Hi folks,
For any interested, today appear in the blog Codigo Espagueti[1] a survey
about the trust in Wikipedia and the use both in Mexico and the United
States. Some facts:
- 60% of people with internet access in Mexico has heard about Wikipedia.
- 82% are very or somewhat confident. In contrast, only 16% have little
or no credibility.
- In Mexico 59% use this site to learn about different topics and 53% in
USA.
The blog post does not indicate the method of the survey, but is a
interesting exercise.
Cheers.
[1] http://codigoespagueti.com/noticias/wikipedia-mexico-encuesta/
--
*Atentamente:Iván MartínezPresidenteWikimedia México A.C.wikimedia.mx
<http://wikimedia.mx>Imagina un mundo en donde cada persona del planeta
pueda tener acceso libre a la suma total del conocimiento humano. Eso es lo
que estamos haciendo <http://es.wikipedia.org>. *
Hi,
I propose some constructive ideas to improve the deployment of new features:
* granular deployments: create "user profiles" where the users can choose
if they want an overall appearance:
* "never ever change my interface": some experienced authors do not like
when one change every month their workflow if they are happy with it,
* "experienced editor": some experienced editors want new features or see
what the newbies see,
* "newbie": the newbies/editors-to-be could expect an editing environment
possibly different than the reader environment,
* "reader": the readers have their own expectations for easy reading,
* etc.
The features could be deployed only for some groups, giving more flexibility
to deploy "reader features" for readers, etc. Obviously there are
preferences, but the newbies have no experience about it, and the
experienced editors have to be discover new preferences on a case-by-case
basis, making it difficult to everybody to track the preferences.
* implement global preferences (and the possibility to change locally or
globally, like in Mailman) [bug 14950][]
* when a new feature is introduced, propose to users (not in "never ever
change my interface") if they want the new feature, locally or globally,
possibly using the Notifications bar, or with some message in the prefs
page and highlighting it on the prefs page
* work on a better organisation of the preferences, e.g. add an exhaustive
preference panel similarly to Firefox’s about:config to permit the
developers to add more preferences and hence offering more customisation
possibilities for advanced users, by nullifying the argument "the
preferences page is too complicated for new users"
* as it was proposed, add a review process for the gadgets+JS pages to avoid
performance, security, usability issues, possibly with the help of the tech
staff, and possibly with the general MediaWiki code review
(gerrit/Phabricator) with some gateway between it and the MediaWiki
websites [bug 69445][] [bug 20153][]
In other words, improve the deployment targets and give easy choices to users
to opt-in/opt-out/etc the new features depending on their willingness to
change their environment.
And although I’m neither a loudly people neither the community, I vote to
remove the superprotect right and any other enforcement of this type in the
future. It’s like an edit war where one party has the power to silence the
other, and like all edit wars there are at least two wrong versions.
[bug 69445]: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=69445
[bug 14950]: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=14950
[bug 20153]: https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=20153
~ Seb35
On Tue, Aug 12, 2014 at 12:18 AM, Brian Wolff <bawolff(a)gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Now, having observed that not only user Eloquence (aka Erik Moeller)
>> himself engaged in the enforcement of <superprotect> right on de.wp
>> [1] but soon after a workaround was published a change was deployed
>> [2, 3] as counter measurement to block any possible interference can
>> no longer be interpret as acting in good faith but rather strikes me
>> as a form of oppression (or worst as censorship).
>>
>
> [Putting the purely mw dev hat on]
>
> It was a bug in mediawiki, and thus it should be fixed. MediaWiki is used
> by many different groups and in general we [mw devs] do not judge people
> for how they use the software. If some non wmf entity reported the bug, it
> would still be fixed.
>
> So dont complain that mw fixes a bug in how page protection. If you are
> unhappy with current events you should direct your anger at how the wmf
> decided to use hard security to enforce its dictates, not at the software
> for "working".
Sorry Brian, which bug are you referring to? Could you point me to a
bug report?
Before this, there was no expectation that a page could be protected
such that sysops could not alter the content of the superprotected
page.
Now, the devs/ops have attempted to introduce that capability, and the
new functionality is very likely riddled with holes, some of which
MZMcBride has suggested in the thread 'Options for the German
Wikipedia'.
Moreover the deployed technical change is useless due to design flaws.
What was the goal of this change? Was it to prevent sysops injecting
JavaScript that logged out user-agents execute? If that is the
use-case, this patch is a very weak solution from an engineering
perspective. It was rushed it into a production environment, and
needed a follow up patch almost immediately. And the bug reports for
this new functionality will surely roll in.
These patches only make it 'forbidden' to deactivate the MediaViewer.
They don't prevent it. These patches only introduce a new policy,
signalling a new era, and make it technically more challenging to
bypass that new policy. The policy written says "Sysops are not
allowed to inject JavaScript into the reader's user-agent which
interferes with WMF's favoured features." It is still possible, but
the only thing that is stopping de.wp sysops from deactivating the
MediaViewer some other way is that the WMF has demonstrated it will
make drastic changes to the MediaWiki configuration to take away
capabilities from their community. Should the community work-around
this change, they are fairly confident that the WMF will desysop
whoeverdoes it, or more configuration changes and superprotection will
occur.
--
John Vandenberg
Henning writes:
> To describe Eric's action I am tempted to use a
> metaphor that includes black uniforms and heavy boots. But that would
> not be appropriately written by a German to a German.
My experience over the last quarter century suggests that this
metaphor rarely works out well.
--Mike Godwin
This is a talk from Rick Falkvinge, founder of the Swedish Pirate Party, at
the TEDx in Oslo last year.
