Wikinews:Water cooler/miscellaneous
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January 2023 |
Wikimania 2023 Welcoming Program Submissions
Do you want to host an in-person or virtual session at Wikimania 2023? Maybe a hands-on workshop, a lively discussion, a fun performance, a catchy poster, or a memorable lightning talk? Submissions are open until March 28. The event will have dedicated hybrid blocks, so virtual submissions and pre-recorded content are also welcome. If you have any questions, please join us at an upcoming conversation on March 12 or 19, or reach out by email at wikimania@wikimedia.org or on Telegram. More information on-wiki.
Tech News: 2023-47
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Changes later this week
- There is no new MediaWiki version this week. [1][2]
- Starting on Wednesday, a new set of Wikipedias will get "Add a link" (Quechua Wikipedia, Romansh Wikipedia, Romani Wikipedia, Rundi Wikipedia, Aromanian Wikipedia, Tarandíne Wikipedia, Rusyn Wikipedia, Kinyarwanda Wikipedia, Sanskrit Wikipedia, Sakha Wikipedia, Santali Wikipedia, Sardinian Wikipedia, Sicilian Wikipedia, Scots Wikipedia, Sindhi Wikipedia, Northern Sami Wikipedia, Sango Wikipedia, Serbo-Croatian Wikipedia, Sinhala Wikipedia, Slovak Wikipedia, Slovenian Wikipedia, Samoan Wikipedia, Somali Wikipedia, Albanian Wikipedia, Serbian Wikipedia, Sranan Tongo Wikipedia, Swati Wikipedia, Southern Sotho Wikipedia, Saterland Frisian Wikipedia, Sundanese Wikipedia, Silesian Wikipedia, Tamil Wikipedia, Tulu Wikipedia, Telugu Wikipedia, Tetum Wikipedia, Tajik Wikipedia, Thai Wikipedia, Turkmen Wikipedia, Tagalog Wikipedia, Tswana Wikipedia, Tongan Wikipedia, Tok Pisin Wikipedia, Turkish Wikipedia, Tsonga Wikipedia, Tatar Wikipedia, Twi Wikipedia, Tahitian Wikipedia, Tuvinian Wikipedia, Udmurt Wikipedia, Uyghur Wikipedia, Uzbek Wikipedia, Venda Wikipedia, Venetian Wikipedia, Veps Wikipedia, West Flemish Wikipedia, Volapük Wikipedia). This is part of the progressive deployment of this tool to more Wikipedias. The communities can configure how this feature works locally. [3][4][5]
- The Vector 2022 skin will have some minor visual changes to drop-down menus, column widths, and more. These changes were added to four Wikipedias last week. If no issues are found, these changes will proceed to all wikis this week. These changes will make it possible to add new menus for readability and dark mode. Learn more. [6]
Future changes
- There is an update on re-enabling the Graph Extension. To speed up the process, Vega 2 will not be supported and only some protocols will be available at launch. You can help by sharing what you think about the plan.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 00:55, 21 November 2023 (UTC)
Tech News: 2023-48
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Changes later this week
The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 28 November. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 29 November. It will be on all wikis from 30 November (calendar). There is no new MediaWiki version next week. [7][8]
MediaWiki's JavaScript system will now allow async/awaitsyntax in gadgets and user scripts. Gadget authors should remember that users' browsers may not support it, so it should be used appropriately. [9]- The deployment of "Add a link" announced last week was postponed. It will resume this week.
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 23:08, 27 November 2023 (UTC)
Ellen DeGeneres
Just some feedback to community members at ENWN : I was using the sister projects link template at wikiquote:Ellen DeGeneres and saw that no one had created a Category for her here at WN, even tough a search on her name comes up with many entries.
