Talk:Notifications/Testing

Welcome to our discussion page for testing the Echo notifications project!

We'd love to hear your feedback about this beta software. Please drop us a line below, with your questions, suggestions or issues.

For tips on how to test Echo, check our testing page. If you encounter a serious issue, please report it as a bug on Bugzilla. If you have any urgent questions, email us at e2@lists.wikimedia.org.

To learn more about Echo, check out this project hub, the feature requirements page, the user experience page and other related documents.

Thanks!

Fabrice Florin (WMF) (talk) 23:58, 17 December 2012 (UTC)

We need more about purpose
Chris McMahon says that the testing page ought to have a little more about purpose -- that is, what kinds of activities we want to enable people to do using his software, and guidance re the nature of the messages people should receive. Please fix. :-) Sumana Harihareswara, Engineering Community Manager (talk) 17:41, 9 January 2013 (UTC)

Tiny little bug
I checked out Notifications and it works! I do have a minor quibble with the display in the French version. In Special:Notifications, today's messages title (in French) is shown as, the apostrophe showing in all its HTMLesque nakedidity :) Bouchecl (talk) 01:45, 8 February 2013 (UTC)
 * At least now it looks correct: "AUJOURD'HUI".--Qgil (talk) 05:33, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

Not warning, unless...
Hi,

As an IP, I left a first message on my talk page. Echo warned me after I reloaded Echo_(Notifications)/Testing. I left a second message, but Echo did not display anything after I reloaded Echo_(Notifications)/Testing. However, after I switched to Talk:Echo (Notifications)/Testing (this page), Echo warned me there was a message.

Cantons-de-l&#39;Est (talk) 12:29, 8 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I think the problem comes from the way that I reload a page. If I only request to view the page by clicking on the "Page" button, no warning. If I request a full reload (Atl-F5 for instance), Echo displays all the messages. Cantons-de-l&#39;Est (talk) 12:32, 8 February 2013 (UTC)
 * I can reproduce this and yes it is funny. Then again in real cases this is basically not noticeable. Users just see the notifications whenever they land in a mediawiki.org page. Reloading a page waiting for a notification to show up is weird. What I wonder is, why can't Echo notifications be more push and show up even if you are not reloading the page, like social media tend to do?--Qgil (talk) 05:29, 18 March 2013 (UTC)

Testing Tips content
Hi,

For testing the basics of the system, here is a way :

In English

 * 1) You need two Web browsers.
 * 2) Login if you're not.
 * 3) Go to your talk page. Copy the page address in your computer clipboard.
 * 4) Launch the second web browser.
 * 5) In the second browser, go to your talk page (paste the page adress in the address bar).
 * 6) Leave a comment on your talk page.
 * 7) Go back to the first web browser and reload the page (request a full reload : Ctrl-F5 or Ctrl-Shift-R). The notification count is at 1 (a red button). Click on the 1 and see what the system reports.
 * 8) In the second browser, undo the edit.
 * 9) In the first browser, reload the page. A new notification appears.
 * 10) There are other features available.

In French

 * 1) Vous devez utiliser deux navigateurs Web.
 * 2) Si vous n'êtes pas identifié, faites-le.
 * 3) Allez à votre page de discussion. Copiez l'adresse de cette page dans le presse-papier de votre ordinateur.
 * 4) Lancez un second navigateur Web.
 * 5) Dans ce second navigateur, allez à votre page de discussion là-bas (collez l'adresse du presse-papier).
 * 6) Laissez un message sur votre page de discussion.
 * 7) Retournez dans le premier navigateur et rechargez la page (forcez le rechargement complet : Ctrl-F5 ou Ctrl-Maj-R). Le nombre de notification est passé à 1 (bulle rouge). Cliquez sur ce 1 et observez ce que le système affiche.
 * 8) Dans le second navigateur Web, défaites la modification.
 * 9) Dans le premier navigateur, rechargez la page. Une nouvelle notification apparaît.
 * 10) Il y a d'autres fonctionalités.

Cantons-de-l&#39;Est (talk) 13:31, 10 February 2013 (UTC)


 * Thanks, that's quite what I did. Please do feel free to edit that page directly and include your description. I don't know how this wiki translates things. Gryllida (talk) 09:12, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

You are wasting my time
Hello,

I left two-three messages, but nobody from the staff took the time to respond. You want user input, but you act as if I was useless. So, I will not any further test anything.

Cantons-de-l&#39;Est (talk) 13:52, 17 March 2013 (UTC)


 * Hello, Canton de l'Est, thanks for your good recommendations about Echo. I am sorry that we have not been more responsive on this page, but we have been mostly focused on developing the remaining features for the upcoming first release on the English Wikipedia, which has kept us very busy. Now that these new features are being deployed, you can expect faster responses. Also note that a release on the French Wikipedia is not likely to occur until later this year. Thanks for your understanding. Fabrice Florin (WMF) (talk) 19:01, 26 March 2013 (UTC)

Question
I am not sure how many people are testing this but will it not create unnecessary burden on the server when we encourage to create second account? --Ratnakar.kulkarni (talk) 10:08, 28 April 2013 (UTC)

No. Server burden is not a problem on this scale. Gryllida (talk) 09:08, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Another question
Also, is the second account considered a legitimate alternate account, and what is the required disclosure for using a legitimate alternate account so that it is not considered a sockpuppet?


 * I admit I'm surprised there's not any discussion about this. I clicked to the "Testing" page expecting that maybe there'd be a button I could push to have an automated message left on my Talk page. Advising people to register a second account just to leave a message on their first account's Talk page just seems really dumb and unnecessary. I'm certainly not going to bother with that. I guess I should have put more energy into making Wiki-friends I could ask to talk to me. (Or I'll just log out and use my IP.) Theoldsparkle (talk) 18:33, 1 May 2013 (UTC)


 * This asks to create two accounts at Wikipedia and multiple accounts are allowed, if not misused and if accompanied by proper paperwork. Gryllida (talk) 09:08, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Watched pages in echo
Will there ever be a feature where you can choose certain pages to be watched by echo? Nerdfighter (talk) 00:58, 30 April 2013 (UTC)

I would support this idea, either integrated with watchlist or as a separate list. Gryllida (talk) 09:10, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Having notifications stick (and using them against vandals)
I would like to describe a current problem the notifications software has a potential to resolve.

Currently all edits are reviewed by recent changes patrol who has to review each edit, revert it if needed, and then manually warn a vandal if the edit is unproductive. There are some scripts for this task such as Twinkle. They are a pain for both RC patrol and the users, placing clumsy, non-interactive messages to the talk message bottom and affecting the user experience. Warnings are of multiple levels, gradually increasing depending on how repeat a problem a user is, like here.

I think that this notifications software — coupled with an introduction of more granular edit metadata, i.e. not just "thanks" and "reverted", but a severity level or a score — could be an ideal tool to get rid of such manual work. The wiki software would tell users to please use sandbox and glance at the rules, then to die off and read rules, then to stop editing, as currently implemented by the templates. --Gryllida (talk) 09:03, 21 May 2013 (UTC)

Notifications importance level
For the idea outlined above, I would also like to propose importance levels for notifications, so some more important notifications also go to a more prominent place than a right top corner, like the big fat banner "you have new messages" across the page width, so people notice it, but can also close it. Gryllida (talk) 09:04, 21 May 2013 (UTC)