User:SPoore (WMF)/post about email preferences by user access level
New user preference to let users restrict emails from brand new accounts
editHello,
The WMF's Anti-Harassment Tools team introduced a user preference which allows users to restrict which user groups can send them emails. This feature aims to equip individual users with a tool to curb harassment they may be experiencing.
- In the 'Email options' of the 'User profile' tab of Special:Preferences, a new tickbox preference with the option to turn off receiving emails from brand-new accounts.
- For the initial release, the default for new accounts (when their email address is confirmed) is ticked (on) to receive emails from brand new users.
- Case user: * A malicious user is repeatedly creating new socks to send Apples harassing emails. Instead of disabling all emails (which blocks Apples from potentially receiving useful emails), Apples can restrict brand new accounts from contacting them.
The feature to restrict emails on wikis where a user had never edited (phab:T178842) was also released the first week of 2018 but was reverted the third week of 2018 after some corner-case uses were discovered. There are no plans to bring it back at any time in the future.
We invite you to discuss the feature, report any bugs, and propose any functionality changes on the talk page.
SPoore (WMF) (talk) , Community Advocate, Community health initiative (talk) 00:31, 9 February 2018 (UTC) For the Anti-Harassment Tools team