Wikinews:Water cooler/technical

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Pywikipedia is migrating to git

Hello, Sorry for English but It's very important for bot operators so I hope someone translates this. Pywikipedia is migrating to Git so after July 26, SVN checkouts won't be updated If you're using Pywikipedia you have to switch to git, otherwise you will use out-dated framework and your bot might not work properly. There is a manual for doing that and a blog post explaining about this change in non-technical language. If you have question feel free to ask in mw:Manual talk:Pywikipediabot/Gerrit, mailing list, or in the IRC channel. Best Amir (via User:PiRSquared17). 13:08, 23 July 2013 (UTC)

Visual editor

We need to develop a list of extensions, vital tools, templates that the Visual Editors need to look at and figure out how to address when trying to integrate VE into our project. For example, we probably need a technical explanation related to the peer review tool, for pi zero's tool he is developing, our templates that automatically load when creating a new article, etc. This information then needs to be passed along via a single language point to the VE team. It appears possible that Wikinews may be the next sister they implement VE on, and given our publishing methods, we really need to be clear up front. --LauraHale (talk) 09:33, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

On the face of it, I think VE should not, in a sane world, ever be deployed on Wikinews, because its design goals, of debatable merit for Wikipedia, appear to be at odds with the nature of our project. Despite the fact, realistically, I would have gone along and been as helpful as I could if they had (as they should have, if they were thinking) approached us about beta-testing it here before deploying on Wikipedia.

I'll be updating Help:Wndialog within the next few days, I hope (having essentially completed my latest set of changes to the tools). That's most of the general documentation that currently exists for the tools (though there's some more technical stuff at MediaWiki talk:Wndialog/receive). --Pi zero (talk) 11:37, 9 August 2013 (UTC)

Irrelevant to that point, I think we need to prepare anyway so that if we have no choice, they know what we need to function. We should create a page at Wikinews:Visual Editor to discuss all the deployment and explain everything that needs to be addressed and how every extension works, and make sure VE editors understand WHERE users need to go through to the create an article page BEFORE getting to VE. --LauraHale (talk) 13:06, 10 August 2013 (UTC)

Wikinewsie.org service updates

After (how many?) years running scoop at wikinewsie.org, we now have one definitive, well-defined, and well-understood, process flowing through the mailbox. OR.

Scoop has left us with everyone mail was being distributed to having to set up their own filters; or, being damn silly and importing their emails into something like Gmail. You can't say I didn't try to warn people about the perils with that (hashtag Snowden).

Scoop will be 'deprecated', and the recipients list trimmed back progressively as I — and other TWG board members — cull those who're not using it in any meaningful manner. My mailbox piles up at a frighteningly alarming rate as I have about a dozen lists hitting my own account. Some of those are pressers, which we're rarely picking up on. A new mailbox will be set up for incoming material that needs the attention of reviewers; I'll start by discussing that with Pi zero; as our main reviewer, how the mailbox works is "whatever he can best-work-with". --Brian McNeil / ^talk 10:55, 10 August 2013 (UTC)

Local categorisation of Commons content

Just tried, and found out it works, to do the following:

• Find a media file on Commons, which you uploaded and used in a report
• Search for the File:foo.jpg page on Wikinews
• Click create, and just paste in the categories where the media should appear.

Laura is rattling through uncategorised local media, but this little "trick" will allow me to have all of my Wikinewsie photos appear on my reporters' category. Oh, and suddenly we've found a workaround for Commons not having DPL!

Like? --Brian McNeil / ^talk 19:13, 11 August 2013 (UTC)

Sweet. Same principle as using local links in articles when available: gives the project a stronger coherent identity. --Pi zero (talk) 19:24, 11 August 2013 (UTC)

• I thought "should work, ... yes!" Going to get AWB into my Windows install; getting things like my last handful of OR reports with the media appearing locally will really make the project look better; Oh, and we'll need internal categories for picking out audio/video/image OR. This, though, is a job ripe for full automation. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 19:33, 11 August 2013 (UTC)

Please make-sure someone points DF at this. He has a lot of stuff uploaded to Commons, and his Wikinewsie category could be made to look pretty-damn awesome just by creating these cross-project media categorisation pages. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 19:39, 11 August 2013 (UTC)

• Dabbed the 2012 Summer Paralympics category with a DPL for the FAs therein - it could do with the FA barnstar on it. Also needs TOC/quick-links at the top which allow jumping to the auto-populated list of pages and gallery of media (mind, audio, video and images). Those are probably needing some hidden HTML to insert linkable <h2> points that appear in the TOC, and have better descriptions than those given.

Someone really should do all of David Shankbone's content; and I wonder if the devs have even tried this little trick. Could these questions be put to them, please?

1. (Point at this section) If we create these local File: stub pages, what happens if the image is deleted on Commons? Have we finally found the simple solution to them deleting stuff that's in our archives?
2. Could they please (pretty please) run a few database reports/queries to help with this? It's a mammoth task that they could readily automate as a job to run periodically.

It also means we can far more-readily resurrect a Wikinews POTY competition. --Brian McNeil / ^talk 20:22, 11 August 2013 (UTC)