Talk:Notifications/2017

This discussion uses Flow, a new discussion style similar to many internet forums. To add your feedback, scroll to the end of any comment and click "Reply", or type your comment in the box at the end of the thread, where it says Reply to "Feedback requests - Notifications badges, and grouping notifications by type". Or you can start a new topic, with the form on top of this page. That's all, pretty much.

Echo + Flow = too many notifications

The current status that Echo produces a cross-wiki notification for every single new Flow topic on every page you have on your watchlist is IMHO very annoying. Could you developers please change this? Thx! .js 21:43, 2 February 2017 (UTC)

It's both an important strength (you can reach me no matter which wiki I'm at) and a weakness (I started today with about 50 notifications, and I still have 29 to go).

There was talk originally about having a feed specifically for Flow – like a whole page where I could read and interact with all of my conversations, instead of using only Special:Notifications. I would very much like to see that feed happen, but it certainly won't happen any time soon.

In the meantime, the workaround favored by some people is to un-watch as many pages as possible. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 00:22, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

Isn't it possible to exempt all Flow talk pages from Echoes per default? I don't want to be forced to kick the main pages from my watchlist. .js 00:51, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

It is possible to remove all Flow notifications from Echo, in your Notifications preferences: uncheck "Web" for Flow discussions. Trizek_(WMF) (talk) 09:36, 3 February 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for speaking up @.js. That Flow multiplies notification volume is a known issue. It can be, we know, too much of a good thing. We've talked about some different solutions (e.g., providing the ability to turn off individual topics directly from Special:Notifications), but these are a little involved and will probably have to wait to be addressed.

As Trizek points out, you can turn Flow notifications off entirely, but I realize that solution is one that affects both baby and bathwater. Do you have any suggestions about a system that might work for you? E.g., would it help if all messages from a given page were bundled (right now, I think bundling is applied only to messages for a single topic). Any other ideas? JMatazzoni (WMF) (talk) 23:42, 13 February 2017 (UTC)

I'd like a full-size page where I can read, expand, reply to, and dismiss (mark done/make disappear) all of the threads that currently appear in Special:Notifications. A full, interactive feed of all discussions (with a link to each article's history page, please, so I can figure out what "that change I made just now" refers to), not just a little list of things that need to be opened and read in another tab. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 22:12, 15 February 2017 (UTC)

@Whatamidoing (WMF), that idea was in the survey and didn't receive a lot of support. However, we are discussing about other ways to create such a page, grouped with other boards/pages/feeds. Trizek_(WMF) (talk) 09:14, 16 February 2017 (UTC)

I suspect that the typical person doesn't get as many notifications as I do. A feed could be handy for most established editors, but it's not needed until you are watching many threads on many pages. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 22:05, 16 February 2017 (UTC)

"I suspect that the typical person doesn't get as many notifications as I do." This is correct. And it's absolutely the reason we didn't add more features to the Notifications page. Here's some research on that that Neil produced for us. JMatazzoni (WMF) (talk) 23:19, 16 February 2017 (UTC)

Notifications for editing your user page or subpage

I miss notifications if someone edited my user page or subpage. Janezdrilc (talk) 19:08, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

Hi, that feature-request is one of the oldest, and tracked at Phab:T3876. (Note, that task tracks the request from many years before the current Notifications feature existed (circa 2012), so don't be confused by the older comments which are about the "emailed notifications for changes to pages on my watchlist" feature, technically "enotif").

It's one of the many proposed new notification types. I'll add a comment there, noting your interest here. No action is needed from you. Thanks! Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 19:56, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

It occured I've got an award a month ago on my "awards subpage" and I somehow missed this edit, so I unfortunately also "missed" to thank the user. That's the reason of my proposal.

Thanks for linking me on phab. Janezdrilc (talk) 20:49, 21 February 2017 (UTC)

MyWiki email doesn't play well with Earthlink

Another user creating an account for me made several tries using my primary email address, earthlink.net domain name. No notification ever arrived (yes, I checked my spam folder every time). Gmail notification worked.

Once I had an account established, I changed the email address back to my primary. Again, no notifications. (And, incidentally, my original username and pw stopped working as soon as I changed the email; I made a new account just to post this problem.) J.Benal (talk) 18:53, 1 March 2017 (UTC)

Hey J.Benal

 

Sorry for the late reply.

When you mean "GMail notification worked", that's because you have switched back to GMail or something else?

You email change case is weird too. Your former account is inaccessible? Did you tried to confirm your email adresse when you have changed? I guess you have tried to reset the password? Maybe the resetting email is in you spam folder (I'm asking just in case)? Trizek_(WMF) (talk) 10:12, 10 March 2017 (UTC)

Spammy

Tracked in Phabricator
Task T16950

I guess this is where I complain about this…

Recently the notification "New beta feature available for this page" started appearing for users visiting pages like Special:RecentChanges, Special:NewPages, etc. Unfortunately, since it was implemented as a separate notification on each individual wiki (which I suppose makes some kind of sense, since users may want it on one wiki they work on but not another), users who regularly visit such pages on many different wikis are forced to accept or decline it repeatedly. There doesn't seem to be an option to "never give me this notification again, regardless of what wiki I'm on" (or, conversely, "turn this on everywhere").

