Thread:BertH/@comment-1251315-20160908152956/@comment-5275700-20161013183749

Hey Sajuuk,

Apologies to you for the delay in the response to these questions.

1. It's more likely that the common needs will be introduced as core features/settings/options in the future. These are two great examples and we want to hear more about what systems and customizations are most widely used in the current Forum. We'll also be looking at various ways that community-level customizations can be implemented. It's unlikely that the open JS paradigm from the wikis will be extended to Discussions pages.

2. As has been noted in an existing FAQ response, the desktop layout will continue to evolve. This may include both the placement and width of elements, and the initial filter/sort options are presented to users. We do plan to stick with the broader concept of presenting initial lists of posts right away, alongside the category filtering options. This gets users to content faster, as opposed to requiring them drill down through multiple levels of indexing first, as in the traditional forum structure. Category filtering is cookied so that returning users can quickly get to the content they are most interested in.

3. Highlighting is indeed an extremely useful features that was introduced with the Forum. We'll be introducing an updated Notifications system, and this will include highlight-type functionality that should be even more versatile than what we currently offer.

4. Currently there is no markup/code or rich text formatting of any kind, and there will be further development in that area. Many of the specifics are still to be determined, and it's helpful to know about the most common uses of wikitext and templates (beyond basic text formatting). Discussions is intentionally built separate from MediaWiki, so it's likely that some conventions and processes will have to change in any case. Coming at the wiki integration from the other direction — choosing where the specific touch points are — is much more optimal from a development standpoint. There will be fewer edge case bugs and we can be more clear about expected functionality.