Help talk:Notifications/FAQ/Archive 1

It will be released on the English Wikipedia on 30 April 2013
Could you please confirm that it will be released today. I am so excited to use it. New worl (talk) 16:19, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Yep; just got released a minute ago! Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 20:01, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks Okeyes for the great work. New worl (talk) 06:30, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks! Credit mostly goes to Fabrice Florin and his team :). Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 14:32, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

Opting out
The system looks useful, and I intend to use it. I suspect some editors won't want to, however. I almost added a question to the FAQ about opting out, under the assumption that if you uncheck all boxes on your notifications preference tab, you're effectively opted out. But I don't know whether that's technically accurate. If so, it's probably worth adding. --BDD (talk) 20:29, 30 April 2013 (UTC)
 * That pretty much turns it off, although you'll still get talkpage notifications (but not via email). If there is substantial negative feedback, we'll consider adding a proper opt-out - but this would only exist temporarily. Eventually, all users will have to have some variation on Echo (with as few options as possible, if that's what they want). Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 20:46, 30 April 2013 (UTC)

AACK CHANGE
Seriously, though, this looks very useful. I'm tired of obsessively checking my watchlist to see whether I have responses on talk pages, people have reverted my edits, etc. &mdash; TORTOISE  WRATH  01:35, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks! :D. Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 03:57, 1 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Oliver, you guys might consider having a single checkbox preference that would throw up an orange box, similar to the User:Writ Keeper/Scripts/orangeBar.js script. This would likely get rid of most of the "I hate the new system, give me back my orange box!" complaints.  In other words, about 99% of the complaints.  Overall, I love the new system and think you guys are on the right track with it. Dennis Brown - 2¢  © Join WER 18:25, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Yup, they're considering that, but at some point they'll have to turn that off if we don't want to support N different options, prompting the same complaints all over again. I'd rather find a solution both sides can be happy with in perpetuity. Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 18:52, 1 May 2013 (UTC)
 * If it was only a CSS pop up box on top of the existing system (rather than instead of), seems like it wouldn't be too much of a burden to maintain at least as a stopgap. I would be interesting to see what percentage of active users actifed that option after a week.  Dennis Brown - 2¢  © Join WER 19:10, 1 May 2013 (UTC)

User:Writ Keeper's script?
Any objection to adding a note about this script to the FAQ?--ukexpat (talk) 19:44, 2 May 2013 (UTC)
 * I think it is a good idea, I've dropped notes here and there about it, to help deal with the folks that just hate losing the bar, to perhaps allow them to give the rest of the changes a chance. I haven't tested the script but trust the source.  I found the orange bar very annoying.  Dennis Brown - 2¢  © Join WER 19:58, 2 May 2013 (UTC)

"Last change" talk page option
It's probably been mentioned but I didn't see it in the FAQ—while I quite like this new feature, one advantage the orange bar talk notification had was the ability to view the diff(s) from the last time you checked your talk page. Currently the notice only tells you that your talk page has been edited, but doesn't provide either a section link or a diff link, leaving you to scroll down and find it yourself. Either of those options would be very welcome. It seems a relatively minor fix but it would mean a whole world of ease in the future. GRAPPLE  X  16:36, 5 May 2013 (UTC)
 * We're working on the diff link, yep :). Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 16:55, 6 May 2013 (UTC)

A bug in the notification system
I got the number of notifications displayed as a red 1, and I went to my talk page to look at it seconds later. Now that I've seen the message, why is the number of notifications still displayed as a big red 1?

