Movatterモバイル変換

[0]ホーム
URL:

Jump to content
Wikipedia
Senka

Wikipedia:Patlelo ya setšhaba

Go tswa ko Wikipedia
  • tn: Dikopo tsa letshwao labot di tshwanetse go dirwa mo tsebeng eno. Wiki eno e dirisa molawana o o tlwaelegileng wa bots, mme e letlelela bots ba lefatshe lotlhe le go amogela mefuta mengwe ya bots ka tsela e e itirisang. Di-bot tse dingwe di tshwanetse go dira kopo fa tlase, mme di kope go tsena go tswa mo motlhokomeding fa go sena kganetso.
  • en: Requests for thebot flag should be made on this page. This wiki uses thestandard bot policy, and allowsglobal bots andautomatic approval of certain types of bots. Other bots should apply below, and thenrequest access from a steward if there is no objection.

Bot bit requestSieBot

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please give a bot bit toSieBot, so it will not flood your RC as it adds interwiki links using pywikipedia's interwiki.py.SieBot is active on about 140 Wikipedias. See theuser page of the bot for more details, or check a complete overview of its activitieshere. Cheers!Siebrand (talk) 09:50, 15 August 2007 (UTC)

It is Ok with me --Jeneme 12:25, 3 Lwetse 2007 (UTC)

Done.—Pathoschild 19:43, 7 Lwetse 2007 (UTC)

Bot status forPipepBot

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello! I ask for permission to run my interwiki botPipepBot here, and to get a bot flag for it.

  • Operator:it:User:Pipep
  • Purpose: Interwiki
  • Software: Pywikipedia
  • Has bot flag at: als, am, an, ar, arc, ast, av, az, bat-smg, be, be-x-old, bn, bpy, bs, bug, ca, ce, ceb, co, cs, cu, cv, da, de, eml, en, eo, et, fo, fr, frp, fur, fy, ga, gd, haw, hr, hsb, ht, hu, hy, id, ie, ilo, io, is, ja, ka, kk, ksh, ku, kw, la, lb, li, lij, ln, lt, lv, mi, mk, ml, ms, nap, nds, nds-nl, nn, no, oc, pl, pms, qu, rm, rmy, ro, roa-tara, ru-sib, sc, scn, sco, sh, si, simple, sk, sl, sq, sr, su, sv, te, th, tl, udm, uk, uz, vec, vls, vo, wa, wo, wuu, yi, yo, zea, zh, zh-classical, zh-yue
  • Details: Interwiki using Pywikipediabot. It mostly runs manually assisted. May run automatically in some cases.

Thank you!--it:User:Pipep 19:49, 30 Phatwe 2007 (UTC)

PipepBot has now bot status. Thank you!it:User:Pipep 14:37, 4 Phalane 2007 (UTC)

BotMultichill

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hi, i request a bot bit forBotMultichill.

  • Botmaster :Multichill
  • Bot's name :BotMultichill
  • List of botflags on others wikipedias: about 100+ atm (seemeta:User:Multichill for the current list)
  • Purpose: Interwiki (pywikipedia)
  • Technical details :BotMultichill is an interwiki bot starting at theDutch wikipedia. The bot uses the pywikipedia framework and runs day and night in autonomous mode. Sometimes the bot will run in manual assisted mode to solve interwiki conflicts.Multichill 16:05, 6 Lwetse 2007 (UTC)
Already done. —Pathoschild 02:58:04, 11 Firikgong 2008 (UTC)

AlleborgoBot

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hi, i request a bot flag forAlleborgoBot

  • Operator:Alleborgo
  • Automatic or Manually Assisted: Automatic, in "-autonomous" mode. Sometimes the bot will run in manual assisted mode to solve interwiki conflicts.
  • Programming Language(s): Pywikipedia framework daily updated to the last SVN version
  • Function Summary: interwiki
  • Already has a bot flag in: ar, am, an, az, bar, bat-smg, bg, br, bn, bpy, bs, ca, ceb, cs, cv, da, de, el, en, eo, es, et, eu, fa, fi, fiu-vro, fr, frp, ga, gl, he, hr, ht, hu, hy, id, is, it, iu, ja, jv, ka, ksh, ku, lb, li, lmo, ln, lt, lv, mk, mi, ml, ms, mt, nap, nds, nds-nl, nl, nn, no, pl, ps, pt, ro, roa-tara, ru, sco, sh, sk, simple, sl, sq, sr, su, sv, ta, tg, th, to, tr, tt, uk, ur, vec, vi, vls, vo, zh, zh-classical, zh-yue. On it.wiki has done more than 65000 edit.

Thanks --AlleborgoBot 23:06, 24 Phalane 2007 (UTC)

AlleborgoBot has the flag now, thank you. --AlleborgoBot 19:06, 28 Ngwanatsele 2007 (UTC)

Bot policy

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello. To facilitatesteward granting of bot access, I suggest implementing thestandard bot policy on this wiki. This will involve creating a redirect to this page fromProject:Bot policy, and adding a line at the top noting that it is used here. In particular, this policy allows automatic acceptance of known interlanguage linking bots (if this page says that is acceptable), which form the vast majority of such requests.

