Wikinews:Water cooler/miscellaneous

Page last updated: Monday 10 at 1249 UTC.      

Refresh   

Archive

---

Archives 2009  May 2009 June 2009 July 2009 August 2009 September 2009 October 2009 November 2009 December 2009 2010  January 2010 February 2010 March 2010 April 2010 May 2010 June 2010 July 2010 August 2010 September 2010 October 2010 November 2010 December 2010 2011  January 2011 February 2011 March 2011 April 2011 May 2011 June 2011 July 2011 August 2011 September 2011 October 2011 November 2011 December 2011 2012  January 2012 February 2012 March 2012 April 2012 May 2012 June 2012 July 2012 August 2012 September 2012 October 2012 November 2012 2013  January 2013 February 2013 March 2013 April 2013 May 2013 June 2013 July 2013 August 2013 September 2013 October 2013 November 2013 December 2013 2014  January 2014 February 2014 March 2014 April 2014 May 2014 June 2014 July 2014 August 2014 September 2014 October 2014 November 2014 December 2014 2015  January 2015 February 2015 March 2015 April 2015 May 2015 June 2015 July 2015 August 2015 September 2015 October 2015 November 2015 December 2015 2016  January 2016 February 2016 March 2016 April 2016 May 2016 June 2016 July 2016 August 2016 September 2016 October 2016 November 2016 December 2016 2017  January 2017 February 2017 March 2017 April 2017 May 2017 June 2017 July 2017 August 2017 September 2017 October 2017 November 2017 December 2017 2018  January 2018 February 2018 March 2018 April 2018 May 2018 June 2018 July 2018 August 2018 September 2018 October 2018 November 2018 December 2018 2019  January 2019 February 2019 March 2019 April 2019 May 2019 June 2019 July 2019 August 2019 September 2019 October 2019 November 2019 December 2019 2020  January 2020 February 2020 March 2020 April 2020 May 2020 June 2020 July 2020 August 2020 September 2020 October 2020 November 2020 December 2020 2021  January 2021 February 2021 March 2021 April 2021 May 2021 June 2021 July 2021 August 2021 September 2021 October 2021 November 2021 December 2021 2022  January 2022 February 2022 March 2022 April 2022 May 2022 June 2022 July 2022 August 2022 September 2022 October 2022 November 2022 December 2022 2023  January 2023 February 2023 March 2023 April 2023 May 2023 June 2023 July 2023 August 2023 September 2023 October 2023 November 2023 December 2023 January 2024 February 2024 March 2024 April 2024 May 2024

Tech News: 2024-20

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 Wikisource there is a special page listing pages of works without corresponding scan images. Now you can use the new magic word __EXPECTWITHOUTSCANS__ to exclude certain pages (list of editions or translations of works) from that list. [1]
• If you use the user-preference "Show preview without reloading the page", then the template-page feature "Preview page with this template" will now also work without reloading the page. [2]
• Kartographer maps can now specify an alternative text via the alt= attribute. This is identical in usage to the alt= attribute in the image and gallery syntax. An exception for this feature is wikis like Wikivoyage where the miniature maps are interactive. [3]
• The old Guided Tour for the "New Filters for Edit Review" feature has been removed. It was created in 2017 to show people with older accounts how the interface had changed, and has now been seen by most of the intended people. [4]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 14 May. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 15 May. It will be on all wikis from 16 May (calendar). [5][6]
• The Special:Search results page will now use CSS flex attributes, for better accessibility, instead of a table. If you have a gadget or script that adjusts search results, you should update your script to the new HTML structure. [7]

Future changes

• In the Vector 2022 skin, main pages will be displayed at full width (like special pages). The goal is to keep the number of characters per line large enough. This is related to the coming changes to typography in Vector 2022. Learn more. [8]
• Two columns of the pagelinks database table (pl_namespace and pl_title) are being dropped soon. Users must use two columns of the new linktarget table instead (lt_namespace and lt_title). In your existing SQL queries:
  1. Replace JOIN pagelinks with JOIN linktarget and pl_ with lt_ in the ON statement
  2. Below that add JOIN pagelinks ON lt_id = pl_target_id
  • See phab:T222224 for technical reasoning. [9][10]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

MediaWiki message delivery 23:58, 13 May 2024 (UTC)

Sign up for the language community meeting on May 31st, 16:00 UTC

Hello all,

The next language community meeting is scheduled in a few weeks - May 31st at 16:00 UTC. If you're interested, you can sign up on this wiki page.

