Wikiversity:Babel
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- Discussion archive
- /archive
Contents
- 1 Updated discussion about merging with Incubator
- 2 Accessible editing buttons
- 3 Changes to the global ban policy
- 4 New print to pdf feature for mobile web readers
- 5 States of Wikiversities
- 6 Editing News #1—2018
- 7 Chinese Wikiversity
- 8 AdvancedSearch
- 9 Global preferences are available
- 10 States of Wikiversities: Removal of Languages with no content and "Rejected" requests on Meta
- 11 Consultation on the creation of a separate user group for editing sitewide CSS/JS
- 12 New user group for editing sitewide CSS/JS
- 13 Proposal to modify incubation processes within the WMF world
- 14 The GFDL license on Commons
- 15 Reminder: No editing for up to an hour on 10 October
- 16 The Community Wishlist Survey
- 17 Editing News #2—2018
- 18 Enable arbitrary access before sitelinks?
- 19 Change coming to how certain templates will appear on the mobile web
- 20 Community Wishlist Survey vote
- 21 Advanced Search
- 22 New Wikimedia password policy and requirements
- 23 Invitation from Wiki Loves Love 2019
- 24 IMPORTANT: Admin activity review
- 25 States of Wikiversities (January 2019)
- 26 FileExporter beta feature
- 27 No editing for 30 minutes 17 January
- 28 Talk to us about talking
- 29 Read-only mode for up to 30 minutes on 11 April
- 30 non-English pages in Category:EN
- 31 Wikimedia Foundation Medium-Term Plan feedback request
- 32 Proposal to modify the Wikimedia Language Proposal Policy
- 33 Editing News #1—July 2019
- 34 Update on the consultation about office actions
- 35 New tools and IP masking
- 36 Update on technical issues and other things interfering with getting the project approval and creation process moving again
- 37 The consultation on partial and temporary Foundation bans just started
- 38 Feedback wanted on Desktop Improvements project
- Discussion archive
- /archive
Updated discussion about merging with Incubator[edit]
The old Meta discussion about merging this site with Incubator was closed on procedural grounds, for being vague and dated. However active small-wiki maintainers, translation coordinators, and incubator devs would still like to find a way to make the incubator an effective home for all sister projects. A new proposal was posted, focused on this: Move Beta Wikiversity to Incubator 2.
Please comment and share your perspectives. @Crochet.david: @Samuele2002: @MarcoAurelio: @Vito Genovese: please also help notify other active editors here who I have missed. (The active edits on the number theory page make this hard to see...)
Warmly, Sj (talk) 16:05, 4 July 2017 (UTC)
- LangCom rejected this proposal because of (a) a lack of consensus supporting it, and (b) a potential future revamping of the incubation process within the WMF world. StevenJ81 (talk) 20:31, 16 August 2018 (UTC)
Accessible editing buttons[edit]
You can see and use the old and new versions now. Most editors will only notice that some buttons are slightly larger and have different colors.
- Comparison of old and new styles
Buttons before the change
Buttons after the change
However, this change also affects some user scripts and gadgets. Unfortunately, some of them may not work well in the new system. If you maintain any user scripts or gadgets that are used for editing, please see mw:Contributors/Projects/Accessible editing buttons for information on how to test and fix your scripts. Outdated scripts can be tested and fixed now.
This change will probably reach this wiki on Tuesday, 1 August 2017. Please leave a note at mw:Talk:Contributors/Projects/Accessible editing buttons if you need help.--Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 16:56, 27 July 2017 (UTC)
Changes to the global ban policy[edit]
New print to pdf feature for mobile web readers[edit]
New print to pdf feature for mobile web readers
The Readers web team will be deploying a new feature this week to make it easier to download PDF versions of articles on the mobile website.
Providing better offline functionality was one of the highlighted areas from the research done by the New Readers team in Mexico, Nigeria, and India. The teams created a prototype for mobile PDFs which was evaluated by user research and community feedback. The prototype evaluation received positive feedback and results, so development continued.
For the initial deployment, the feature will be available to Google Chrome browsers on Android. Support for other mobile browsers to come in the future. For Chrome, the feature will use the native Android print functionality. Users can choose to download a webpage as a PDF. Mobile print styles will be used for these PDFs to ensure optimal readability for smaller screens.
The feature is available starting Wednesday, Nov 15. For more information, see the project page on MediaWiki.org.
Thank you!
