[Mediawiki-l] Extension for Announcements?

[Dan Davis]

On 3/12/07, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> On 12/03/07, Dan Davis <hokie99cpe+wiki at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> [[MediaWiki:Sitenotice]]?
>
> Wikimedia used something for the site notice in the last fundraising
> drive, such that when you'd read the begging message you could click
> to make it go away (until it was updated again). A custom extension
> which isn't on Sounds like just the thing for you, if it runs on
> 1.7.1.
>
> http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Fundraising_sitenotice_2006_Q4
>

Maybe this is something that was changed after 1.7.1, but sitenotice will
display a site-wide notice, but there is no link to close it in 1.7.1.
Upgrading MW is planned, but low priority, unfortunately.

Also, sitenotice works for now to cover our initial need, it's not as robust
as I would like. First, it's meant for a single notice... you update that
notice and folks see that update. We're looking more for a news item style.
Multiple items... if someone hasn't accessed the wiki in a while, they need
to be bombarded with all the missed items. And, no, we can't rely on them to
go to a particular page to see those items. And forcing a certain page or
pages into everyone's watchlist won't cut it either. Our users are flooded
with email as is and that's why the PTBs want site notices/announcements on
the wiki. Most folks gloss over their email and delete seemingly unimportant
items. The thought here is that putting it in front of their faces on the
wiki *may* cause a bit more retention of the content. :) Silly users...
always making my life hard.

Thanks for the ideas thus far... keep 'em coming. :D

Dan