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Maniphest T120832

Configurable bot flag for MediaWiki message delivery account
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Description

From https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Wikidata:Contact_the_development_team

mw:Extension:MassMessage[edit | edit source | Add topic]
Sorry for posting here, but I have no account on Phabricator. This is not at all related to Wikibase.

It is currently impossible to deflag the botflag for User:MediaWiki message delivery on svwiki. User:MagnusA has deflaged the bot three times the last week, but the flag is still there. The intension is not the prevent the bot to send messages, but to make it possible to see it's activity in RC. -- Innocent bystander (talk) 18:11, 7 December 2015 (UTC)

It's marked as a bot by system, see Phab:T62000#647090. I don't know does it make sense to remove the automatical bot flag, anyway that should be better discussed on Meta, or somewhere else... --Stryn (A/S) (talk) 18:24, 7 December 2015 (UTC)
Getting an account on Phabricator isn't hard btw, you can just log in with your Wikimedia SUL. Sjoerd de Bruin (A/OS) (talk) 18:26, 7 December 2015 (UTC)
As far as I know removing the bot flag will have no effect! Also, very odd place for this message! ·addshore· (A) talk to me! 10:27, 8 December 2015 (UTC)
As I said, Phabricator does not recognise me!
And it make sense to remove the botflag when you want to see the users action in RC and your watchlist. There are other message-bots on svwiki and they are all unflaged. The only approved bots who edits with botflag in ns:user_talk are the archive-bots.
Why should we discuss it on meta, when the bot edits locally? The correct place to talk is on Phab, but as I said above... -- Innocent bystander (talk) 11:25, 8 December 2015 (UTC)
Are you sure you clicked on the MediaWiki button at the bottom of the login form, as said by the text on that page? Sjoerd de Bruin (A/OS) (talk) 11:57, 8 December 2015 (UTC)

Either the flag for the bot should behave like a regular user flag (not sure if this is possible?
Or there should be a config option for the extension as weather to flag the messages as bot or not

Details

Related Changes in Gerrit:
SubjectRepoBranchLines +/-
Only assign bot to MassMessage user if creating or stealing the accountmediawiki/extensions/MassMessagemaster+9 -2
Customize query in gerrit

Related Objects

Event Timeline

Addshore created this task.Dec 8 2015, 3:18 PM
Addshore raised the priority of this task from to Needs Triage.
Addshore updated the task description. (Show Details)
Addshore added a project: MassMessage.
Addshore added subscribers: Addshore, Legoktm.
Restricted Application added subscribers: StudiesWorld, Aklapper. · View Herald TranscriptDec 8 2015, 3:18 PM
Ricordisamoa subscribed.Dec 11 2015, 2:03 PM
Legoktm added a comment.Dec 13 2015, 8:48 AM

It definitely used to be possible to unflag the bot, this might be a regression from the new User::newSystemUser() function.

Mollgear subscribed.Jun 14 2016, 7:23 AM
Mollgear added a comment.Jun 14 2016, 7:40 AM

The regression is still not fixed and it would be great to get this sorted out.

If you don't want to maintain two accounts (one for the bot and one for yourself), you have to constantly add and remove the bot user group. This is especially frustrating without bureaucrat rights, because you have to bother others with that issue as well.

So alternatives would be to spam the recent changes or to fly under the radar, because you are completely hidden.

It would be great to have global default setting for the "bot" flag and a per-edit option (UI and API) to override the default. This is very similar to the "minor" flag and the two options should be available when you are part of the bot user group.

Please also give the current state of this bug report. If it won't be fixed, it would be good to know.

MarcoAurelio subscribed.Aug 1 2016, 11:15 PM
Nemo_bis mentioned this in T141832: MediaWiki message delivery should respect 'bot' flags.Feb 17 2020, 9:41 AM
Nemo_bis subscribed.Feb 17 2020, 9:49 AM

It would be great to have global default setting for the "bot" flag and a per-edit option (UI and API) to override the default.

No, I don't think so.

This is very similar to the "minor" flag and the two options should be available when you are part of the bot user group.