CKoerner (WMF) (talk) 22:07, 20 November 2017 (UTC)
States of Wikiversities[edit]
All:
I've started on an update of this page, in particular:
- Reverting one piece of several-month-old vandalism
- Running headers and footers out to the end of 2017
- Moving Hindi from the Beta table to the "open Wikiversities" table
- Checking if status has changed on any Meta requests (none changed, though I'm probably going to put through Albanian and Romanian as eligible shortly)
- Starting to update contributions through November 2017. I only counted named contributors, not "anonymous", and I ignored bots. (This is consistent with the way LangCom evaluates projects for approval. Still, please let me know if I should have included bots.)
I have not updated localization statistics nor number of pages, because I don't know what criteria you are using for these columns. StevenJ81 (talk) 15:33, 21 November 2017 (UTC)
Update (March 2018)[edit]
- It's evident to me that the localization statistics referred to the MediaWiki (most important messages) group. So those figures are now updated.
- Headers and footers have run out to March 2018. Contributions are updated through year-end 2017, and I will start updating them again after 31 March.
- The "open Wikiversities" table is completely updated through March 2018.
- I marked Albanian and Romanian as eligible on Meta.
- I note that the number of pages are taken from an expensive magic word call, so don't require manual updating.
StevenJ81 (talk) 19:42, 22 March 2018 (UTC)
Update (July 2018)[edit]
I am continuing to maintain this page. I am going to propose the following change:
- The requests on meta for Sinhale Wikiversity and Tamil Wikiversity were rejected as stale. That means that even though someone opened a formal request for these projects on Meta, no one has really created any content. I would propose removing those two from the table.
- I would remove any other language that is rejected on those grounds in the future.
- Languages with 0 pages but already marked as "eligible" probably will not be changed, and I will leave those in place.
StevenJ81 (talk) 14:25, 5 July 2018 (UTC)
Editing News #1—2018[edit]
Read this in another language • Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter
Did you know that you can now use the visual diff tool on any page?
Sometimes, it is hard to see important changes in a wikitext diff. This screenshot of a wikitext diff (click to enlarge) shows that the paragraphs have been rearranged, but it does not highlight the removal of a word or the addition of a new sentence.
If you enable the Beta Feature for "Visual differences", you will have a new option. It will give you a new box at the top of every diff page. This box will let you choose either diff system on any edit.
Click the toggle button to switch between visual and wikitext diffs.
In the visual diff, additions, removals, new links, and formatting changes will be highlighted. Other changes, such as changing the size of an image, are described in notes on the side.
This screenshot shows the same edit as the wikitext diff. The visual diff highlights the removal of one word and the addition of a new sentence.
You can read and help translate the user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.
Since the last newsletter, the Editing Team has spent most of their time supporting the 2017 wikitext editor mode, which is available inside the visual editor as a Beta Feature, and improving the visual diff tool. Their work board is available in Phabricator. You can find links to the work finished each week at mw:VisualEditor/Weekly triage meetings. Their current priorities are fixing bugs, supporting the 2017 wikitext editor, and improving the visual diff tool.
Recent changes[edit]
- The 2017 wikitext editor is available as a Beta Feature on desktop devices. It has the same toolbar as the visual editor and can use the citoid service and other modern tools. The team have been comparing the performance of different editing environments. They have studied how long it takes to open the page and start typing. The study uses data for more than one million edits during December and January. Some changes have been made to improve the speed of the 2017 wikitext editor and the visual editor. Recently, the 2017 wikitext editor opened fastest for most edits, and the 2010 WikiEditor was fastest for some edits. More information will be posted at mw:Contributors/Projects/Editing performance.
- The visual diff tool was developed for the visual editor. It is now available to all users of the visual editor and the 2017 wikitext editor. When you review your changes, you can toggle between wikitext and visual diffs. You can also enable the new Beta Feature for "Visual diffs". The Beta Feature lets you use the visual diff tool to view other people's edits on page histories and Special:RecentChanges. [1]
- Wikitext syntax highlighting is available as a Beta Feature for both the 2017 wikitext editor and the 2010 wikitext editor. [2]
- The citoid service automatically translates URLs, DOIs, ISBNs, and PubMed id numbers into wikitext citation templates. It is very popular and useful to editors, although it can be a bit tricky to set up. Your wiki can have this service. Please read the instructions. You can ask the team to help you enable citoid at your wiki.
Let's work together[edit]
- The team will talk about editing tools at an upcoming Wikimedia Foundation metrics and activities meeting.
- Wikibooks, Wikiversity, and other communities may have the visual editor made available by default to contributors. If your community wants this, then please contact Dan Garry.
