Last modified: 2014-10-11 13:03:46 UTC
See linked email and mailing list thread. Rather than using sitenotices/centralnotices, Echo could be used to send a global notification to all users, which they mark read once and it goes away (stored system-side instead of in a cookie). Users could enable/disable in their Echo preferences just like anything else.
Good idea with wide range of applications.
Linking to the mockup by Geraki so people don't have to click through the mailing list post: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Echo-centralnotice.png
Certainly a good idea. I see currently two ways of receiving information by communities on their wikis: 1. CentralNotice: too many notices will result in banner blindness and blocking notices as they are very disturbing often on every page. 2. Posting in central discussion/notifications page on a wiki: a lot of users will see that notice but also many users do not see them. To me there is a gap between CentralNotice messages on one side and on the other hand the postings in central discussion/notifications page. I think we should get a way to notify every user targeted just as with the CentralNotice: if needed geo specific, translated, etc but isn't shown as big banner on every page. The Echo system seems a good way to fill that gap.
The WMF core features team tracks this bug on Mingle card https://mingle.corp.wikimedia.org/projects/flow/cards/392, but people from the community are welcome to contribute here and in Gerrit.
Also requested on https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Thread:Talk:Echo_%28Notifications%29/Create_a_notification_for_all_users
