This is a really interesting debate.

First of all, the glaring omission is of the WP Notify initiative, trying to get some kind of proper system for this into core. My colleague Jonathan Bossenger is trying to re-energise this and is looking for contributors to help.

Secondly, I have some perspective on this because I built a tool for WordPress which evolved to have an experimental notice hiding feature.

To be clear: my aim isn't really to get rid of ads entirely as Clarity does, but rather to tidy up what is there, and - with the help of a browser extension - to carry user preferences between WordPress sites.

But in trying to build this you discover that there are some pretty bad practices. Alerts that get added with JavaScript can evade detection. Alerts that use the "updated" or "notice-error" class to force themselves onto the screen by pretending to be something they are not. Alerts that can't be identified because they don't have IDs.

It feels like an arms race to me, and the only way to make it work is for users annoyed by notices, and the developers who put notices in the dashboard, to collaborate and figure out how to make it work.

Clarity's acceptable notices policy is a good start at trying to define some rules of engagement, but ultimately, if this issue is of interest, please go and get involved in the WP Notify project. That link again: