Forum:User notification system

Recently we had a discussion about a proposed policy. All things were going as normal i.e. very few people were talking. Then when the final version of the policy had been written up and was up for final discussion, I went around to about 50 different user talk pages and left a message informing them of the discussion. The result? Within three days, 21 people (by my count) came and weighed in. Of these, more than 2/3rds of them were not administrators, which is a rarity in our discussions here as of late.

With all this in mind, I'd like to propose a more formal user notification system. This system would be used to semi-automatically place messages on user talk pages (in such a way where the message would trigger the 'you have new messages' notification) when important wiki discussions are started. I think there would need to be a couple things put in place; for example
 * Limits on frequency of use. Over-using the system I think would have a detrimental effect, as fewer and fewer people would consult the notice if multiple notices were left in short succession.
 * Limits on who can use the system. There's no rule against a user writing on multiple user talk pages, but this sort of system might need to be controlled somehow, since it could be used to spam if put in the wrong hands. Perhaps having it set so an administrator needs to trigger it could prevent that issue.
 * An ability for users to opt out of notices. For this, we could set up a page like The Sims Wiki:User Notice Opt-Out which users would go to and sign, then we'd be sure to keep them out of the list of users we contact using the bot. Or we could have the users add a template like which would auto-categorize them into  or something like that.

Finally, I think the system would be more useful if we messaged users before the vote/consensus/final discussion period on a discussion. That way, they are a part of the discussion closer to the beginning of it.

Thoughts? --  LiR speak ~ read 01:24, December 20, 2012 (UTC)