Please read the text atm:Bot policy before commenting. If you object, please say so; it will be implemented in one week if there is no objection, since it is particularly written to streamline bot requests on wikis with little or no community interested in bot access requests. —Pathoschild 03:10:35, 30 Ngwanatsele 2007 (UTC)

Done. —Pathoschild 02:58:04, 11 Firikgong 2008 (UTC)

Bot Status forPurbo_T

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hi, I'd like to request a bot flag forPurbo_T(contributions)

Thank you! --Purodha 02:37, 10 Tlhakole 2008 (UTC)

The village pump

[Fetola Motswedi]

Could someome be so kind and move my contribution to your "village pump" and also, could someone please add a link to your village pump onmeta ? Thanks,GerardM 14:33, 3 Mopitlo 2008 (UTC)

Bot flag request forUser:WOPR

[Fetola Motswedi]
  • Bot operator:User:White Cat (Commons:User:White Cat) - En-N, Tr-4, Ja-1
  • List of botflags on other projects: Bot has a flag on wikimedia (meta,commons) wikipedia (ar, az, de, en, es, et, fr, is, ja, ku, nn, no, ru, sr, tr, uz, simple) (See:m:User:White Cat#Bots)
  • Purpose: Interwiki linking, double redirect fixing, commons delinking (for cases where commonsdelinker fails)

--Catchi? 12:02, 15 Motsheganong 2008 (UTC)

SpBot

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello. I would like to get a bot-flag on this wiki.

  • Operator:de:User:Euku
  • Purpose: Interwiki links: It adds/modifies/deletes interwiki links.
  • Software: pywikipediabot framework via SVN
  • Already has bot flag on: 51 Wikipedias, for example: ar, bn, ca, cs,de,en, es, eu, da,fr, he, hu, it, pl, ro,ru, sq, tr. (on German Wikipedia since 2006, with>67.000 edits), look atdetails
Thank you! --Euku 07:46, 3 Seetebosigo 2008 (UTC)

Bot flag forStigBot

[Fetola Motswedi]

I hereby request botflag on this wiki for my botStigBot.

  • Owner’s account:Stigmj (talk)
  • Bot account:StigBot (contribs•sul•makebot@meta )
  • Function: mainly interwiki, but can be used in user-namespace for adding userpages etc. on request from the affected users.
  • Software: Pywikipedia, updated from SVN before each run.
  • Other: Runs manually initiated automatic supervised and sometimes entirely manual. Already has bot flag on: ar, bpy, en, eo, fr, no, oc, pt, ro and vo.

Best regards,Stigmj 13:15, 8 Seetebosigo 2008 (UTC)

Global bots

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello. Thestandard bot policy was updated to allow global bots, which are now technically possible. These are trusted bots that will be given bot access on every wiki that allows global bots (the local policy or request page must explicitly allow them, or they won't get access on this wiki). Thecurrent requirements for global bots are:

  • a global bot must only maintain interlanguage links or fix double-redirects;
  • a global bot must have already been active on several wikis, with long-term contributions demonstrating its trustworthiness.

Does anyone object to allowing global bots on this wiki? I'll update the local policy in a week if there are no objections. Thanks. —Pathoschild 18:05:55, 28 Phukwi 2008 (UTC)

Done. —Pathoschild 00:01:21, 05 Lwetse 2008 (UTC)

The LocalisationUpdate extension has gone live

[Fetola Motswedi]

The LocalisationUpdate extension is now enabled for all Wikimedia projects. From now on new localisations that become available in SVN will become available to your project within 24 hours. Your localisations get into SVN fromtranslatewiki.net typically within a day and at worst in two days. This is a huge improvement from the old practice where the localisations became available with new software. This could take weeks, even months.

The localisations done by our community at translatewiki.net are committed to SVN typically every day. When the system messages in English are the same as the local messages, they will now be inserted in a file and are available for use in all our projects in a timely manner

What this means for you

[Fetola Motswedi]

Local messages have an impact on the performance of our system. It is best when messages are as much as possible part of the system messages. In order to remove unnecessary duplication, all the messages that have a local localisation and areexactly the same as the system message will be removed. What we ask you to do is to compare and proof read the messages in translatewiki.net and the local messages. You can then either remove local messages when the translatewiki.net message is to be preferred or, you can update the message at translatewiki.net.

Messages that are specific to your project will have to stay as they are. You do want to check if the format and the variables of the message are still the same.

Why localise at translatewiki.net

[Fetola Motswedi]

When you localise at translatewiki.net, your messages will be used in all Wikimedia projects and eventually in all MediaWiki based projects. This is how we provide the standard support for your language. When messages change, at translatewiki.net you will be prompted to revisit your translations. Localising is more efficient because we have innovated the process to make you more efficient; there is text explaining about messages and we have applied AJAX technology to reduce the number of clicks you have to make.

Translatewiki.net update

[Fetola Motswedi]
  • Currently 4.63% of the MediaWiki messages and 0.04% of the messages of the extensions used by the Wikimedia Foundation projects have been localised. Please help us help your language by localising and proof reading attranslatewiki.net. This is therecent localisation activity for your language. Thanks,GerardM 19:48, 30 Lwetse 2009 (UTC)
  • Currently 4.60% of the MediaWiki messages and 0.04% of the messages of the extensions used by the Wikimedia Foundation projects have been localised. Please help us help your language by localising and proof reading attranslatewiki.net. This is therecent localisation activity for your language. Thanks,GerardM 18:03, 1 Ngwanatsele 2009 (UTC)
  • Currently 4.70% of the MediaWiki messages and 0.04% of the messages of the extensions used by the Wikimedia Foundation projects have been localised. Please help us help your language by localising and proof reading attranslatewiki.net. This is therecent localisation activity for your language. Thanks,GerardM 13:49, 14 Sedimonthole 2009 (UTC)
  • Currently 4.68% of the MediaWiki messages and 0.04% of the messages of the extensions used by the Wikimedia Foundation projects have been localised. Please help us help your language by localising and proof reading attranslatewiki.net. This is therecent localisation activity for your language. Thanks,GerardM 13:41, 25 Firikgong 2010 (UTC)
  • At this moment 388 messages of the "most used" messages are left to translate. These are the messages that readers and editors are most likely to see. Thanks,GerardM 13:41, 25 Firikgong 2010 (UTC)

