Help:Watchlist

From Image Comics Database

When a user is logged in, you will see a link in the sidebar entitled "Watch this page" (on non-dynamic pages). When you click on that link, you add the current page and the corresponding talk page to your watchlist.

You can access your watchlist by clicking on the My watchlist link in the sidebar.

The watchlist basically functions as a personalized recent changes page, just for articles that you select. It gives you a list of all watched pages, reverse-ordered according to the time each page was last edited. The default cutoff for the watchlist is currently three days for users with less than 1,000 pages in their watchlist, and 12 hours for users with more than 1,000. (This is a default setting that cannot be changed by the user.)

Each line in the watchlist provides the usual details about the last edit: the date and time, if it was a minor edit (or not), the difference between the current version and the previous one, the history, the editor's user name, and the edit summary.

What the watchlist does:

Last edit. The watchlist lists the last edit made to each watched page, in reverse chronological order.
Recent changes. In the recent changes page, any watched pages will be listed in bold to call attention to them.

What the watchlist does not do:

Multiple edits. Only the last edit made to a page will be shown. If the last edit was a minor edit, there is no notice given that there was a major edit before the minor edit.
Deleted pages. If a watched page is deleted, it is automatically removed from your watchlist without any notice. (Yes, this is considered strange behavior.)

Watching pages

You can add pages to your watchlist in one of two ways:

View the article, and click the "Watch this page" link in the sidebar.
While editing an article, check the "Watch this article" checkbox near the edit summary. When you save the page, the article is added to your watchlist.
In your preferences, select the option to "Add pages you edit to your watchlist".

Un-watching pages

If you decide that you are no longer interested in changes made to a page, you can remove that page from your watchlist in one of two ways:

View the article, and click the "Stop watching this page" link in the sidebar.
Click the "My watchlist" link in the sidebar, and select "edit complete list". You will be given a checkbox list from which you can select multiple pages to be removed from the list.

This text is stored on Wikia Help. Suggest changes here.

Your watchlist displays a list of changes to the pages you have watched, with the most recent edits at the top. It provides a Recent changes-type list that shows only the pages you are particularly interested in, making it easy for you to see the improvements that others have made so that you can continue to build on each other's work.

Watched pages will also appear in bold on recent changes.

How does it work?

The watchlist shows only the last edit to the watched page, by default. If there was more than one edit to the page since your last visit, you may need to view the page history to see them all.

If you watch a page, its associated talk page will be watched as well. You cannot choose to watch one but not the other.

By default, the watchlist shows edits from the last three days. You can choose other time periods from the links at the top of the Special:Watchlist page, but the page will reset to the default on your next visit.

There is no limit to how many pages you can watch, but if you watch more than 1000, the default cutoff for the watchlist will be 12 hours instead of three days. This reduces server load and allows the page to be displayed more quickly.

Removing pages

To remove pages from your watchlist, go to the page and click "unwatch".

To remove many pages at once, go to your watchlist and click the "show and edit complete list" link. Then check the pages you want to remove.

Email notifications

In your email preferences, you can choose to be emailed if an article on your watchlist is changed ("E-mail me when a page on my watchlist is changed") or choose a weekly digest ("E-mail me a Weekly Watchlist Digest"). This is a weekly email that will inform you of any pages on your watchlist that you haven't visited yet. It's a great reminder for those important pages that slip by on occasion, or if you have a large number of watchlisted pages.

See Email notification for details on how you can set your Special:Preferences so that you receive notifications in your email of changes to pages on your watchlist.

Other watchlist options in preferences

Number of days to show in watchlist: changes the default time period shown
Expand watchlist to show all applicable changes: will show all edits made to a page, not just the most recent
Number of edits to show in expanded watchlist: limits the number of lines shown

The following options will hide certain edits from the watchlist, which may make it easier for you to monitor important activity on your wiki:

Hide my edits from the watchlist
Hide bot edits from the watchlist
Hide minor edits from the watchlist

These options automatically check the "watch this page" box when you perform certain actions. You can always uncheck it manually for individual pages that you don't want to watch. Especially for small wikis, these options combined with email notification can make it easier to monitor activity on your site:

Add pages I create to my watchlist
Add pages I edit to my watchlist
Add pages I move to my watchlist
Add pages I delete to my watchlist