See https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/#/c/98469/ for an existing patch for this, though it may need to be reworked somewhat.

Change 98469 had a related patch set uploaded by MZMcBride:
Add the ability to send messages using the user's account

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/98469

Change 98469 abandoned by Legoktm:
Add the ability to send messages using the user's account

Reason:
December me never tested this apparently, because I can tell it doesn't work just by looking at it. Also, I don't like this implementation.

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/98469

FYI this task, which is a duplicate, shows an important use-case, which makes this a bug, not an enhancement request.

• T109552 MassMessage should post from under the username of the poster, not a generic user

someone left me a message and the email says:

Contact the editor:
mail:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:EmailUser/MediaWiki_message_delivery
wiki: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:MediaWiki_message_delivery

This is wrong. This makes me contact the bot, not the real editor.

Kindly please prioritize this task. Thank you.

Can already be done manually should it need to be (add ~~~ to the message, then append ~~~~~ while sending it out). I'm guessing you're proposing we change the name that is sent out on emails and recorded in the page history, which opens up a whole new kettle of worms in terms of implimentation, and also makes contribution flooding an issue (because the sending user will usually not have a bot flag, so this clutters up the watchlist as well).

Change 265464 had a related patch set uploaded (by Legoktm):
Support using the sender's account to deliver messages in the backend

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/265464

Change 265464 merged by jenkins-bot:
Support using the sender's account to deliver messages in the backend

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/265464

Change 285302 had a related patch set uploaded (by Wctaiwan):
Support using the user's account to deliver messages

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/285302

Re: https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/285302

I'm still not sure whether or how we should support this feature. I'm worried about user interface clutter and I'm worried about inconsistent behavior.

We currently have a few inter-related tasks:

• T71954: Add support to MassMessage to allow using the sender's username for deliveries (this task)
• T59234: Override user-talk Echo notification with something more MassMessage-specific
• T62119: "MediaWiki message delivery left you a message on Wikipedia" and similar e-mail subject lines need further thought

For e-mail, Echo, and other notifications, I think we want to always use the sender's name. I don't think we ever want to use "MediaWiki message delivery".

For revision tracking purposes (including Special:Contributions), we need to figure out whether we want a fully unified feed, which is what we have currently per-wiki, or if it's okay to split up contributions among accounts. If we have a radio button for each message sent out, the Special:Contributions feed for the shared account (i.e., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/MediaWiki_message_delivery) will start to "randomly" omit certain deliveries.

@Legoktm points out that MassMessage edits will soon be tagged using revision tags. If we allow user-signed messages, the "Tag filter" input at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Contributions/MZMcBride could then be used to filter to only MassMessage edits.

On the other hand, we can't currently invert tag filter selections. And the tag filter field still lacks autocomplete support (T23383). Ouch.

If we enable signing/delivering as the sending user, what's the point of keeping the "MediaWiki message delivery" account around at all? Should we just stop using it?

The rebuttal here is that the shared account may be in the bot or autopatrolled user group on certain wikis. If you send a message using your own account, you need to be concerned with local page protection, local blocks, global blocks, local and global title blacklists, autoconfirmed requirements, and more. A shared account is better tested and will likely have a lower error rate.

Did someone test whether the actual sender's username is picked up by Echo when "properly" signed (e.g. using {{subst:int:signature}})?

I can see how there's many complications caused by MessageDelivery posting from under its own username.

Can it do that from under the sender's username instead, using, say OAuth or whatever method is deemed appropriate for authorizing the edits? If that's too many messages for a non-bot to handle, we could have a separate user right (a message delivery user rights group) which allows a user to send many messages at once from his/her own account. If necessary, a program could be written to revoke this user right after the messages have been delivered.

In T71954#2271915, @Nemo_bis wrote:

Did someone test whether the actual sender's username is picked up by Echo when "properly" signed (e.g. using {{subst:int:signature}})?

(I did. Doesn't help and we can't use subst due to some local customisations, e.g. on Commons.)

Change 285302 abandoned by Wctaiwan:

[mediawiki/extensions/MassMessage@master] Support using the user's account to deliver messages

Reason:

Stale

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/285302