Topic on Extension talk:MassMessage

The term "bot" is improperly interpreted by too many users. I suggest to replace it with something that makes it clearer how it's a MediaWiki feature, as we did with the earlier accounts for automated edits (e.g. "MediaWiki default"): for instance "MediaWiki message delivery" or something. Bonus points if it's language-neutral.

Agree with Nemo, I noticed that several projects have blocked MediaWiki bots. Romaine (talk) 02:35, 2 November 2013 (UTC)

Done in gerrit:94697. Thanks!

It should be noted that this name will appear in the Notifications box, so it’s probably better to localize it, probably better before deployment (I don’t know how MediaWiki would react if the MassMessage username is changed).

Related to that, I find quite counterintuitive to receive the mass-messages from a system account (this behaviour existed with EdwardBot), since the Notifications box will say "Mediawiki message delivery left a message on your talk page"; it would be more intuitive to see "Legoktm left a message on your talk page", or something like "Mediwiki message delivery (on behalf of Legoktm) left a message on your talk page". Just an opinion, I will perhaps open a bug instead of this page.

What's the notifications box? ;) I think you missed some discussions on wikitech-l etc.: this extension is currently designed for the standard MediaWiki behaviour because it was just impossible to do otherwise; other extensions trying to do shinier things will need some work to improve the interaction (e.g. fetch the name used from the signature rather than from history, or provide a way for this extension to set it).

As for localisation of MediaWiki script's names, it would be nice but a way to do it has not yet invented as far as I know.

The Echo notifications box (flyout & special page, and also the email if enabled) displays the name of the user who left a message on our talkpages.

I think Seb35 is asking for 1 of 2 potential features in MassMessage, namely:

• A field where the user who is sending the massmessage can put their username, which will somehow be added to the Notifications about a new talkpage message.
  • (Not currently possible, but would be an Echo bug/feature if anything. I agree it could be useful)
• A way to translate the username, for non-English languages.
  • (As Nemo said, this is not possible)

Background, current setup

If we add a (4tilde) signature to a MassMessage, it comes out as:

[[User:MediaWiki message delivery|MediaWiki message delivery]] ([[User talk:MediaWiki message delivery|talk]]) 19:31, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

Currently, the name of the user sending the massmessage is included, but only as a hidden comment at the very end. Eg:

<!-- Message sent by User:Quiddity@testwiki using the list at http://test.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Quiddity/MMtestlist -->

Suggestions

1. A reminder (in the Special:MassMMessage interface) to add our own name in wikitext, if we want it visible at the end of the message.
2. I think changing the auto-generated "signature" section, might be a good idea. Match the format that many "Global message delivery" messages currently use. I.E. Include links for:

• About
• Un/Subscribe
• User sending
• Account that was used to send ("User:MediaWiki message delivery")

Eg. The Signpost would end with:

About · Unsubscribe · Distributed on behalf of The ed17 by MediaWiki message delivery 21:30, 17 November 2013 (UTC)

This would help standardize (and improve the possibility of translating) the various elements that are currently erratically included, eg the 3 messages visible here and below all use a different layout and wording.

For the name of the user who is sending the massmessage, I wondered why choose a system account instead of the real massmessage sender user (this is a design question); I understand a point is the sender could possibly be non-existant on the receiving wiki (apart wikis belonging to a same CentralAuth system).

In the case this is a system account which delivers the message, my original point was indeed the name displayed in the notification box of Echo. I quickly checked the Echo code, and I guess it is currently not possible to display another name in place of the real user (here MediaWiki message delivery), because there is only one User object in the EchoEvent object and no "on-behalf-of" user and the EchoEvent::BeforeEchoEventInsert hook cannot change the underlying object. So if it would be useful for MassMessage (I think so), a feature request should be filled for Echo.

Quiddity, about your proposition of standardizing the footer, I think it would be really useful for translation purposes. I think it could be already possible by removing the comment markup of MediaWiki:Massmessage-hidden-comment, although this message was not originally intended to be viewed by the user.

I originally designed the extension to be as close to how m:User:EdwardsBot currently functions as possible.

I had looked into this earlier, but even if the person sending the message had an account everywhere, there is a bot flag logic issue (bugzilla:33461) that prevents edits from being flagged as a bot.

The reason 4 tildes use the bot's username is purely technical. We simply post the exact wikitext you enter to the API, which is transformed using the bot's context.

I think un/subscribe links, who was sending it, etc should all be localized on the wiki that is utilizing the tool. I imagine meta will do this since it's now reasonably easy to do so.

For the localisation of the MediaWiki script’s names, I initially thought to change the variable $wgMassMessageAccountUsername per-wiki/language, but it’s probably a very bad idea. Your idea of some localisation only in the history/notification box/etc. without changing the core usernames is probably better.

An initial version of the extension had a localized username, but after discussing this with Siebrand at Wikimania, I switched it to use just one username. There was a security issue in my implementation, but it also didn't make sense in a "global" environment like the WMF has with CentralAuth.

I have filed bugzilla:57234 to discuss sending a more specific Echo notifications, this can include a better username and message content.