Whether a user talk message should be considered minor is something that on many wikis is defined by custom, guideline or even policy: not a per-edit decision by the individual user. Same for the bot flag.

This bug report remains about the ability to remove the flag:

It definitely used to be possible to unflag the bot, this might be a regression from the new User::newSystemUser() function.

An alternative would be to add a configuration setting through which a wiki can decide to mark all messages as non-minor bot edits, or minor non-bot edits. If the configuration is to mark as bot edits, the extension probably also needs to enforce the presence in the bot group (there is a precedent for non-bot sysop accounts to mark certain edits as bot edits, but that's not necessarily a pattern we want to expand).

Addshore unsubscribed.Feb 17 2020, 9:54 AM
Mollgear added a comment.Feb 19 2020, 11:24 AM
In T120832#5889400, @Nemo_bis wrote:

It would be great to have global default setting for the "bot" flag and a per-edit option (UI and API) to override the default.

No, I don't think so.
(there is a precedent for non-bot sysop accounts to mark certain edits as bot edits, but that's not necessarily a pattern we want to expand).

Mind to elaborate?

This is very similar to the "minor" flag and the two options should be available when you are part of the bot user group.

Whether a user talk message should be considered minor is something that on many wikis is defined by custom, guideline or even policy: not a per-edit decision by the individual user. Same for the bot flag.

The (overhauled?) user talk page topics might be the only case where it's not specifically user-controllable under certain conditions - and even this behavior is a fairly recent change. E.g. gamepedia user talk pages still are a per-edit "minor" flag decision.

Apart from that, the article talk pages have a per-edit "minor" flag.

An alternative would be to add a configuration setting through which a wiki can decide to mark all messages as non-minor bot edits, or minor non-bot edits. If the configuration is to mark as bot edits, the extension probably also needs to enforce the presence in the bot group

I am not sure if I can follow. The edits are hidden because they are flagged at bot edits independently from their minor flag, aren't they? Are you suggesting to make all bot edits visible by default unless they are minor?

Full agreement on a configuration option, which allows the wiki to tune the importance of bot edits and messages. But this requires the same functionality to enable/disable the bot flag per edit. Whether be it the wiki, admin or user who sets this per config file/UI/API is a different concern. That decision should be up to the wiki host and not limited a priori.

Which extension is this about? This is about the core module as far as i understand.

Nikerabbit moved this task from Backlog to Message delivery on the MassMessage board.Jan 26 2022, 10:16 AM
Dreamy_Jazz subscribed.Dec 15 2022, 1:27 PM

Can confirm that this is still happening.

Dreamy_Jazz added a comment.Dec 15 2022, 1:42 PM

Git blame says that the addition of the bot flag has been around since e40bf2da0593a4e37e15c8be73389649332d1be3 (since 2013). In b8338218 the newSystemUser conversion was done, however, the system user was not returned before the code that assigned the bot flag. This means that the fix is likely in only changing MassMessage code.

gerritbot added a comment.Dec 15 2022, 1:55 PM

Change 868409 had a related patch set uploaded (by Dreamy Jazz; author: Dreamy Jazz):

[mediawiki/extensions/MassMessage@master] Only assign bot to MassMessage user if creating or stealing the account

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/868409

gerritbot added a project: Patch-For-Review.Dec 15 2022, 1:55 PM
gerritbot added a comment.Dec 27 2022, 6:47 PM

Change 868409 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/MassMessage@master] Only assign bot to MassMessage user if creating or stealing the account

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/868409

ReleaseTaggerBot added a project: MW-1.40-notes (1.40.0-wmf.17; 2023-01-02).Dec 27 2022, 7:00 PM
Maintenance_bot removed a project: Patch-For-Review.Dec 27 2022, 7:30 PM
Aklapper added a comment.Feb 16 2023, 7:17 PM

Patch merged; is there more to do in this task or can the task status be set to resolved?

Dreamy_Jazz closed this task as Resolved.Feb 16 2023, 7:26 PM
Dreamy_Jazz claimed this task.

Yup. Looks fixed to me on my local test wiki. Marking as resolved. Thanks for raising this point.

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