Wikipedia:Bots/Requests for approval/WikiProject Notification Service Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Bots/Requests_for_approval/WikiProject_Notification_Service

The following discussion is an archived debate. Please do not modify it. To request review of this BRFA, please start a new section at WT:BRFA. The result of the discussion was Speedily Approved.

Operator: Harej (talk · contribs · SUL · edit count · logs · page moves · block log · rights log · ANI search)

Time filed: 18:14, Tuesday, June 30, 2015 (UTC)

Automatic, Supervised, or Manual: Automatic

Programming language(s): Python

Source code available: notifications.py on GitHub

Function overview: Creates a notification service for WikiProject members for those WikiProjects that implement this feature.

Links to relevant discussions (where appropriate): Part of a broader project to improve WikiProjects; see Wikipedia:WikiProject X

Edit period(s): Daily

Estimated number of pages affected: Very few. Edits are limited to /Notifications subpages, which there is only one of at the moment: Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Technology/Notifications

Exclusion compliant (Yes/No): No; bot does not edit any pages other than /Notifications pages

Already has a bot flag (Yes/No): No

Function details: I have developed a system called "WikiProjectCards" that facilitate automated, useful membership lists for WikiProjects. Each WikiProject using this system (currently just one, as of writing) has a FormWizard form which facilitates the creation of a page in userspace with the {{WikiProjectCard}} template. See User:Harej/WikiProjectCards/WikiProject Women in Technology as an example. As part of the form that generates the card, a user can opt in for notifications relevant for the WikiProject. I'm currently planning for two notifications—new members and new discussions—but I would like to have additional notification options in the future.

The notifications script works by pulling user-space transclusions of {{WikiProjectCard}}, checking the page name structure for the username and WikiProject it is associated with. It then parses the template to see which notifications the user has signed up for. Each notification type is generated for each WikiProject once a day, and it is saved to a notifications subpage for that WikiProject, e.g. Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Technology/Notifications. (The one notification there is the only test I will do before I am cleared for more testing; I like to test my scripts before submitting them for approval to see that they work.) The bot tags the user in the notification message in such a way that it does not render in the message (i.e., [[User:Example| ]]). Users tagged in this way get a notification in their notification center, hence "WikiProject Notification Service". In the long term I would like the bot to send notifications directly to users instead of posting them to a page, but this works for now.

The bot is called "WikiProject Notification Service" instead of "bot" because "WikiProject Notification Service mentioned you..." sounds more natural as a notification in my opinion.

• This looks extremely uncontroversial to the point where I would guess that a BRFA shouldn't be needed... →Σσς. (Sigma) 01:08, 3 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
  • I appreciate your vote of confidence, Σ, but the rules say otherwise. ;] In any case I designed this to be as uncontroversial as possible; I want this to be something that helps people, rather than something that annoys people. Harej (talk) 01:26, 3 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]
• ((BAGAssistanceNeeded)) Harej (talk) 21:00, 7 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Harej is this Opt-in or Opt-out? From the sample page I see it is Opt-out? -- Magioladitis (talk) 22:56, 7 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Magioladitis, WikiProjects opt in to using the system (there is one form per project) and then each user can choose which notifications they want, including no notifications. Harej (talk) 23:12, 7 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

Speedily Approved. Magioladitis (talk) 23:16, 7 July 2015 (UTC)[reply]

The above discussion is preserved as an archive of the debate. Please do not modify it. To request review of this BRFA, please start a new section at WT:BRFA.