How can we improve the usability for your language

[Fetola Motswedi]

We expect that with the implementation of LocalisationUpdate the usability of MediaWiki for your language will improve. We are now ready to look at other aspects of usability for your language as well. There are two questions we would like you to answer:Are there issues with the new functionality of the Usability InitiativeDoes MediaWiki support your language properly

The best way to answer the first question is to visit the translatewiki.net. Change the language to your language, select the “vector” skin and add the advanced tool bar in in the preferences and check out the new functionality. And make some changes in your user page. When there is a need to improve on the localisation, please make thenecessary changess . It should update your localisation straight away. We would like you to report each issue individually athttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Usability_issues.

When there are problems with the support of MediaWiki for your language, we really want to know about this. It is best to report each issue separately. In this way there will be no large mass of issues to resolve but we can address each issue on its own. Consider issues with the display of characters, the presentation of your script, the position of the side bar, the combination of text with other languages, scripts. It is best to try this in an environment like the prototype wiki as it provides you with a clean, basic and up to date environment. The prototype wiki is available for five languages but you can select any of them, change the preferences to your language and test out MediaWiki for your language.

We would like you to report each issue individually athttp://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Language_issues. The issues you raise will all be assessed. It is important to keep each issue separate, because this will make it easier to understand the issues and find solutions.

PS This text has been approved by Naoko, Brion and Siebrand. Thanks,GerardM 19:48, 30 Lwetse 2009 (UTC)

Wikimania Scholarships

[Fetola Motswedi]

The call for applications for Wikimania Scholarships to attend Wikimania 2010 in Gdansk, Poland (July 9-11) is now open. The Wikimedia Foundation offers Scholarships to pay for selected individuals' round trip travel, accommodations, and registration at the conference.To apply, visit theWikimania 2010scholarships information page, click the secure link available there, and fill out the form to apply.For additional information, please visit the Scholarships information and FAQ pages:

Yours very truly,Cary Bass
Volunteer Coordinator
Wikimedia Foundation

Fundraising time is around the corner!

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello Wikimedians, my name is Deniz and I am working for the Wikimedia Foundation during the 2010 Fundraiser. My job is to be the liaison between the Setswana community and the Foundation. This year's fundraiser is intended to be a collaborative and global effort, we recognize that banner messages that perform well in the United States don't necessarily translate well, or appeal to international audiences.

I'm contacting you as I am currently looking for translators who are willing to contribute to this project, helping to translate and localize messages into Setswana and suggesting messages that would appeal to Setswana readers on the Fundraising Meta Page. We've started the setup onmeta for bothbanner submission,statistical analysis, andgrouping volunteers together.
Use the talk pages on meta, talk to your local communities, talk to others, talk to us, and add your feedback to the proposed messages as well! I look forward to working with you during this year's fundraiser.

Please translate this message into Setswana if you can and post it below.--Dgultekin 17:00, 10 Lwetse 2010 (UTC)

Fundraising 2010: Beat Jimmy Challenge

[Fetola Motswedi]

The Fundraising Committee is issuing all interested community members a challenge:we want you to beat Jimmy. The appeal from Jimmy Wales and the corresponding banner have been tested head-to-head with other successful banners, and the results are clear: it's our best performing message... by a lot. This year we have a lofty fundraising goal; we need all of our banners to bring in donations like the Jimmy Appeal, but no one wants to keep the Jimmy banner up for two months. We want to run donor quotes, and other wonderful ideas, but we have to have banners that work as well as or better than the Jimmy appeal.

We've just released the highlights from adonor focus group, and the results of ourdonor survey. With one month to the launch of the fundraiser, the messages we test must be driven by data from our tests and surveys - we can no longer rely on instinct alone.

We've redesigned our fundraising meta pages with the Jimmy challenge; check out the survey results and propose/discuss banners that reflect these findings. Add the banners you think will 'beat Jimmy'here to be testedTuesday October 12 against Jimmy. -Dgultekin 00:02, 7 Phalane 2010 (UTC)

Call for image filter referendum

[Fetola Motswedi]

The Wikimedia Foundation, at the direction of the Board of Trustees, will be holding a vote to determine whether members of the community support the creation and usage of an opt-in personal image filter, which would allow readers to voluntarily screen particular types of images strictly for their own account.

Further details and educational materials will be available shortly. The referendum is scheduled for 12-27 August, 2011, and will be conducted on servers hosted by a neutral third party. Referendum details, officials, voting requirements, and supporting materials will be posted atMeta:Image filter referendum shortly.

Sorry for delivering you a message in English. Please help translate the pages on the referendum on Meta and join thetranslators mailing list.