Also, why do I get notified when the supposed "new message" is merely MiszaBot archiving a bunch of old messages? I was never getting the Orange Bar of Doom in such as situation... ---  Blanchardb -Me•MyEars•MyMouth- timed 18:30, 6 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Both are known, and in the process of being fixed :). Thanks anyway! Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 00:22, 7 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Please notify everyone when you fixed it. I keep getting them 5 and 8 new screens after I've clicked on notifications multiple times. I've changed it to daily but would like to go back to as they come in but it's driving me too crazy. I'm sure I'm not the only one, just one of the noisier ones. CarolMooreDC - talkie talkie &#x1f5fd; 15:56, 25 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Please fix this. It is a "no doubt about it" bug. Not like the old conservatives missing their orange (the red was good enough).TCO (talk) 21:07, 25 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Totally agreed. I'd note that as soon as it's fixed you'll probably notice, however ;p. Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 12:20, 27 May 2013 (UTC)
 * True. Less cursing and raised blood pressure. :-) CarolMooreDC - talkie talkie &#x1f5fd; 19:35, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

Removing notifications
Once a message is read there should be a way to dismiss it so that it no longer appears. Werieth (talk) 14:22, 7 May 2013 (UTC)
 * It'll get automatically archived over time; we're talking about building a dismiss in, but other conversations have got us, ah. Slightly distracted ;p. Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 15:49, 7 May 2013 (UTC)
 * I'll second this. I want a way to manage what's on Special:Notifications. Some things can be safely deleted. For others I want to add comments/annotations for why I'm keeping them. I want an easy way to get the wikicode for another so that I can copy/paste it to a project page. Unlike the watchlist, it seems I have zero control once something appears on my Special:Notifications page. --Marc Kupper&#124;talk 18:43, 21 August 2013 (UTC)

Bug: notice cannot be read
There seem to be three different notices, and I am unsure of their names. First, there is an email message. Second, there is a red pane shown at the top right of my Talk page, that seems to disappear before I can digest its meaning. Finally, there is a number next to my Talk page link on almost any WP page, which, when clicked, shows a notification message that cannot be read. The reason is that I am using a particular standard layout that puts the standard links like my Talk page link in a column on the left side of the page. This seems to be used as the origin position of the notification message, which, therefore, appears pushed left, almost off the screen. I tried dragging the notification message to the right so I can read it, but this fails as dragging is apparently not supported. And once the notification message dismisses itself (there is no OK button), the count goes to zero and it cannot be accessed ever again. I assume these problems will be fixed so I can make use of the new features? I have always found Watchlist barely useable, as it shows only the latest edit, not the edit after the one I made. David Spector (talk) 11:44, 8 May 2013 (UTC)
 * What standard layout? :/. Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 06:12, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

Slick changes to the interface
I like the cleaner look of the notices and it is very pleasing to be able to get notices of NPPers checking my new articles. Also, looks like the edit buttons have finally shifted left (like other language wikis have). This makes page layout MUCH better (having headers at the left and buttons at the right, really screwed with pictures). Keep paying the coders and changing the software. Now if you could play videos in a format that seamlessly works for the general public...TCO (talk) 13:03, 12 May 2013 (UTC)
 * We're hoping to do some more multimedia work next year, actually :). (and yeah, I feel your pain. I can't get OGG files to work properly in Firefox, for some reason.) Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 06:12, 14 May 2013 (UTC)

More instructions for the coding shack
Could we please have some sort of find/replace that works in edit mode? An example is when I'm correcting a misspelling that goes throughout an article. (I can sort of work around by using the find feature of IE and then doing manual retyping, but an editor that supports this is desired. MS Word has had it since early 90s at least.)  Please don't tell me to use AWB or a script either. We need more powerful, seamless tools if you actually want meaty contributions added to this place (I am finding more and more places where the main content was added in 2006-7. I wonder if a sampling pattern of editing patterns would show the gradual Wiki-decline since 2007 is even worse than expected [i.e. proportion of gnomey "grind the database" edits is going up, while substantial text additions going down]).TCO (talk) 12:57, 27 May 2013 (UTC)
 * I'm not quite sure how this relates to notifications :/. It's more a question for the VisualEditor team (User:Jdforrester (WMF), ping). I'm also not sure how enabling find and replace would create meaty contributions; it would totally be helpful for "gnomey 'grind the database'" edits, of course. On the sampling patterns, I'm totally happy to do some analysis in my spare time if that's something you would like to see :). Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 15:04, 27 May 2013 (UTC)

Yes, please. Appreciate your initiative. Whether it proves me right, wrong, or even the direct opposite to be true, will be interesting.

