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Sitewide notifications through Echo
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Legoktm
Oct 30 2013, 5:22 AM
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Description

Rather than using sitenotices/centralnotices, Echo could be used to send a global notification to all users, which they mark read once and it goes away (stored system-side instead of in a cookie).

Users could enable/disable in their Echo preferences just like anything else.

See also: http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikimedia-l/2013-October/128639.html

Details

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bz56361

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bzimport raised the priority of this task from to Needs Triage.Nov 22 2014, 2:21 AM
bzimport added a project: Notifications.
bzimport set Reference to bz56361.
bzimport added a subscriber: Unknown Object (MLST).

peter.southwood wrote:

Good idea with wide range of applications.

Linking to the mockup by Geraki so people don't have to click through the mailing list post:

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Echo-centralnotice.png

romaine.wiki wrote:

Certainly a good idea.

I see currently two ways of receiving information by communities on their wikis:

  1. CentralNotice: too many notices will result in banner blindness and blocking notices as they are very disturbing often on every page.
  2. Posting in central discussion/notifications page on a wiki: a lot of users will see that notice but also many users do not see them.

To me there is a gap between CentralNotice messages on one side and on the other hand the postings in central discussion/notifications page. I think we should get a way to notify every user targeted just as with the CentralNotice: if needed geo specific, translated, etc but isn't shown as big banner on every page. The Echo system seems a good way to fill that gap.

The WMF core features team tracks this bug on Mingle card https://mingle.corp.wikimedia.org/projects/flow/cards/392, but people from the community are welcome to contribute here and in Gerrit.

Any Updates here? This function would be relly nice, especially for small projects.
Sitenotice is actually outdated and needs a proper replacement. Using Echo is definitely the best solution.

Spage triaged this task as Lowest priority.Dec 29 2014, 6:42 PM
Spage added a subscriber: Spage.

Good idea but unclear when Collaboration team will get to this. If someone picks this up, talk to us about a spec.

Yeah, there are a number of questions to figure out here:

  • Who has permission to create a sitewide notification?
  • How do they turn it on?
  • How do they turn it off?
  • If a sitewide notification is turned off, does the notification item disappear for everyone who hasn't seen it?
  • How many can you have running at a time?
  • Do they expire?
  • Can people opt out of receiving sitewide notifications?

It's totally possible to do this, it just needs some thought to figure out the details.

Thanks for your answers.
Beforehand: Sorry for my bad english.


  • Who has permission to create a sitewide notification? How do they turn it on? How do they turn it off?

Ideally there should be a special page where authorized users (with a special right) can set new notifications. I made an example graphic: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:SitewideNotificationsExample.png
In smaller wikis admins should have access to that page by default. Nevertheless there should be a possibility for the server admin to give that special right to certain groups via localsettings.php.
The special page should contain a box where the admin can set up the notification with a limited amount of words (Bold/Italic/Links are allowed).

  • If a sitewide notification is turned off, does the notification item disappear for everyone who hasn't seen it?

Yeah, it should.

  • Do they expire?

Maybe it's possible to set a expiring time (with a maximum of XY days) via the special page (see example).

  • How many can you have running at a time?

Personally, I would not set a limit by default since this function is not designed for extensive usage. Nevertheless it should be configurable via localsettings.php

  • Can people opt out of receiving sitewide notifications?

Mhh, thats a tough one... I think they should.


I think this feature has huge potential and we should give it a try :)

Any updates on this? It would be awesome!