Wikipedia:Requests for permissions/Mass message sender/Administrator instructions

Mass message sender is a user group that allows users to send messages to multiple users at once.

Prerequisites

In general, mass message sender is only granted to trusted users who:

1. Regularly requests mass mailings or otherwise have shown a need for it
2. Have filed at least one request for mass message delivery clearly showing an understanding of the guidance for use

An overview of the guidance for use:

1. Don't spam or canvass users
2. Messages should only be sent to users who are likely to want their attention drawn to the message
3. If it's a regular newsletter, make sure you include a way to unsubscribe
4. Don't send out paragraphs of text or flashy imagery bloating talk pages. Keep it concise and to the point, but also feel free to spice it up with some formatting

If they've been manually going talk page to talk page over and over, this is essentially the same as requesting a mass mailing and should provide enough evidence to determine if they can be trusted not to misuse the tool.

In short, you'll probably only end up granting this right to event or WikiProject coordinators -- just make sure they know how to properly construct a newsletter.

Responding to requests

Note if a request was recently declined for a given user/permission, a bot will comment with a link to that discussion. You may wish to ping the administrator who declined the previous request asking for their input before responding to the new request.

To grant the permission:

• Grant the user right(s) to the user at Special:UserRights. Indicate the request was approved at WP:PERM (or a specific page therein) in the "Reason", along with any other information you deem appropriate.
• Issue the corresponding notification template to the user for the permissions that were added:

Notification templates

Useful template notifications Template Permission {{subst:Account creator granted}} Account creator {{subst:Autopatrolled granted}} Autopatrolled {{subst:Event coordinator granted}} Event coordinator {{subst:File mover granted}} File mover {{subst:IP block exemption granted}} IP block exemption {{subst:Mass message sender granted}} Mass message sender {{subst:New Page Reviewer granted}} New page reviewer {{subst:Page mover granted}} Page mover {{subst:Pending changes reviewer granted}} Pending changes reviewer {{subst:Rollback granted 2}} Rollback {{subst:Rollback and reviewer granted}} Rollback and reviewer {{subst:Template editor granted}} Template editor

To respond to the request:

• On the permissions page, mark the request as approved or denied using {{done}} or {{not done}}. Include any relevant rationale for the decision. If you are revoking a permission, use the template {{revoked}} which will archive as done. If the user has withdrawn their request, you can mark it as {{withdrawn}} which will archive as not done. For some permissions, there is a convenient template for canned responses, such as with Confirmed and Rollback.
• 36 hours after the last comment was made (or whatever is specified in the config), a bot will automatically archive the request. You can force the bot to archive as soon as possible with the code {{User:MusikBot/archivenow}}

Helper script: The above process can be expedited using the script User:MusikAnimal/userRightsManager.js. Once installed, click "assign permissions" on any PERM page, enter optional closing remarks in the popup dialog, and the script will grant the right with a permalink to the discussion, and issue the corresponding talk page template.

To override where the bot archives, use {{User:MusikBot/override|d}} for approved, or {{User:MusikBot/override|nd}} for denied. This will override any other {{done}} or {{not done}} templates, and make the bot ignore the user's rights.

To re-open a request, deactivate the resolution template using the code {{tl|template name}}, as with {{done}} or {{not done}}. Strikethroughs like <s>{{done}}</s> or other means to suppress the original resolution template will still be registered as resolved by the bot. Only deactivating or removing the template will work.

Archiving

All requests are archived at Wikipedia:Requests for permissions/Archive as approved or denied. This is done as a historical reference, namely so that admins can review previously declined requests.

N hours after the last comment was made on a request (as specified by the bot's config), the discussion is removed from that page and an entry containing a PermaLink to the discussion is added to the archives, noting the user and the permission. This archiving process is fully automated and should not be attempted manually.

Bot clerking

For convenience, the requests for permissions pages are clerked by MusikBot. See User:MusikBot/PermClerk for more information on the tasks and how to configure them.