- The
<references />block can automatically display long lists of references in columns on wide screens. This makes footnotes easier to read. You can request multi-column support for your wiki. [3] - If you aren't reading this in your preferred language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly. We will notify you when the next issue is ready for translation. Thank you!
20:56, 2 March 2018 (UTC)
Chinese Wikiversity[edit]
As far as I can tell, the main thing holding this project back from approval is the fact that the vast majority of the work on it is being done by IP editors, not registered editors. Is there a reason that some of the participants there cannot/do not register. We'd like to be able to move this toward approval as an independent project, if possible. For LangCom: StevenJ81 (talk) 19:49, 22 March 2018 (UTC)
- I very much hope that contributions made under IP will not be considered as active contributors to the project. Crochet.david (talk) 20:32, 23 March 2018 (UTC)
- I think the current Chinese Wikiversity are often occupied by an IP user. Although some content has some value, I think it can also be used alone. In the beta Wikiversity, there are many problems that need to be solved. My idea is to establish, or if not, then you can also move to the Incubator alone, and the beta problem is too big. So I want to do my part to complete the situation. --夢蝶葬花 (talk) 04:21, 1 April 2018 (UTC)
Update July 2018[edit]
There are now a sufficient number of registered editors involved, so LangCom is now evaluating this project for approval. See m:Requests for new languages/Wikiversity Chinese.
- If people think that there is a problem with some of the content, please say so on the Meta discussion page!
- Otherwise, project will probably be approved seven days from now, if there are no objections.
- I would strongly request the registered editors to keep a close eye on the content of Chinese Wikiversity, both before and (if it happens) after approval.
StevenJ81 (talk) (LangCom clerk) 14:20, 5 July 2018 (UTC)
Approval update (13 July)[edit]
Congratulations! This project is approved.
- It will undoubtedly take some time to get the new wiki created, so please continue to work here until you are informed that it has happened. See phabricator:T199577.
- It will be very helpful to the people who will export content to the new wiki if the following things happen:
- All pages belonging to Chinese Wikiversity need to be included in Category:ZH.
- If there are templates or modules that this project uses that are part of the infrastructure, and that are not included within Category:ZH, please create Category:Infrastructure templates to be exported to Chinese Wikiversity and add those templates or modules to that category.
Thank you. StevenJ81 (talk) 20:37, 13 July 2018 (UTC)
AdvancedSearch[edit]
Birgit Müller (WMDE) 14:45, 7 May 2018 (UTC)
Global preferences are available[edit]
Global preferences are now available, you can set them by visiting your new global preferences page. Visit mediawiki.org for information on how to use them and leave feedback. -- Keegan (WMF) (talk)
19:19, 10 July 2018 (UTC)
States of Wikiversities: Removal of Languages with no content and "Rejected" requests on Meta[edit]
Hello, all. I've been managing the page States of Wikiversities so that on behalf of LangCom I can keep an eye on projects here that may become ready for approval.
- As you are probably aware, Chinese Wikiversity is likely to be approved tomorrow, subject to an unexpected objection on Meta.
I would propose removing Sinhale and Tamil from the table on this page. They have -0- pages and one page on Beta, respectively, and the requests on Meta were rejected as "stale", because no one ever actually created content. I would also propose to remove any other test that comes to be rejected as "stale" in the future. The reason for that is simple: there is no sense in continuing to track tests that do not really exist.
Thank you for your consideration. StevenJ81 (talk) 13:59, 11 July 2018 (UTC)
Consultation on the creation of a separate user group for editing sitewide CSS/JS[edit]
(Please help translate to your language)
Hi all,
I'm preparing a change in who can edit sitewide CSS/JS pages. (These are pages like MediaWiki:Common.css and MediaWiki:Vector.js which are executed in the browser of all readers and editors.) Currently all administrators are able to edit these pages, which poses a serious and unnecessary security risk. Soon, a dedicated, smaller user group will take over this task. Your community will be able to decide who belongs in this group, so this should mean very little change for you. You can find out more and provide feedback at the consultation page on Meta. If you are involved in maintaining CSS/JS code, or policymaking around adminship requests, please give it a look!
Thanks!
Tgr (talk) 08:45, 12 July 2018 (UTC) (via global message delivery)
New user group for editing sitewide CSS/JS[edit]
(Please help translate to your language)
Hi all!
To improve the security of our readers and editors, permission handling for CSS/JS pages has changed. (These are pages like MediaWiki:Common.css and MediaWiki:Vector.js which contain code that is executed in the browsers of users of the site.)
