See these links for some of the existing attempts:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Dashboard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Admin_dashboard

In terms of a 'sidebar', you might look at what PageCuration does. It's small enough to keep open on every page, which might be desirable. (Screenshot at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Curation_Toolbar_Mark_Reviewed_Aug_10_2012.png )

In T91655#1105645, @Mvolz wrote:

Would something like implementing a task queue within the GettingStarted Extension seem like a better project than doing an entirely new extension?

No, I think a separate extension is better for a couple reasons:

1. Anything merged to GettingStarted master is automatically deployed to Wikimedia production within about a couple weeks. That means you would probably have to work on a server-side branch.
2. Though the concept is somewhat related, this has a different focus (it's actually more related to things we discussed on the Growth team, but didn't have a chance to implement).

It could depend on GettingStarted, though.

@Mvolz, @Mattflaschen, if you want to feature this project idea, please fill the description. @NiharikaKohli or myself will do the rest to feature it,

T67119: Implement Flow support in Pywikibot will be my priority. Most likely, I will only mentor this if there are no suitable candidates for T67119.

In T91655#1105674, @Whatamidoing-WMF wrote:

See these links for some of the existing attempts:

also https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Wikivoyage:Maintenance_panel is very interesting

For Commons, it would be particularly useful to be able to configure continuos streams of new files, with an extensive set of filters like size, name (regex), license, uploader account age, recreation y/n and many other file and user attributes.

I have created a personal dashboard page for myself, but its use is currently unfortunately limited since (among other reasons) #categorytree doesn't display file thumbnails, watchlists cannot be transcluded and new files can only be filtered by upload date (offset).

In my opinion, the advantages of being able to watch (problematic) users would outweigh the dangers that may come with it, but maybe this could just be restricted to watching new users?

This is a message posted to all tasks under "Need Discussion" at Possible-Tech-Projects. Outreachy-Round-11 is around the corner. If you want to propose this task as a featured project idea, we need a clear plan with community support, and two mentors willing to support it.

This is a message sent to all Possible-Tech-Projects. The new round of Wikimedia Individual Engagement Grants is open until 29 Sep. For the first time, technical projects are within scope, thanks to the feedback received at Wikimania 2015, before, and after (T105414). If someone is interested in obtaining funds to push this task, this might be a good way.

@Mvolz this was your initial project proposal some time ago. Do you think it still makes sense to keep it open as a request?

@Mvolz @Mattflaschen-WMF do you still think this project is a good candidate for an Outreachy-13 internship? If yes, we can feature it.

I could probably still co-mentor this if another mentor is available. I
don't have much extension XP.

Some thoughts on each of the 5 ideas described/discussed:

*Recently viewed articles (like mobile has- the problem is that extensive editing on mobile is difficult. There are often pages I read on mobile so syncing with mobile history would be AWESOME but I think that would be pretty hard to do within the confines of opw/gsoc)

An interesting idea, and worth filing a separate task for!

*Articles you've recently edited (for picking back up where you might have left off)

How would this differ from [[special:contributions]] ?

*A Task Queue- for making deliberate commitments to work on particular articles, and prioritising them.

Possibly covered by T48103: Allow having an on-wiki ToDo list per user ?

(Sidenote, there's also the very simple (but non-automated nor easily-discoverable) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:To_do at a couple dozen wikis. These are sometimes used on article talkpages, and sometimes on userpages.)

*Ability to add friends with a list of their recent contributions to encourage social editing

As commented above, this should probably be removed. See also the recently declined T2470: Provide a 'user-watchlist' that lists all recent contributions of a set of users

[discussion about dashboards and open task lists]

This seems to be the one with traction.
Whatamidoing and I left a couple of related links above. To reiterate, and add:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Dashboard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Admin_dashboard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Backlog
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Category_tracker
https://en.wikivoyage.org/wiki/Wikivoyage:Maintenance_panel
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Backlog
https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Contribute/Suggested_and_open_tasks
and then all the Community Portal pages, which usually offer a mixture of news, onboarding, and task lists, e.g.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Wikisource:Community_portal
(sadly all English examples)

I love the idea of taking these concepts further, but I suspect it would need a lot more organization and initial research (combined with prior research) to make it a success. Plus comparison with the other related investigations/development, such as MediaWiki-extensions-CollaborationKit
and whatever microcontribution research/work is ongoing.

I think this task needs to be refocused (or restarted), if it's to be included in Outreachy/etc.

In T91655#1105674, @Whatamidoing-WMF wrote:

See these links for some of the existing attempts:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Dashboard
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:Admin_dashboard

In terms of a 'sidebar', you might look at what PageCuration does. It's small enough to keep open on every page, which might be desirable. (Screenshot at https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Curation_Toolbar_Mark_Reviewed_Aug_10_2012.png )

There was also a GSoC project that was kind of similar, isn't it?

https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Google_Summer_of_Code_past_projects#Enhanced_cross-wiki_watchlist

In T91655#2626306, @Quiddity wrote:

*Articles you've recently edited (for picking back up where you might have left off)

How would this differ from [[special:contributions]] ?

These are just ideas for things to put on the dashboard; the fact that they are already available elsewhere just makes that easier to implement! So that's a plus, not a minus, for the idea, as a GSoC project.

The point of a dashboard is that it's a call for action. When I go to en.wikipedia.org, the front page is organised for readers. As an editor, I want to go to en.wikipedia.org and see things for me to write, not things for me to read about. (Or even wikipedia.org- so yes, crosswiki watchlist is relevant there!)

I agree it needs to be scoped down. What about just a gadget? Are gadgets in the purview for outreachy? And we don't have to dip into the db structure if we are just going to put features that are already available on the front page. We could leave those sorts of db access essential features for if/when the gadget was converted into an extension.

