Forwarding from Erik Moeller:
Date: Fri, 21 Mar 2008 11:34:10 -0700
From: "Erik Moeller" <erik(a)wikimedia.org>
Subject: [Wikitech-l] Help us Test Stable Versions!
The Wikimedia Foundation and Wikimedia Germany have collaborated, with
financial support from Wikimedia France, to support development of a new
extension to our software which makes it possible to flag versions of wiki
articles as having reached a certain quality. This new toolset could mark
the beginning of a new era for Wikipedia and its sister projects, giving
readers more transparency than ever about the quality of a given article. A
special note of thanks to Aaron Schulz, who has developed much of the
functionality as a volunteer -- we would not be where we are today without
him. The ongoing support and patience of Philipp Birken from the German
chapter was also critical.
Before this functionality will be enabled on any Wikimedia project, it needs
to be tested thoroughly for usability, bugs, security and performance. Test
wikis have been set up in English and German (because the German Wikimedia
community has been driving the development of this functionality from the
beginning).
http://en.labs.wikimedia.org/
http://de.labs.wikimedia.org/
These wikis contain a copy of the Wikibooks database. This copy is
completely separate from the "real" Wikibooks, so do not worry about
destroying anything of value. Please follow the instructions on the Main
Pages to participate. If you do not speak English or German, we encourage
you right now to
- set up test wikis independently using the open source extension available
from
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:FlaggedRevs , or
- change the user interface preference, and create pages in the English test
wiki in your language.
This is due to our limited capacity to set up additional wikis. If you feel
you really, absolutely, strongly need a test wiki in your language, please
file a request through:
https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/
Wikimedia communities will also have to decide what kind of configuration to
use for their project. Key questions to answer
include:
- What quality attributes should there be?
- Who should be permitted to flag changes as having been reviewed for
vandalism, or for other quality attributes?
- Should the default view for unregistered users change to the "stable
version" on all pages, some pages, or no pages?
The German Wikimedia community has implemented a particular long-standing
community proposal and will probably go live the soonest with this
configuration; other communities will still have to develop consensus.
== What's next? ==
The test will run at least until April 10, 2008 before the extension is
implemented live on any wiki. This is to allow any serious problems to be
surfaced by the community. If there are no critical open issues as of April
10, any language/project community will be permitted to file a request
through
https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/ to activate the extension. This
request will have to point to pages in the project indicating a consensus to
move forward. Detailed instructions to do so will be posted on the test
wikis.
--
Erik M?ller
Deputy Director, Wikimedia Foundation
Support Free Knowledge:
http://wikimediafoundation.org/wiki/Donate