For the coordinating committee,
Philippe (WMF)
Cbrown1023
Risker
Mardetanha
PeterSymonds
Robert Harris

HiW-Bot

[Fetola Motswedi]
  • Bot :HiW-Bot
  • Operator :Hedwig in Washington
  • Automatic or Manually Assisted : automatic
  • Programming Language(s) : Python (pywikipedia), daily update
  • Function Summary : Interwiki
  • Already has a bot flag (Y/N) : Yes,please see here
  • Function Details : just using the standard interwiki.py

I humbly request bot status on this wiki in order to maintain Interwiki.Thank you --Hedwig in Washington 20:46, 24 Phalane 2011 (UTC)

Terms of Use update

[Fetola Motswedi]

I apologize that you are receiving this message in English. Please help translate it.

Hello,

The Wikimedia Foundation is discussing changes to its Terms of Use. The discussion can be found atTalk:Terms of use. Everyone is invited to join in. Because the new version ofTerms of use is not in final form, we are not able to present official translations of it. Volunteers are welcome to translate it, as German volunteers have done atm:Terms of use/de, but we ask that you note at the top that the translation is unofficial and may become outdated as the English version is changed. The translation request can be found atm:Translation requests/WMF/Terms of Use 2 --Maggie Dennis, Community Liaison 01:20, 27 Phalane 2011 (UTC)

Open Call for 2012 Wikimedia Fellowship Applicants

[Fetola Motswedi]

I apologize that you are receiving this message in English. Pleasehelp translate it.

  • Do you want to help attract new contributors to Wikimedia projects?
  • Do you want to improve retention of our existing editors?
  • Do you want to strengthen our community by diversifying its base and increasing the overall number of excellent participants around the world?

The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking Community Fellows and project ideas for the Community Fellowship Program. A Fellowship is a temporary position at the Wikimedia Foundation in order to work on a specific project or set of projects. Submissions for 2012 are encouraged to focus on the theme of improving editor retention and increasing participation in Wikimedia projects. If interested, please submit a project idea or apply to be a fellow by January 15, 2012. Please visithttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Fellowships for more information.

Thanks!

--Siko Bouterse, Head of Community Fellowships,Wikimedia Foundation 03:08, 22 Sedimonthole 2011 (UTC)

Distributed viaGlobal message delivery. (Wrong page?Fix here.)

Announcing Wikipedia 1.19 beta

[Fetola Motswedi]

Wikimedia Foundation is getting ready to push out 1.19 to all the WMF-hosted wikis. As we finish wrapping up our code review, you can test the new versionright now onbeta.wmflabs.org. For more information, please read therelease notes or thestart of the final announcement.

The following are the areas that you will probably be most interested in:

  • Faster loading of javascript files makes dependency tracking more important.
  • New common*.css files usable by skins instead of having to copy piles of generic styles from MonoBook or Vector's css.
  • The default user signature now contains a talk link in addition to the user link.
  • Searching blocked usernames in block log is now clearer.
  • Better timezone recognition in user preferences.
  • Improved diff readability for colorblind people.
  • The interwiki links table can now be accessed also when the interwiki cache is used (used in the API and the Interwiki extension).
  • More gender support (for instance in logs and user lists).
  • Language converter improved, e.g. it now works depending on the page content language.
  • Time and number-formatting magic words also now depend on the page content language.
  • Bidirectional support further improved after 1.18.

Report anyproblems on the labs beta wiki and we'll work to address them before they software is released to the production wikis.

Note that this cluster does have SUL but it is not integrated with SUL in production, so you'll need to create another account. You should avoid using the same password as you use here. —Global message delivery 16:37, 15 Firikgong 2012 (UTC)

MediaWiki 1.19

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Apologies if this message isn't in your language.) The Wikimedia Foundation is planning to upgrade MediaWiki (the software powering this wiki) to its latest version this month. You can help to test it before it is enabled, to avoid disruption and breakage. More information is availablein the full announcement. Thank you for your understanding.

Guillaume Paumier, via theGlobal message delivery system(wrong page? You can fix it.). 15:21, 12 Tlhakole 2012 (UTC)

Language support group for Tswana

[Fetola Motswedi]

The Wikimedia Foundation has brought together a new team of developers who are dedicated to language support. This team is to support all the languages and consequently it is not realistic to expect that the team members can provide proper support for your language. It is for this reason that we are looking for volunteers who will make up alanguage support team.

This language support team will be asked to provide us with information about their language. Such information may need to be provided either to us or on a website that we will indicate to you. Another activity will be to test software that will likely have an effect on the running of the MediaWiki software. We are looking for people who clearly identify their ability. Formal knowledge is definitely appreciated.

As much of the activity will be concentrated ontranslatewiki.net, it will be a plus when team members know how to localise at translatewiki.net.
Thanks,Gmeijssen 07:58, 15 Tlhakole 2012 (UTC)

Babel extension

[Fetola Motswedi]

The babel extension is used on all the WMF wikis by people who want to indicate their proficiency in a language. Sadly this has not yet been done for the Tswana language. Would you be so kind and help us bylocalising the babel extension in the Tswana language? Thanks,Gmeijssen 07:58, 15 Tlhakole 2012 (UTC)

Update on IPv6

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Apologies if this message isn't in your language. Please consider translating it, as well asthe full version of this announcement on Meta)

The Wikimedia Foundation is planning to do limited testing of IPv6 on June 2-3. If there are not too many problems, we may fully enable IPv6 onWorld IPv6 day (June 6), and keep it enabled.

What this means for your project:

  • At least on June 2-3, 2012, you may see a small number of edits from IPv6 addresses, which are in the form "2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334". See e.g.w:en:IPv6 address. These addresses should behave like any other IP address: You can leave messages on their talk pages; you can track their contributions; you can block them. (Seethe full version of this announcement for notes on range blocks.)
  • In the mid term, some user scripts and tools will need to be adapted for IPv6.
  • We suspect that IPv6 usage is going to be very low initially, meaning that abuse should be manageable, and we will assist in the monitoring of the situation.

