[Wikimedia-l] Introducing Beta Features

Hi all, We're pleased to announce Beta Features [1], a new program that lets you test new features on Wikipedia and other Wikimedia sites before they are released for everyone. Think of it as a digital laboratory where community members can preview upcoming software and give feedback to help improve them. This special preference page lets designers and engineers experiment with new features on a broad scale, but not in a disruptive manner. Beta Features is ready for testing now on MediaWiki.org [2]. This Thursday, we plan to also deploy it on Wikimedia Commons and MetaWiki. Based on test results, we aim to release it on all wikis worldwide on 21 November, 2013. Here are the first features you can test this week: * Media Viewer — view images in large size or full screen [3] * VisualEditor Formulæ — edit algebra or equations on your pages [4] * Typography Refresh — make text more readable (coming Thursday) [5] Would you like to try out BetaFeatures now? After you log in on MediaWiki.org, a small 'Beta' link will appear next to your 'Preferences'. Click on it to see features you can test, check the ones you want, then click 'Save'. Learn more on the BetaFeatures page. [1] After you've tested Beta Features, please let us know what you think on our discussion page [6] -- or report any bugs on Bugzilla [7]. For technical documentation, visit the BetaFeatures extension page. [8]. You're also welcome to join our IRC office hours chat on Friday, 8 November at 10:30am PST, 18:30 UTC. [9] Beta Features was developed by the Wikimedia Foundation's Design, Multimedia and VisualEditor teams. Along with other developers, we will be adding new features to this experimental program every few weeks. For now, we'd like to thank some key team members who made this project possible: Ed Sanders, Jon Robson, Gergő Tisza, May Galloway, Vibha Bamba, Aaron Schulz, Brion Vibber, Bryan Davis, Chris Steipp, Greg Grossmeier, Keegan Peterzell, Quim Gil, Guillaume Paumier, Erik Moeller, Rob Lanphier, Howie Fung and Tomasz Finc, to name but a few. We're also very grateful to all the community and other team members who helped create this system — and look forward to many more productive collaborations in the future. :) Enjoy, and don't forget to let us know what you think! Fabrice, James, Mark and Jared Wikimedia Engineering and Product Group [1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/About_Beta_Features [2] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Special:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatu… [3] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia/About_Media_Viewer [4] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/VisualEditor/Beta_Features/Formulae [5] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Typography_Update [6] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:About_Beta_Features [7] http://wmbug.com/new?product=MediaWiki%20extensions&component=BetaFeatu… [8] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:BetaFeatures [9] https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/IRC_office_hours#Upcoming_office_hours _______________________________ Fabrice Florin Product Manager, Multimedia Wikimedia Foundation http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Fabrice_Florin_(WMF) https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Multimedia