User talk:DPL bot/Dablink notification FAQ

I don't necessarily agree that "Such links are almost always unintended," because sometimes I wikilink to the dab page just so people can see what the definition is. Sometimes there is no dedicated article for a topic. I could wikilink over to Wiktionary instead, but the dab page seems to serve much the same purpose without the need to send people out of the encyclopedia, where they will need to navigate back if they want to look up another encyclopedia article. Leucosticte (talk) 16:21, 28 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Yeah but giving definitions is not the purpose of a disambig. That definition could (and probably should) get removed. --JaGa^talk 17:05, 28 June 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you, and a suggestion

Thank you for the DPL bot -- it's great. I've gotten notifications from it a couple of times and I find them courteous and useful -- obviously I'd never link to a disambig page on purpose, but I've done it accidentally probably a half-dozen times, and I appreciate having it pointed out.

Can I request though, that you consider adding a little "praise & thanks" text to the top of the notification? Maybe just something that says "Thank you for your recent edits. Wikipedia appreciates your help." or something like that. I say that because the Wikimedia Foundation's research shows that these days, warnings and deletions and criticism far outweigh praise and thanks on people's talkpages, which can have the effect of leaving editors feeling unappreciated/unwanted. DPL bot is performing a useful service, but I think it would nonetheless be a bit sad for someone to do a lot of work on an article, and have the only response be a bot telling you about a mistake you made. If the bot also thanked you, I think that'd balance out :-) Thanks Sue Gardner (talk) 18:34, 20 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]

I'll try to figure out how to fit it in. I definitely want editors to understand this is in no way a warning, but at the same time I've never liked messages that come across as forced or insincere. And of course I want to take up as little real estate as possible on the user's talk page.

The bot has been hugely successful, by the way. I think DPL bot gives us a glimpse of the potential of bot-assisted outreach - something we don't seriously utilize beyond templated messages. I could go on and on about it, but that isn't really why you're here. So, back to topic, how would you fit your suggestion into the message? Just give it its own paragraph at the top? Cheers, --JaGa^talk 20:52, 20 August 2012 (UTC)[reply]