The Wikimedia Foundation is currently conducting a global consultation
about communication
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk_pages_consultation_2019>. The goal is
to bring Wikimedians and wiki-minded people together to improve tools for
communication.
*Phase 1 of the consultation is over
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk_pages_consultation_2019/Phase_1_report>* –
thank you to everyone who participated! – and we've published the Phase 1
report
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk_pages_consultation_2019/Phase_1_report>.
The report summarizes what we've learned, proposes a direction for the
project, and asks specific questions to explore in Phase 2.
Very briefly, the proposed direction is that wikitext talk pages should be
improved, and not replaced. We propose building a new design on top of talk
pages that changes the page's default appearance, and offers key tools like
replying, indenting and signing posts. To keep consistency with existing
tools, the new design will be a default experience that existing users can
opt out of. We also propose building features that experienced contributors
want, including the ability to watchlist a single discussion, and the
ability to move, archive and search for threads. Building these features
may require some loss of flexibility, or small-to-medium changes in
wikitext conventions. The goal is to only make changes that directly enable
functionality that users really want.
You can see more information and discussion about the proposed direction in
the Phase 1 report
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk_pages_consultation_2019/Phase_1_report>,
including the results of new user tests and some of the quotations from
Phase 1 discussions that led to this proposal.
*Now it's time to start Phase 2!*
We have six questions to discuss in Phase 2, asking for reactions to the
proposed direction, and pros and cons for specific changes that we could
make.
You can help by hosting a discussion at your wiki. Here's what to do:
1. First, sign up your group here.
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk_pages_consultation_2019/Participant_group_sign-up>
don't
forget to coordinate with other users from your wiki to avoid creating
multiple consultations on the same wiki! :)
2. 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.
3. Then start the conversation with the six questions listed in the
Questions
for Phase 2
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk_pages_consultation_2019/Phase_1_report#Questions_for_Phase_2>
section
of the report.
4. When the conversation is concluded, the host should write a summary
of the discussion on the Phase 2 community discussion summaries page
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk_pages_consultation_2019/Phase_2_community_discussion_summaries>,
and report what you learned from your group. Please include links if the
discussion is available to the public.
You can read more about the overall process
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk_pages_consultation_2019> on
MediaWiki.org. If you have questions or ideas, you can leave feedback about
the consultation process
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Talk:Talk_pages_consultation_2019> in the
language you prefer.
Thank you! We're looking forward to talking with you.
Best,
Benoît
On behalf of the talk pages consultation team
--
Benoît Evellin - Trizek (he/him)
Community Relations Specialist
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>