https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=39957
Web browser: ---
Bug #: 39957
Summary: Expose MediaWiki info action's page watchers value to
more users
Product: MediaWiki
Version: unspecified
Platform: All
OS/Version: All
Status: NEW
Severity: normal
Priority: Unprioritized
Component: General/Unknown
AssignedTo: [email protected]
ReportedBy: [email protected]
Classification: Unclassified
Mobile Platform: ---
Previously I successfully lobbied the Toolserver to add a MySQL view to the
watchlist table allowing anonymous data-gathering from the table (namely the
ability to count the number of watchers for a particular page title). Once the
MySQL view was added, I created a somewhat popular tool at
<https://toolserver.org/~mzmcbride/watcher/> that takes a title (or titles,
separated by pipe characters) and returns the number of page watchers for each
page title.
In the tool's original implementation, there were no restrictions on who could
see how many people were watching a particular page. Certain Wikimedians were
worried that this information would be used by bad users as a tool to find
unwatched (or not well watched) pages to vandalize. These concerned Wikimedians
lobbied the Toolserver roots to add a rule about exposing this data. There is
now a limit in the tool to not expose the number of watchers if the value is
less than 30.
MediaWiki's info action has now been reimplemented and it currently includes a
number of page watchers entry for users with the "unwatchedpages" user right
(wiki administrators by default).
I think it would be nice if the number of watchers could be shown to more than
just users with the "unwatchedpages" user right. Exposing the number of
watchers of a particular page title to more users than just those with the
"unwatchedpages" user right is the subject of this bug.
One possible solution is to add a wiki configuration variable, something like
$wgInfoActionPageWatchersThreshold. This variable could be equal to 0 by
default, but could be set to 30 on Wikimedia wikis (or on the English Wikipedia
in particular). InfoAction.php would then use logic that looks something like
this (pseudo-code ahead):
if $user->isAllowed( 'unwatchedpages' ) OR $number_of_page_watchers >=
$wgInfoActionPageWatchersThreshold {
$userCanViewUnwatchedPages = true;
}
It would be nice to reduce the reliance on the Toolserver for this data and
provide a native way to expose this interesting data point to more than just
wiki administrators.
Personally, I don't think it's an issue to show the number of page watchers to
anyone and everyone (thus the suggestion that the threshold be 0 by default in
MediaWiki core), but others (specifically certain Wikimedians) feel
differently.
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