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Wikinews:Water cooler/miscellaneous/archives/2018/November

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reviewer feedback format

@Pi zero, Acagastya: you are active reviewers currently. I am proposing that we make a guideline (tip/suggestion, not requirement) for

  • starting the reviewer feedback with one-two things which the contributor has succeeded at. (If they have succeeded at something that they did not do before, this needs to be emphasized.)

And also, when deleting an article,

  • leave 2-3 brief tips on the talk page of the contributor (next things which they need to learn)

It is my hypothesis that this approach may improve how people go about their next story. --Gryllida (talk) 05:28, 1 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

@Gryllida: I recall brianmc saying at some point, they'd gotten advice (at a workshop of some sort, maybe?) that when writing negative feedback, find something to say, then give the criticism, and then end on a positive note. This, I recall, he said was known by the vivid term "shit sandwich". I find it difficult to do that, mostly, but since then I have tried to keep in mind that whatever positive I can honestly say could be useful to put at the start. --Pi zero (talk) 05:41, 1 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
1) In "find something to say, then give the criticism, and then end on a positive note' does the "something to say" need to be positive or negative? Or it needs to be a "thanks for writing about this" (kind of a mix of neutral and positive)
2) Why do you put positive content at the start? Gryllida (talk) 06:02, 1 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Seems I left out a word, "find something positive to say, [...]". The idea, I think, in saying something good at the start, is to let them know, before diving into criticisms, that you're not being purely negative. So they don't start out by thinking of you as as attacker. As for the positive note, I have less of a handle on that. It does seem like, if one wants to give them some encouragement to take action, the best place to do so would be at the end. --Pi zero (talk) 07:20, 1 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Yea, I think the "+-+" format makes sense. Not sure which of the positive things goes to the start and which goes to the end. Gryllida (talk) 10:32, 1 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I think a prompting-to-action could be a natural and somewhat positive way to end. Sometimes I can't think of anything particularly positive to say, for the start, and I don't try to force it (lest it come out sounding artificial). A tactic I've found can work quite well, on the somewhat unusual cases where it applies, is that if I'm writing a not-ready review, and there are previous not-ready reviews for the same article, and the reporter did fix at least one thing that was mentioned in the previous review(s), I can start with a bullet noting what they fixed and thanking them for it. --Pi zero (talk) 17:50, 1 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

┌─────────────────────────────────┘
I remember that is what you did, pi, for my first article. And that rather felt sarcastic. Getting the story published was more important than any other thing. So did not say much. (It was published on the last day, after failing thrice, and three articles had failed prior to that.) My suggestion, don't. If you do not mean to. Or if you do not want to. It just feels awkward.
•–• 18:37, 1 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

23:38, 8 October 2018 (UTC)

Why was the education program extension removed? --Gryllida (talk) 03:17, 7 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Gryllida: Because the Programs and Events Dashboard replaced it. Keeping old extensions around is difficult and expensive – phab:T106123 lists why. /Johan (WMF) (talk) 16:06, 7 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

17:29, 5 November 2018 (UTC)

22:40, 15 October 2018 (UTC)

Having removed editing team meeting, can you please open a new session of technical meeting at a date and time that is appropriate to the Australia/Sydney timezone? Thanks! --Gryllida (talk) 03:18, 7 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Gryllida: One of the reasons why the editing meeting was cancelled is that there was little interest in attending them. Is there anything in particular you want to bring up? /Johan (WMF) (talk) 16:03, 7 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I would like to participate in the technical meeting (not editing). Its current time for me is 2am. Gryllida (talk) 20:49, 7 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
Gryllida: Ah, right. Sorry, misunderstood you. Every first Wednesday of the month, that also takes place at 11 PM UTC, which should be less in the middle of the night, your time. See mw:Technical Advice IRC Meeting. /Johan (WMF) (talk) 11:30, 8 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
OK Thanks. :) Would you like to add this information to the technical newsletter in case others need it? Gryllida (talk) 20:32, 8 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I've agreed with the organisers of the meeting that they are to update it when it happens, but that might not have worked as planned. I'll ping them again. /Johan (WMF) (talk) 22:31, 8 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

19:21, 12 November 2018 (UTC)

Change coming to how certain templates will appear on the mobile web

CKoerner (WMF) (talk) 19:34, 13 November 2018 (UTC)[reply]

23:28, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

Community Wishlist Survey vote

18:13, 22 November 2018 (UTC)

22:21, 26 November 2018 (UTC)