(Re: Specifically, how this differ is that it'd be on the front page, and de-duplicated so it only shows unique pages, and maybe exclude Talk pages, etc.)

In T91655#2628374, @Mvolz wrote:

Are gadgets in the purview for outreachy?

Absolutely. Any technical project that would take about two weeks to an experienced contributor is a potential good fir for Outreachy.

If we could have a "narrowing of scope" on this task or a new related task, to address the internship and with someone willing to mentor, soon, that'd be great.

Spun the recently viewed idea into another project: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T145409

I do think this would make more sense to do once the other pieces are in place, such as the to-do list @Quiddity mentioned, and the viewing history. Then it would be easier to piece all these together in a dashboard somewhere. But, still possible to do with only the things I mentioned above.

One idea is just to make a customisable front page where you can drop any number of Special or other pages.

And they would go into frames but that would be pretty ugly, but maybe you could do something nice with transclusion? https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Transclusion

Doesn't work for watchlist, does work for contributions :D https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Mvolz/sandbox

If we can have a primary mentor soon, and one or two microtasks, this could move forward.

This is taking an interesting turn, thank you for the good ideas! The fact of seeing this as a gadget instead of an extension or a Special page makes everything easier (I didn't know you could have a gadget to create a whole new page or transform your Main page).

As per looking for new mentors, a couple of ideas:

• Asking specifically in wikitech-l and labs-l, where potential mentors with experience developing gadgets can be found.
• Asking to the Foundation's Editing department to see whether someone would like to join this experiment in addition to @Mvolz. Maybe even someone from Design Research mentoring , since the UX part and some research is key in this project.

Re: The CollaborationKit work that I mentioned, it can be seen in action at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Women_in_Red#Tasks - I'm not sure if it's currently possible to add the sections individually to our userpages (e.g. just the "Assess for quality" section), but I hope we can in the future!

There are also older related notes about a modular userpage system, in
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/GlobalProfile/design
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/GlobalProfile/Affiliation_scratchpad
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Structured_profiles

As for changing one's personal [[main page]], the only method I know of is detailed at
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Main_Page_alternatives#How_to_reset_your_default_main_page_to_one_of_the_above
However, I think that modular templates for userpages would be better, as that's where editors already/traditionally organize their work, plus it makes it visible for everyone else (per your great sandbox experiment), plus it doesn't override the actual [[main page]].

Really like this idea; it would be nice to be able to combine the watchlist feed along with recent changes and some other special pages or bot generated lists in one place. Even better if ones like the Watchlist and recent changes could update in real time.

This task was also proposed in the 2016's community wishlist survey and was ranked 22 out of the 265 proposals :) Looks like this feature is quite high in demand!

@Mvolz Do you imagine it to still look like a gadget? Does it still need more discussion or mentors at this point to become a Outreachy/GSOC project?

This would need a primary mentor to be featured. More discussion is always welcomed because it is still a little ill-defined, but I don't feel like that's a blocker.

Would someone from Contributors-Team or Design Research mentoring/Design-Research interested in willing to mentor this task along with @Mvolz in GSOC 2017/Outreachy Round 14?

This theoretically could be a pure design project and for Outreachy only.

@Mvolz I'm considering to showcase this project on the Outreachy page thinking that more interest to work on this task, will make it easy to draw mentors. Do you see any problem in doing so?

I can't devote a significant amount of time to this one because I already
have two where I'm primary mentor. It might make sense to advertise this to
wikitech-l or even on wiki; most gadget developers are volunteer devs.

@Mvolz Okay! that makes sense me :)

FYI: Wikhow has had something similar for a long while.
http://www.wikihow.com/Access-the-wikiHow-Community-Dashboard

Hi all, I am new to WMF and i am interested in working on this project for this year's GsoC '17. I have read through the task and i think it is a venture which is worth taking. please I just need some help to make this project realized.

Hi @Eugene233 and welcome! You probably meant Wikimedia instead of WMF. :)
Please see https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Outreach_programs and if we can help, please tell us how. Thanks!

Hi @Eugene233 unfortunately this project is missing a primary mentor, so if you like this project you would have to find someone to mentor it for you - a good place to look is the wikitech-l mailing list.

Hi @Aklapper @Mvolz , Thanks for the information. I have written to wikitech-l mailing list and still waiting for someone to opt to mentor the project as primary mentor. Meanwhile there is no time to waste as application period is running out gradually what is best to do?

As the community wishlist proposer I would be happy to help out with opinions on design, content, functionality, etc., but I'll be precisely zero help with technical implementation.

@Eugene233 it may be best to look for a different project to apply to; alternatively you could get started on a microtask (like maybe a wireframe?) and maybe look for mentors on wiki; does anyone know where a good place to look for a mentor on wiki would be?

Although I'm in no position to mentor, I'd like to help with brainstorming ideas too. I personally like the simplicity of the dashboard on Discogs.com (seen if you have an account).

Saw your e-mail on wikitech @Zppix; feel free to add yourself as a mentor in the task!

As was said before in the task, this project is super important and wanted, and we should do it right.
The project needs some good research and brainstorming with the community before we can start with design and specifications - not to mention implementation.

This project also touches on several other projects that the WMF is already working on (like the Edit Review Improvements in RecentChanges and watchlists) so that may prove to be another source that we should spec correctly alongside the existing projects. And the remarks on the wishlist item itself show that there's a need to clarify and provide good specifications for this properly before we go forward to the next steps. I'm worried we'll have a student work hard and end up not getting their product actually become live.

We should do this right. I don't think this is ready to be an internship project just yet.

@Mvolz done, feel free to email me and irc if im online anytime