TCO (talk) 15:16, 27 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Great! I'll stick it in my to-do list. Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 19:55, 28 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Use the search-and-replace option of the edit toolbar. Not sure if this counts as "AWB or a script" since it should be available by default. FallingGravity (talk) 17:49, 27 May 2013 (UTC)


 * OK, I found it. (BTW, have to tab the "advanced" button though to bring up that part of the ribbon.)TCO (talk) 17:52, 27 May 2013 (UTC)


 * Doesn't seem to work though. (And I have a standard load:  Windows 7, IE10, MS Office, Dell computer).TCO (talk) 18:40, 4 June 2013 (UTC)

Mentions
Just wondering if one gets notified when one is mentioned on a talkpage even when ones user-name not wiki-linked? BTW I like this new feature, thanks for developing it. XOttawahitech (talk) 14:37, 29 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Thanks! And nope, wiki-linking is mandatory (we wanted to avoid the situation where User:A gets driven mad by emails ;)) Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 16:25, 29 May 2013 (UTC)

Another question about mentions: If a userlink is removed in a subsequent edit, is that user’s notification also removed? —Frungi (talk) 19:20, 30 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Nope; they'll stoll be sent there (which is non-ideal, but the technical hurdles here are quite substantial :/.) Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 20:53, 30 May 2013 (UTC)

So, to be clear, User:Okeyes (WMF) would trigger a notification, but User talk:Okeyes (WMF) would not?

Is this currently on all "... talk" pages (e.g. user talk, Wikipedia talk)?

Will there be a way to add specific pages, or pages beginning with x, to the pages on which notifications would be triggered? I'm thinking pages like WP:AN or any page that starts with "Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/".

Pseudonymous Rex (talk) 01:27, 31 May 2013 (UTC)
 * It's currently on all talk pages, but also (as far as I know) also on Wikipedia pages. I'll test :). Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 11:18, 31 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Hm… what’s the overhead for regex matching? Would that be unreasonable? Probably too complex for a good number of non-programmers, though. —Frungi (talk) 02:21, 31 May 2013 (UTC)
 * Presumably the barrier for editors would be pretty s(imple|ubstantial) depending on the user. We were talking about having a page blacklist, rather than whitelist. Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 11:18, 31 May 2013 (UTC)

Re-reading, I may not have been clear. With regard to adding specific pages..., I meant that notifications from selected pages would be active for all users on the wiki. I didn't mean individual users having their own lists (User:Example wants to be notified if mentioned on Page X). I imagine one or both of these might be possible, though, so might we ever see either feature? Pseudonymous Rex (talk) 03:29, 31 May 2013 (UTC)
 * The former is totally possible, but I think we're looking at more of a blacklist model than a whitelist model; things would be enabled in a namespace by default, with blacklisting available. Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 11:18, 31 May 2013 (UTC)

What happens if someone turns off their notifications
If you try to thank someone - will you know if the have turned off their notifications? Thanks in advance, XOttawahitech (talk) 23:14, 1 June 2013 (UTC)

no i don't think so Dmarinere (talk) 21:04, 16 January 2016 (UTC)

Can you see a list of outgoing notifications
Is there a record you can check to see who you had thanked in the past? Thanks in advance, XOttawahitech (talk) 23:17, 1 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Check under Special:Logs :). Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 18:46, 4 June 2013 (UTC)
 * User:Okeyes (WMF), I wanted to thank you for your edit above, but thanks are not working today(?) XOttawahitech (talk) 18:44, 12 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Weird; it's working for me :/. What appears to be going wrong? Okeyes (WMF) (talk) 18:52, 12 June 2013 (UTC)
 * Yes, it is weird, I can see my notifications and have just received a thanks from you, but when I try to thank you my click on thank is "frozen". XOttawahitech (talk) 19:13, 12 June 2013 (UTC)

