Wikinews:Water cooler/miscellaneous/archives/2024/January

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.

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)

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)

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)

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)

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. [1]

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). [2][3]

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. [4]
• 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 requiresES6 option. This option is no longer needed and will be removed in the future. [5]
• Bot passwords and owner-only OAuth consumers can now be restricted to allow editing only specific pages. [6]
• You can now thank edits made by bots. [7]
• 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). [8][9]
• 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. [10]
• The jquery.cookie module was deprecated and replaced with the mediawiki.cookie module last year. A script has now been run to replace any remaining uses, and this week the temporary alias will be removed. [11]

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.

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

MediaWiki message delivery 00:12, 16 January 2024 (UTC)

Vote on the Charter for the 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 all,

I am reaching out to you today to announce that the voting period for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) Charter is now open. Community members may cast their vote and provide comments about the charter via SecurePoll now through 2 February 2024. Those of you who voiced your opinions during the development of the UCoC Enforcement Guidelines will find this process familiar.

The current version of the U4C Charter is on Meta-wiki with translations available.

Read the charter, go vote and share this note with others in your community. I can confidently say the U4C Building Committee looks forward to your participation.

On behalf of the UCoC Project team,

RamzyM (WMF) 18:07, 19 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)

I would say Wikinews has a certain learning curve. To contribute meaningfully, as a new editor, you need to dedicate yourself a bit more to an article than perhaps is needed to feel useful on Wikipedia. Statistically, it is rare to submit an idea or a {{stub}} and see other editors jump on it and complete it for you. Well-written and well-sourced articles will be reviewed. Wikinews reviewers tend to be helpful and will guide in the process of developing a publishable article. The reviewer cannot, however, rewrite the article for you, as they need to have a certain distance from the article in order to be an independent reviewer. If you feel you are not ready to submit full articles, you could help on articles which are already under development. Often, they need a lot of copy-editing. Do use the article's collaboration (talk) page to communicate as much as possible. And yes, it has been a little slow as of late. Flu season can have a major impact on small projects. Cheers and welcome to Wikinews! SVTCobra 00:10, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

PS: You can find articles under development in the Newsroom. SVTCobra 00:13, 20 January 2024 (UTC)

Thanks for pointing me in the right direction! UnexpectedSmoreInquisition (talk) 04:52, 21 January 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-04

Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Problems

• A bug in UploadWizard prevented linking to the userpage of the uploader when uploading. It has now been fixed. [12]

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 23 January. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 24 January. It will be on all wikis from 25 January (calendar). [13][14]

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

MediaWiki message delivery 01:03, 23 January 2024 (UTC)

Tech News: 2024-05

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

• Starting Monday January 29, all talk pages messages' timestamps will become a link. This link is a permanent link to the comment. It allows users to find the comment they are looking for, even if this comment was moved elsewhere. This will affect all wikis except for the English Wikipedia. You can read more about this change on Diff or on Mediawiki.org. [15]
• There are some improvements to the CAPTCHA to make it harder for spam bots and scripts to bypass it. If you have feedback on this change, please comment on the task. Staff are monitoring metrics related to the CAPTCHA, as well as secondary metrics such as account creations and edit counts.

Changes later this week

• The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 30 January. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 31 January. It will be on all wikis from 1 February (calendar). [16][17]
• On February 1, a link will be added to the "Tools" menu to download a QR code that links to the page you are viewing. There will also be a new Special:QrCode page to create QR codes for any Wikimedia URL. This addresses the #19 most-voted wish from the 2023 Community Wishlist Survey. [18]
• Gadgets which only work in some skins have sometimes used the targets option to limit where you can use them. This will stop working this week. You should use the skins option instead. [19]

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

MediaWiki message delivery 19:31, 29 January 2024 (UTC)

Last days to vote on the Charter for the 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 all,

I am reaching out to you today to remind you that the voting period for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) charter will close on 2 February 2024. Community members may cast their vote and provide comments about the charter via SecurePoll. Those of you who voiced your opinions during the development of the UCoC Enforcement Guidelines will find this process familiar.

The current version of the U4C charter is on Meta-wiki with translations available.

Read the charter, go vote and share this note with others in your community. I can confidently say the U4C Building Committee looks forward to your participation.

On behalf of the UCoC Project team,

RamzyM (WMF) 17:00, 31 January 2024 (UTC)