I thought it was worth sharing with you all:
http://tedxtalks.ted.com/video/Changing-the-world-through-swar
It would be really interesting to apply these methods within Chapters and
the overall Wikimedia community :-)
Hope to see you soon again,
always great to be at Wikimania.
Aubrey
Wikimedia Italia
Dear all,
I would like to draw your attention on the Translation Extension for Mediawiki, since 2 years now, community members ask to improve this extension by adding the possibility to select the original language. https://bugzilla.wikimedia.org/show_bug.cgi?id=35489
We are in a movement where the knowledge exchange is a primary concern, we have a really good tools to facilitate the translation of the documentation, but today we are still obliged to first translate "manually" in English before being able to use the Translate extension.
I’m not a Tech guy, I try to read the bug's page linked before, and the only message I can get from is « you, non English speakers, are not our priority ».
The ability to translate in multiple language the documentation created by non English speakers is a major challenge, we need to make it happen more often.
Everyday I heard French speaker saying that they do not belong to the Wikimedia Community because it’s all in English/all for English, I do not pretend that improving the Translate extension will solve this issue, but it could be a little step forward.
thank for your attention
Charles
___________________________________________________________
Charles ANDRES, Chief Science Officer
"Wikimedia CH" – Association for the advancement of free knowledge –
www.wikimedia.ch
Office +41 (0)21 340 66 21
Mobile +41 (0)78 910 00 97
Skype: charles.andres.wmch
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Forwarding on request.
--
Thehelpfulone
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Thehelpfulone
Begin forwarded message:
> From: Ad Huikeshoven <ad(a)wikimedia.nl>
> Date: 13 August 2014 12:40:14 BST
> To: wikimedia-l-owner(a)lists.wikimedia.org
> Subject: Clarification by Lila Tretikov about MediaViewer
>
> Dear fellow Wikipedians and Wikimedians,
>
> Your work in creating the awesome thing Wikipedia is very much appreciated and you're all recognized for contributing towards it's success. Last weekend I have been to Wikimania. I really enjoyed the presentation by Fabrice Florin about A Culture of Kindness [1]. One of the slide contains a picture of Jimmy Wales holding a sheet of paper on which he has written 'be kind to everyone, including the annoying ones'.
>
> There have been multiple threads on this list with many postings about actions on the German Wikipedia with respect to MediaViewer. On meta Lila Tretikov has posted several remarks including an additional clarification [2], which I copy below:
>
> <quote>
> * Our overall communication, design, prioritization, testing, roll-out mechanisms and general product development practices are insufficient and must be brought on-par with our user’s expectations. We are not planning any new major deployments until some of those basic improvements are put into place. This will be done in the open; it is fundamental and urgent. I've touched on it at Wikimania.
> * We are not removing MV. It has been in production for months. Its removal will cause more problems and confusion for our users. We will hold ourselves accountable to getting it to the level of quality that is expected of the top site.
> * We are working to post next steps to clarify development and deployment process including rights and responsibilities; you can expect more information in coming days.
> * I encourage you to help us improve our process as a whole as well as this specific feature by offering your time, advice, and collaboration. We will be engaging you on it. Please refrain from making unassisted changes to the feature’s configuration.
> </quote>
>
> What Fabrice and Jimmy ask for is to be kind. What I would like to express is that many of the postings about MediaViewer do annoy me, and some are very annoying. What I do ask of my fellow Wikipedians is to continue to contribute to Wikipedia in a kind way, to pay attention to what Lila has posted on meta and which I copied above.
>
> Some of you might be curious to learn to know the ideas of Lila. She made a presentation at Wikimania, which can be viewed on line [3]. Please collaborate in the development of processes in a kind way. Thank you.
> ---
> [1] https://wikimania2014.wikimedia.org/wiki/Submissions/A_Culture_of_Kindness
> [2] https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk%3ALilaTretikov&diff=…
> [3] http://new.livestream.com/wikimania/saturday2014
> --
> Ad Huikeshoven
>
> Bestuurslid / Board member Wikimedia Nederland
> Internationaal / International Affairs
> Educatieprogramma / Education Program
>
> tel. (+31) (0)70 3608510
> mob. (+31) (0)6 40293574
>
> Steun vrije kennis! Kijk op wikimedia.nl
> Postadres: Bezoekadres:
> Postbus 167 Mariaplaats 3
> 3500 AD Utrecht Utrecht
>
> ABNAMRO NL33 ABNA 0497164833 - Kamer van Koophandel 17189036
FYI, Lila had chosen to engage in discussion on her meta talk page.
Numerous editors are commenting there. Discussion also continues on the
meta RFC and on the English Wikipedia arbitration workshop page.
Pine
On Aug 14, 2014 12:03 AM, "Russavia" <russavia.wikipedia(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Erik
On Thu, Aug 14, 2014 at 5:32 AM, Erik Moeller <erik(a)wikimedia.org> wrote:
>
> This is why on all major sites, you see a gradual ramp-up of a new
> feature, and continued improvement once it's widely used. Often
> there's an opt-in and then an opt-out to ease users into the change.
> But once a change is launched, it very rarely gets rolled back unless
> it's just clearly not doing what it's supposed to.
Are you are familiar with the Flickr experience in the last 12 months by
any chance? I think that is a very pertinent and prominent example of what
goes against what you say. The Flickr attitude was much the same as the
WMF's. That ended up in a revolt, much like the WMF is seeing against it.
In the end, they ended up doing what Erik?
Also, the other day I received a Flickr email from someone wishing to use
an image which I had not taken, but which I had uploaded to Commons. They
mentioned that they saw the photo on Commons.
When I told them that I am not the author, and that they would need to
contact Joe Bloggs, their response: "I'm sorry, this is SO confusing to me."
I put that down to MediaViewer and its adding irrelevant information, and
also the fact that file information is more difficult to find.
Russavia
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