Event Center/Registration/FAQ

Event Registration

About the tool

How can a wiki access the event registration tool?

Any wiki that has the CampaignEvents extension enabled can access the event registration tool. To see our current release schedule, please visit the Release & Training Schedule page. If you would like to request that a wiki has the CampaignEvents extension enabled, please reach out to the team on the event registration project page or you can personally reach out to any team members.

Which users can use the tool?

Anyone can test the tool (as an organizer or participant) on the beta cluster, test2wiki, or test2wiki.
Anyone in the Event Organizer user group. Following the transition from beta testing, the Event Organizer right on Meta-Wiki is now granted by Meta-Wiki admins. Organizers interested in creating event pages and managing registrations on Meta can request this right via a specific process outlined on the Event Organizers page.

Where will the event data be stored?

Data for the event platform will be stored in the X1 cluster. To learn more about X1, you can visit the MariaDB documentation on Wikitech. The content of the event page itself is stored just like the content of any other wiki page. For the exact definition of our schema, please view this Gerrit link.

Will tools created by the Campaigns team be for all events, or just for campaign events?

As a team, we first began analyzing the needs of campaign events. However, when we began talking to movement organizers, we heard that the tools we planned to build would be useful for many other event types. The organizers we consulted didn’t want to see us create something so narrow that tools (for event creation, event registration, communication with participants, etc) would be confined to campaign events only. We completely agreed. For this reason, we believe our tools are useful for many event types.

Is the CampaignEvents extension and the Event namespace specific to Wikimedia?

The extension is not Wikimedia-specific, so anyone can use it.

Event pages

How are event pages in the event namespace created?

Event pages are just like any other wiki pages, so you can follow any other workflows that you already have in place to create wiki pages. For example, you can search "Eventː[page name]" in order to create a page in the event namespace. Please visit our "How to use" section for full instructions.

Who can create event pages?

Anyone can create event pages. You do not need to have the organizer right to create them.

How can event pages be watched and moderated?

Event pages are normal wiki pages, so normal functions like being able to watch and moderate them are available.

How can event pages be deleted?

Event pages are handled like any other wiki pages. This means that the rules for deleting any other page on a wiki also apply to event pages on the wiki.

Can blocked users create event pages?

If a user has a sitewide block, they cannot create event pages. If a user cannot create an event page, they cannot enable registration. However, it should be noted that if a user has a partial block, they can still create an event page and enable registration.

Event registration

Who can enable event registration on an event page?

On most wikis, if you have created the event page and if you have the organizer right, you can enable registration. On test wikis (such as the beta cluster, testwiki, and test2wiki), anyone can enable registration on an event page that they have created.

Is event registration data displayed in event page history?

No, we do not currently store event registration data (such as the names of publicly registered participants) in the page history. This information is available on the event page itself. However, we can implement logging to make it easier for everyone on the wikis to manage and analyze event activity (see below).

What logging is available for event registration?

We have not implemented logging yet, but we imagine that logging would be very useful to some Wikimedians. Do you agree? Let us knowǃ Right now, we have created tickets to implement the following logging in the futureː log when registration enabled (phab:T321018), log when registration disabled (phab:T318160), and log when someone registers publicly for an event (phab:T321019).

How is the time zone for the event selected by the organizer and displayed on the event page?

When the organizer configures registration, they are asked to select the time and time zone of the event. The time zone selector is the same dropdown that you can find in Preferences > Time Offset on the wikis.

When the participant views the event page, the time zone displayed to them will vary. Here is how it worksː

For in person events, we display the event time zone that was specified by the organizer when they configured registration.
For online and hybrid events, we display the event time zone that is set up in the user preferences of the participants for logged in users, and we display the wiki default time zone for logged out users.

What is the purpose of the private registration feature? Why isn't all registration 100̬ percent public?