I help track article-count milestones at m:Wikimedia News and w:Wikipedia:Milestone statistics, so I have reason to check things like "Special:NewPages" on different Wikimedia wikis pretty much every day. This means I will potentially have to decline to use this feature hundreds of times (there are over 800 Wikimedia wikis).

I assume there is a time limit on how long these notifications will go on (I don't know), but in the meantime, is there a solution to this problem? dcljr (talk) 22:08, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

Unfortunately, until we have global preferences, we're not aware of a clean solution to this problem.

In the meantime, if you wish, you may ignore the invite entirely on your non-primary wikis.

You don't need to click dismiss. It won't show more than once.

(Also, it does not show for Special:NewPages). Mattflaschen-WMF (talk) 23:36, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

Re: "You don't need to click dismiss. It won't show more than once."

To clarify: You do not need to move the mouse to click the link in the popup -- you can just click anywhere on the page, and it will vanish. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 23:49, 6 July 2017 (UTC)

Even if you don't click anything, it still won't show on the next page view. Mattflaschen-WMF (talk) 02:54, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

Your points are well taken, but of course they only apply per wiki, which means I'll still have to see it (up to) 800 more times, which is supremely annoying — even if I don't "need to" do anything in response. (BTW, I regularly open other pages, like Special:RecentChanges and Special:Log, where it does pop up.) dcljr (talk) 05:13, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

It's the same problem that we get with the CentralNotice banners. We need global prefs. Perhaps something for the next m:Community Wishlist ? WhatamIdoing (talk) 06:08, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

Global preferences where on the top 10 of Community wishes for the last Community Wishlist round.

Would it be possible to have a hack on Special:Global.js to avoid those pop-ups? Trizek_(WMF) (talk) 07:25, 7 July 2017 (UTC)

@Trizek (WMF) Good idea, but it only kind of works. It will work if you visit a page before Special:RecentChanges, but not if you go directly there as the first visit to the site.

This goes at https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyPage/global.js :

	if ( Number( mw.user.options.get( 'rcenhancedfilters-seen-invite' ) ) !== 1 ) {
		mw.loader.using( 'mediawiki.api.options' ).done( function () {
			var api = new mw.Api();
			api.saveOption( 'rcenhancedfilters-seen-invite', 1 );
		} );
	}

Mattflaschen-WMF (talk) 23:39, 12 July 2017 (UTC)

Feature request: "Mark all unread notifications as read" available without JavaScript

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

---

I just came back from a long wikibreak, and it became suddenly very apparent that the ability to mark *all* notifications as read in one click is not available in the JavaScript free version of Special:Notifications. (Unless I'm missing something?) Sophus Bie ^(talk) 15:05, 6 August 2017 (UTC)

There is no solution at the moment to mark all discussions as read unless by using JavaScript. The task has just been claimed, I hope some changes will happen soon. Trizek_(WMF) (talk) 14:40, 12 August 2017 (UTC)

This is now done, thanks to @MtDu. It'll roll out next week (Aug 15-17, depending on the wiki) Roan Kattouw (WMF) (talk) 19:47, 13 August 2017 (UTC)

This feature has now rolled out on all wikis. Roan Kattouw (WMF) (talk) 20:36, 17 August 2017 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

How to notify a user within the ZU WP

> problem solved, I think. '''OP''' - I still don't understand why the ping (my preference) doesn't work. Does the ZU WP need the ping (or other notification) Template imported?

How can I use the notifications, e.g. ping, within the Zulu Wikipedia? Every template and syntax I've tried doesn't produce results. Is the ZU WP missing a/the template itself? If so, how to remedy this? -- ~ Deborahjay (talk) 12:34, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

If you want, for example, to notify me on zu.wikipedia, be sure that:

• you link to the user page of the user to mention
• your message is signed

To wit, if you want to notify me, you'd use [[User:MarcoAurelio]] <message here> --~~~~

Unsigned messages won't trigger a notification and also trying to "ping" many users at once will result in none being notified.

Regards. —MarcoAurelio (talk) 12:45, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

Thanks for the rapid turnaround, MarcoAurelio! This is a form unfamiliar to me, so I'll be glad to try it today. Deborahjay (talk) 12:51, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

No problem. Please see Extension:Echo#Usage for the mentioning of users. Regards. —MarcoAurelio (talk) 12:54, 12 September 2017 (UTC)

Deborahjay: Yes, to make the templates work you'll need to create them at Zuwiki. I suggest copying the source from here (Template:Reply_to) because it is a lot simpler than the Lua modules used at Enwiki.

