Wikinews:Water cooler/miscellaneous

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Tech News: 2019-04

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

• Some people did not get last week's issue of Tech News. This was because of a problem with MassMessage. If you did not get last week's issue, you can read it on Meta. [1]

Recent changes

• The content translation tool can now use version 2 as the default version for users who turned on the beta feature. For example it adds the tracking category Pages with unreviewed translations to translations that might have used machine translations without fixing the problems. This is so others can find them. You can find this category in Special:TrackingCategories on Wikipedias.
• https://mediawiki2latex-large.wmflabs.org can now convert collects of up to 800 pages to PDF, EPUB or ODT. Previously this was 200 pages.

Problems

• When a template was edited with the visual editor, it would sometimes put all information on one line. This makes it difficult to read for editors who use the wikitext editor. It also makes it more difficult to see what happened in a diff. This problem affected edits made between 8 and 17 January and is now fixed. [2]
• MassMessage is used to post a message to many pages. It has not been working reliably. Some messages have not been posted to everyone. [3][4]
• Because of a database problem that had to be fixed immediately you could not edit most wikis for a couple of minutes on 17 January (UTC). This has now been fixed. [5]

Changes later this week

• You will be able to use template styles in the Module namespace. [6]
• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 22 January. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 23 January. It will be on all wikis from 24 January (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 23 January at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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

20:33, 21 January 2019 (UTC)

Does journalism have a future?

https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/01/28/does-journalism-have-a-future —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 05:36, 24 January 2019 (UTC)

Resource for Chicago and Detroit reporting

https://www.documenters.org/ —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 17:21, 24 January 2019 (UTC)

Ten tools for journalists

https://www.poynter.org/tech-tools/2018/the-top-10-tools-for-journalism-in-2018-and-10-other-things-to-bookmark/ —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 21:11, 26 January 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-05

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 Wikimedia servers use HHVM to run the PHP code. They are going to use PHP7 and stop using HHVM. You can test PHP7 with a new beta feature. That way you can help find and report problems.

Problems

• When someone moves a page to a name that already exists that page that had the name the article is moved to is deleted. For a couple of months this didn't always work. Some users saw an error message instead. This has now been fixed. [7]

Changes later this week

• There is no new MediaWiki version this week.

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 30 January at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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

18:14, 28 January 2019 (UTC)

Former Wikinewsie with pitch

A former Wikinewsie has direct messaged the Wikinews Facebook page, claiming to have the scoop on something that will eventually be international news. Anyone want to talk with him? He's offered no details, but it is a very active former contributor, so I'm giving them benefit of the doubt. -- Zanimum (talk) 18:57, 29 January 2019 (UTC)

@Pi zero: @Blood Red Sandman:

Potentially interesting... (That ping failed, incidentally; no idea why, can see no reason it would fail). BRS ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 20:02, 29 January 2019 (UTC)

@Blood Red Sandman: I've just messaged them with your Email this user page, and asked whether I can send you their contact information. -- Zanimum (talk) 22:27, 30 January 2019 (UTC)

@Blood Red Sandman: I've got a Facebook, Twitter, but he didn't offer an email. Presumably his Email this user still works. I just sent you an email using your Email this user, with the contact info I have. -- Zanimum (talk) 22:35, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

In the past, I'd guesstimate every two or three years on average, we've been targeted by someone making a concerted, intelligent attempt to dupe us into publishing fake original reporting. --Pi zero (talk) 01:12, 1 February 2019 (UTC)

Accredited reporter letters?

If an accredited reporter needed a letter from their editor, to get accreditation for a sports competition, would someone be able to provide that?

We have a very competent European photographer contacting us about photographing national-level sports competition, but he would need a letter from Wikinews itself. -- Zanimum (talk) 19:56, 29 January 2019 (UTC)

Hard to try and figure out what, exactly, to try and do without knowing what, exactly, xe requires their letter to say. BRS ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 20:01, 29 January 2019 (UTC)

White House

Just wondering because I am new here, do you think that the White House would let one of us go to a press briefing? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Billster156234781 (talk • contribs)

@Billster156234781: In general, the logistics of getting into the White House for a press briefing are pretty complicated and in this particular administration, they are outrite hostile to the media (which--who knows?--may actually be to our advantage!) If you really wanted to attend as a credential Wikinewsie, an outdoor event on the lawn would be a lot more likely. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 00:23, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Recent studies show that 96% of the Network coverage (NBC, ABC, CBS) of the president was negative last year. You can bet that he does not like the media any more than they like him. If you watched any network lately you could probably see that most shows have a clear bias against conservatives, even in shows that are supposed to be news only! This could be because the networks are a corporate model. The 2 best things about Wikinews is that we are not owned by a for-profit corporation & we do not write editorials (we go to reddit for that) One could argue that that is the reason why we are so good at NPOV writing. Chances are we could convince a Wikinewsie living in DC to ask for a press pass. Honestly, I am a post-millennial, and live nowhere near DC. But our mission is to become a respected and well-known part of the Media family, on par with the likes of the New York Times, and I feel getting our people to more news conferences would be a great way to show how capable we are of doing just that.Billster156234781 (talk) 21:34, 31 January 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-06

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

• It was easy to untick a box by accident in Special:Preferences. This will now be fixed. [8]
• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 5 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 6 February. It will be on all wikis from 7 February (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 6 February at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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

--Johan (WMF) 17:11, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-07

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

• You can use the ambox CSS class to show page issues to mobile readers. When you use ambox there are classes you can use.

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 12 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 13 February. It will be on all wikis from 14 February (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 13 February at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

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

18:45, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Macedonia

It would appear the Republic of Macedonia has decided to now call itself North Macedonia; are we all on board with moving the category over? If so, it's not the biggest country cat, so shouldn't be too tough. BRS ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 01:59, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

I'm okay with this. --Pi zero (talk) 02:06, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

• I think it makes sense to move it now. The name change needed the Prespa Agreement to come into effect (happened yesterday) and the various NATO members to ratify the membership of Macedonia, Republic (basically happened last week). Green Giant (talk) 12:37, 13 February 2019 (UTC)

• Done (yesterday) BRS ^{(Talk) (Contribs)} 07:23, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

Perils of headlines

language log. --Pi zero (talk) 19:42, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-08

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

• When you thank someone on the mobile web you will now have two seconds to cancel the thank. This is in case you clicked on the thank button by accident. [9]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 19 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 20 February. It will be on all wikis from 21 February (calendar).

Meetings

• You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 20 February at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes

• There is a proposal to add a red link to mobile search results if there is no page with that name. This is how it works on desktop. You can leave feedback. [10]

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

23:13, 18 February 2019 (UTC)