turned off by default. Options are nice, yes, but that's no excuse to build an automatic breadbutterer into a Hummer. (And come to think of it, I know one manager who would probably try that.)
NeilStevens: I don't see myself installing non-standard stuff in the HTML of this site. That would preclude various vendor-specific script languages.