Hi folks,
I'm happy to let you know that Beta Features and Media Viewer have now been released on Commons and MetaWiki, in addition to
MediaWiki.org!
Beta Features (1) is a new program from the Wikimedia Foundation that lets you try out new features 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 in a way that's not disruptive.
One of the first beta features we will be testing together is Media Viewer (2), which aims to improve the viewing experience by displaying images in larger size and with less clutter than the current file pages. This first version 0.1 is still in early stages of development, with many known bugs, but we invite community feedback right away for this feature, so we can improve it together in coming months. For a sneak peek at the next version 0.2 of the Media Viewer, check out these first mockups. (3)
Beta Features and Media Viewer are now ready for early testing by logged-in users on Wikimedia Commons (4), on
Meta.Wikimedia.org (5) and on
MediaWiki.org (6). Based on test results, we aim to release these beta features on all wikis worldwide on 21 November, 2013.
Here are some of the other beta features in our pipeline:
• VisualEditor Formulæ — edit algebra or equations on your pages (only on
MediaWiki.org) (7)
• Typography Refresh — make text more readable (scheduled for first release Thursday, 14 November) (8)
Would you like to try out Beta Features and Media Viewer now? After you log in, 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'. After you've tested Beta Features, please let us know what you think on this discussion page (9) -- or report any bugs here on Bugzilla. (10)
You're also welcome to join tomorrow's IRC office hours chat on Friday, 8 November at 18:30 UTC. (11)
Beta Features and Media Viewer were developed by the Wikimedia Foundation's Multimedia team, in collaboration with the Design, Mobile and VisualEditor teams. Along with other developers, we will be adding new features to this experimental program every few weeks.
We are very grateful to all the community and team members who made these projects possible — and look forward to many more productive collaborations in the future. :)
Enjoy, and don't forget to let us know what you think!
Fabrice