I am a infrequent visitor to ENWN so please forgive me if this message does not belong on this forum Ottawahitech (talk) 16:33, 3 December 2023 (UTC)
- I am sure there are many subjects in our archives which deserve a category. I would encourage this type of archive diving be deprioritized as we struggle to have enough active users with permissions to publish new article submissions. That said, you are always free to create new categories for topics/subjects which have at least 3 published articles. If you do so, please create a list of the qualifying articles on the category talk page and tag it with {{fill this category}}. It will then get added to the appropriate to-do list. Cheers, SVTCobra 20:35, 9 January 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2023-49
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent changes
- The spacing between paragraphs on Vector 2022 has been changed from 7px to 14px to match the size of the text. This will make it easier to distinguish paragraphs from sentences. [10]
- The "Sort this page by default as" feature in VisualEditor is working again. You no longer need to switch to source editing to edit
{{DEFAULTSORT:...}}keywords. [11]
Changes later this week
- There is no new MediaWiki version this week. [12][13]
- On 6 December, people who have the enabled the preference for "Show discussion activity" will notice the talk page usability improvements appear on pages that include the
__NEWSECTIONLINK__magic word. If you notice any issues, please share them with the team on Phabricator.
Future changes
- The Toolforge Grid Engine shutdown process will start on December 14. Maintainers of tools that still use this old system should plan to migrate to Kubernetes, or tell the team your plans on Phabricator in the task about your tool, before that date. [14]
- Communities using Structured Discussions are being contacted regarding the upcoming deprecation of Structured Discussions. You can read more about this project, and share your comments, on the project's page.
Events
- Registration & Scholarship applications are now open for the Wikimedia Hackathon 2024 that will take place from 3–5 May in Tallinn, Estonia. Scholarship applications are open until 5 January 2024.
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MediaWiki message delivery 23:50, 4 December 2023 (UTC)
Tech News: 2023-50
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent changes
- On Wikimedia Commons, there are some minor user-interface improvements for the "choosing own vs not own work" step in the UploadWizard. This is part of the Structured Content team's project of improving UploadWizard on Commons. [15][16]
Problems
- There was a problem showing the Newcomer homepage feature with the "impact module" and their page-view graphs, for a few days in early December. This has now been fixed. [17][18]
Changes later this week
- The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 12 December. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 13 December. It will be on all wikis from 14 December (calendar). [19][20]
Future changes
The 2023 Developer Satisfaction Survey is seeking the opinions of the Wikimedia developer community. Please take the survey if you have any role in developing software for the Wikimedia ecosystem. The survey is open until 5 January 2024, and has an associated privacy statement.
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MediaWiki message delivery 02:12, 12 December 2023 (UTC)
social media for reviewers and authors and developers
I've been having difficulty keeping up with the recent drafts, or published news, recently. And with development too (Wikinews:Water_cooler/technical/archives/2023/September has had no replies, I don't recall what is the password for the account, let alone my login for where it was hosted; hopefully at least these can be recovered around the holiday period).
To overcome this I'm proposing to try making groups where we can connect, possibly with audio or video, maybe two or three or four people at once, with other authors or reviewers. Of IM real-time chat protocols I'm using the following:
- IRC - 'gry' at libera
- xmpp - gry@lecturify.net
- tox - TBC
- jami - TBC
- telegram - SvetaT23
- whatsapp (would prefer not to) - can provide on request
- matrix - @Svetlana:matrix.org
- Mastodon - gry@masthead.social (didn't login in ages, also rather useless as it is not in real time)
- twitter - satsixteen (mainly used to get hold of image relicensing permissions for photo essays)
- sip: gryllida23@sip.linphone.org
Maybe if this is of interest, you can provide these details at your user page and/or share them here, we could connect. I think it will be easier to collaborate with one or two peers on article writing and reviewing, or development of software, to check eachother's work.
I have a hypothesis that connecting via audio and/or video sometimes (i.e., maybe once a month or several) could lead to improved and more prolific collaboration on-wiki.
Please let me know what you think and many thanks, --
Gryllida (talk) 05:51, 12 December 2023 (UTC)
- @Gryllida: Count me out - I don't see the value of participating in non-public communication. Wikis (let alone the Internet) were built so that groups of people can share ideas and crowdsource to produce something: software, news, wikipedias, etc. What's wrong with this social-media right here under your nose, other than no one has the time to organize it? Ottawahitech (talk) 23:49, 17 December 2023 (UTC)
- I'm not sure this is a terrible idea, but I will not get too deeply into it.--Bddpaux (talk) 19:32, 2 January 2024 (UTC)
- While I appreciate the sentiment, I have always preferred on-wiki communication. In those rare instances where off-wiki communication is needed, I feel that we should insist people use either the official IRC channel or the Wikimedia e-mail delivery system. Scattering communications across multiple social media sites and groups seems counterproductive. In my opinion, what we need is for users with Reviewer and Admin permissions to be much more active on-wiki. We are constantly losing good writers because they have such a low chance of their articles getting published before they go stale. SVTCobra 20:54, 9 January 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2023-51
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Tech News
- The next issue of Tech News will be sent out on 8 January 2024 because of the holidays.
