This was originally suggested as Item #1 on this old wish. However, in the hopes that it will be implemented, I am separating it from the other wishes on that page so that it can be rated up on its own merit.
Feature Request
A new button, which allows us to display a watch/unwatch link to users.
It should be more configurable than the existing Watchers module, which is primarily designed for listing watchers of a page rather than constructing links.
Why it's needed
A very important usability change was recently implemented by the Wikidot team in regards to watching forum threads. When a user watches the 'forum' page category, they now also receive notifications for forum threads and posts.
The biggest problem now is the ability for users who may be unfamiliar with how the Watching system works to easily watch and unwatch certain areas of a site. Many new users may not even know that the Watching feature exists if they do not look at the bottom of the page.
Solutions for this include using the Watchers module, as I have done on my blog here: blog:_watch. Because the page is in the 'blog' category, using the Watchers module I can add an easily-visible link to watch the entire category and receive notifications.
But this is still a hack, using CSS to hide most of the things I don't want people to see. I'd also like to hide the "site" and "page" links, but that's not possible yet.
Examples of how it could be used
A 'Watch' button would be a better way of doing what I have done on my blog. It could be used to present customised watching links to users.
For example:
[[button Watch category="forum" watchText="Subscribe to the forum" unwatchText="Unsubscribe"]]
[[button Watch page="%%fullname%%" watchText="Watch this article" unwatchText="Unwatch this article"]]
[[button category="blog" watchText="Watch the Wikidot.com blog" unwatchText="Stop watching the Wikidot.com blog"]]
Considering that some sites can be extremely advanced and use several categories for the same thing (e.g. page-based forums using "section", "thread" and "post" categories to encompass the whole forum) … a better solution needs to be found. A 'Watch' button could do this:
[[button Watch category="section,thread,post" watchText="Subscribe to the forum" unwatchText="Unsubscribe"]]