The WMF Technical Documentation Team[1] is excited to announce three
new documentation-focused communication channels available to all
contributors in the Wikimedia movement:
* Discuss technical writing and connect directly with the Technical
Documentation Team and other friends of the docs[2] in the
#wikimedia-techdocs channel on libera.chat[3].
* Request a documentation consultation or review by creating a task
tagged with Tech-Docs-Team in Phabricator[4]. To do this quickly, use
one of the task templates available on the Documentation page[5], in
Get help > Request documentation consultation or review.
* Learn about past and upcoming documentation-related events, and add
your own, on the Documentation/Events page on mediawiki.org[6]. This
page is a bit empty at the moment, so we'd appreciate your help
filling it with content (for example, links to slide decks, notes, and
recordings from past events).
We hope these new channels will make it easier for documentation
writers and other friends of the docs within the movement to stay in
touch with each other and find support. If you have any feedback about
this, or ideas on how to improve the documentation ecosystem of the
movement, please reach out to us[7].
On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Technical Documentation Team,
Kamil Bach
[1] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Technical_Documentation_Team
[2] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_technical_documentation:_Friends_o…
[3] ircs://irc.libera.chat:6697/wikimedia-techdocs
[4] https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/profile/6599/
[5] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation#Get_help
[6] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Documentation/Events
[7] https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Technical_Documentation_Team#Conta…
--
Kamil Bach (they/them)
Technical Writer
Wikimedia Foundation
Hi all,
We’re excited to announce Wikimedia’s participation in Google Season of
Docs! 🎉 For the first time since 2020, Wikimedia is applying for Google
Season of Docs[1]: a program that provides grants to technical writers to
work on documentation for open-source projects.
This year, we’ll be selecting one Wikimedia documentation project and, if
accepted by Google, hiring one technical writer to complete the project.
For details about the program and how to apply, see the wiki page[2].
Here's how you can get involved:
- [Until March 22] Propose a project, share feedback on a project, or
volunteer to help support a project[3].
- [Until April 28] Apply as a technical writer. We highly encourage
Wikimedians to apply! Even if you’re not a professional technical writer,
we value experience working on wikis.
Our goal is to use this program to improve MediaWiki.org and other
Wikimedia technical documentation, supplementing the work done by
volunteers and staff. We’re hoping to use this year’s edition as a model to
expand the program to multiple projects in future years.
Let's make this a successful season of documentation together! 📚
Best,
- Alex and Onyinyechi
[1] - https://developers.google.com/season-of-docs
[2] - https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs/2024
[3] -
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Season_of_Docs/2024#Volunteering_to_support_…
--
Alex Paskulin
Technical Writer
Wikimedia Foundation
Hello! *(with apologies for cross-posting)*
The annual Wikimedia Hackathon
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2025> is organized by
the Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/> in
collaboration with Wikimedia User Group Turkey (WMTR)
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Community_User_Group_Turkey> and
will be taking place in Istanbul, Turkey, from May 2nd through May 4th,
2025.
Collaboration will happen - in person!
The Hackathon is an on-site, in-person event. Be sure to confirm if your
passport is up to date and has validity at least up to 6 months after the
event. Check to see if you can apply for an e-visa online
<https://www.mfa.gov.tr/visa-information-for-foreigners.en.mfa>, otherwise,
you’ll need a visa to be issued by your country to travel into Turkey.
Those people who cannot attend the Hackathon in-person will be able to
follow some of the program content online, but should not register using
the link provided below. More information will be provided closer to the
event on how to participate remotely.
Participants are expected to book their own travel arrangements and
accommodation. However, the Wikimedia Foundation is offering to take care
of travel and accommodation for a limited number of scholars.
Scholarship / sponsorship applicants - please note:
-
Scholarship application and Wikimedia Foundation staff sponsorship will
only be available to request through December 10th, 2024.
-
Priority will be given to those scholars who can mentor and/or
support in areas of high demand and those WMF staff with ambitious or
impactful projects.
-
All scholarships provided will adhere to the WMF travel policy
<https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Policy:Scholarship_travel_policy>
guidelines.
-
As a reminder, "no shows” may permanently impact a scholarship
recipients' eligibility to receive a future travel scholarship from the
Wikimedia Foundation.