A new user group, interface-admin, has been created.
Starting four weeks from now, only members of this group will be able edit CSS/JS pages that they do not own (that is, any page ending with .css or .js that is either in the MediaWiki: namespace or is another user's user subpage).
You can learn more about the motivation behind the change here.
Please add users who need to edit CSS/JS to the new group (this can be done the same way new administrators are added, by stewards or local bureaucrats). This is a dangerous permission; a malicious user or a hacker taking over the account of a careless interface-admin can abuse it in far worse ways than admin permissions could be abused. Please only assign it to users who need it, who are trusted by the community, and who follow common basic password and computer security practices (use strong passwords, do not reuse passwords, use two-factor authentication if possible, do not install software of questionable origin on your machine, use antivirus software if that's a standard thing in your environment).
Thanks!
Tgr (talk) 13:08, 30 July 2018 (UTC) (via global message delivery)
Proposal to modify incubation processes within the WMF world[edit]
There is a proposal being discussed now on Incubator that would change the process for incubating new language versions of projects. See Incubator:Community Portal. While there is no intention to change incubation for Wikisource projects, I think that the proposed approach would apply to Wikiversity projects. I would therefore encourage you to go to that discussion and participate.
- Note: My feeling—and I will probably be the arbiter—is that with Chinese Wikiversity now created and independent, the only project remaining here that is active enough to qualify for the first round of incubation domains would be Hebrew Wikiversity. If you are involved in a different test project here, and would like me to consider your project for the first round of such tests, please contact me on my (currently nonexistent) user talk page here on Beta.
I would add: under the circumstances, I am going to move to close the current discussion on Meta about merging Beta into Incubator as "rejected, no consensus". I am not going to permit the topic to be reintroduced until (at minimum): the whole revised incubation approach is settled, and/or the Beta community comes and requests of its own, with strong consensus favoring, to be merged into Incubator. StevenJ81 (talk) 17:23, 6 August 2018 (UTC)
The GFDL license on Commons[edit]
This has been posted here because your wiki allows local file uploads. Please help translate to your language.
Commons will no longer allow uploads of photos, paintings, drawings, audio and video that use the GFDL license and no other license. This starts after 14 October. Textbooks, manuals and logos, diagrams and screenshots from GFDL software manuals that only use the GFDL license are still allowed. Files licensed with both GFDL and an accepted license like Creative Commons BY-SA are still allowed.
There is no time limit to move files from other projects to Commons. The licensing date is all that counts. It doesn't matter when the file was uploaded or created. Every wiki that allows local uploads should check if bots, scripts and templates that are used to move files to Commons need to be updated. Also update your local policy documentation if needed.
The decision to allow files that only have a GFDL license, or not allow them, is a decision all wikis can make for themselves. Your wiki can decide to continue allowing the files that Commons will no longer allow after 14 October. If your wiki decides to continue to allow files after 14 October that Commons will no longer allow those files should not be moved to Commons. — Alexis Jazz, distributed by Johan using MassMessage
18:11, 20 September 2018 (UTC)
Reminder: No editing for up to an hour on 10 October[edit]
Read this message in another language • Please help translate to your language
The Wikimedia Foundation are testing its secondary data center. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster.
They switched all traffic to the secondary data center 12 September 2018. On Wednesday, 10 October 2018, they will switch back to the primary data center.
Unfortunately, because of some limitations in MediaWiki, all editing must stop while we switch.
You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.
You will not be able to edit for up to an hour on Wednesday, 10 October. The test will start a bit after 14:00 UTC (15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10:00 EDT, 07:00 PDT, 23:00 JST). If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message.
This project may be postponed if necessary. You can read the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule. Please share this information with your community. /User:Johan(WMF) (talk)
12:03, 4 October 2018 (UTC)
The Community Wishlist Survey[edit]
The Community Wishlist Survey. Please help translate to your language.
Hey everyone,
The Community Wishlist Survey is the process when the Wikimedia communities decide what the Wikimedia Foundation Community Tech should work on over the next year.
The Community Tech team is focused on tools for experienced Wikimedia editors. You can post technical proposals from now until 11 November. The communities will vote on the proposals between 16 November and 30 November. You can read more on the wishlist survey page.
/User:Johan (WMF)11:05, 30 October 2018 (UTC)
Editing News #2—2018[edit]
Read this in another language • Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter
Did you know?
Did you know that you can use the visual editor on a mobile device?