What's up now???
Up until today, I got a drop-down menu when clicking on the notifications number tag. Now when I click, it opens up the entire notifications sheet. What gives, and can I have the old drop-down back, please? — Preceding unsigned comment added by Ohconfucius (talk • contribs) 07:47, 28 June 2013‎
 * Left-click should open the flyout, and middle click should open the Special:Notifications page.
 * Sometimes a left-click will lead to the Special page, but I'm not sure how to reproduce the bug. I suspect it might be a "I clicked before the page finished loading" problem? Also it might be fixed by now, I haven't seen it recently. –Quiddity (talk) 20:12, 8 September 2013 (UTC)
 * Your suspicion seems correct. I was able to reproduce it this way (didn't happen to me before). Same thing happens with adding a page to the Watchlist. --nenntmich ruhigip (Diskussion) 14:46, 23 November 2013 (UTC)

Problems
Judging by the lack of comments here, this might not be a global problem. This morning, I was suddenly flooded with notifications about how such and such page that I started was linked from somewhere else. Problem is, that's not true. For example, the very first notification was that administrative divisions of Sverdlovsk Oblast was linked from Aramil, but the Aramil page hasn't been edited since April 1, 2013, and I was the last person to edit it anyway. The rest of the notifications are of the same sort, and so far I must have gotten about a dozen of them. What's going on?—Ëzhiki (Igels Hérissonovich Ïzhakoff-Amursky) • (yo?); June 28, 2013; 12:42 (UTC)

New problem today
Today I am not able to have a 0 displayed on my notifications (top bar) for long. I keep seeing the same message displayed in my notification box (which by the way refers to a talk page message posted on June 29 but says yesterday in my box), the count goes down to zero momentarily, but as soon as I switch to new page it again displays 1. I hope I am making sense? XOttawahitech (talk) 12:43, 1 July 2013 (UTC)

Thanks log
The thanks log works great when searching by Performer, but not at all when searching by Target. Are you aware of this? XOttawahitech (talk) 00:24, 18 July 2013 (UTC)
 * You need to add "User:" in the Target field, because all pagenames are a valid parameter there. –Quiddity (talk) 02:33, 18 July 2013 (UTC)

Should I be thanking someone who cannot see?
Just wondering if this notification system is user-friendly to editors who use a screen reader, or am I just making their life more difficult? XOttawahitech (talk) 20:26, 22 July 2013 (UTC)
 * They can use it, but it's not ideal yet. See Wikipedia_talk:Notifications/Archive_1, and vote or CC: for 47993. :) –Quiddity (talk) 05:44, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

Page links
Is there a reason that page link notifications don't link to the page I created (and which was linked)? Powers T 13:55, 27 August 2013 (UTC)
 * (Note: answered at Wikipedia_talk:Notifications) –Quiddity (talk) 17:15, 8 September 2013 (UTC)

False Page linked notifications?
Occasionally I receive notifications that seem to make no sense. For example I now have the following notification:
 * Peter Liguori was linked from WATL. See all links to this page
 * 2 hours ago

Why does this happen? Just curious. XOttawahitech (talk) 14:28, 15 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Actually I see that "What links here" often brings up pages that aren't linked? Thanks in advance for any speculation or a pointer to where is the best place to post this question. XOttawahitech (talk) 15:57, 22 October 2013 (UTC)
 * I'm not sure, but I suspect it might be related to Wikipedia_talk:Notifications/Archive_3 and Wikipedia_talk:Notifications/Archive_4 (possibly one of the navboxes on WATL is to blame?). –Quiddity (talk) 07:10, 26 October 2013 (UTC)

Notifications/FAQ Orange?
I think that I've always thought of the bar as yellow. Anyone else? Flyer22 (talk) 20:42, 18 October 2013 (UTC)
 * See OBOD ;) It was # which some people would call orange. –Quiddity (talk) 01:53, 21 October 2013 (UTC)
 * I still have it pop up when I receive a new message on my talk page. Allen (Morriswa) (talk) 02:40, 21 October 2013 (UTC)
 * Do you get the old full size OBOD, or the new smaller "new message indicator"? (See images at Notifications/FAQ) If you're still getting the old OBOD, I'm not sure why, unless you've got the preference at Special:Preferences for ("Display a floating alert when I have new talk page messages") turned on. –Quiddity (talk) 05:06, 22 October 2013 (UTC)

Huge lag in notifications from other projects
I have "Show talk page message indicator in my toolbar" and all notification types turned on.
 * At 15:57 8 November 2013, "LX automatically marked revision 109184729 of page File:Director Producer Steven Cantor Ambassadors for Humanity Gala 2013 Oct3 NYC.jpg patrolled"
 * At 15:58, 8 November 2013, my Commons Talk page got a large warning banner about copyright violation and pending image deletion.
 * At 09:58, 9 November 2013 the image was deleted.
 * At about 01:05, 10 November 2013 I got a red notification box "1" and a small orange "You have new messages" bar. I thought "cool", I'll go check that image and see if there's anything I can do. Too late! It had already been deleted!.
 * At 01:08, 10 November 2013 I rather testily complained on the deleter's Talk page.
 * Why did it take from 15:57 8 November until about 01:05 10 November to get the notification box to light up? I was actively editing several pages rapidly, so there was plenty of opportunity for the box to be updated.

I like the new notification system. It's quick doing notifications in-project. But nearly two days inter-project lag is just crazymaking. So: Help? --Lexein (talk) 07:38, 10 November 2013 (UTC)
 * 1) Can the lag be reduced to two hours? That would be extremely helpful.
 * 2) Also, the red notice list is now lacking the Commons msg ... is that normal?
 * There are no inter-project notifications. You can see your notifications from Commons on Commons, and from here – here. You must have not noticed navigating between projects. Matma Rex talk 09:40, 10 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Doh! Yes indeed, I was doing Commons edits. Wow, I'd really like (optional) inter-project notifications. --Lexein (talk) 13:52, 10 November 2013 (UTC)
 * Are there any news about the possibility of inter-project or at least inter-langage notifications? --Hadibe (talk) 14:33, 5 March 2015 (UTC)

Notifications broken?
I am not getting all the notifications that I should be getting. Am I the only one? Ottawahitech (talk) 18:41, 8 February 2015 (UTC)
 * The main thread for these issues, is currently at Wikipedia_talk:Notifications. Investigation and additional code-patches, continue... :) --Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 23:16, 12 February 2015 (UTC)

Unregistered Users
It says that unregistered users cannot get notifications. Doesn't that mean that IP addresses can't get notifications? I was trying to ping an IP address, but it just goes red when I preview what I added or changed. I would recommend a way so that IP addresses get notifications. Sam.gov (talk) 01:18, 12 February 2015 (UTC)
 * There aren't any reliable ways to communicate with an unregistered editor, because it's not possible to predict who will be accessing the site through an IP, e.g. anyone on a Shared IP edu (dozens of people at a time?). Hence all of those warning notices on IP talkpages (e.g.).
 * However, T58828 ("Echo for anonymous users") is on the wish-list, so it might get developed at some point. (?)
 * Re: redlink - IP users rarely have userpages, and cannot create them themselves.
 * The only way to contact unregistered users, is at their usertalkpage (and hope the individual you want to contact is the first to see and click on the orange "You've got messages" banner), or reply in the relevant thread and hope that they come back to see the reply there. --Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 00:27, 13 February 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks. I guess I'll try contacting them directly, in hopes I get the desired anonymous user. At least it's on the wish list. Sam.gov (talk) 03:49, 13 February 2015 (UTC)