Readthe full version of this announcement on how to test the behavior of IPv6 with various tools and how to leave bug reports, and to find a fuller analysis of the implications of the IPv6 migration.

--Erik Möller, VP of Engineering and Product Development, Wikimedia Foundation 01:27, 2 Seetebosigo 2012 (UTC)

Distributed viaGlobal message delivery. (Wrong page?Fix here.)

2011 Picture of the Year competition

[Fetola Motswedi]

македонски •norsk •polski

Dear Wikimedians,

Wikimedia Commons is happy to announce that the2011 Picture of the Year competition is now open. We are interested in your opinion as to which images qualify to be thePicture of the Year 2011. Any user registered at Commons or a Wikimedia wiki SUL-related to Commonswith more than 75 edits before 1 April 2012 (UTC) is welcome to vote and, of course everyone is welcome to view!

Detailed information about the contest can be foundat the introductory page.

About 600 of the best of Wikimedia Common's photos, animations, movies and graphics were chosen–by the international Wikimedia Commons community– out of 12 million files during2011 and are now calledFeatured Pictures.

From professional animal and plant shots to breathtaking panoramas and skylines, restorations of historically relevant images, images portraying the world's best architecture, maps, emblems, diagrams created with the most modern technology, and impressive human portraits, CommonsFeatures Pictures of all flavors.

For your convenience, we have sorted the imagesinto topic categories.

We regret that you receive this message in English; we intended to use banners to notify you in your native language but there was both, human and technical resistance.

See you on Commons!--Picture of the Year 2011 Committee 18:43, 5 Seetebosigo 2012 (UTC)

Distributed viaGlobal message delivery. (Wrong page?Fix here.)

Help decide about more than $10 million of Wikimedia donations in the coming year

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Apologies if this message isn't in your language. Please consider translating it)

Hi,

As many of you are aware, the Wikimedia Board of Trustees recently initiated important changes in the way that money is being distributed within the Wikimedia movement. As part of this, a new community-led "Funds Dissemination Committee" (FDC) is currently being set up. Already in 2012-13, its recommendations will guide the decisions about the distribution of over 10 million US dollars among the Foundation, chapters and othereligible entities.

Now, seven capable, knowledgeable and trustworthy community members are sought to volunteer on the initial Funds Dissemination Committee. It is expected to take up its work in September. In addition, a community member is sought to be theOmbudsperson for the FDC process. If you are interested in joining the committee, read thecall for volunteers. Nominations are planned to close on August 15.

--Anasuya Sengupta, Director of Global Learning and Grantmaking, Wikimedia Foundation 20:28, 19 Phukwi 2012 (UTC)

Distributed viaGlobal message delivery. (Wrong page?Fix here.)

More opportunities for you to access free research databases

[Fetola Motswedi]

The quest to get editors free access to the sources they need is gaining momentum.

  • Credo Reference provides full-text online versions of nearly 1200 published reference works from more than 70 publishers in every major subject, including general and subject dictionaries and encyclopedias. There are125 full Credo 350 accounts available, with access even to 100 more references works than in Credo's original donation. All you need is a 1-year old account with 1000 edits. Sign uphere.
  • HighBeam Research has access to over 80 million articles from 6,500 publications including newspapers, magazines, academic journals, newswires, trade magazines and encyclopedias. Thousands of new articles are added daily, and archives date back over 25 years covering a wide range of subjects and industries. There are250 full access 1-year accounts available. All you need is a 1-year old account with 1000 edits. Sign uphere.
  • Questia is an online research library for books and journal articles focusing on the humanities and social sciences. Questia has curated titles from over 300 trusted publishers including 77,000 full-text books and 4 million journal, magazine, and newspaper articles, as well as encyclopedia entries. There will soon be1000 full access 1-year accounts available. All you need is a 1-year old account with 1000 edits. Sign uphere.

You might also be interested in the idea to create a centralWikipedia Library where approved editors would have access toall participating resource donors. Add your feedback to theCommunity Fellowship proposal. Apologies for the English message (translate here). Go sign up :) --Ocaasi (talk) 02:25, 16 Phatwe 2012 (UTC)

Request for Comment: Legal Fees Assistance Program

[Fetola Motswedi]

I apologize for addressing you in English. I would be grateful if you could translate this message into your language.

The Wikimedia Foundation is conducting arequest for comment on aproposed program that could provide legal assistance to users in specific support roles who are named in a legal complaint as a defendant because of those roles. We wanted to be sure that your community was aware of this discussion and would have a chance to participate inthat discussion.

If this page is not the best place to publicize this request for comment, please help spread the word to those who may be interested in participating. (If you'd like to help translating the "request for comment", program policy or other pages into your language and don't know how the translation system works, please come by my user talk page atm:User talk:Mdennis (WMF). I'll be happy to assist or to connect you with a volunteer who can assist.)

Thank you! --Mdennis (WMF)02:15, 6 Lwetse 2012 (UTC)

Distributed viaGlobal message delivery. (Wrong page?Fix here.)

Wikidata is getting close to a first roll-out

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Apologies if this message isn't in your language.)

As some of you might already have heard Wikimedia Deutschland is working on a new Wikimedia project. It is calledm:Wikidata. The goal of Wikidata is to become a central data repository for the Wikipedias, its sister projects and the world. In the future it will hold data like the number of inhabitants of a country, the date of birth of a famous person or the length of a river. These can then be used in all Wikimedia projects and outside of them.