Tap on the pencil icon to start editing. The page will probably open in the wikitext editor.
You will see another pencil icon in the toolbar. Tap on that pencil icon to the switch between visual editing and wikitext editing.
Remember to publish your changes when you're done.
You can read and help translate the user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.Since the last newsletter, the Editing Team has wrapped up most of their work on the 2017 wikitext editor and the visual diff tool. The team has begun investigating the needs of editors who use mobile devices. Their work board is available in Phabricator. Their current priorities are fixing bugs and improving mobile editing.
Recent changes[edit]
- The Editing team has published an initial report about mobile editing.
- The Editing team has begun a design study of visual editing on the mobile website. New editors have trouble doing basic tasks on a smartphone, such as adding links to Wikipedia articles. You can read the report.
- The Reading team is working on a separate mobile-based contributions project.
- The 2006 wikitext editor is no longer supported. If you used that toolbar, then you will no longer see any toolbar. You may choose another editing tool in your editing preferences, local gadgets, or beta features.
- The Editing team described the history and status of VisualEditor in this recorded public presentation (starting at 29 minutes, 30 seconds).
- The Language team released a new version of Content Translation (CX2) last month, on International Translation Day. It integrates the visual editor to support templates, tables, and images. It also produces better wikitext when the translated article is published. [4]
Let's work together[edit]
- The Editing team wants to improve visual editing on the mobile website. Please read their ideas and tell the team what you think would help editors who use the mobile site.
- The Community Wishlist Survey begins next week.
- If you aren't reading this in your preferred language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to the Translators mailing list or contact us directly. We will notify you when the next issue is ready for translation. Thank you!
14:17, 2 November 2018 (UTC)
Enable arbitrary access before sitelinks?[edit]
Filed as phab:T209208
Since sitelinks support is still blocked elsewhere (probably T206426 Storing multiple sitelinks to a multilingual wiki), I'm finding consensus to fix our Category:Pages_with_script_errors by deploying Wikidata Phase 2 (arbitrary access) support first, note that this is already working on Multilingual Wikisource, so there's IMHO only consensus question. --Liuxinyu970226 (talk) 07:23, 10 November 2018 (UTC)
Support I don't know why this can't be happened here. --117.13.95.116 05:33, 2 April 2019 (UTC)
Change coming to how certain templates will appear on the mobile web[edit]
Change coming to how certain templates will appear on the mobile web
Please help translate to your language
Hello,
In a few weeks the Readers web team will be changing how some templates look on the mobile web site. We will make these templates more noticeable when viewing the article. We ask for your help in updating any templates that don't look correct.
What kind of templates? Specifically templates that notify readers and contributors about issues with the content of an article – the text and information in the article. Examples like Template:Unreferenced or Template:More citations needed. Right now these notifications are hidden behind a link under the title of an article. We will format templates like these (mostly those that use Template:Ambox or message box templates in general) to show a short summary under the page title. You can tap on the "Learn more" link to get more information.
For template editors we have some recommendations on how to make templates that are mobile-friendly and also further documentation on our work so far.
If you have questions about formatting templates for mobile, please leave a note on the project talk page or file a task in Phabricator and we will help you.
Thank you!
CKoerner (WMF) (talk) 19:34, 13 November 2018 (UTC)
Community Wishlist Survey vote[edit]
The Community Wishlist Survey. Please help translate to your language.
Hey everyone,
The Community Wishlist Survey is the process when the Wikimedia communities decide what the Wikimedia Foundation Community Tech should work on over the next year.
The Community Tech team is focused on tools for experienced Wikimedia editors. The communities have now posted a long list of technical proposals. You can vote on the proposals from now until 30 November. You can read more on the wishlist survey page.
/User:Johan (WMF)18:13, 22 November 2018 (UTC)
Advanced Search[edit]
Johanna Strodt (WMDE) (talk) 10:57, 26 November 2018 (UTC)
New Wikimedia password policy and requirements[edit]
Please help translate to your language
The Wikimedia Foundation security team is implementing a new password policy and requirements. You can learn more about the project on MediaWiki.org.
These new requirements will apply to new accounts and privileged accounts. New accounts will be required to create a password with a minimum length of 8 characters. Privileged accounts will be prompted to update their password to one that is at least 10 characters in length.
These changes are planned to be in effect on December 13th. If you think your work or tools will be affected by this change, please let us know on the talk page.
Thank you!