This is a participant-driven meeting, where we share language-specific updates related to various projects, collectively discuss technical issues related to language wikis, and work together to find possible solutions. For example, in the last meeting, the topics included the machine translation service (MinT) and the languages and models it currently supports, localization efforts from the Kiwix team, and technical challenges with numerical sorting in files used on Bengali Wikisource.

Do you have any ideas for topics to share technical updates related to your project? Any problems that you would like to bring for discussion during the meeting? Do you need interpretation support from English to another language? Please reach out to me at ssethi(__AT__)wikimedia.org and add agenda items to the document here.

We look forward to your participation!

MediaWiki message delivery 21:22, 14 May 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-21

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 Nuke feature, which enables administrators to mass delete pages, will now correctly delete pages which were moved to another title. [11]
• New changes have been made to the UploadWizard in Wikimedia Commons: the overall layout has been improved, by following new styling and spacing for the form and its fields; the headers and helper text for each of the fields was changed; the Caption field is now a required field, and there is an option for users to copy their caption into the media description. [12][13]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 21 May. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 22 May. It will be on all wikis from 23 May (calendar). [14][15]
• The HTML used to render all headings is being changed to improve accessibility. It will change on 22 May in some skins (Timeless, Modern, CologneBlue, Nostalgia, and Monobook). Please test gadgets on your wiki on these skins and report any related problems so that they can be resolved before this change is made in all other skins. The developers are also considering the introduction of a Gadget API for adding buttons to section titles if that would be helpful to tool creators, and would appreciate any input you have on that.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

MediaWiki message delivery 23:04, 20 May 2024 (UTC)

Feedback invited on Procedure for Sibling Project Lifecycle

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki. Please help translate to your language

Dear community members,

The Community Affairs Committee (CAC) of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees invites you to give feedback on a draft Procedure for Sibling Project Lifecycle. This draft Procedure outlines proposed steps and requirements for opening and closing Wikimedia Sibling Projects, and aims to ensure any newly approved projects are set up for success. This is separate from the procedures for opening or closing language versions of projects, which is handled by the Language Committee or closing projects policy.

You can find the details on this page, as well as the ways to give your feedback from today until the end of the day on June 23, 2024, anywhere on Earth.

You can also share information about this with the interested project communities you work with or support, and you can also help us translate the procedure into more languages, so people can join the discussions in their own language.

On behalf of the CAC,

RamzyM (WMF) 02:25, 22 May 2024 (UTC)

I strongly recommend the Wikinews community pay attention to this. When people talk about closing projects, the only two that ever seem to come up are Wikinews and Wikispecies. Bawolff ☺☻ 13:23, 25 May 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-22

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

• Several bugs related to the latest updates to the UploadWizard on Wikimedia Commons have been fixed. For more information, see T365107 and T365119.
• In March 2024 a new addPortlet API was added to allow gadgets to create new portlets (menus) in the skin. In certain skins this can be used to create dropdowns. Gadget developers are invited to try it and give feedback.
• Some CSS in the Minerva skin has been removed to enable easier community configuration. Interface editors should check the rendering on mobile devices for aspects related to the classes: .collapsible, .multicol, .reflist, .coordinates, .topicon. Further details are available on replacement CSS if it is needed.

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 28 May. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 29 May. It will be on all wikis from 30 May (calendar). [16][17]
• When you visit a wiki where you don't yet have a local account, local rules such as edit filters can sometimes prevent your account from being created. Starting this week, MediaWiki takes your global rights into account when evaluating whether you can override such local rules. [18]

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

MediaWiki message delivery 00:15, 28 May 2024 (UTC)

New Reviewer!

We have ourselves a new Reviewer around these parts!! User:Asheiou Give them a hearty congratulations, please!Bddpaux (talk) 17:40, 29 May 2024 (UTC)

Has it been that long?!

