Last modified: 2011-03-13 18:04:51 UTC
Currently there is a preference where one can choose to see enhanced recent changes (RC), which requires JavaScript. My proposal is to remove that preference, in favor of always using the JavaScript enhanced version. The reason is that even if you *don't* have JavaScript enabled the enhanced version is more useful, and it doesn't seem broken at all. Also, a majority of the users do have JavaScript enabled. It may be that some people find the non-enhanced RC more useful, and maybe I'm a little quick in asking to remove the option. In any case I think the default should be enhanced RC.
Both removing features and changing preferences are surefire way to annoy the vocal minority; if there was data to suggest that a large majority of users do indeed prefer and work better with this option then maybe changing the default could be considered. It would be interesting to see the results of a usability study (or failing that a poll on a big Wikipedia). I think removing the setting entirely would cause pointless anxiety, there is at least one patrolling script that (admittedly hackily) requires the user to have the enhanced recent changes disabled; (and anyway, I prefer being able to see all the edit summaries and a user's actions in the right order :D). I've closed this as WONTFIX for now, but if there is data to suggest that it really does improve the experience of most people, it would be prudent to reopen it.
