Item9921: We can grey out the 'make new revision' tickbox if the last edit was not made my the logged in user

thus making it clearer that the 'force new rev' is specifically for the same user...

similarly, its un-necessary if the rep-rev timelimit has passed.

that way we're actually helping the user grok the point of it.

-- SvenDowideit - 30 Oct 2010

I am not sure the normal user will even notice. He clicks the checkmark and gets a new revision and it happy.

Greying out may give the impression that you cannot make a new revision.

I do not think the normal user will care too much but if someone wants to spend time on it I have no worries.

But it is an enhancement and not a bug IMHO. Changing to this so it ends up in the right section of release notes if implemented.

-- KennethLavrsen - 30 Oct 2010

why not make it disappear completely rather than ghosting it out?

-- WillNorris - 31 Oct 2010

I prefer graying out. Hiding is confusing. It means that people search for it and cannot find it. Then it is better to always have it available but let the gray out indicate that a new revision will be made.

Very best signal would be to combine the gray out with having the tick mark set and make it must be impossible to untick it. Then you clearly indicate that saving will create a new revision no matter what.

-- KennethLavrsen - 31 Oct 2010

that's what I meant but didn't say - the idea is to help the user know what the UI is, and not to confuse when they can't change its action - including updating the tooltip to explain what's going on.

that way they're more likely to say 'oh, how useful'

-- SvenDowideit - 31 Oct 2010

If the goal is to educate the user, I would prefer not to gray out the element ("why doesn't it work now?") or completely hide it without a trace ("where is the damned thing?"), but to replace it with some text like "Your edit will create a new revision (number x)".

-- ArthurClemens - 01 Nov 2010

I don't think any user may be educated that way or even should. Nobody will ever notice the connection between "force new revision" being grayed out (or just not there) and a "last edit was not made by logged in user" condition.

Sure there are some conditions where the next edit will create a new revision anyway. But that's only of relevance for internal technical reasons that the user shouldn't be bothered with. Giving them a way to really really be sure that a new revision will be created is what the checkbox is for. Let them check it even though it wasn't necessary. That's reliable and simple under every possible condition.

Actually the big surprise for most users is that a recent edit did not create a revision of its own as it was merged with the previous edits. An improvement would be to have a radio box that warns about this condition, something like

Your changes will be merged with your previous edits. Force a new revision.

-- MichaelDaum - 05 Jan 2015

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