[[!meta date="2014-04-01 10:39:47 -0400"]]

because of [[bugs/notifyemail_fails_with_some_openid_providers]], I have been struggling with finding ways of being notified of changes to pages I want to watch here.

the workaround I found so far was to join the `#ikiwiki` channel on freenode, and set the following "hilight" in irssi:

    /hilight -channels #ikiwiki  -word tips/monitor_page_changes_through_IRC

this will watch for any change to this page. -- [[anarcat]]

hello anarcat, I'm editing your page! -- [[micah]]

obviously, the above assumes that the wiki is already configured to send notifications on IRC when commits are done through the git repository. there are multiple ways of doing that, which somewhat fall outside the scope of Ikiwiki itself, since you should really learn how to do this elsewhere. All you need to know is that the hook needs to be in `repository.git/hooks/post-receive` file.

there are basically two alternatives now:

* [KGB](https://kgb.alioth.debian.org/) - a Perl script that has been running at Debian since 2009
* [irker](http://www.catb.org/esr/irker/) - a Python script whipped up by ESR in the fall of CIA.vc (~2011), ignoring the existing KGB bot

KGB is harder to setup ([tutorial](https://www.donarmstrong.com/posts/switching_to_kgb/)), as it , but more reliable than irker, in my experience.

I built the [[plugins/contrib/irker]] plugin to automatically configure notifications with irker. I chose irker because it could be configured per wiki, without having to touch a central configuration as would be required for KGB.--[[anarcat]]

There is also a public service named [Notifico](http://n.tkte.ch/) that aims to replace the defunct [CIA.vc](http://cia.vc/) but it still requires server-side software configuration, so I think it is worth it. Same for [Pursuivant](https://martinsandsmark.wordpress.com/2012/11/20/irc-commit-notifications/). There is also a plethora of commercial notification services which are obviously not covered here.

See also [[todo/ikibot]] for another bot idea.