Not sure if the opening of the Wishlist has been announced here yet? But
it seems to be open for proposals until the 23rd.

Which means I get to propose fixing a simple technical question for the
fifth time in the wishlist: does this page exist?

Seriously.
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Wishlist_Survey_2022/Miscellaneous/Check_if_a_page_exists_without_populating_WhatLinksHere

Thanks,
Mike

On 5/1/22 16:10:37, Natalia Rodriguez wrote:
> Hey all,
> Nice to meet many of you for the first time! Thanks for your feedback
> and for raising larger concerns around resource allocation at the
> Foundation. These concerns are extremely valid-- especially the ones
> around allocating resources for less supported platforms such as Commons
> and broken infrastructure. The wishlist process will begin next week
> with the proposal phase starting Jan 10.
>
> In the email thread, I identified some open questions about the Wishlist
> process so I am answering them here.
>
>   *
>     Can we vote/focus on the maintenance of tools rather than new tools?
>       o
>         Yes. The wishes that we work on do not have to be associated
>         with a new tool. In the past we’ve taken on projects that were
>         maintenance related. For example, in the last year, we took on
>         improvement projects for Wikisource Export and Wikisource OCR
>         tools, among other initiatives. We also maintain and fix all the
>         tools we’ve built in the past.Check out the fresh documentation
>         about what qualifies as a proposal here.
>         <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Wishlist_Survey/FAQ#How_to_create_a_good_proposal?>
>       o
>         Gnangarra, your points about the issues with bulk uploads in
>         Commons would make a sound proposal-- a proposal does not have
>         to be a new tool in the least. The part about uploading large
>         files is out of scope for our team though (see link above about
>         our areas of focus, the issue is infrastructural
>         <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T86436>and too large for what
>         we can take on). I still believe there is value in suggesting
>         it, though.
>       o
>         We have Talk to Us
>         <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Community_Wishlist_Survey/Updates/Talk_to_Us>hours
>         on January 19-- where the entire team will be available for a
>         video call to help folks who want to write proposals and polish
>         them so that they may get selected.
>
>
>   *
>     What if what we want fixed is larger than what the Community Tech
>     team can accomplish?
>       o
>         This year, we will be talking directly with leadership about
>         larger wishes that we can't fulfill ourselves. To make this
>         possible, we will no longer be formally 'Archiving' ideas. One
>         improvement we are implementing from conversations with all of
>         you at past Talk to Us Hours and other places, is that we will
>         place projects that are too large for us into a new category
>         called “Larger Suggestions'' because we still want people to be
>         able to voice those needs. We plan to share this with the
>         Foundation's leadership during the WMF's annual planning, which
>         takes place in the spring.
>       o
>         This being said, if you have an idea that may be too large for
>         us to take on, I would also encourage you to come to Talk to Us
>         Hours (link above) and see if we can help you workshop the
>         proposal into something we can help with. If we can’t then I
>         would still highly encourage you to propose, by all means!
>         Chances are if you think it’s an important problem, many other
>         members do as well.
>       o
>         Finally, the wishlist isn't just for Community Tech. Volunteer
>         developers and other Wikimedia Foundation teams have taken on
>         wishes from the wishlist. For this reason, there is a chance
>         that a wish may not be appropriate for our team, but it can be
>         addressed by someone else.
>
>
>   *
>     Why isn’t the WMF fixing what we feel are  be the most urgently
>     needed fixes in functionality?
>       o
>         This is a larger question that gets answered at the board and
>         C-leadership levels. There are also some relatively new teams at
>         the Foundation, such as Architecture and Platform Engineering,
>         that aim to improve the technical infrastructure overall in the
>         years to come. However, every team can help with the answer and
>         Community Tech can help with communication of technical needs.
>         This “Larger Suggestions” collection of wishes I mentioned in
>         the previous answer will not be a silver bullet that fixes all
>         of the problems, but I believe in the power of incremental steps
>         to steer us in that direction.
>
>
>   *
>     How can we communicate the urgency of the fixes that we need?
>       o
>         I don’t believe there is any lack of documentation of concerns
>         about functionality that is broken. Folks are right to point out
>         that it’s about synthesizing what is most urgently broken, the
>         maintenance that is really necessary, and surfacing it to
>         leadership. We, the Community Tech team, had a lot of hard
>         conversations about how to handle this because we never want to
>         mislead anyone into thinking we are going to work on ideas that
>         are too large for our team. However, we all collectively came to
>         the conclusion that we should still be the team that gives
>         people the space to voice what they need from a technical
>         perspective.
>       o
>         The wishlist itself can communicate urgency. If you submit a
>         detailed wish (the more details, the better!), and if the wish
>         receives a high number of votes, we definitively know as a team
>         that it's urgent and high-priority. From there, we have the
>         information we need to take next steps. This may involve taking
>         on the wish ourselves or communicating the wish to leadership.
>   *
>     Does the Community Tech team work in isolation?
>       o
>         No, we constantly collaborate with other teams at the Foundation
>         and most importantly, with all of you. This year our goal is to
>         share the top wishes with other product managers who are
>         responsible for products related to the categories in the
>         wishlist. This way, they may incorporate relevant wishes into
>         their team's roadmap, or they will at least consider community
>         requests as they plan upcoming work. We always check to see if
>         other teams are already working on solutions related to what is
>         asked inside of the Wishlist. We plan to do more and are
>         energized that the conversation is already beginning to happen
>         in this thread.
>   *
>     Why is the Community Tech team so small? Why can't more people be
>     hired, or why can't a second Community Tech team be formed?
>       o
>         As a team, we deeply believe in our work, and we hope to keep
>         growing. We know how important it is to work directly with
>         community members and fulfill community requests. If you want
>         our team to grow, one of the best ways you can champion us is to
>         participate in the wishlist. As participation rates grow (and
>         they have!), the more effectively we can advocate for our team
>         and its resources.
>
>
> P.S. We are still welcoming help to promote the survey and to translate
> the updated documentation. Thanks for reading.
>
> Best,
> Natalia Rodriguez
> Senior Product Manager, Community Tech
>
>
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