CKoerner (WMF) (talk) 20:02, 6 December 2018 (UTC)
Invitation from Wiki Loves Love 2019[edit]
Please help translate to your language
.svg){kind=logo}
Love is an important subject for humanity and it is expressed in different cultures and regions in different ways across the world through different gestures, ceremonies, festivals and to document expression of this rich and beautiful emotion, we need your help so we can share and spread the depth of cultures that each region has, the best of how people of that region, celebrate love.
Wiki Loves Love (WLL) is an international photography competition of Wikimedia Commons with the subject love testimonials happening in the month of February.
The primary goal of the competition is to document love testimonials through human cultural diversity such as monuments, ceremonies, snapshot of tender gesture, and miscellaneous objects used as symbol of love; to illustrate articles in the worldwide free encyclopedia Wikipedia, and other Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) projects.
The theme of 2019 iteration is Celebrations, Festivals, Ceremonies and rituals of love.
Sign up your affiliate or individually at Participants page.
To know more about the contest, check out our Commons Page and FAQs
There are several prizes to grab. Hope to see you spreading love this February with Wiki Loves Love!
Kind regards,
Imagine... the sum of all love!
--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:12, 27 December 2018 (UTC)
IMPORTANT: Admin activity review[edit]
Hello. A policy regarding the removal of "advanced rights" (administrator, bureaucrat, etc. ) was adopted by global community consensus in 2013. According to this policy, the stewards are reviewing administrators' activity on all Wikimedia Foundation wikis with no inactivity policy. To the best of our knowledge, your wiki does not have a formal process for removing "advanced rights" from inactive accounts. This means that the stewards will take care of this according to the admin activity review.
We have determined that the following users meet the inactivity criteria (no edits and no log actions for more than 2 years):
- Erkan Yilmaz (administrator)
- Shujenchang (administrator)
These users will receive a notification soon, asking them to start a community discussion if they want to retain some or all of their rights. If the users do not respond, then their advanced rights will be removed by the stewards.
However, if you as a community would like to create your own activity review process superseding the global one, want to make another decision about these inactive rights holders, or already have a policy that we missed, then please notify the stewards on Meta-Wiki so that we know not to proceed with the rights review on your wiki. Thanks, — regards, Revi 13:31, 6 January 2019 (UTC)
States of Wikiversities (January 2019)[edit]
Greetings to the community.
I wanted to let you know that I intend to copy this page intact to an archive, and then to trim the current page so that it includes only 2016–2019. While I would never delete the historical data, there is not necessarily a good reason to keep it on the main page at this point. So unless I hear objections to this idea in the next week or two, I will proceed.
- Note: I would appreciate an opinion on the following. Should I move the current page to an archive page, then copy back to a new current page? This keeps all of the current editing history with the archive. Or should I copy the current page to the archive, leaving all the current editing history on the main page. There are arguments either way on this question.
StevenJ81 (talk) 15:07, 9 January 2019 (UTC)
FileExporter beta feature[edit]
A new beta feature will soon be released on all wikis: The FileExporter. It allows exports of files from a local wiki to Wikimedia Commons, including their file history and page history. Which files can be exported is defined by each wiki's community: Please check your wiki's configuration file if you want to use this feature.
The FileExporter has already been a beta feature on mediawiki.org, meta.wikimedia, deWP, faWP, arWP, koWP and on wikisource.org. After some functionality was added, it's now becoming a beta feature on all wikis. Deployment is planned for January 16. More information can be found on the project page.
As always, feedback is highly appreciated. If you want to test the FileExporter, please activate it in your user preferences. The best place for feedback is the central talk page. Thank you from Wikimedia Deutschland's Technical Wishes project.
Johanna Strodt (WMDE) 09:41, 14 January 2019 (UTC)
No editing for 30 minutes 17 January[edit]
14:47, 16 January 2019 (UTC)
Talk to us about talking[edit]
The Wikimedia Foundation is planning a global consultation about communication. The goal is to bring Wikimedians and wiki-minded people together to improve tools for communication.
We want all contributors to be able to talk to each other on the wikis, whatever their experience, their skills or their devices.
We are looking for input from as many different parts of the Wikimedia community as possible. It will come from multiple projects, in multiple languages, and with multiple perspectives.
We are currently planning the consultation. We need your help.
We need volunteers to help talk to their communities or user groups.
You can help by hosting a discussion at your wiki. Here's what to do:
- First, sign up your group here.
- Next, create a page (or a section on a Village pump, or an e-mail thread – whatever is natural for your group) to collect information from other people in your group. This is not a vote or decision-making discussion: we are just collecting feedback.