-
More detailed information on what is covered by a scholarship / staff
sponsorship is available online
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2025/Participants#Welcom…!>.
Those that have requested a scholarship or WMF sponsorship will be notified
by mid to late December 2024 about the status of their application.
Let us know if you’ll be attending by registering now
<https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Hackathon_2025/Participants#Regist…>
!
The Hackathon registration form runs on Pretix (a free, open-sourced
third-party platform that helps organize and manage events) which may
subject your data to additional terms <https://pretix.eu/about/en/privacy>.
For more information on WMF’s privacy and data-handling for the Hackathon,
please read the privacy statement
<https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal:Wikimedia_Hackathon_Privacy_Sta…>
.
If you encounter any issues while registering, or have questions about the
registration process, feel free to contact the coordination team at
hackathon(a)wikimedia.org.
Cheers,
Deb
--
deb tankersley (she/her)
developer outreach program management
Wikimedia Foundation
Hello everyone,
We are currently experiencing widespread intermittent DNS resolution issues
within the Toolforge Kubernetes cluster that began a few hours ago. The
WMCS team is actively investigating and working on resolving the issue.
Current impact:
- Intermittent DNS resolution failures across the cluster
- Multiple tool deployments experiencing crashes and restarts
- Inconsistent job execution
- Image pull failures
- API connectivity issues
You can follow the ongoing investigation and updates at:
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T380844
We will send another update once we have more information or when the
incident is resolved.
Thank you for your patience,
WMCS Team
--
Slavina Stefanova (she/her)
Software Engineer | Cloud Services
Wikimedia Foundation
<a href=https://annotationbox.com/>Data annotation services</a> involve labeling and categorizing data to enhance machine learning models. By providing detailed annotations—such as tagging objects in images or transcribing audio—these services ensure AI systems are trained on accurate datasets, improving performance across various applications.
*TL;DR:*The SRE Observability team asks that no new metrics be deployed to
Graphite, as the service will be transitioned to a read-only state by the
end of Q3 FY2024/25 (~Spring 2025)—details in T228380 [1].
Please disable or migrate all existing Graphite metrics to Prometheus [2]
and retire the corresponding panels and dashboards as applicable before the
end of Q3 FY2024/25 (~Spring 2025).
*Technical Sunsetting of Graphite for Prometheus Reminder*The SRE
Observability team has been operating Prometheus [1] in production for
several years, offering several operational benefits over Graphite. After a
long period of observation and usage, the team has determined that
migrating MW off Graphite ensures we stay ahead with a supported, scalable
metrics platform for more effective dimensional metrics analysis and
storage.
Prometheus also provides more robust data labeling, storage, and querying
capabilities. This initiative is fundamental to unifying our metrics,
enhancing monitoring, improving MW observability, and reducing tool
fragmentation.
*Notice and Action Required*
*The team plans to make Graphite read-only by the end of Q3 FY 2024/2025
(Spring 2025) and begin the formal deprecation of Graphite in production
[1].*
We ask all teams and maintainers to check this dashboard [3] and related
task T350592 [4] and claim metrics and dashboards in associated tasks or
related to components under their care. Disable/remove any unused metrics
and dashboards first, then follow the migration process outlined in the
task to *migrate all “in-use” metrics before the end of Q3 FY 2024/2025
(March 2025)*. *After this date, Graphite will be read-only, and no new
data will be ingested. *
Graphite will continue to be available for another year to provide
historical data in read-only “mode” while new history is recorded in
Prometheus. Please see the tracking task T228380 [2] or roadmap [5] for
additional details.
Related Links:
[1] Tech debt: sunsetting of Graphite
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T228380
[2] Wikitech:Prometheus https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Prometheus
[3] List of dashboards w/Graphite queries
https://grafana.wikimedia.org/d/K6DEOo5Ik/grafana-graphite-datasource-utili…
[4] EPIC: migrate in-use metrics and dashboards to statslib
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T350592
[5] Graphite Deprecation Roadmap
https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Graphite/Deprecation_Roadmap
Thank you for reading! Be safe and happy.
Best,
Leo
*Leo Mata* (he/him)
Engineering Manager - Observability
Wikimedia Foundation <https://wikimediafoundation.org/>