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Update board election spam scripts for 2015 and run
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Description

This is, unfortunately, a bit time sensitive now because things dropped while I was on vacation (@Philippe-WMF says he created a ticket but it seems to have gone missing in thin air so I'm staring in his direction). What I think we need to update (if better ways to do it I'm open obviously):

  • Update the scripts from bv2013 in securePoll (cli/wm-scripts/bv2013) for bv2015.
    • doSpam.php (creates email list)
      • List is 'board-vote-2015a'
      • Get list of users who has already voted from voteWiki election 512 (probably just change the election number) [is used to not email those folks]
      • Look at centralAuth db rather then troll all databases for eligible user list
      • Get user name and email as well as language and project (from homdb) from globaluser table rather then individual wiki
      • Right now the 'voted' flag is being checked by db.username. I'm not sure if that needs to be changed to just check username or global user id (what we now use for the list anyway) or not.
    • sendMails.php
      • Needs to update the basics (2013 --> 2015). Not sure if any of the language checking needs to be checked because of changed in the list. Maybe not.
    • buildSpamTranslations.php
      • Need to update the basics (2013 --> 2015) and where all the translations are now on meta etc.
  • Use scripts to send the emails.

Event Timeline

Jalexander raised the priority of this task from to Unbreak Now!.
Jalexander updated the task description. (Show Details)

I'm writing an email to try and troll for some help on this, I'm then working to get all of the translations we have so far together (and do a last minute cry for checking) and then will probably try to update buildSpamTranslations.php though I'm not sure if I can actually run it (since it tends to save all the translations to /a/common historically).

We also need to put the list of no-email users into the folder buildSpamTranslations uses. I'll create the list easily but will probably need help getting it to the right place on terbium.

Change 213973 had a related patch set uploaded (by Jalexander):
Add new version of buildSpamTranslations.php

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/213973

Change 214289 had a related patch set uploaded (by Ori.livneh):
Add bv2015/doSpam.php

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/214289

@Jalexander, I updated doSpam.php for the 2015 board vote and generated the list. Are the translations ready on terbium (or some other host)?

Jalexander assigned this task to ori.
Jalexander removed a project: Patch-For-Review.

Two bot accounts of mine (BernsteinBot and WoodwardBot) received e-mails about the ongoing Wikimedia Foundation Board elections (subject line: "Wikimedia Foundation Elections 2015"). Bot accounts receiving the e-mails is not a big deal, but we (Wikimedia) should be mature enough to have a standardized process/checklist for mass electronic mailings of this nature. I'm going to file a separate task about this.

Change 214289 merged by Ori.livneh:
Add bv2015/doSpam.php

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/214289

Change 213973 abandoned by Huji:
Add new version of buildSpamTranslations.php

Reason:
Issue was resolved through 214289

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/213973

For posterity, here are the steps we took to do this in 2015:

  • bv2015/buildSpamTranslations.php from I9f860a66ab2, patchset #2 (never merged) to extract the translations from meta into files.
  • bv2015/doSpam.php > somefile to generate the recipient list.
  • bv2013/sendMails.php with local modifications (updating $langs, $file, $subject for 2015) to actually send the mails.

I believe we erred by including bot accounts in the recipient list, so that is something to look out for if anyone plans on adapting these scripts for future elections.

Change 213973 restored by Tim Starling:

[mediawiki/extensions/SecurePoll@master] Add new version of buildSpamTranslations.php

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/213973

Change 213973 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/SecurePoll@master] Add new version of buildSpamTranslations.php

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/213973