Commons:Wiki Loves Monuments/Documentation/Send a mass message

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Mass messaging is an effective way to inform people of Wiki Loves Monuments updates. Previous participants can be informed of the start of a new competition, and current participants can receive updates during and after the competition. You can send messages to user talk pages on Commons or (if local rules allow) your preferred Wikipedia site.

Most users who have set up an email address should get your message, even if they don't log in, since the default setting is to send an email whenever the talk page is edited.

Basic steps for sending a mass message[edit]

  • Acquire a list of users that you want to target, usually based on a category, and create a list of talk page links, formatted like this:
    • # {{#target:User talk:USERNAME}}
  • Write a short message, and message header.
  • If you are an admin, you can use Special:MassMessage to send the messages yourself. Otherwise, you'll probably need to ask an admin or post a request on the Admin Noticebaord.

A simple worked example, sending messages to Commons users[edit]

Here's an example of a Quarry query to find users who contributed to WLM in the UK in 2018 or earlier, but who have not contributed in 2019 (the current contest, at the time of writing):

Here's what you need to do:

1. Fork the above query, using the Fork button

2. Change both sections of yellow text to relate to your situation, the first with your old Commons categories and the single line underneath with your current category. Note that you need the underlines between the words; spaces won't work

3. Copy the results. If too many, download as csv, then open in a text editor, to get raw text with one entry per line

4. Use the results as the target for a mass message on Commons. Unless you're an admin, you'll need help doing that, as non-admins are limited in the number of messages they can send

4a. Start a new page on Commons, in your own userspace. Set out the subject line and body text of the message you want to send. Also include the list of targets. An example page is here
4b. Post a request to the Commons Administrators' Noticeboard and ask for an admin to send the message for you. Here's an example: https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Commons:Administrators%27_noticeboard&diff=prev&oldid=364449416
4c. If all's OK, a friendly admin will be along soon to complete the messaging.

Listing users[edit]

If you are experienced with SQL, you can construct more complex Quarry queries of your own.

You can also get a list of uploaders within a category with the Uploaders in cat tool.

Examples[edit]

See also[edit]

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