The project is divided into three phases and "we are getting close to roll-out the first phase". The phases are:

  1. language links in the Wikipedias (making it possible to store the links between the language editions of an article just once in Wikidata instead of in each linked article)
  2. infoboxes (making it possible to store the data that is currently in infoboxes in one central place and share the data)
  3. lists (making it possible to create lists and similar things based on queries to Wikidata so they update automatically when new data is added or modified)

It'd be great if you could join us, test thedemo version, provide feedback and take part in the development of Wikidata. You can find all the relevant information including anFAQ and sign-up links for our on-wiki newsletter onthe Wikidata page on Meta.

For further discussions please usethis talk page (if you are uncomfortable writing in English you can also write in your native language there) or pointme to the place where your discussion is happening so I can answer there.

--Lydia Pintscher 13:40, 10 Lwetse 2012 (UTC)

Distributed viaGlobal message delivery. (Wrong page?Fix here.)

Wikipedia 2.0 logo

[Fetola Motswedi]
Wikipedia 2.0 logo

Hello! This wiki will be switched to the up to date Wikipedia logo in about a week. You can see it oncommons:Wikipedia/2.0; please commenton talk if there's something wrong with it.
Thank you,Global message delivery (feedback) 21:37, 22 Lwetse 2012 (UTC)

Upcoming software changes - please report any problems

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Apologies if this message isn't in your language. Please consider translating it)

All Wikimedia wikis - including this one - will soon be upgraded with new and possibly disruptive code. This process starts today and finishes on October 24 (see theupgrade schedule &code details).

Please watch for problems with:

  • revision diffs
  • templates
  • CSS and JavaScript pages (like user scripts)
  • bots
  • PDF export
  • images, video, and sound, especially scaling sizes
  • the CologneBlue skin

If you notice any problems, pleasereport problems atour defect tracker site. You can test for possible problems attest2.wikipedia.org andmediawiki.org, which have already been updated.

Thanks! With your help we can find problems fast and get them fixed faster.

Sumana Harihareswara, Wikimedia Foundation Engineering Community Manager (talk) 03:15, 16 Phalane 2012 (UTC)

P.S.: For the regular, smaller MediaWiki updates every two weeks, pleasewatch this schedule.

Distributed viaGlobal message delivery. (Wrong page?Fix here.)

Fundraising localization: volunteers from outside the USA needed

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please translate for your local community

Hello All,

The Wikimedia Foundation's Fundraising team have begun our 'User Experience' project, with the goal of understanding the donation experience in different countries outside the USA and enhancing the localization of our donation pages. I am searching for volunteers to spend 30 minutes on a Skype chat with me, reviewing their own country's donation pages. It will be done on a 'usability' format (I will ask you to read the text and go through the donation flow) and will be asking your feedback in the meanwhile.

The only pre-requisite is for the volunteer to actually live in the country and to have access to at least one donation method that we offer for that country (mainly credit/debit card, but also real-time banking like IDEAL, E-wallets, etc...) so we can do a live test and see if the donation goes through.All volunteers will be reimbursed of the donations that eventually succeed (and they will be low amounts, like 1-2 dollars)

By helping us you are actually helping thousands of people to support our mission of free knowledge across the world. Please sing up and help us with our 'User Experience' project! :)If you are interested (or know of anyone who could be) please email ppena@wikimedia.org. All countries needed (excepting USA)!

Thanks!
Pats Pena
Global Fundraising Operations Manager, Wikimedia Foundation

Sent usingGlobal message delivery, 17:21, 17 Phalane 2012 (UTC)

Be a Wikimedia fundraising "User Experience" volunteer!

[Fetola Motswedi]

Thank you to everyone who volunteered last year on the Wikimedia fundraising 'User Experience' project. We have talked to many different people in different countries and their feedback has helped us immensely in restructuring our pages. If you haven't heard of it yet, the 'User Experience' project has the goal of understanding the donation experience in different countries (outside the USA) and enhancing the localization of our donation pages.

I am (still) searching for volunteers to spend some time on a Skype chat with me, reviewing their own country's donation pages. It will be done on a 'usability' format (I will ask you to read the text and go through the donation flow) and will be asking your feedback in the meanwhile.

The only pre-requisite is for the volunteer to actually live in the country and to have access to at least one donation method that we offer for that country (mainly credit/debit card, but also real time banking like IDEAL, E-wallets, etc...) so we can do a live test and see if the donation goes through. **All volunteers will be reimbursed of the donations that eventually succeed (and they will be very low amounts, like 1-2 dollars)**

By helping us you are actually helping thousands of people to support our mission of free knowledge across the world. If you are interested (or know of anyone who could be) please email ppena@wikimedia.org. All countries needed (excepting USA)!!

Thanks!

Pats Pena
Global Fundraising Operations Manager, Wikimedia Foundation

Sent usingGlobal message delivery, 21:20, 8 Firikgong 2013 (UTC)

Wikimedia sites to move to primary data center in Ashburn, Virginia. Read-only mode expected.

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Apologies if this message isn't in your language.) Next week, the Wikimedia Foundation will transition its main technical operations to a new data center in Ashburn, Virginia, USA. This is intended to improve the technical performance and reliability of all Wikimedia sites, including this wiki. There will be some times when the site will be in read-only mode, and there may be full outages; the current target windows for the migration are January 22nd, 23rd and 24th, 2013, from 17:00 to 01:00 UTC (seeother timezones on timeanddate.com). More information is availablein the full announcement.

If you would like to stay informed of future technical upgrades, considerbecoming a Tech ambassador andjoining the ambassadors mailing list. You will be able to help your fellow Wikimedians have a voice in technical discussions and be notified of important decisions.

Thank you for your help and your understanding.

Guillaume Paumier, via theGlobal message delivery system(wrong page? You can fix it.). 15:45, 19 Firikgong 2013 (UTC)

Help turn ideas into grants in the new IdeaLab

[Fetola Motswedi]

I apologize if this message is not in your language. Please help translate it.

  • Do you have an idea for a project to improve this community or website?
  • Do you think you could complete your idea if only you had some funding?
  • Do you want to help other people turn their ideas into project plans or grant proposals?

Please join us in theIdeaLab, an incubator for project ideas and Individual Engagement Grant proposals.

The Wikimedia Foundation is seeking new ideas and proposals for Individual Engagement Grants. These grants fund individuals or small groups to complete projects that help improve this community. If interested, please submit a completed proposal by February 15, 2013. Please visithttps://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Grants:IEG for more information.

Thanks! --Siko Bouterse, Head of Individual Engagement Grants, Wikimedia Foundation 20:55, 30 Firikgong 2013 (UTC)

Distributed viaGlobal message delivery. (Wrong page?Correct it here.)

Wikidata phase 1 (language links) coming to this Wikipedia

[Fetola Motswedi]

Sorry for writing in English. I hope someone can translate this locally.

Wikidata has been in development for a few months now. It is now time for the roll-out of the first part of it on your Wikipedia. Phase 1 is the support for the management of language links. It is already being used on the Hungarian, Hebrew, Italian and English Wikipedias. The next step is to enable the extension on all other Wikipedias. We have currently planned this for March 6.

What is Wikidata?

[Fetola Motswedi]

Wikidata is a central place to store data that you can usually find in infoboxes. Think of it as something like Wikimedia Commons but for data (like the number of inhabitants of a country or the length of a river) instead of multimedia. The first part of this project (centralizing language links) is being rolled out now. The more fancy things will follow later.

What is going to happen?

[Fetola Motswedi]

Language links in the sidebar are going to come from Wikidata in addition to the ones in the wiki text. To edit them, scroll to the bottom of the language links, and click edit. You no longer need to maintain these links by hand in the wiki text of the article.

Where can I find more information and ask questions?

[Fetola Motswedi]

Editors on en:wp have created agreat page with all the necessary information for editors and there is also anFAQ for this deployment. Please ask questions you might have onthe FAQ’s discussion page.

I want to be kept up to date about Wikidata

[Fetola Motswedi]

To stay up-to-date on everything happening around Wikidata pleasesubscribe to the newsletter that is delivered weekly to subscribed user’s talk pages. You can see previous editionshere.

--Lydia Pintscher 16:18, 21 Tlhakole 2013 (UTC)

Distributed viaGlobal message delivery. (Wrong page?Fix here.)

Wikidata phase 1 (language links) live on this Wikipedia

[Fetola Motswedi]

Sorry for writing in English. I hope someone can translate this locally. If you understand German better than English you can have a look at the announcement onde:Wikipedia:Kurier.

As I annonced 2 weeks ago,Wikidata phase 1 (language links) has been deployed here today. Language links in the sidebar are coming from Wikidata in addition to the ones in the wiki text. To edit them, scroll to the bottom of the language links, and click edit. You no longer need to maintain these links by hand in the wiki text of the article.

Where can I find more information and ask questions?Editors on en:wp have created agreat page with all the necessary information for editors and there is also anFAQ for this deployment. It'd be great if you could bring this to this wiki if that has not already happened. Please ask questions you might have onthe FAQ’s discussion page.

I want to be kept up to date about WikidataTo stay up-to-date on everything happening around Wikidata pleasesubscribe to the newsletter that is delivered weekly to subscribed user’s talk pages.

--Lydia Pintscher 23:12, 6 Mopitlo 2013 (UTC)

Distributed viaGlobal message delivery. (Wrong page?Fix here.)

Convert complex templates to Lua to make them faster and more powerful

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Please consider translating this message for the benefit of your fellow Wikimedians)

Greetings. As you might have seen on theWikimedia tech blog or thetech ambassadors list, a new functionality called "Lua" is being enabled on all Wikimedia sites today.Lua is a scripting language that enables you to write faster and more powerful MediaWiki templates.

If you have questions about how to convert existing templates to Lua (or how to create new ones), we'll be holding two support sessions on IRC next week:one on Wednesday (for Oceania, Asia & America) andone on Friday (for Europe, Africa & America); seem:IRC office hours for the details. If you can't make it, you can also get help atmw:Talk:Lua scripting.

If you'd like to learn about this kind of events earlier in advance, consider becoming aTech ambassador by subscribing to themailing list. You will also be able to help your fellow Wikimedians have a voice in technical discussions and be notified of important decisions.

Guillaume Paumier, via theGlobal message delivery system. 20:27, 13 Mopitlo 2013 (UTC)(wrong page? You can fix it.)

Wikidata phase 2 (infoboxes) coming to this Wikipedia

[Fetola Motswedi]

Sorry for writing in English. I hope someone can translate this. If you understand German better than English you can have a look at the announcement onde:Wikipedia:Kurier.