- Then ask people what they think about communication processes. We want to hear stories and other information about how people communicate with each other on and off wiki. Please consider asking these five questions:
- When you want to discuss a topic with your community, what tools work for you, and what problems block you?
- What about talk pages works for newcomers, and what blocks them?
- What do others struggle with in your community about talk pages?
- What do you wish you could do on talk pages, but can't due to the technical limitations?
- What are the important aspects of a "wiki discussion"?
- Finally, please go to Talk pages consultation 2019 on Mediawiki.org and report what you learned from your group. Please include links if the discussion is available to the public.
You can also help build the list of the many different ways people talk to each other.
Not all groups active on wikis or around wikis use the same way to discuss things: it can happen on wiki, on social networks, through external tools... Tell us how your group communicates.
You can read more about the overall process on mediawiki.org. If you have questions or ideas, you can leave feedback about the consultation process in the language you prefer.
Thank you! We're looking forward to talking with you.
Trizek (WMF) 15:00, 21 February 2019 (UTC)
Read-only mode for up to 30 minutes on 11 April[edit]
10:56, 8 April 2019 (UTC)
non-English pages in Category:EN[edit]
I'm seeing a lot of non-English pages that are getting included in Category:EN, for example:
But not:
Is this because the parent page Help:Basic editing was in the EN category? --mikeu talk 23:58, 8 April 2019 (UTC)
Wikimedia Foundation Medium-Term Plan feedback request[edit]
Please help translate to your language
Proposal to modify the Wikimedia Language Proposal Policy[edit]
There is a proposal on Meta to modify the language proposal policy. The proposed changes can be found here, with discussion on that page's talk page. StevenJ81 (talk) 19:54, 19 April 2019 (UTC)
Editing News #1—July 2019[edit]
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Did you know?
Did you know that you can use the visual editor on a mobile device?
Every article has a pencil icon at the top. Tap on the pencil icon 
to start editing.
Edit Cards
This is what the new Edit Cards for editing links in the mobile visual editor look like. You can try the prototype here: 📲 Try Edit Cards.
Welcome back to the Editing newsletter.
Since the last newsletter, the team has released two new features for the mobile visual editor and has started developing three more. All of this work is part of the team's goal to make editing on mobile web simpler.
Before talking about the team's recent releases, we have a question for you:
Are you willing to try a new way to add and change links?
If you are interested, we would value your input! You can try this new link tool in the mobile visual editor on a separate wiki.
Follow these instructions and share your experience:
Recent releases[edit]
The mobile visual editor is a simpler editing tool, for smartphones and tablets using the mobile site. The Editing team recently launched two new features to improve the mobile visual editor:
- Section editing
- The purpose is to help contributors focus on their edits.
- The team studied this with an A/B test. This test showed that contributors who could use section editing were 1% more likely to publish the edits they started than people with only full-page editing.
- Loading overlay
- The purpose is to smooth the transition between reading and editing.
Section editing and the new loading overlay are now available to everyone using the mobile visual editor.
New and active projects[edit]
This is a list of our most active projects. Watch these pages to learn about project updates and to share your input on new designs, prototypes and research findings.
- Edit cards: This is a clearer way to add and edit links, citations, images, templates, etc. in articles. You can try this feature now. Go here to see how: 📲 Try Edit Cards.
- Mobile toolbar refresh: This project will learn if contributors are more successful when the editing tools are easier to recognize.
- Mobile visual editor availability: This A/B test asks: Are newer contributors more successful if they use the mobile visual editor? We are collaborating with 20 Wikipedias to answer this question.
- Usability improvements: This project will make the mobile visual editor easier to use. The goal is to let contributors stay focused on editing and to feel more confident in the editing tools.
Looking ahead[edit]
- Wikimania: Several members of the Editing Team will be attending Wikimania in August 2019. They will lead a session about mobile editing in the Community Growth space. Talk to the team about how editing can be improved.
- Talk Pages: In the coming months, the Editing Team will begin improving talk pages and communication on the wikis.
Learning more[edit]
The VisualEditor on mobile is a good place to learn more about the projects we are working on. The team wants to talk with you about anything related to editing. If you have something to say or ask, please leave a message at Talk:VisualEditor on mobile.
18:32, 23 July 2019 (UTC)
Update on the consultation about office actions[edit]
Hello all,
Last month, the Wikimedia Foundation's Trust & Safety team announced a future consultation about partial and/or temporary office actions. We want to let you know that the draft version of this consultation has now been posted on Meta.
