Should this be generalized so that there's an "add section" button on pages which aren't discussions, but which are flagged for it?

It would be good if the text can be customized. There are pages which act like discussion pages, but are also request pages, for example most subpages of [[w:nl:WP:VP]] where it is good to have instructions. Secondly, those pages work with comments starting on level 3 under a level two header, where level two might just be new/done/not done. Would be good to accomodate there.

Instead of trying to detect everything, it would be good if the community of the wiki can steer this by magicwords/variables, that can be added preferably via a template.

There are already flags: __NEWSECTIONLINK__ to force the new section link in non-talk (even-numbered) namespaces (e.g. village pumps), and __NONEWSECTIONLINK__ to suppress it in talk (odd-numbered) namespaces (e.g. talk page archives). [1] So I think the condition is simple: show the button in the header if the new topic tab is visible (provided that the sticky header is also visible), and hide it if the new topic tab is not visible.

[1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Help:Magic_words#Behavior_switches

@Tacsipacsi mostly I'm not sure whether the existing sticky-header work responds to that flag, and if so whether we should make it respond to it outside of just our pages with DiscussionTools actively making changes. (I.e. is this something that applies to people who have DT disabled, etc.)

• 1. What do people who have the Enable quick topic adding setting disabled to see within the version of the sticky header that appears on talk pages? Note: the current spec would make it so the Add topic button continues to appear within the sticky header. Once clicked, people would be taken to the legacy section=new form.

Per the discussion we had as a team on 13 April, people who have the Enable quick topic adding setting disabled will see the Add topic button appear within the sticky header. Once clicked, people will be taken to the legacy section=new form.

With that change, should we also change the "meta" requirements in the description? My impression of the outcome of that discussion was that we were, essentially, going to be putting the "add topic" button into the sticky header in New Vector regardless of any DT involvement (i.e. whenever it would appear in the page tabs, it'd also be in the header), but the current description still has it gated behind the visual enhancements preference and only on certain namespaces.

In T304187#7862466, @DLynch wrote:

With that change, should we also change the "meta" requirements in the description? My impression of the outcome of that discussion was that we were, essentially, going to be putting the "add topic" button into the sticky header in New Vector regardless of any DT involvement (i.e. whenever it would appear in the page tabs, it'd also be in the header), but the current description still has it gated behind the visual enhancements preference and only on certain namespaces.

Good spot, @DLynch.

Can you please give the updated task description a read and comment if anything about what I've changed in T304187#7901582 is unexpected/missing to you?

Regarding the question of button styling, I would propose either of these two options:

Primary button

Quiet button

My personal preference would be for the primary button, as the quiet button version seems to float a bit awkwardly in the position it sits and the blue icon looks odd sitting among the grey icons. I also think there is a good argument for having the button in the sticky header matching the same style in which it appears on the page itself.

Any thoughts on this @alexhollender_WMF?

thanks for sharing these mockups @KieranMcCann. Both options look good to me; I don't have a strong preference.

I lean slightly towards the quiet button since that version feels lighter overall to me. Two thoughts, neither of which are strongly held:

• Interesting point about the button in the sticky header matching the button on the page. Though at the same time there are already buttons in the sticky header that are shown in a reduced way compared with their "original" counterparts.

• I tend to think of blue primary buttons as more like "final" actions. The button in the sticky header starts the "Add topic" workflow, and at the end of that workflow there is the more "final" version of the "Add topic" button:
  

Thanks for the comments @alexhollender_WMF and yes I think these are valid arguments. Also, given that the article sticky header has no primary button then I think that is a good reason not to include one on the Talk page sticky header.

So to move forward I suggest we go with the quiet button option and monitor this in any future user testing.

Change 789614 had a related patch set uploaded (by Bartosz Dziewoński; author: Esanders):

[mediawiki/skins/Vector@master] Add "Add topic" button to sticky header

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/789614

Updated task description to document decision to implement quiet button.

Change 789614 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/skins/Vector@master] Add "Add topic" button to sticky header

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/789614