Hello, here is an update on the deployment of Reference Previews:
* As you may have noticed, Reference Previews [1] were not deployed in March, as was originally planned. The deployment as a default feature is planned for May 5 on a group of wikis [2]. More wikis will follow over the course of the year.
* The decision to have a combined setting for Reference Previews and Page Previews was revisited, so you will be able to toggle both types of previews on and off independently. That change has now been implemented, along with a few other fixes for reported issues. * Reference Previews will become opt-out for all users, both logged in and logged out [3]. (As before, if you're using the gadgets Reference Tootips or Navigation Popups to see popups for references, you won't see Reference Previews.)
If you have any feedback or questions, please let me know on the project’s talk page. [4]
For WMDE’s Technical Wishes team
Johanna
[1] project page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews
[2] wikis for first round of default deployment: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews#Stat...
[3] opt-out feature: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews#Opt-...
[4] talk page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews
Am Mi., 3. März 2021 um 10:43 Uhr schrieb Johanna Strodt < johanna.strodt@wikimedia.de>:
// apologies for cross-posting
Hello!
A new type of preview will soon be part of the MediaWiki software: Reference Previews.[1] This feature shows you a reference in a small pop-up when you hover over the reference number in square brackets. This way, you can look up a reference without jumping down to the bottom of the page.
What’s more is that Reference Previews can offer a quicker way to evaluate the trustworthiness of the cited source by displaying the reference type (book, web, news, journal, note) in the pop-up’s header. Thus, they can help increase trust in the article itself. These types can be applied by using citation templates, or by manually entering a class into the ref tag.
Reference Previews will be combined with Page Previews[2], a feature showing previews for linked articles. Both perform essentially the same function: previewing content before deciding to dig deeper, and easily providing more information while reading. Because of their similarities in design and behavior, both Page Previews and Reference Previews will be controlled by a single user setting. This means, all users who currently have Page Previews activated, will also get Reference Previews. Also, all readers, anonymous contributors and new users will see Reference Previews per default if they haven’t disabled Page Previews.
On several wikis, the Navigation-Popups gadget and the Reference Tooltips gadget already offer previews for references. If you want to use them instead, you can: If you have one of these gadgets enabled, you’ll see them instead of Reference Previews. Although these gadgets exist, this feature was built into a MediaWiki extension in order to make it available for all Wikipedias, just as Page Previews is.
The original request for this came from the Technical Wishes survey on German Wikipedia in 2017, where it was the number 1 wish. The Technical Wishes team from Wikimedia Germany has been working on it in cooperation with the WMF’s Reading Web team. Reference Previews have been a beta feature for several months on all Wikipedias and some other wikis, with more than 830,000 beta testers. During the beta phase, lots of feedback was collected, and several changes were made as a result.[3] Now, we plan to deploy it to a first group of wikis as a default feature on March 17. We’re still looking for wikis who want to have the default feature early, so if you’re interested, please let us know! [4] [5]
More information about this feature, including frequently asked questions, can be found on its project page on Meta. [1] A big thanks to everyone who contributed to this development, by voting, testing, giving feedback or else. Comments and questions are welcome on this talk page. [4]
Best,
Johanna
[1] Reference Previews: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews [2] Page Previews: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Page_Previews [3] Changes during the beta phase: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews#Beta... [4] talk page: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews [5] Phab: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T271206
-- Johanna Strodt Project manager community communications Technical Wishes
Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
Tel. (030) 219 158 26-0
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