This is English Wikinews' 20-year Anniversary! Holy cow!!--Bddpaux (talk) 19:58, 30 May 2024 (UTC)

Nice!!! BigKrow (talk) 20:41, 30 May 2024 (UTC)

Announcing the first Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki. Please help translate to your language

Hello,

The scrutineers have finished reviewing the vote results. We are following up with the results of the first Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) election.

We are pleased to announce the following individuals as regional members of the U4C, who will fulfill a two-year term:

• North America (USA and Canada)
  • –
• Northern and Western Europe
  • Ghilt
• Latin America and Caribbean
  • –
• Central and East Europe (CEE)
  • —
• Sub-Saharan Africa
  • –
• Middle East and North Africa
  • Ibrahim.ID
• East, South East Asia and Pacific (ESEAP)
  • 0xDeadbeef
• South Asia
  • –

The following individuals are elected to be community-at-large members of the U4C, fulfilling a one-year term:

• Barkeep49
• Superpes15
• Civvì
• Luke081515
• –
• –
• –
• –

Thank you again to everyone who participated in this process and much appreciation to the candidates for your leadership and dedication to the Wikimedia movement and community.

Over the next few weeks, the U4C will begin meeting and planning the 2024-25 year in supporting the implementation and review of the UCoC and Enforcement Guidelines. Follow their work on Meta-wiki.

On behalf of the UCoC project team,

RamzyM (WMF) 08:14, 3 June 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-23

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

• It is now possible for local administrators to add new links to the bottom of the site Tools menu without JavaScript. Documentation is available. [19]
• The message name for the definition of the tracking category of WikiHiero has changed from "MediaWiki:Wikhiero-usage-tracking-category" to "MediaWiki:Wikihiero-usage-tracking-category". [20]
• One new wiki has been created: a Wikipedia in Kadazandusun (w:dtp:) [21]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 4 June. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 5 June. It will be on all wikis from 6 June (calendar). [22][23]

Future changes

• Next week, on wikis with the Vector 2022 skin as the default, logged-out desktop users will be able to choose between different font sizes. The default font size will also be increased for them. This is to make Wikimedia projects easier to read. Learn more.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.

MediaWiki message delivery 22:34, 3 June 2024 (UTC)

Overall neutrality

I'm concerned with the overall neutrality of our recent coverage of the Israeli-Palestine conflict. We've had the following articles published recently:

• "Hezbollah launches drone attack on Hurfeish" — Wikinews, June 6, 2024
• "Hezbollah attacks Israel, causes wildfires" — Wikinews, June 6, 2024
• "Tens of thousands of people join the Israeli day parade" — Wikinews, June 3, 2024
• "Hamas fires rockets at Tel Aviv" — Wikinews, May 29, 2024

While I'm thrilled we're experiencing a period of higher activity and participation here, I think we need to keep an eye on the bigger picture of what our reporting trends look like.

In addition to the overall trend of articles, the two articles published today both contain the following statement: "Hezbollah has launched a variety of strikes against Israel, using 4,000 rockets and killing multiple soldiers and ten civilians." Only one source verifies that and it's The Jerusalem Post.[24] The supporting statement is:

Most countries would never accept one rocket fired from a neighboring country, let alone 4,000.

The problem I have with that is 1. it's a conveniently-even number, meaning it's more likely an estimation and 2. the source is not neutral in its treatment of the topic. 3. the article doesn't say anything like '4,000 rockets have been fired at Israel,' it said in effect 'no one would accept 4,000 rockets fired at them.' I think the two June 6 articles should be changed while we have time (24 hours) to do so without requiring a correction.

Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 13:50, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

@Me Da Wikipedian: I agree with this assessment. I'm happy to sight if any changes are made soon. [₂₄Cr][talk] 14:09, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

• Yes to this. Neutrality is a slippery thing..... it's like 'validity' in research. But: We should always be pursuing it or better yet: watching out for forces that can destroy it.--Bddpaux (talk) 15:02, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for bringing this up Michael. I guess by "neutrality of trends" you mean you think our war coverage is biased in its overall focus? Eh. That can be a problem. Reporters should be careful to choose topics based on their interests, not based on their beliefs. But a selection of coverage one person thinks shows bias toward one side could alternatively be seen as biased towards the other. I think the other important thing is, if you think a facet of something (or a whole) hasn't been getting enough coverage, write it. I see WN:Neutrality#Choosing stories has more.