This is a draft. It is not intended to be the consultation itself, which will be posted on Meta likely in early September. Please do not treat this draft as a consultation. Instead, we ask your assistance in forming the final language for the consultation.
For that end, we would like your input over the next couple of weeks about what questions the consultation should ask about partial and temporary Foundation office action bans and how it should be formatted. Please post it on the draft talk page. Our goal is to provide space for the community to discuss all the aspects of these office actions that need to be discussed, and we want to ensure with your feedback that the consultation is presented in the best way to encourage frank and constructive conversation.
Please visit the consultation draft on Meta-wiki and leave your comments on the draft’s talk page about what the consultation should look like and what questions it should ask.
Thank you for your input! -- The Trust & Safety team 08:02, 16 August 2019 (UTC)
New tools and IP masking[edit]
Hey everyone,
The Wikimedia Foundation wants to work on two things that affect how we patrol changes and handle vandalism and harassment. We want to make the tools that are used to handle bad edits better. We also want to get better privacy for unregistered users so their IP addresses are no longer shown to everyone in the world. We would not hide IP addresses until we have better tools for patrolling.
We have an idea of what tools could be working better and how a more limited access to IP addresses would change things, but we need to hear from more wikis. You can read more about the project on Meta and post comments and feedback. Now is when we need to hear from you to be able to give you better tools to handle vandalism, spam and harassment.
You can post in your language if you can't write in English.
Johan (WMF)14:19, 21 August 2019 (UTC)
Update on technical issues and other things interfering with getting the project approval and creation process moving again[edit]
Please read the update at m:Language committee#Update on technical issues and other things interfering with getting the process moving again. StevenJ81 (talk) 16:38, 4 September 2019 (UTC)
The consultation on partial and temporary Foundation bans just started[edit]
Hello,
In a recent statement, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees requested that staff hold a consultation to "re-evaluat[e] or add community input to the two new office action policy tools (temporary and partial Foundation bans)".
Accordingly, the Foundation's Trust & Safety team invites all Wikimedians to join this consultation and give their feedback from 30 September to 30 October.
How can you help?
- Suggest how partial and temporary Foundation bans should be used, if they should (eg: On all projects, or only on a subset);
- Give ideas about how partial and temporary Foundation bans should ideally implemented, if they should be; and/or
- Propose changes to the existing Office Actions policy on partial and temporary bans.
We offer our thanks in advance for your contributions, and we hope to get as much input as possible from community members during this consultation!
-- Kbrown (WMF) 17:14, 30 September 2019 (UTC)
Feedback wanted on Desktop Improvements project[edit]
Please help translate to your language
Hello. The Readers Web team at the WMF will work on some improvements to the desktop interface over the next couple of years. The goal is to increase usability without removing any functionality. We have been inspired by changes made by volunteers, but that currently only exist as local gadgets and user scripts, prototypes, and volunteer-led skins. We would like to begin the process of bringing some of these changes into the default experience on all Wikimedia projects.
We are currently in the research stage of this project and are looking for ideas for improvements, as well as feedback on our current ideas and mockups. So far, we have performed interviews with community members at Wikimania. We have gathered lists of previous volunteer and WMF work in this area. We are examining possible technical approaches for such changes.
We would like individual feedback on the following:
- Identifying focus areas for the project we have not yet discovered
- Expanding the list of existing gadgets and user scripts that are related to providing a better desktop experience. If you can think of some of these from your wiki, please let us know
- Feedback on the ideas and mockups we have collected so far
We would also like to gather a list of wikis that would be interested in being test wikis for this project - these wikis would be the first to receive the updates once we’re ready to start building.
When giving feedback, please consider the following goals of the project:
- Make it easier for readers to focus on the content
- Provide easier access to everyday actions (e.g. search, language switching, editing)
- Put things in logical and useful places
- Increase consistency in the interface with other platforms - mobile web and the apps
- Eliminate clutter
- Plan for future growth
As well as the following constraints:
- Not touching the content - no work will be done in terms of styling templates or to the structure of page contents themselves
- Not removing any functionality - things might move around, but all navigational items and other functionality currently available by default will remain
- No drastic changes to the layout - we're taking an evolutionary approach to the changes and want the site to continue feeling familiar to readers and editors
Please give all feedback (in any language) at mw:Talk:Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements
After this round of feedback, we plan on building a prototype of suggested changes based on the feedback we receive. You’ll hear from us again asking for feedback on this prototype.
Thank you! Quiddity (WMF) (talk)
07:15, 16 October 2019 (UTC)