Note: the template is just a simple way to make [[user:foo|foo]] links. The only things you need to create a mention are a user-link and a signature, plus avoiding a few complexities which are explained at Help:Notifications/Notifications_types#Mentions. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 19:17, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

Thanks, also for the link to that Help page. I'll do so (though probably tomorrow morning when I'm more alert) :-) Deborahjay (talk) 19:27, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

Sounds good! And to correct my mistake above, yes, you should "import" the page if you can (or can find an admin to do so), or if you cannot then you should properly attribute the origin by linking to the mediawiki page in your edit-summary (or on the talkpage) at Zuwiki. :) Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 19:31, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

Aha, these are valuable instructions. While the ZU WP has no Admin, we current active users are well-supported by Small Wiki Monitor User:DARIO SEVERI who's a constant resource; we've been in regular contact since I came on board in late July to undertake maintenance tasks. Cheers! Deborahjay (talk) 19:42, 14 September 2017 (UTC)

HTML in Mail notifications

Hi everyone, not sure that this is the rigth page for asking this question, but i wonder why i only get plain text mail from Mediawiki without clickable links. Can i change that with a single configuration value or is it needed to modify the code for that? 194.59.120.161 (talk) 11:55, 10 October 2017 (UTC)

Some emails providers break links on plain-text notifications. On which notification(s) do you experience that issue? Can you check that task description and tell me if you experience the same issue? Trizek_(WMF) (talk) 15:59, 10 October 2017 (UTC)

Why am I not getting notifications for watchlist changes?

Hello all,

I've got nearly everything ticked in my Commons notifications preferences and yet I'm not receiving notifications when pages in my Commons watchlist are changed - I have to go to the watchlist itself and look there at what has been happening. Why is this? I'd rather get a notification when things change on my watchlist.

Thank you in advance :) Thennicke (talk) 14:22, 14 October 2017 (UTC)

Notifications are a complement to the watchlist, they do not replace it but enhance. Matěj Suchánek (talk) 10:25, 21 October 2017 (UTC)

Thanks. Well that's rather unfortunate. I really think it would make me a lot more productive on-wiki if I could just have that as an option. I regularly forget to check my watchlist and miss things. And with watchlist filters activated, it's not as though I'd be spammed with unimportant notifications. Thennicke (talk) 00:12, 22 October 2017 (UTC)

HTML mails of watchlist changes

Hi all, am i right that currently MW does not support that notifications about changes at the watchlisted articles cannot be sent by HTML mail since (1) the MW core does not support that, (2) the Echo extensions does not cover this kind of events and (3) there is no extension does that for me? Aschroet (talk) 15:14, 25 October 2017 (UTC)

Hi

I receive my watchlist notifications by HTML emails. That's a core feature, not an Echo one. Trizek_(WMF) (talk) 04:34, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

@Trizek (WMF), merci for you answer. I also see those mail coming from Commons, WP etc. but on my local installation i don't. And actually also in the code i do not find where e. g. the HTML-Links to URLs (<a>...</a>) are created. The i18n files only contain plain text. Aschroet (talk) 05:42, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

I'll forward your questions to the developers. :) Trizek_(WMF) (talk) 07:05, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

HTML email is disabled by default, you have to enable it in your configuration with $wgAllowHTMLEmail = true; Roan Kattouw (WMF) (talk) 07:21, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

@Roan Kattouw (WMF), Manual:$wgAllowHTMLEmail says: "As of MW 1.23, HTML email is not yet used by MediaWiki itself." Anyway, i set this parameter to true without effect. Aschroet (talk) 07:54, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

Hmm, you're right. I just looked and watchlist emails coming from Wikipedia don't even use HTML email, so I think that means it's probably not available/implemented anywhere. I'm not aware of an extension that would do this for you. Roan Kattouw (WMF) (talk) 08:44, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

Fixing this (by merging Notifications into core, probably) is tracked as Task 15303. Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 17:50, 30 October 2017 (UTC)

@Roan Kattouw (WMF), when i look at my mails from Wikipedia or Commons then they contain clickable links. Or is that added by the Mail client on my phone? Anyway, i wonder why this is not implemented. Everyone expects to be able to click a link that is coming via mail.

@Trizek (WMF), would be helpful to bring light into the darkness. Aschroet (talk) 11:30, 27 October 2017 (UTC)

Yes, the clickable links are added by your mail client. I just looked at the raw version of a watchlist email I received recently, and it's plain text, no HTML. Roan Kattouw (WMF) (talk) 16:50, 29 October 2017 (UTC)

API "index" property doesn't work

The API documentation (Notifications/API) claims I can pass in a value of "index" for the "notprop" parameter, but when I try, it says that "index" is an invalid value. Is the documentation wrong, or has the feature been removed, or what? Enterprisey (talk) 20:55, 29 October 2017 (UTC)

The documentation is outdated, "index" was removed. What are you trying to do? There should be a functional equivalent :) Legoktm (talk) 06:25, 30 October 2017 (UTC)

Oh, good to know! I was trying to get the sentence-long summary for each notification, like ["Example left a message on your talk page", "Example2 thanked you for your edit on SomePage"], and nothing else. I thought notprop=list returned output that was too verbose, but I can parse it if it turns out there isn't a better way. Enterprisey (talk) 17:33, 30 October 2017 (UTC)