The specific example is concerning. "Only one source verifies that" — You mean, only the JPost source verifies there were 4,000 rockets, or only it verifies anything in that sentence? The latter would be worse, since I don't see any mention of a death toll in there. I agree, either way, we should have a source that more clearly states the number of rockets fired and if that's an estimate — I agree it probably is. Heavy Water (talk) 18:54, 6 June 2024 (UTC)

I agree it probably is...but it doesn't say so and I am going by what the source in fact says. If anyone can find a better source, please do. There is no requirement for sources to be neutral, and in a contentious topic like this it is very hard not to have at least 1 biased source. But if you have other non-biased ones it's usually not an issue. I am choosing topics based on my interests and what I feel is underrepresented in mainstream media. I have no problem changing provided you can find a better source.@Bddpaux@Cromium@Heavy Water@Michael.C.Wright Me Da Wikipedian (talk) 10:32, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

Support for that statement is the responsibility of the author of that statement, not anyone else. I don't think anyone else should have to find support for a statement not made by them. Even so, a quick web search for "hezbollah fires 4,000 rockets at Israel" does not provide a second source.

There is no requirement for sources to be neutral. The point I was trying to make is not that the Post's article is an invalid source due to its obvious bias, but that this bias weakens its credibility as the sole source for statements made by en.wn. Wikinews:Content_guide#Cite_your_sources recommends the following:

To help guard against possible mistakes by news sources and to help establish a neutral point of view, editors are encouraged to find multiple sources on an issue, and fact-check those sources.

Setting aside the bias of The Post's article for a moment; I don't believe there is solid-enough support in The Post's statement for our article to simply say 'Hezbollah has launched...4,000 rockets.' I don't think The Post's article clearly stated '4,000 rockets were launched.' Had The Post attributed that count to an authority, it might have been more clear it was a factual statement rather than a statement of conjecture of what other countries might tolerate.

A simple fix would have been for us to change '4,000' to 'thousands' or to attribute the statement so readers could make their own decision on the count.

We're now past the 24 hour grace-period for an easy fix and I'm not sure if this is something that rises to the level of a correction or not. I would defer to others on that one.

@Heavy Water, ...if you think a facet of something (or a whole) hasn't been getting enough coverage, write it. I was hoping to spur someone else to do that—no one in particular— just someone with the interest. I should have been more explicit. I don't disagree with Me Da Wikipedian's point above regarding mainstream coverage. But I do think our responsibility to neutrality extends beyond individual articles. I'm not asking anyone to write or publish fewer articles on a given topic. My point was to bring attention to what it might look like to readers.

Choice of what to cover can itself introduce bias, even though the things reported are factual with no bias in the way they are reported.

– Wikinews:Neutrality#Unbiased_coverage

Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Published) 14:11, 7 June 2024 (UTC)

I have given support for the statement. It is not perfect, but as far as I can see it does support it. It's not my responsibility to find a better source if this one works, and besides were outside the 24 hours window at this point. There is no requirement for a second source either. Obviously bias weakens credibility, but can you find a more credible alternative. Assumption is that a reliable source is correct unless there is good reason to believe it's not, right? Editors are encouraged, not required, to find multiple sources on an issue, not for each claim. I think it's pretty clearly saying that 4,000 rockets were fired at Israel. Look at the context. I agree it is probably an guesstimate, but then again all figures are going to be guesstimates. And yes, it's probably an approximation. But we have no closer value. Do you think we should say around? That might be reasonable. We already have other editors writing about the conflict, such as BigKrow and Asheiou. Obviously more is always better, but it's not just me anyways. And yes, choice of what to cover does give bias. This is balanced (at least theoretically) by the fact that theres a bunch of editors, likely with different opinions here. In other words, our combined coverage should be neutral in terms of what we cover as well.Me Da Wikipedian (talk) 21:01, 7 June 2024 (UTC) @Michael.C.Wright: