Wikipedia:Article alerts/Roadmap

This is a rough and crude outline of the work that would need to be done to make 2017 Community Wishlist Survey/Bots and gadgets/Deploy Article Alerts to other languages happen. Assuming, of course, that it passes as a proposal. Feel free to restructure, edit, convert to phabricator tickets, or whatever.

Phase 1 - Surveying

 * 1) Identify high-level discussion workflows across the top Wikimedia projects (e.g. WP:AFD, WP:PROD, etc.)
 * 2) Determine how each of those workflows are structured, or how they might be structured if no such structure currently exists (e.g. dedicated subpages, sections in a page, article talk page, page enters/exits a category, etc.)
 * 3) Identify high-level collaborative spaces across the top Wikimedia projects (e.g. Wikiprojects, Category-based workgroups, Villages pumps, Noticeboards, etc.)
 * 4) Determine how each of those spaces are structured, or how they might be structured if no such structure currently exists (e.g. organized around WikiProjects, Categories, Templates/Infoboxes, etc.)

Phase 2 - Design

 * 1) Identify goals / priorities
 * 2) *Get larger user bases onboard early on (see List of Wikipedia, then sort the table by active users)
 * 3) Explore deeper integration / cross-wiki integration possibilities
 * 4) WP:Notifications possible?
 * 5) Cross-wiki notices possible? (Wikimedia Commons in particular)
 * 6) Determine subscription method / customization / localization
 * 7) Per Wiki general configuration / localization (MediaWiki space? Project space? Use templates or mediawiki configs?)
 * 8) Per collaboration specific customization (centralized master list vs per-collaboration subpages?)
 * 9) Determine output method (Bot? Toolserver page? Extension?)
 * 10) Determine archiving method (Subpages? Page histories?)

Phase 3 - Implementation/Testing

 * 1) Identify key test collaborations to test things with (e.g. on en-wiki, WP:PHYS)
 * 2) *Will need: 1) One or more key contact persons 2) Preferably a large number of articles covered 3) Preferably a large userbase
 * 3) Identify key contact people
 * 4) *Will be able to 1) Relay the local wiki's concerns to the dev team / 2) Be able to setup customizations options on their wiki
 * 5) Implement first "type" of workflow (e.g. discussions with dedicated subpages)
 * 6) Get feedback, iterate, document
 * 7) Implement next "type" of workflow (e.g. discussions dedicated on sections of a main page)
 * 8) Get feedback, iterate, document
 * 9) Repeat until all workflows are covered

Phase 4 - Release / Longterm support

 * See also: foolproof plans


 * 1) Code like maniacs
 * 2) ???
 * 3) Release

Discussion
Going to ping on this. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 17:43, 6 December 2017 (UTC)
 * Sounds like a hairy project :) What's the status of the existing AAlertBot code. The only info I found was "open-source at a later time". I'm guessing that means that it isn't public. I imagine we would need to write something mostly from scratch to handle multiple wikis, but it would be nice to at least be able to see the existing code (either by posting it to a version control repo or adding someone on the CommTech team as a maintainer to the ToolForge project). Doesn't have to happen now of course. Kaldari (talk) 00:50, 7 December 2017 (UTC)
 * would know a lot more about the status of the current code than me. There's a repository on Bitbucket /Atlassian, which I believe is closed, but there was no ideological reason for the closed source thing other than "other wikis are better off coding their own solution than re-using our stuff". Having the code would certainly be helpful during design, but I'm pretty sure this would need to be coded from scratch with a top-down approach with scalability and localization in mind, rather than a bottom-up approach tailored to en:wiki's quirks with lots of hardcoded stuff. Maybe bits of the code are useable though. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 01:03, 7 December 2017 (UTC)
 * See also a prior discussion on this. Headbomb {t · c · p · b} 01:08, 7 December 2017 (UTC)