User talk:Newslinger/Notifier

Script

@Newslinger: Neat script. Couple quick questions / suggestions

1. I have the preference enabled to automatically number section headings, but the script wanted to include the section number in the notification; can you check if the setting is enabled, and if it is parse the section headings accordingly to remove the number?
2. The "Log" section is editable - why?
3. You may want to include something in the edit summary that makes it clear that this script was used (like "(TW)" for twinkle, etc)

Regardless, its a nice script - thanks for making it. --DannyS712 (talk) 18:50, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

Thanks, DannyS712!

1. I've adjusted the script to properly handle numbered section headings. I didn't know about that preference, so thanks for bringing it up.
2. The OO.ui multiline text input widget doesn't display anything unless it's fully enabled. I'll switch to something read-only in the future.
3. mw.Api#newSection doesn't appear to support custom edit summaries. I'll probably switch to mw.Api#edit once I get some more time to look over the API.

I really appreciate your feedback, DannyS712. It's extremely helpful! — Newslinger talk 19:33, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

@Newslinger: Take a look at User:DannyS712 test/page.js if you want an easy way to switch from new section to retrieving the content and setting it - you'll probably want to copy the functions rather than importing, but get_page and then set_page with the original content and the new content appended should do the trick. Thanks, --DannyS712 (talk) 20:04, 10 April 2019 (UTC)

Suggestions: speed limiter, and notify only on talk pages

@Newslinger: I was about to run this script to notify 245 talk pages for a RfC. I was tempted to run all in shot, but I would probably be flagged as a WP:MEATBOT since this is obviously going to run at a faster rate than with AWB, which I will do so instead. Hence if it is possible, please put a delay between each API call? Next, I realised that this script at the current version has a potential for unintended abuse. In my initial testing of the script, I populated User:Robertsky/Test in the Pages to notify text input. I had expected it to go to User talk:Robertsky/Test, but instead it edited directly on the User:Robertsky/Test page instead. Hence if possible, please either enforce a check that the notifier script will touch on the talk pages or automatically direct the API calls to be applied on the corresponding talk pages. Thanks! – robertsky (talk) 23:05, 30 July 2020 (UTC)

Hi Robertsky, thank you for bringing these issues up. There are editing rate limits that vary depending on the account's status. See https://noc.wikimedia.org/conf/InitialiseSettings.php.txt for the values and mw:Manual:$wgRateLimits for the documentation. New accounts and IP addresses are limited to 8 edits/minute, while autoconfirmed users are limited to 90 edits/minute. If you tried to use this script to notify 245 talk pages at once, the script would return errors after posting to 90 of them.

I'm not sure how helpful adding a delay would be, since the script is open-source, and a user could fairly easily remove the delay in their own copy of the script. However, I will add safeguards to a future version of this script that caution the user when they attempt to post to non-talk namespaces or post to a large number of pages at once. Unfortunately, this script is not currently at the top of my priority list, but I will remember your suggestions and make changes when I have time. — Newslinger talk 23:26, 30 July 2020 (UTC)

@Newslinger: Thanks for the reply and clarification. Looking forward to the eventual updates. :) – robertsky (talk) 00:14, 31 July 2020 (UTC)

@Newslinger I would appreciate a speed limit as well. While you might find it trivial to remove it for abuse, I think having a risk like that in an intuitive frontend is much more dangerous than the ability to implement it in the code. Also, it would make bigger notification batches technically possible, as currently, the script leaves out all the pages it attempts to edit after reaching the ratelimit. See this batch of edits: For the 15:55 ones, I had to re-run the script on the list of the respective pages. 𝟙𝟤𝟯𝟺𝐪𝑤𝒆𝓇𝟷𝟮𝟥𝟜𝓺𝔴𝕖𝖗𝟰 (𝗍𝗮𝘭𝙠) 16:13, 15 March 2021 (UTC)

Hi 1234qwer1234qwer4, the Notifier box now displays a count of the number of pages that will be notified, and indicates if it exceeds the maximum of 90. I've updated the labels to explain what the rate limits are. Also, Notifier will now only notify pages in talk and project namespaces. (Robertsky, this may be of interest to you.)

I eventually intend to rewrite the entire script to let it process the list in a more intelligent way, which would include an option to retry any failed edits. However, I'm not confident that adding a more restrictive limit would prevent a malicious actor from abusing it, since the script can easily be copied and then modified to remove the limit. If an editor behaves disruptively, the best solution is to report them to WP:AIV or WP:ANI and have them blocked. — Newslinger talk 02:33, 18 March 2021 (UTC)

@Newslinger Well, this modification is only "easy" if you have at least minimal knowledge of JavaScript. Anyway, since you plan to rewrite it and it is ultimately your decision, I will not argue about that. 𝟙𝟤𝟯𝟺𝐪𝑤𝒆𝓇𝟷𝟮𝟥𝟜𝓺𝔴𝕖𝖗𝟰 (𝗍𝗮𝘭𝙠) 15:32, 21 March 2021 (UTC)