We have heard from event organizers, internal Wikimedia teams, and other stakeholders that private registration is an important feature. This is because some events focus on sensitive topics and/or operate in sensitive social or political environments, which can put the participants at risk of social or legal persecution. For this reason, event participants should have the option to register privately, so only other event organizers can see that they registered for the event. We know that private events are already happening in the movement (for example, you can create a private event on the Programs & Events Dashboard), so the inclusion of the private registration feature simply provides an on-wiki workflow for choices that some organizers and participants already make.

I registered for an event, but I didn't receive the confirmation email. What happened?

To receive confirmation emails after registering for an event:

You will need to have an email address associated with your wiki account
You will need to have the 'Event registration' notification for email enabled in Preferences > Notifications

If you still do not see a confirmation email:

Check your spam folder

Are there more features or improvements planned for event registration?

Yesǃ We plan to continue improving event registration over time, and we would love your feedback on how it can be improved.

Community outreach and support

What community outreach has the Campaigns team done on the event registration tool and the namespace paiɾ?

In August 2021, we launched our project page for the event registration tool. We also conducted two presentations at Wikimania on our team and our plans. You can watch one of the recordings on Youtube.
In October 2021, we presented our team plans at WikiConference North America and WikiArabia.
In November 2021, we presented our team plans at WikiIndaba.
In February 2022, we shared our proposal to create two new namespaces with the Technical Decision Forum in a public Phabricator ticket (see T302040).
In March 2022, we continued to share our plans on the event namespace pair. This included sharing our proposal on the event registration project page. We pinged people for feedback on the talk page, and we engaged in discussions on the topic. We sent an announcement of the plan and an invitation to the office hours to Wikimedia-l and to our own subscription list. This was followed by community office hours, where we discussed the namespace plans along with other team updates. These office hours were conducted in Arabic, English, French, and Swahili.
In July 2022, we launched V0 on the beta cluster and asked for feedback on the tool. We collected feedback in a variety of formats, including: a Google Form, multilingual presentations at office hours and Wikimania, discussions on the project page, communication in off-wiki chat groups, and direct emails sent to us. People provided responses in Arabic, English, French, Portuguese, and Swahili. In total, we heard from over 30 Wikimedians. You can read our V0 feedback summary to learn more.
In August 2022, we demoed V0 of the event registration tool at Wikimania, including the usage of the Event namespace.
In October 2022, Diff published a blog post (in Arabic, English and French) on the event registration tool and our team plans. We also shared summaries of our V0 work, V0 feedback, V1 plans, and our rationale for the event namespace pair on Meta-wiki.
In November 2022, we released the CampaignEvents extension on testwiki and test2wiki, and we collected more user feedback on the tool. We also shared the news of upcoming Meta-wiki release in a Babel post and a direct email to the Meta-wiki admin email list.

What feedback did the team receive during the V0 test phase?

When we asked people if they would use the tool, over 80% of the respondents to the question said yes. When we asked Wikimedia organizers if they think access to the tool would make them more likely to organize events in the future, 90% of the respondents said yes. Some common forms of positive feedback included: the tool was intuitive and easy to use, it would save time for organizers, and it would improve organizers’ abilities to collect information on participants.

We also received information on how we can improve the event registration tool. Some people said that they already had registration solutions that they preferred or that they only wanted to use the tool after they had more time to test it. We also received many feature requests, such as confirmation emails after participants register for events and integration with the Programs & Events Dashboard.

You can read a full breakdown of the feedback we received in our V0 feedback page.

How to learn more and next steps

How can I learn about the features in a specific release (such as V0 or V1?)

How can I learn more about the event and event talk namespace pair?

Event and event talk namespaces

How can I learn more about the release and/or office hour schedule?

Release and training schedule

How can I reach the team or report problems with the tool?

You can reach the team on the our team page or the event registration project page. You can join our subscription list, where we share team updates and let people know about upcoming office hours (where we discuss our work via video calls). You can also reach out to our team members, such as our product ambassadors, if you have any questions.

If you notice any bugs, you can create a Phabricator ticket and add tags for CampaignEvents and Campaign-Registration to the ticket.