Wikipedia:Mass message senders/Requests

Requests for mass message delivery may be made on this page. Any user who is an administrator or who has the Mass message sender user right can complete mass message requests and deliver a message through the use of the mass message extension.

In order to make a request, ensure that you have completed the requirements listed at #How to request a message delivery. Then you can add a new request or click the link below at #MassMessage Delivery Requests.

See also: Wikipedia:Mass message senders, mw:Help:Extension:MassMessage, and User:MediaWiki message delivery

Guidance for mass messages

Before preparing the content and recipients of your request you will need to consider the following guidance for the audience and content of the mass message.

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.

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

How to request a message delivery

In order to successfully request a message be sent via mass message delivery you will need to have or prepare four main components of the message:

1. A mailing list
2. A section title
3. Section content
4. Delivery date

A mailing list

This is the list of users and pages that the message will be sent to. If the user has opted out of mass message delivery then they will not recieve the message even if they are on a mailing list. Opted out users will have [[Category:Wikipedians who opt out of message delivery]] added to their user talk page, this should only be added and removed by the user.

There are three ways to provide a mailing list:

• Have a page with the special content model of "MassMessageListContent" which can order and format entries. You can get one of these pages at Wikipedia talk:Mass message senders/Empty Shells and then move one to a subpage of the newsletter you wish to send. Alternativley you can ask an Administrator or template editor to create one for you. An example of this special page is Wikipedia:Administrators' newsletter/Subscribe and only requires the user to enter "User talk:Example" into the Add page box.
• Have a specific page where users are listed using *{{Mailing list member|user=Example}} or *{{#target:User talk:Example}} For example: Wikipedia:WikiProject Women in Red/Outreach/A-F.
• A cateogry containing users who are going to recieve the message. This approach isn't often used since individual users may not wish to remove themselves from the category but also might not want the mass message.

Subject of the mass message

The subject of the mass message will be the section header of the mass message as well as the message that is displayed in the edit summary.

Example: A submission of "The Signpost: 30 September 2022" will result in:

A section title of: ==The Signpost: 30 September 2022==

An edit summary of: (→The Signpost: 30 September 2022: new section)

Section content

This is the main content of the message, it will be displayed under the section title. There are three ways to provide the message content. Do not provide a title within the section content.

• If the message is short and only consists of text then you can add it into the request. However if your message has formatting, images or other decoration then it is best practice to create your message on a separate page.
• It is recomended for newsletters that the message is created on a subpage of the newsletter. For example: The 30 September 2022 edition of The Signpost the subpage Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/Archives/2022-09-30 was created to store its content.
• Alternatively you can create the content on your sandbox page. This would only need to contain the message until it is sent and then you can override it.

Delivery date

You can request a message be delivered on or after a specific date. Just enter a date when creating a request, or just leave it as "any time". If left as "any time" when a mass message sender notices the request and reviews it they will send it at that time without waiting (As long as there are no issues with the request).

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.

MassMessage Delivery Requests

Request for mass message delivery: November 8, 2022

Would someone please deliver → topic of your request ←

Here are the details

• Mailing list: → put the link to your properly formatted mailing list here ←
• Subject of mass mailing: → Put your subject line code here ←
• Content of mass mailing: {{subst:→ put what you want delivered here ←}}
• Requested delivery date: → Put your requested date or "any time" ←

Thanks for your assistance! Terasail^[✉️] 01:56, 8 November 2022 (UTC)