Wikipedia:Mass message senders

The icon that typically represents the Massmessage senders on Wikipedia

Mass message sender is a user group that allows users to send messages to multiple users at once, from the MediaWiki message delivery bot account. Further user documentation can be found at m:MassMessage and mw:Help:Extension:MassMessage.

On the English Wikipedia, there are currently 848 administrators and 52 mass message senders (900 in total). Users with massmessage user right can send a message using Special:MassMessage.

Guidance for use

Audience

Mass messages should only be sent to groups of users who are likely to want their attention drawn to the message. A prime example is notifying members of a WikiProject about local events or edit-a-thons, though for any regular mailings users should be informed of how they can unsubscribe from future messages (see below).

For other cases, less personalized means of communication are preferred. Wikipedia's primary means of communication is through posts on article talk pages, Wikipedia talk pages, or various noticeboards, including the Village Pump. Editors who are interested in a given topic may have the corresponding page on their watchlist. The requests for comment process can be used to increase participation in a discussion.

To reach the members of a given WikiProject, a post on that project's talk page can be used. Site-wide notices are used for messages of importance to a great many users. Geo-notices are used for locally significant messages.

Content

Adherence to the talk page guidelines is important with mass messages as it can affect a large group of users. Formatting standards should be given consideration, being that verbose, overly formatted and especially large messages may clutter the user's talk page. Formatting is not discouraged however; for invitations to local events, such as an edit-a-thon, it is common to include an image and attractive styling to encourage participation. Signatures are encouraged so that archive bots do not ignore the messages.

The guideline on canvassing is especially relevant to this tool and users should familiarize themselves with its provisions before sending out mass notifications.

Requesting a mailing

Requests for mailings may be made on the talk page; or directly to any of the 900 users with the needed userright. The request page is rarely back logged and is ideal if you are requesting a future-dated message.

Before making your request

Please have the following things available before making your request:

A proper list (will be further referred to as «YOUR MAILING LIST») of users to mail your newsletter or notice to. A category may be used instead of a list.

• You can get an empty mailing list from here and move it to an appropriate subpage or add a section to Wikipedia talk:Mass message senders#General Discussions requesting a new mailing list.
  • Administrators and template editors may create lists with a special content model via Special:CreateMassMessageList.
• Another option is to use the {{Mailing list member}} template on a normal page which can help you accomplish creating your mailing list and offers a few features.
  • Please categorize these lists in Category:MassMessage delivery lists

A newsletter ready to go

• Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost is a good example. This template page can be in any namespace.
• Some message senders will require that your template include links instructing users how they can opt-out of future messages:

• If you wish to opt-out of future mailings, please remove yourself from [[«YOUR MAILING LIST»|the mailing list]] or alternatively to opt-out of all massmessage mailings, you may add [[:Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery]] to your user talk page.

• It may also be appropriate to include links to the users that contributed to writing the newsletter.

Tracking your request

Once your request has been answered, you may follow the progress of your request:

• You can see how many messages are left to be sent on Special:Statistics.
• You can see if there were any issues with any of the members on your list on the log page.

• Please remove members from «YOUR MAILING LIST» if the member's talk page...

• ... was skipped because user account does not exist
• ... was skipped because target was in a namespace that cannot be posted in
• ... failed with an error code of errorcode
• ... was skipped because target has opted-out of message delivery

Fixing mistakes

Senders should be careful not to send mass messages with any mistakes that will need to be fixed afterwards.

Even minor edits to a user's talk page will send the user a new notification. The only exception to this is when a bot makes a minor edit, since no other user group has the nominornewtalk right. There is at least one bot, DannyS712 bot, that is approved to fix mass messages, but this task is currently only done with input from the bot's operator. If a template should have been substituted but was not, AnomieBOT may be able to fix the issue.

Requesting rights

If you wish to request mass message sending rights for yourself, please see Wikipedia:Requests for permissions/Mass message sender. Administrators do not need to request or add this user right for themselves or other administrators as it is automatically granted as part of the administrator tools package.

In general, this user right is only granted to those who regularly request mass mailings or otherwise have shown a need for it, and removed from users that are completely inactive. For evaluation purposes, it is good measure to have filed at least one request for mass message delivery exemplifying an understanding of the guidance for use.

See also

• Discussion on allowing non-administrators to send mass messages. This led to the establishment of a new user group on the English Wikipedia.
• {{Mass message sender topicon}}, a top icon template to indicate you have mass message sender permission. Adds a category to page automatically.
• {{User wikipedia/Massmessage-sender}} / {{User wikipedia/Massmessage-sender2}} userbox templates to indicate you have mass message sender permission and could help.
• {{User mass message sender since}} userbox to indicate having mass message sender permission with period of time.
• User guide for the extension on MediaWiki.org
• Category:MassMessage delivery lists
• User:MediaWiki message delivery, the account that delivers mass messages sent with the extension