Turning off notifications for specific pages
Is there a way to stop receiving notifications for specific pages, not broad categories? There are many disambigs and music pages that I've created in the past that I have no interest in continuing to receive alerts about (especially every time an article is linked to), but I'd still like to receive notifications for everything else. --Prosperosity (talk) 01:01, 18 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Special:Preferences untick page links and save.  --Jules (Mrjulesd) 23:43, 18 November 2015 (UTC)
 * But that removes notifications for every single page that's linked to, doesn't it? For example I want to keep getting notifications about Chuixian San Chi, but I don't want notifications about troublemaker; both pages I have created. --Prosperosity (talk) 03:12, 19 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Not currently, but it's high up on the planned new-feature list. There are notes in these 2 related tasks T46787 (old) and T115264 (new). Feedback welcomed! (But it's known to be a frequently requested feature). Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 01:55, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

Notifications log
Is there a way to see the notifications I received on November 7th without using the horribly designed notifications log? --Neil N  talk to me 13:55, 24 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Not currently - Special:Notifications is still just the minimal archive that was first released.
 * However! Making it filterable in various ways, is planned, and slowly being researched and discussed, and potential designs and features iterated upon.
 * See T115316 for current mockups and notes. Feedback/suggestions/etc, appreciated. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 01:42, 26 November 2015 (UTC)
 * Thanks Quiddity (WMF). Do you know why the wheel has to be reinvented again when we have an interface that has been around for more than a decade which will suffice? The User Contributions screen has everything a Notifications Listing screen should have. --Neil N  talk to me 02:08, 26 November 2015 (UTC)
 * , I do rage against wheel-reinvention myself (and have quietly prevented quite a few!), but in this case, special:contributions won't let us filter/search by text-string, nor does it (optionally) include content from other wikis, plus it doesn't involve multiple users so a username-filter isn't as relevant. I agree those features would be good to add to special:contributions, too, but it (and RC/History/Watchlist) are all distinctly (and often subtly) different (sometimes annoyingly so, often beneficially so), hence it's not a simple case of just re-using existing code. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 02:42, 26 November 2015 (UTC)

My notifications not working
Notifications not working, I use vector, Everytime I try to use it, it says failed to fetch notifications. Iazyges  Consermonor   Opus meum  06:00, 22 September 2016 (UTC)
 * Hi. This might be a known problem that has already been patched but not yet "deployed to production", in which case it will be fixed by around 23:45 UTC today (around 4 hours after my saving this). You might want to wait until then, and re-test.
 * If that doesn't fix it, then the developers will need a bit more information in order to diagnose what the problem might be.
 * In that circumstance:
 * Please could you open one (or both) of these links, depending on whether you get the error message for one (or both) of the 2 badges (icons): Alerts and Notices
 * If the result is a very long (multipage) series of programming language statements (beginning with something like  then that indicates it should be working normally, and these are your private notification messages, so do not paste that.
 * However, if the results of the link are a short error message (something similar to ), then please do paste that here.
 * Much thanks for the bug-report, and help testing. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 20:14, 22 September 2016 (UTC)
 * Thanks, its working now.

Page review notifications
A few weeks ago, i created an userpage and added some userboxes and a photo/image to my userpage. When i logged in today, i notice that i got a notification saying X user reviewed my userpage. What does this mean? Do users get notifications when other users visit their userpages? Or do users get notifications about other users who visited their userpages? If so, that is pretty annoying. 99.228.19.181 (talk) 12:58, 15 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Long version: see WP:NPP. Short version: When pages are created, they get an initial review just to make sure they're not something wildly inappropriate. You get a notification of that initial review. That's it. It doesn't happen every time someone views it or anything. Sergecross73   msg me  13:30, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

Thank you. I will read the links you provided. It pissed me off because i also sometimes visit/view other users' userpages and it would be annoying if others get notifications about it. 99.228.19.181 (talk) 13:57, 15 December 2017 (UTC)
 * 99.228.19.181 No it's only done once, and only by a limited number of editors with an additional tool. So likewise, unless you are a) a patroller, and b) actually proactively patrolling a new page at the time, then you also won't be sending any notifications like that. Take care!  >SerialNumber  54129 ...speculates 15:13, 15 December 2017 (UTC)

Technical problem

 * duplicate thread