Changes later this week
- The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 19 December. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 20 December. It will be on all wikis from 21 December (calendar). There is no new MediaWiki version next week. [21][22]
- Starting December 18, it won't be possible to activate Structured Discussions on a user's own talk page using the Beta feature. The Beta feature option remains available for users who want to deactivate Structured Discussions. This is part of Structured Discussions' deprecation work. [23]
- There will be full support for redirects in the Module namespace. The "Move Page" feature will leave an appropriate redirect behind, and such redirects will be appropriately recognized by the software (e.g. hidden from Special:UnconnectedPages). There will also be support for manual redirects. [24]
Future changes
- The MediaWiki JavaScript documentation is moving to a new format. During the move, you can read the old docs using version 1.41. Feedback about the new site is welcome on the project talk page.
- The Wishathon is a new initiative that encourages collaboration across the Wikimedia community to develop solutions for wishes collected through the Community Wishlist Survey. The first community Wishathon will take place from 15–17 March. If you are interested in a project proposal as a user, developer, designer, or product lead, you can register for the event and read more.
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MediaWiki message delivery 16:17, 18 December 2023 (UTC)
WikiNews future....
I hope this project doesn't shut down! BigKrow (talk) 01:13, 25 December 2023 (UTC)
Radical idea regarding site skin
Howdy folks,
I've recently looked at the Wikimedia Australia website, and I've noticed that they have a very cool skin that resembles something like a Wordpress site, but with MediaWiki under the hood. I'm starting this more as an idea than a concrete proposal, but would it be possible to change our skin from Vector to something that resembles a standalone news website? Might this be better at attracting new readers? — Red-tailed hawk (nest) 17:10, 7 January 2024 (UTC)
- @Red-tailed hawk: I tentatively like this idea, but it seems that it's against Foundation policy. Have a look at the bottom of Meta:Limits to configuration changes#Prohibited changes. Thriftycat (talk) 04:50, 9 January 2024 (UTC)
- Well, we could petition them to make a change. If we'd want to revitalize this project and improve its usability for readers as a news website, it might be worth a shot—particularly as the skin is supported by an affiliate at the moment. — Red-tailed hawk (nest) 04:55, 9 January 2024 (UTC)
- It's a long shot, but it does look beautiful and seems to be maintained as you mentioned. "It has been decided" isn't exactly a strong justification for retaining Vector. I don't really like the "standard look" argument either, considering that Wikinews is significantly different from Wikipedia/other projects, and its appearance can and should reflect that.
- When I have some time, I'll mess around with the skin on my private testwiki and see if it's workable for a community-edited project. Thriftycat (talk) 05:06, 9 January 2024 (UTC)
- Well, we could petition them to make a change. If we'd want to revitalize this project and improve its usability for readers as a news website, it might be worth a shot—particularly as the skin is supported by an affiliate at the moment. — Red-tailed hawk (nest) 04:55, 9 January 2024 (UTC)
- That does not look like a skin for MediaWiki software. That just looks an regular informational website. SVTCobra 06:06, 9 January 2024 (UTC)
- It's a skin, but it might be too reader-focused to use on a community-edited site. Thriftycat (talk) 13:34, 9 January 2024 (UTC)
- OK, interesting, I note the following quote from a blog post on the topic: "For visitors, the WMAU skin looks like a normal website because there’s no menus for editing pages unless you’re logged in. Only then will a menu appear from the right hand side with options to edit pages in Source or Visual Editor."
