Hi. The latest (weekly) Tech News newsletter is below.
We have not historically[1] sent this newsletter to wikitech-l@ (instead, we send it to the quieter and more-focused wikitech-ambassadors@ list, plus via MassMessage onwiki, and to the Diff blog), but perhaps that should change?
If you have thoughts on that, or related aspects, please see the last entry below which is for a short Tech News reader survey. Your input in that survey is appreciated.
Much thanks,
Nick / Quiddity
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Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.
Recent changes
- Over the next three weeks, dark mode will become available for
all users, both logged-in and logged-out, starting with the mobile web
version. This fulfils one of the top-requested community wishes,
and improves low-contrast reading and usage in low-light settings. As
part of these changes, dark mode will also work on User-pages and
Portals. There is more information in the latest Web team update. [1]
- Logged-in users can now set global preferences for the text-size and dark-mode,
thanks to a combined effort across Foundation teams. This allows
Wikimedians using multiple wikis to set up a consistent reading
experience easily, for example by switching between light and dark mode
only once for all wikis. [2]
- If you use a very old web browser some features might not work on
the Wikimedia wikis. This affects Internet Explorer 11 and versions of
Chrome, Firefox and Safari older than 2016. This change makes it
possible to use new CSS features and to send less code to all readers. [3][4]
- Wikipedia Admins can customize local wiki configuration options easily using Community Configuration.
Community Configuration was created to allow communities to customize
how some features work, because each language wiki has unique needs. At
the moment, admins can configure Growth features on their home wikis, in order to better recruit and retain new editors. More options will be provided in the coming months. [5]
- Editors interested in language issues that are related to Unicode standards, can now discuss those topics at a new conversation space in MediaWiki.org. The Wikimedia Foundation is now a member of the Unicode Consortium,
and the coordination group can collaboratively review the issues
discussed and, where appropriate, bring them to the attention of the
Unicode Consortium.
- One new wiki has been created: a Wikipedia in Mandailing (
w:btm:
) [6]
Problems
- Editors can once again click on links within the visual editor's citation-preview, thanks to a bug fix by the Editing Team. [7]
Future changes
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[1] Tech News is just over 11 years old! Thanks, as always, to Guillaume Paumier for starting it way back then. If you're curious about the old details, you can read
his post from 2014.
--
Nick "Quiddity" Wilson (he/him)
Movement Communications Specialist
Wikimedia Foundation