Community Wishlist/Wishes/Roll out the Newsletter on meta with Interwiki support

Roll out the Newsletter on meta with Interwiki support Open

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Description

The Newsletter extension, designed to simplify newsletter management and subscriptions, has proven successful since its 2017 deployment on mediawiki.org, with some newsletters attracting over 300+ subscribers. However, its lack of interwiki support has blocked deployment to key wikis like Meta-Wiki and other sister projects.

We now have the opportunity to resolve this issue and enable full deployment with targeted Product and UX support.

Core Issue: Interwiki Support (T110645)

The lack of interwiki support, as outlined in T110645, is a major barrier to expanding the extension to the larger wikis. The optimal solution is to install the extension centrally on Meta and have other wikis share its newsletter table. The solution came out of a discussion with MW engineers during a hackathon. This would allow:

  • Local and Global Newsletters: Each wiki can create local newsletters or share them globally.
  • Centralised Access: Global newsletters would be managed centrally but accessible across all wikis.

Scope of Work

Much of the groundwork for interwiki support is already done, with videos documenting the progress in T110645. However, we need key input from Product and UX to finalize and implement the following:

  1. Global vs. Local Newsletter UX
    • Define how users mark newsletters as global or local.
    • Ensure the UX/UI makes this process intuitive and clear. (UX/Product collaboration required)
  2. Name Conflict Resolution
    • Establish rules for handling name conflicts between local and global newsletters.
    • Ensure a consistent user experience when conflicts arise. (Product guidance required)
  3. Final Code Review and Testing
    • Complete the code review for the existing Gerrit patches 1, 2 and ensure the system functions as expected before launch. (Code review needed)
  4. Community Consensus for Meta-Wiki Rollout
    • Engage the community to reach a consensus on rolling out the Newsletter extension on Meta-Wiki as the central hub. (Outreach and community input needed)

Bonus Consideration (Out of Scope)

While not immediately essential, it would be helpful to explore how to import existing newsletters into the new system.

Assigned focus area

Unassigned.

Type of wish

Feature request

Meta-Wiki

Affected users

Newsletter publishers, subscribers 

Phabricator tasks

T110645

Other details

  • Created: 15:25, 8 September 2024 (UTC)
  • Last updated: 06:25, 9 September 2024 (UTC)
  • Author: 01tonythomas (talk)