Wikinews:Water cooler/technical/archives/2026/February

Request for consensus: auto-tag as 'abandoned'

Hello, I am proposing to add Module:DetectAbandoned (by Asked42) to various templates such as 'develop', 'tasks', 'not ready', 'review', 'stale', and others, so that articles automatically get marked as abandoned after they have not been edited for some time. Then, humans don't need to do the tagging anymore, leaving them more time to edit content. Do you support this idea?

Please vote below, as a consensus is required before making this change. Thanks. Gryllida 10:21, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

cc @Bddpaux @Michael.C.Wright for comment thanks Gryllida, RockerballAustralia, Michael.C.Wright, Bddpaux, JJLiu112 Hi @George Ho @Wikiwide @BigKrow @Lofi Gurl @Back ache @Md Mobashir Hossain @Almondo2025, @Dsuke1998AEOS, @Ternera, @Monsieur2137 @Asked42, @Sheminghui.WU, @excelblue (if you want yourself removed or someone else added to this list, please inquire here) A revision has been requested. Here is a list of what to do. (If/when you intend to start working on it, please Subscribe to this section and to this talk page, and post reply messages here when you started and finished editing) See below:

1) read the text above

2) comment or vote

thanks Gryllida 23:50, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

@Gryllida: I have prepared the template {{DetectAbandoned}}. To use it, you can add it to templates like this:

{{DetectAbandoned| 
  <!-- content of the template where you want to add -->
}}

This ensures that when the {{Abandoned}} template is activated, the wrapped template content will not be displayed. -- Asked42 (talk) 16:11, 6 January 2026 (UTC)

I have two concerns/questions:

1. There is a discussion here triggered by articles marked abandoned without a review and authors being upset their work was going to be deleted. Are we sure we want to automate that process so that articles are marked abandoned even easier? Are we going to take into consideration OR (we should)? What about pertinent discussions on an article talk page?

2. Asked42, will "auto-tagging" work without a bot? It is my understanding that templates and modules aren't evaluated until the page is viewed. If an article is already stale and truly abandoned and no one views it, I don't believe an existing template or module can even evaluate the current server date (#time) without the page being viewed.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 14:26, 26 January 2026 (UTC)

1.a. do not auto tag OR

1.b. do not tag as abandoned if a talk page discussion was active recently. if it was tagged and then someone messaged on talk page, then un-tag

2.b. i dunno; to be confirmed Gryllida 04:14, 27 January 2026 (UTC)

Regarding point 2, that could be. I would need to take a deeper look into it to understand whether it would be achievable. -- Asked42 (talk) 17:16, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

Votes

click [reply] link next to this line to add your vote: --Gryllida 10:22, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

• Support as per above. Gryllida 10:21, 3 January 2026 (UTC)

Support seems like a great change to save time! Ternera (talk) 00:13, 5 January 2026 (UTC)

• Support sounds good to me. --RockerballAustralia contribs 03:29, 5 January 2026 (UTC)
• Support. Codename Noreste (talk) 05:50, 5 January 2026 (UTC)

• Support more time for revising and reviewing. Lofi Gurl (talk) 15:20, 22 January 2026 (UTC)

Audio news notice

The discussion linked to in the site notice has been archived, with the last reply in May. Please remove the site notice (or whatever the popup at the top of the page is called). HKLionel TALK 11:51, 31 January 2026 (UTC)

I think audio is still requested. It could just link to Wikinews:Audio. Though that page is a bit too technical... Gryllida 13:42, 31 January 2026 (UTC)

Done

It can be re-added if the proposal is renewed. There did seem to be interest in it last spring, but interest faded and the conversation was eventually auto-archived.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 16:33, 31 January 2026 (UTC)

I did not think interest existed, it was one or two users. However, audio output is needed I think, many users could listen to a news but not read it, for whatever reason they listening to podcasts on commute and not reading tiktok or a wiki.

It could be good to include a note "This page has no audio. [ADD IT NOW LINK]" at bottom of each page, with link to some easy documentation, not what WN:Audio currently is. Would you agree? If yes, then what is the best way to add such a text? Part of "published" template that checks whether file pageName.ogg exists? Cc @Koavf @Asked42 @RockerballAustralia

Regards, -- Gryllida 11:52, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

Due to the lack of activity at this project, I find it unlikely that anyone will add audio, but we could certainly have a template that displays something like your suggested text and then after a certain date, it no long renders. That way, we don't have a raft of old stories asking for audio that are not relevant news anymore. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 16:15, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

I see what you mean. Maybe would be good to just start with having a page which is clearer about status of new articles audio, so that if someone does read an audio piece, then they can add a sentence at the end "Anyone can edit Wikinews, get involved by visiting <pronounce URL here>' and the URL links to 'write news here' and 'volunteer to help with audio' as two big fat buttons on the page, the latter leading to a user friendly guide and status of audio of 10-20 recently published news. Gryllida 01:17, 13 February 2026 (UTC)

software request to disturb users for developing article not submitted for review

if article was developing and was not submitted for review immediately, some software could leave each contributor a message 'pls finalise and submit for review now', i would propose to do this at 2h, 6h, and 12h mark from time it was added to developing category. hope this is helpful. thanks Gryllida 23:59, 4 January 2026 (UTC)

• Support Lofi Gurl (talk) 15:22, 22 January 2026 (UTC)

  Thank you :-) Gryllida 10:26, 23 January 2026 (UTC)

Comment I propose requiring opt-in, given the proposed notification frequency. This could easily be perceived as obnoxiously pestering users. In effect, it "requires" all articles to be completed within 2 hours to avoid a cascade of notifications.Michael.C.Wright (^Talk/_Reviewer) 17:48, 23 January 2026 (UTC)

well, it could reset the timer at each edit, so it could be only articles which were not edited for two hours that would get into trouble. i guess it could have options: 1. imma want to opt in 2. imma want to reset timer at each article edit 3. list of times the timer will ring Gryllida 00:40, 24 January 2026 (UTC)

Cc @Bddpaux @RockerballAustralia @Microchip08 for comment... Gryllida 11:53, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

By "software" I assume you are referring to a bot. Using a bot, it would be possible to achieve this, including an opt in feature and a configuration option for each user if they want to receive notifications.

But, I am not very good at maintaining bots, as you may have noticed with the Telegram bot. So I am not sure whether I would be able to create and maintain something like that. -- Asked42 (talk) 17:15, 12 February 2026 (UTC)

link to code and where were you hosting it @Asked42? thanks Gryllida 01:13, 13 February 2026 (UTC)

@Gryllida: Are you referring to the Telegram bot? If so, you were already added as a maintainer to the GitHub repository when the bot was launched. -- Asked42 (talk) 13:37, 13 February 2026 (UTC)

Yes thanks. will have a look. And where was it hosted? Is that space still available? Gryllida 09:13, 14 February 2026 (UTC)

Recent Changes articles count

It seems off, Articles: 22,224? More I thought? Thanks. BigKrow (talk) 13:31, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

i guess that is for all main namespace Gryllida 22:48, 18 February 2026 (UTC)

News Minimalist

I think PieWriter referenced it in their story. This site automatically identifies major events. Link:

• https://www.newsminimalist.com/

To filter by country it requires a payment. Could an open source version of the same be hosted at a WMF vps or some other place? Gryllida 08:05, 23 February 2026 (UTC)