Problem: If your user page is modified by a malicious user, you may not notice if your watchlist is overflowed. Unlike a normal article, it is very unlikely that another user will revert or warn about the malicious changes for you. Unlike article vandalism, user page vandalism can affect the unwitting users standing in the community.
Proposed solution: Generate notifications for user page modifications by other users, just like user talk notifications work now. Another solution would be to protect user pages from modification, but some edits may be friendly and even useful.
Who would benefit: Users whose user page has been vandalized.
FWIW this was #2 by votes and #6 by the CommTech team's combined priority score in 2022. There's some in-progress work courtesy of @Legoktm:. --Tgr (talk) 01:57, 1 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
WMF develeopment change alternative : What about adding a preference for a new notification option similar to "Edit to my user talk page"? Wakelamp (talk) 02:53, 7 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
If WMF resources are the bottle neck, could we use a new bot job that sends a notification for edits that are not done by bots or the owner. OR What about external page watch tools? They exist on apps and desktops. Wakelamp (talk) 02:53, 7 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
This would have to be optional, because I at least don't want these types of notifications. I trust that my homewiki userpage is defended by the abusefilter for the most part, and if that fails it's very likely that a RC patroller or another good faith user reverts the vandalism before I see it. I don't want to see it, and I don't even keep my userpage on my watchlist. --kyykaarme (talk) 15:38, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Instead of a notification, i think than an option for an user to protect his own page from edits would be more useful. Particularly for user under big harassment, casual users who rarely edit, are on "vacation", or think than their time has finally come... etc. Miniwark (talk) 10:17, 13 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
My hi: Wikipedia userpage was created by a vandal long ago. I never knew that my global userpage was being overriden by a blank white page for over 2 years. This is not desirable at all. —CX Zoom (A/अ/অ) (let's talk|contribs) 19:26, 17 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
I believe having notifications for subpages is subject to debate, but it could likely easily be supported if we wanted it to be. Notifications will already be cross-wiki without any additional effort because of how Echo works. MusikAnimal (WMF) (talk) 14:56, 24 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
@Pppery: For cross-wiki patrollers (or any editors who work on many wikis), it's highly unlikely that they can watchlist their user pages (if uncreated; since most wikis allow autoconfirmed users to edit other userpages) and/or keep checking them for vandalism. As stated above, [u]nlike article vandalism, user page vandalism can affect the unwitting user's standing in the community, so usually it is much more urgent to be alerted of it. Svartava (talk) 05:43, 11 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Strong support i deal with vandals to the point they frequently vandalized my User Page (along with talk page) on some projects that i was unaware of until an admin protected my user page and notified me of what happened. 🌸 Sakura emad 💖 (talk) 13:35, 12 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Strong support - I hope, as this proposal's technical development begins that developers will extend the scope of notification need to also include user/subpage edits/moves. It seems reasonable, to me, that T296955 could be concurrently resolved with the same technical effort needed for the sole implementation of this proposal in isolation.--John Cline (talk) 05:07, 14 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Support I support this as vandalism of their user talk causes editors to quit, but we need a better process for watchlists due to thei increasing length, Wakelamp (talk) 10:18, 20 February 2023 (UTC)[reply]
Strong support As someone who deals with vandals (including some LTAs) frequently, this is long overdue. ◇HelenDegenerate◆ 19:44, 10 February 2023 (UTC)
Support Firestar464 (talk) 20:34, 10 February 2023 (UTC)
Oppose Is there some reason the watchlist isn't sufficient for this? * Pppery * it has begun 03:40, 11 February 2023 (UTC)
