Thank you for the update!

On Fri, Nov 13, 2015 at 2:41 PM, Nick Wilson (Quiddity) <
nwilson@wikimedia.org> wrote:

> Hi, this is an update on the work we in the Collaboration team are
> doing. Our focus is on cross-wiki notifications and other back-end
> improvements to that system.
>
> Our long-term goals are to make various improvements to the Notification
> system.
>
> Notifications are at the core of many different on-wiki activities.
> Making notifications easy to find and use can help those processes. We
> are focusing our immediate plans on supporting cross-wiki
> notifications. These will help editors stay informed about the changes
> they care about on every Wikimedia project on which they work. This is
> especially important for the editors who work on more than one wiki.
> Examples include if you upload to Commons, curate on Wikidata, or edit
> in two or more languages.
>
> The team has spent the last few weeks researching the existing and
> proposed features. This has included examining existing tools such as
> Crosswatch. We've been considering the problems of:
>
> * technical performance (scaling the requests across 800+ wikis),
> * user preferences (both existing and desired),
> * user interface design possibilities (how it should work),
> * how to release an initial, user-testable version for feedback and
> improvement, and
> * how to measure the impact of the project (reducing the time it takes
> to process a notification).
>
> We are also doing user research via 1-on-1 interviews. In these we ask
> active editors about their current notification usage and pain-points.
> Using a prototype we are evolving, we get feedback on directions to
> take the design.
>
> == Details and further reading ==
> You can read more about the technical details at:
>
> https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Cross-wiki_notifications
> .
>
> Some of the new backend improvements to Echo:
> https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T107823 ("Rewrite
> EchoNotificationFormatter") and linked tasks.
>
> User preference options are:
> * https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T117670 ("Define Cross-wiki
> Notifications settings")
>
> User interface design possibilities cover several questions. For
> example, how should cross-wiki notifications look within the pop-up?
> How and when should we add enhancements to the Special:Notifications
> page to filter things? We are drafting and discussing these in:
>
> * https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T114357 (Clarifications to the
> currently confusing "primary/secondary" link, and proposed future
> enhancements)
> * https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T114356 (Bundled notifications)
> * https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T115264 (Controlling notification
> 'volume' based on the type or location)
> * https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T115845 (Clearer use of the
> notification badges (coloured number in personal toolbar))
> * https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T115316 (Better organization of
> the Special:Notifications page)
>
> Note: Most of these are not part of the cross-wiki notifications
> feature. We won't for sure roll all these out together with the main
> change.
>
> We started user research at https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T114086
> and it continues at https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T116741 . (Note:
> You can sign-up as a volunteer at https://wikimedia.org/research .)
>
> A user-testable release is still just in planning. We decided on a
> Beta Feature on each wiki as the most scalable and least confusing of
> all the do-able options. Read our plans in
> https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T114237 ("Present cross-wiki
> notifications as a beta feature to users"). This will help users to
> try the feature anytime, disabling it if it interferes with their work
> in some context, and easily suggest how the tool could be improved.
>
> There is no system for users having or setting cross-wiki preferences.
> Waiting to building this would take a long time. For now, we plan to
> let you enable the Beta Feature at each wiki on which you want to test
> it. This will let you have a small-scale Beta Feature that you can all
> try out. We will be able to discover bugs, edge-cases, iterate more,
> and get even more feedback. Later, when we know what features you
> need, we can build such a cross-wiki preferences system (including the
> task linked above).
>
> Whilst you wait, we would love to hear your feedback on the above.
> What comments, what design ideas, and what technical concerns do you
> have? Please tell us on the linked tasks if you can.
>
> I'll send further updates, when the planned Beta Feature is about to be
> ready.
>
> On behalf of the Collaboration team, thank you to everyone who has
> given your help already.
>
> --
> Nick Wilson / Quiddity
>
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>



--

Rachel diCerbo
Director of Community Engagement (Product)
Wikimedia Foundation
Rdicerb (WMF) <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Rdicerb_%28WMF%29>
@a_rachel <https://twitter.com/a_rachel>

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