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BetaFeatures should distinguish between automatic opt-in/out and explicit opt-in/out
Open, Needs TriagePublic

Description

In T260250: Investigate TwoColConflict opt-out bug, we discovered some nasty side-effects of "Automatically enable all new beta features", which make it impossible for us to count the real number of people opting out of our feature. We believe this affects all beta features.

When the automatic opt-in is enabled and the user visits their preferences and saves (any tab!), any new beta features since their last visit will be given a "1" value in the database. When automatic opt-in is disabled, any new features will be given a "0". These values are indistinguishable from intentional opt-in and opt-out for specific features. It becomes impossible to measure how many people have intentionally opted-out.

I suggest that we change this behavior so that new preference rows are never created automatically, only by intentional actions. A new API can be introduced for testing beta feature enablement, which will first check the database for a specific preference. If that exists, it is returned. If not, we return the automatic opt-in value as a fallback.

This lack seems to be the root cause of: T64815: BetaFeatures: "Automatically enable ..." should actually automatically enable, not require visiting Special:Preferences, T260182: BetaFeatures dashboard should distinguish between automatic opt-in and intentional opt-in, T178977: Metrics to distinguish different types of Beta Features users, T170055: Impossible to turn off certain BetaFeatures when "Automatically enable all new beta features" is selected, T62747: BetaFeatures: Clicking "Automatically enable ..." should also activate all existing available BetaFeatures, and maybe T62012: BetaFeatures: Show a count of users who have enabled and then disabled a given Beta Feature. The number of related bugs suggest that the current behavior is unexpected for most users and developers.

Event Timeline

Change 749866 had a related patch set uploaded (by Func; author: Func):

[mediawiki/extensions/BetaFeatures@master] [WIP] Change auto-enroll logic to soft enroll which don't need database write

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/749866

Change 754589 had a related patch set uploaded (by Func; author: Func):

[mediawiki/extensions/Popups@master] Use null for default user options value of beta features

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/754589

Change 754587 had a related patch set uploaded (by Func; author: Func):

[mediawiki/extensions/DiscussionTools@master] Use null for default user options value of beta features

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/754587

Change 754588 had a related patch set uploaded (by Func; author: Func):

[mediawiki/extensions/ContentTranslation@master] Use null for default user options value of beta features

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/754588

Change 758011 had a related patch set uploaded (by Func; author: Func):

[mediawiki/extensions/VisualEditor@master] Use null for default user options value of beta features

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/758011

Change 758014 had a related patch set uploaded (by Func; author: Func):

[mediawiki/extensions/TimedMediaHandler@master] Use null for default user options value of beta features

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/758014

Change 758015 had a related patch set uploaded (by Func; author: Func):

[mediawiki/extensions/HSTS@master] Use null for default user options value of beta features

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/758015

Change 758014 had a related patch set uploaded (by Func; author: Func):

[mediawiki/extensions/TimedMediaHandler@master] Use null for default user options value of beta features

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/758014

Change 754589 merged by jenkins-bot:

[mediawiki/extensions/Popups@master] Use null for default user options value of beta features

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/754589

Change 784777 had a related patch set uploaded (by Seb35; author: Seb35):

[mediawiki/extensions/BetaFeatures@master] Change auto-enroll logic to soft enroll which don't need database write

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/784777

Change 758014 abandoned by TheDJ:

[mediawiki/extensions/TimedMediaHandler@master] Use null for default user options value of beta features

Reason:

in favor of Ibd467d0868442a87f840fdc12dfebba72c9f938b

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/758014

Change 754588 abandoned by Nikerabbit:

[mediawiki/extensions/ContentTranslation@master] Use null for default user options value of beta features

Reason:

Given this has been open for 2 years including the parent patch, it seems unlikely this will be merged soon. If that gets traction again, this patch should be restored.

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/754588