----- Original Message ----- Lars Aronsson wrote
In my mind, Wikipedia is about volunteering to make the world better. If you are concerned about the divide between wikipedia-l and wikitech-l, then *you* can bridge the gap by joining both lists and post summaries to wikipedia-l of the technical issues currently under discussion.
I hope I don't sound like I'm giving orders; I know we're all volunteers here, including Mr. Wales, who has volunteered his servers and talents to keep the whole show running. I'm not asking for summaries of all technical discussions, nor do I think they should be moved to Wikipedia-L (they were just moved *off* of this list not that long ago). When I say I'm worried about the programmers becoming isolated (note that I don't think the programmering subcommunity *is* isolated yet), I'm mainly talking about two things.
The first is if a Bomis sysadmin has to take drastic steps to keep Wikipedia running (i.e. temporarily removing major functionality), could some sort of announcement made soon afterwards? That way, the community doesn't have to guess what's going on.
The second is my concern about what the Cunctator calls "featuritis". I think that any *major* new software features should be discussed in the general Wikipedia assembly. For example, what is the "Autowikification" button (no offence intended to whoever implemented it!)? What does it do? Why is it useful? How do I use it? Most importantly, do we need it? It sounds like it automatically links words to existing articles. If so, I would argue against the utility of such a creature.
However, I also think that the programmers should not have to be nitpicked by a bunch of people who don't code. ;-) It's only major stuff that I'm talking about here.
So, it's not that I want someone to sum up "This Week on Wikitech-L" all the time. Anyone interested in that can join the list. I'm just looking for ways to keep the rest of the community in the loop concerning major changes to everyday Wikipedia work.
-- Stephen Gilbert
________________________________ Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia http://www.wikipedia.com
On lun, 2002-05-13 at 18:01, Guardian Tor wrote:
The first is if a Bomis sysadmin has to take drastic steps to keep Wikipedia running (i.e. temporarily removing major functionality), could some sort of announcement made soon afterwards? That way, the community doesn't have to guess what's going on.
That would be nice, yes. :)
There's been talk of making the text at the top of Recent Changes editable again (as on the old software), which would enable this kind of major news to be placed both on the main page and recent changes, the two main entry points to the site. A courtesy message to wikipedia-l would be helpful, too.
The second is my concern about what the Cunctator calls "featuritis". I think that any *major* new software features should be discussed in the general Wikipedia assembly. For example, what is the "Autowikification" button (no offence intended to whoever implemented it!)? What does it do? Why is it useful? How do I use it? Most importantly, do we need it? It sounds like it automatically links words to existing articles. If so, I would argue against the utility of such a creature.
See the thread "Wikification function proposal" in the Wikipedia-l archives circa February 27. There was discussion; consensus was not really achieved; Magnus later decided to add it as an experimental feature (as mentioned on Wikitech-l, 7 April), and it ended up on the main Wikipedia mainly because no one remembered to take it out before the software suddenly got upgraded last weekend! In the latest revision (not yet installed) it's been made optional, the button hidden by default, until such time as it is working, documented, and desired.
-- brion vibber (brion @ pobox.com)
Guardian Tor wrote:
The second is my concern about what the Cunctator calls "featuritis". I think that any *major* new software features should be discussed in the general Wikipedia assembly.
I agree with this. But there is a problem to determine in advance what is a "major" and what is a minor feature. Obviously, a feature or implementation detail that makes the system grind to a halt is a major issue. This time, the "talk" links turned out to be one of the major issues because of the inefficient way they were implemented, and temporarily removing the talk links made the website run faster. (Let's hope the improved implementation is up and running soon.)
I think the autowikification button is a most interesting feature, but perhaps it should be disabled by default, with each user having the option to enable it from the personal preferences page. This way, it wouldn't confuse the beginners. It could also be turned on automatically for all logged in users who have pressed "save" more than 50 times. This would be close to magic (like an adventure game, where you gain "experience points" from slaying dragons), but still require very little explanation.
My granddad's old TV set had a knob at the back for horizontal sync. That was a major feature to him, because the picture would just roll around until he adjusted the sync. However, instead of teaching everybody about this feature, the TV manufacturers were able to hide the function in a self-regulating circuit inside all new TV sets. In the same way, if the wikitech-l gang is able to keep the website running nice and smooth, the wikipedia-l crowd can focus on issues about how to write articles, and nobody will ask for tech updates.
The second is my concern about what the Cunctator calls "featuritis". I think that any *major* new software features should be discussed in the general Wikipedia assembly.
I agree with this. But there is a problem to determine in advance what is a "major" and what is a minor feature. Obviously, a feature or implementation detail that makes the system grind to a halt is a major issue. This time, the "talk" links turned out to be one of the major issues because of the inefficient way they were implemented, and temporarily removing the talk links made the website run faster. (Let's hope the improved implementation is up and running soon.)
It is, and working great (except it seems to be broken at the moment...)
I think the autowikification button is a most interesting feature, but perhaps it should be disabled by default, with each user having the option to enable it from the personal preferences page. This way, it wouldn't confuse the beginners. It could also be turned on automatically for all logged in users who have pressed "save" more than 50 times. This would be close to magic (like an adventure game, where you gain "experience points" from slaying dragons), but still require very little explanation.
Already done in the brand-new version (the option method, not the may-the-force-be-with-you thing;)
My granddad's old TV set had a knob at the back for horizontal sync. That was a major feature to him, because the picture would just roll around until he adjusted the sync. However, instead of teaching everybody about this feature, the TV manufacturers were able to hide the function in a self-regulating circuit inside all new TV sets. In the same way, if the wikitech-l gang is able to keep the website running nice and smooth, the wikipedia-l crowd can focus on issues about how to write articles, and nobody will ask for tech updates.
There's definitely room for optimizing the update process (and we need constant updates, if only to make the 'pedia fast again, or install bugfixes).
Magnus
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