[Foundation-l] Better user experience and retention through e-mail notifications

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Re: [Foundation-l] Can it get any...

[Foundation-l] Dynamics of Online...

MZMcBride

19 Apr 2011 19 Apr '11

8:55 a.m.

Hi. I'm not sure about other people, but one of the primary reasons I get on Facebook is that Facebook reminds me to get on. It sends notification e-mails about a Wall post or a comment or whatever. Without these, I wouldn't check it more than once every few days. There's been a lot of talk about getting new editors and keeping them. I would think something like working e-mail notifications would be a high priority. There are plenty of features and enhancements that could improve the user experience and user retention/return, but this piece of fruit seems particularly low-hanging. Even on some Wikimedia wikis, it's the e-mail notifications that get me to go back to the site. I only ever visit strategy.wikimedia.org when someone edits my talk page, as it triggers an e-mail notification to me. The smaller sites have had these types of notifications for a long time. The notification system is built in to MediaWiki, it's just not enabled on larger sites such as the English Wikipedia. It's being tracked by bug <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5220>. MZMcBride

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Keegan Peterzell

19 Apr 19 Apr

8:15 a.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Better user experience and retention through e-mail notifications

On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 1:55 AM, MZMcBride <z(a)mzmcbride.com> wrote:

...

+1 I only know to check strategy and meta (no that I'm highly active there from email notifications. I'm on the English Wikipedia several times each day from my computer, where I can get talk messages, but most of the time I'm at work and checking email and using mobile. It'd be a nice feature. -- ~Keegan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Keegan

Keegan Peterzell

8:29 a.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Better user experience and retention through e-mail notifications

...

Err, apologies for the mess of a missing t and parenthesis. Tab error resulted in send. -- ~Keegan http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Keegan

Erik Moeller

9:08 a.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Better user experience and retention through e-mail notifications

2011/4/18 MZMcBride <z(a)mzmcbride.com>om>:

...

Even on some Wikimedia wikis, it's the e-mail notifications that get me to go back to the site. I only ever visit strategy.wikimedia.org when someone edits my talk page, as it triggers an e-mail notification to me. The smaller sites have had these types of notifications for a long time. The notification system is built in to MediaWiki, it's just not enabled on larger sites such as the English Wikipedia. It's being tracked by bug <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5220>.

We have a range of ideas about how e-mail could be used for retention/engagement, but I agree this one in particular seems like pretty low-hanging fruit -- thanks for flagging it. I've forwarded to the ops folks to surface any existing analysis/concerns people have raised about enabling this more broadly, as I didn't find the bug discussion particularly helpful. Is there any non-operations reason why this is currently being handled on a per-wiki basis? -- Erik Möller Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation Support Free Knowledge: http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate

MZMcBride

11:27 a.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Better user experience and retention through e-mail notifications

Erik Moeller wrote:

...

2011/4/18 MZMcBride <z(a)mzmcbride.com>om>:

As far as I'm aware, there aren't any non-operations reasons; there's consensus for this to be enabled pretty much everywhere. The one software sticking point would be a matter of defaults, I think. The discussion on the English Wikipedia, for example, favored an opt-in system. MediaWiki by default makes the notifications for user talk page changes opt-out ($wgDefaultUserOptions in includes/DefaultSettings.php defines "enotifusertalkpages" as being enabled). This default behavior is generally helpful on small wikis where adjusting your preferences isn't a top priority (such as strategy.wikimedia.org or meta.wikimedia.org). For established users on a larger project, you'd probably want to change the default to avoid startling people. MZMcBride

Samuel Klein

11:10 a.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Better user experience and retention through e-mail notifications

...

> it's just not enabled on > larger sites such as the English Wikipedia. It's being tracked by bug > <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5220>.

This is definitely needed. (I remember the debates about implementing this at all when it was first under development; I am quite glad that it exists.) On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 5:27 AM, MZMcBride <z(a)mzmcbride.com> wrote:

...

"enotifusertalkpages" as being enabled). This default behavior is generally helpful on small wikis where adjusting your preferences isn't a top priority (such as strategy.wikimedia.org or meta.wikimedia.org). For established users on a larger project, you'd probably want to change the default to avoid startling people.

The grandfathered default for current users may be different from the default for new users. The default for new users could still be to receive alerts. It should be clearer how and where to set/unset this preference, however -- it really is central to how people use the Projects. SJ

FT2

12:03 p.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Better user experience and retention through e-mail notifications

"Oh gods yes..... +1 Ja ja D'accord" FT2 On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 10:10 AM, Samuel Klein <meta.sj(a)gmail.com> wrote:

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> it's just not enabled on > larger sites such as the English Wikipedia. It's being tracked by bug > <https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=5220>.

This is definitely needed. (I remember the debates about implementing this at all when it was first under development; I am quite glad that it exists.)

Sage Ross

4:26 p.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Better user experience and retention through e-mail notifications

On Tue, Apr 19, 2011 at 3:08 AM, Erik Moeller <erik(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:

...

We have a range of ideas about how e-mail could be used for retention/engagement

Here's one more for the idea pile... If the operations reasons for not mass-enabling email notifications can't be overcome (or even if they can be), something finer grained could still make a big difference. That is, when you leave a message on someone's talk page, there should be the option to send them an email notification automatically at the same time, through the equivalent of Special:Emailuser. This is what Kaldari's WikiLove gadget does when you leave barnstars and such, and it's great... especially for newcomers. I hacked together a version of the script that has a "Just a message" option so you can leave a plain message but still send an automatic email at the same time, which is quite handy for the ambassador program where we work with students who don't log in regularly. -Sage

David Gerard

9:18 a.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Better user experience and retention through e-mail notifications

On 19 April 2011 07:55, MZMcBride <z(a)mzmcbride.com> wrote:

...

There's been a lot of talk about getting new editors and keeping them. I would think something like working e-mail notifications would be a high priority. There are plenty of features and enhancements that could improve the user experience and user retention/return, but this piece of fruit seems particularly low-hanging.

+1 - d.

Federico Leva (Nemo)

11:04 p.m.

New subject: [Foundation-l] Better user experience and retention through e-mail notifications

See also https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=28026 which could probably be fixed without too much effort. Nemo

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participants (8)

David Gerard
Erik Moeller
Federico Leva (Nemo)
FT2
Keegan Peterzell
MZMcBride
Sage Ross
Samuel Klein