Last modified: 2013-06-18 13:05:05 UTC
When a bot edits a page on your watchlist, and your preferences are configured to send you an email notification on new edits to watchlisted pages (and assuming the wiki is configured to do so), it usually doesn't result in an edit notification (every once in a while it does, but I haven't been able to find any sort of common element to these cases, so I don't know what causes it). This wouldn't be a problem, except that if an edit notification isn't emailed for that edit, it also never gets sent for any subsequent edit to that page, meaning that if you don't use your watchlist to keep up with edits to a wiki, you can miss subsequent changes to that page for an indefinite period of time. I've observed this across several wikis on Wikia as well as on the Minecraft Wiki (http://minecraftwiki.net), and across multiple versions of MediaWiki.
Because it's a bot edit. In theory, they should forcibly mark an edit as NOT a bot edit via the API Most (all?) flagged bot edits don't trigger email notifications for things like this
(In reply to comment #1) > Because it's a bot edit. In theory, they should forcibly mark an edit as NOT a > bot edit via the API > > Most (all?) flagged bot edits don't trigger email notifications for things like > this Read: It's a feature, not a bug
(In reply to comment #2) > (In reply to comment #1) > > Because it's a bot edit. In theory, they should forcibly mark an edit as NOT a > > bot edit via the API > > > > Most (all?) flagged bot edits don't trigger email notifications for things like > > this > > Read: It's a feature, not a bug That's fine. The problem is, when a bot edit doesn't trigger an enotif, *no subsequent edits* to that page will trigger an enotif either (in this regard, this bug is similar to bug 27884). This is a problem if you rely on enotifs to keep up with changes on a wiki (as I do). This could be a preference that defaults to "don't send enotifs on bot edits" (vis a vis bug 13992) instead of just undocumented behavior.
(In reply to comment #3) > That's fine. The problem is, when a bot edit doesn't trigger an enotif, *no > subsequent edits* to that page will trigger an enotif either (in this regard, > this bug is similar to bug 27884). That's a separate problem which doesn't belong to this bug: if it's not the same as bug 27884, please open another. > This is a problem if you rely on enotifs to > keep up with changes on a wiki (as I do). This could be a preference that > defaults to "don't send enotifs on bot edits" (vis a vis bug 13992) instead of > just undocumented behavior. I agree that the current situation, with flagged bots not triggering enotifs on minor edits, is extremely confusing. If one has selected "E-mail me also for minor edits of pages" they should receive them. Maybe this is even the case but there's no documentation and everyone is confused, see bug 13992 comment 6 (which caused a lot of problems to WLM notifications on Commons): maybe Benny can shed some light on the current behaviour?
(In reply to comment #4) > (In reply to comment #3) > > That's fine. The problem is, when a bot edit doesn't trigger an enotif, *no > > subsequent edits* to that page will trigger an enotif either (in this regard, > > this bug is similar to bug 27884). > > That's a separate problem which doesn't belong to this bug: if it's not the > same as bug 27884, please open another. Bug 42482. > > This is a problem if you rely on enotifs to > > keep up with changes on a wiki (as I do). This could be a preference that > > defaults to "don't send enotifs on bot edits" (vis a vis bug 13992) instead of > > just undocumented behavior. > > I agree that the current situation, with flagged bots not triggering enotifs on > minor edits, is extremely confusing. If one has selected "E-mail me also for > minor edits of pages" they should receive them. > Maybe this is even the case but there's no documentation and everyone is > confused, see bug 13992 comment 6 (which caused a lot of problems to WLM > notifications on Commons): maybe Benny can shed some light on the current > behaviour? I have that preference selected as a matter of course for those wikis that I edit, and I still miss a *lot* of bot edits.
(In reply to comment #4) > (In reply to comment #3) > > That's fine. The problem is, when a bot edit doesn't trigger an enotif, *no > > subsequent edits* to that page will trigger an enotif either (in this regard, > > this bug is similar to bug 27884). > > That's a separate problem which doesn't belong to this bug: if it's not the > same as bug 27884, please open another. > > > This is a problem if you rely on enotifs to > > keep up with changes on a wiki (as I do). This could be a preference that > > defaults to "don't send enotifs on bot edits" (vis a vis bug 13992) instead of > > just undocumented behavior. > > I agree that the current situation, with flagged bots not triggering enotifs on > minor edits, is extremely confusing. If one has selected "E-mail me also for > minor edits of pages" they should receive them. > Maybe this is even the case but there's no documentation and everyone is > confused, see bug 13992 comment 6 (which caused a lot of problems to WLM > notifications on Commons): maybe Benny can shed some light on the current > behaviour? Minor edits from bot would not trigger notification. "E-mail me also for minor edits of pages" is a user option but it would not overwrite the behavior. I think the problem is that watchlist notification timestamp is set even for bot minor edits, this results in no enotif for subsequent edits
(In reply to comment #6) > Minor edits from bot would not trigger notification. "E-mail me also for minor > edits of pages" is a user option but it would not overwrite the behavior. Then the bot group's permissions are very confusing: "Not have minor edits to *discussion* pages trigger the new messages prompt (nominornewtalk)". > I > think the problem is that watchlist notification timestamp is set even for bot > minor edits, this results in no enotif for subsequent edits Ok, this would be bug 42482/bug 27884.
This is again causing confusion at https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/66372/ , despite bug 41637 comment 6. Again, the assumption for this bug is that there should be a documented way both for users and bots/extensions to have bot edits trigger notifications; bug 27884 is a bug in any case. Note that Echo excludes minor bot edits too, after bug 47910, and presumably has this bug too.