- Will this not serve to discourage participation by users who do not have accounts? Also, it seems to require a number of other extensions. Would the unfamiliarity of the look discourage other Wikimedians who do not realize what they are looking at? Cheers, SVTCobra 13:46, 9 January 2024 (UTC)
- Yeah, you make some good points. When I'm back on my local network, I will test it out to see if it's possible to "wikify" it. I'm no MediaWiki whiz, though. Thriftycat (talk) 13:59, 9 January 2024 (UTC)
- I am personally terrible at the technical stuff. Over the years, there have been many proposals to update the look of Wikinews and a few were adopted, but none as radical as this, I think. I caution, however, the idea that a slick new look will be the lightning in a bottle which reignites interest in Wikinews. It may be more pleasant to look at, but will it spur engagement? We desperately need more active users. SVTCobra 20:25, 9 January 2024 (UTC)
- Yeah, you make some good points. When I'm back on my local network, I will test it out to see if it's possible to "wikify" it. I'm no MediaWiki whiz, though. Thriftycat (talk) 13:59, 9 January 2024 (UTC)
- It's a skin, but it might be too reader-focused to use on a community-edited site. Thriftycat (talk) 13:34, 9 January 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-02
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent changes
- mediawiki2latex is a tool that converts wiki content into the formats of LaTeX, PDF, ODT, and EPUB. The code now runs many times faster due to recent improvements. There is also an optional Docker container you can install on your local machine.
- The way that Random pages are selected has been updated. This will slowly reduce the problem of some pages having a lower chance of appearing. [25]
Changes later this week
- The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 9 January. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 10 January. It will be on all wikis from 11 January (calendar). [26][27]
Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.
MediaWiki message delivery 01:19, 9 January 2024 (UTC)
Tech News: 2024-03
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent changes
- Pages that use the JSON contentmodel will now use tabs instead of spaces for auto-indentation. This will significantly reduce the page size. [28]
- Gadgets and personal user scripts may now use JavaScript syntax introduced in ES6 (also known as "ES2015") and ES7 ("ES2016"). MediaWiki validates the source code to protect other site functionality from syntax errors, and to ensure scripts are valid in all supported browsers. Previously, Gadgets could use the
requiresES6option. This option is no longer needed and will be removed in the future. [29] - Bot passwords and owner-only OAuth consumers can now be restricted to allow editing only specific pages. [30]
- You can now thank edits made by bots. [31]
- An update on the status of the Community Wishlist Survey for 2024 has been published. Please read and give your feedback.
Changes later this week
- The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 16 January. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 17 January. It will be on all wikis from 18 January (calendar). [32][33]
- Starting on January 17, it will not be possible to login to Wikimedia wikis from some specific old versions of the Chrome browser (versions 51–66, released between 2016 and 2018). Additionally, users of iOS 12, or Safari on Mac OS 10.14, may need to login to each wiki separately. [34]
- The
jquery.cookiemodule was deprecated and replaced with themediawiki.cookiemodule last year. A script has now been run to replace any remaining uses, and this week the temporary alias will be removed. [35]
Future changes
- Wikimedia Deutschland is working to make reusing references easier. They are looking for people who are interested in participating in individual video calls for user research in January and February.
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MediaWiki message delivery 00:12, 16 January 2024 (UTC)
Status
Hello, Wikinewsians. I was wondering- how active is this project? I am considering contributing. Thanks! UnexpectedSmoreInquisition (talk) 03:46, 19 January 2024 (UTC)
- As you can see from Special:RecentChanges, versus (e.g.) w:en:Special:RecentChanges, not very active. Wikinews is the smallest of the Wikimedia sister projects (except maybe Wikifunctions, which is very new) and many would say that it's either a failure or on life support. I still think it's a worthwhile venture (or else I wouldn't be here), but if you only want to participate if there's a very active community, then there really isn't here. If you are motivated to work with a handful of dedicated colleagues, then this could be a good fit for you. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 05:17, 19 January 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you for the info. I would be glad to contribute if there's even a semblance of a community here- it's just that I saw a tumbleweed rustle by on my way here, so I was curious. Cheers! UnexpectedSmoreInquisition (talk) 12:02, 19 January 2024 (UTC)
- There is definitely a community, but a small one. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 16:29, 19 January 2024 (UTC)
- Thank you for the info. I would be glad to contribute if there's even a semblance of a community here- it's just that I saw a tumbleweed rustle by on my way here, so I was curious. Cheers! UnexpectedSmoreInquisition (talk) 12:02, 19 January 2024 (UTC)