On semi-automation

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(English) This is an essay. It expresses the opinions and ideas of some Wikimedians but may not have wide support. This is not policy on Meta, but it may be a policy or guideline on other Wikimedia projects. Feel free to update this page as needed, or use the discussion page to propose major changes.
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Many tasks in Wikimedia projects are done together and as such, semi-automating them server-side or client-side becomes pertinent. Semi-automation is the kind of behaviour which is triggered by something, but acts absolutely nothing — the only action is a notification of the user, either directly, or when the user visits a certain page.

Full automation may be confusing or in some cases impossible.


Such tasks include:

  • Replacing templates, . Replacing them by hand all the time kills our invaluable time and concentration effort.
  • For some cases listed in the line above, it is to feel better when you include a customized message with the action — such as reviewing newly created drafts, unblock requests, leaving contributors messages about their vandalism (more detail as here; please see mw.feedback(), it does something of this sort.)
  • Creating articles, as each part of an article — name, content, categories, file license — has relevant documentation. Opening it manually and associating it with the relevant parts of an article hard. (Again, see how StackOverflow does this when asking a question — project-specific popups, similar on SuperUser and the like).

A server-side framework for easy semi-automation is due to make the above-mentioned routine work more interactive, humane, and enjoyable.