A while ago the first phase ofWikidata was enabled on this Wikipedia. This means you are getting the language links in each article from Wikidata. It is soon time to enable the second phase of Wikidata (infoboxes) here. We have already done this on the [first 11 Wikipedias] (it, he, hu, ru, tr, uk, uz, hr, bs, sr, sh) and things are looking good. The next step is English Wikipedia. This is planned for April 8.If everything works out fine we will deploy on all remaining Wikipedias on April 10. I will updatethis part of the FAQ if there are any issues forcing us to change this date. I will also sent another note to this village pump once the deployment is finished.

What will happen once we have phase 2 enabled here?Once it is enabled in a few days you will be able to make use of the structured data that is available on Wikidata in your articles/infoboxes. It includes things like the symbol for a chemical element, the ISBN for a book or the top level domain of a country. (None of this will happen automatically. Someone will have to change the article or infobox template for this to happen!)

How will this work?There are two ways to access the data:

  • Use a parser function like{{#property:p169}} in the wiki text of the article on Yahoo!. This will return “Marissa Mayer” as she is thechief executive officer of thecompany.
  • For more complicated things you can use Lua. The documentation for this ishere.

We are working on expanding the parser function so you can for example use{{#property:chief executive officer}} instead of{{#property:p169}}. The complete plan for this ishere.

Where can I test this?You can already test it ontest2.

Where can I find more information and ask questions?We have collected the main questions in anFAQ for this deployment. Please ask questions you might have onthe FAQ’s discussion page.

I want to be kept up to date about WikidataTo stay up-to-date on everything happening around Wikidata pleasesubscribe to the newsletter that is delivered weekly to subscribed user’s talk pages.

--Lydia Pintscher 17:13, 5 Moranang 2013 (UTC)

Distributed viaGlobal message delivery. (Wrong page?Fix here.)

Request for comment on inactive administrators

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Please consider translating this message for the benefit of your fellow Wikimedians. Please also consider translatingthe proposal.)

Read this message in English /Lleer esti mensaxe n'asturianu /বাংলায় এই বার্তাটি পড়ুন /Llegiu aquest missatge en català /Læs denne besked på dansk /Lies diese Nachricht auf Deutsch /Leś cal mesag' chè in Emiliàn /Leer este mensaje en español /Lue tämä viesti suomeksi /Lire ce message en français /Ler esta mensaxe en galego /हिन्दी /Pročitajte ovu poruku na hrvatskom /Baca pesan ini dalam Bahasa Indonesia /Leggi questo messaggio in italiano /ಈ ಸಂದೇಶವನ್ನು ಕನ್ನಡದಲ್ಲಿ ಓದಿ /Aqra dan il-messaġġ bil-Malti /norsk (bokmål) /Lees dit bericht in het Nederlands /Przeczytaj tę wiadomość po polsku /Citiți acest mesaj în română /Прочитать это сообщение на русском /Farriintaan ku aqri Af-Soomaali /Pročitaj ovu poruku na srpskom (Прочитај ову поруку на српском) /อ่านข้อความนี้ในภาษาไทย /Прочитати це повідомлення українською мовою /Đọc thông báo bằng tiếng Việt /使用中文阅读本信息。

Hello!

There isa new request for comment on Meta-Wiki concerning the removal of administrative rights from long-term inactive Wikimedians. Generally, this proposal from stewards would apply to wikis without an administrators' review process.

We are also compiling alist of projects with procedures for removing inactive administrators on the talk page of the request for comment. Feel free to add your project(s) to the list if you have a policy on administrator inactivity.

All input is appreciated. The discussion may close as soon as 21 May 2013 (2013-05-21), but this will be extended if needed.

Thanks,Billinghurst(thanks to all thetranslators!) 05:24, 24 Moranang 2013 (UTC)

Distributed viaGlobal message delivery (Wrong page?You can fix it.)

Wikidata phase 2 (infoboxes) is here

[Fetola Motswedi]

Sorry for writing in English. I hope someone can translate this. If you understand German better than English you can have a look at the announcement onde:Wikipedia:Kurier.

A while ago the first phase ofWikidata was enabled on this Wikipedia. This means you are getting the language links in each article from Wikidata. We have now enabled the second phase of Wikidata (infoboxes) here. We have already done this on the [first 11 Wikipedias] (it, he, hu, ru, tr, uk, uz, hr, bs, sr, sh) a month ago andtwo days ago on the English Wikipedia. Today all the remaining Wikipedias followed.

What does having phase 2 enabled here mean?You are now able to make use of the structured data that is available on Wikidata in your articles/infoboxes. It includes things like the symbol for a chemical element, the ISBN for a book or the top level domain of a country. (None of this will happen automatically. Someone will have to change the article or infobox template for this to happen!) The current state is just the beginning though. It will be extended based on feedback we get from you now.

How will this work?There are two ways to access the data:

  • Use a parser function like{{#property:p159}} in the wiki text of the article on Wikimedia Foundation. This will return “San Francisco” as that is theheadquarter location of thenon-profit.
  • For more complicated things you can use Lua. The documentation for this ishere.

We are working on expanding the parser function so you can for example use{{#property:headquarter location}} instead of{{#property:p159}}. The complete plan for this ishere.

Where can I test this?You can test it ontest2 if you don't want to do it in an article here.

Where can I find more information and ask questions?We have collected the main questions in anFAQ for this deployment. Please ask questions you might have onthe FAQ’s discussion page.

I want to be kept up to date about WikidataTo stay up-to-date on everything happening around Wikidata pleasesubscribe to the newsletter that is delivered weekly to subscribed user’s talk pages.


We are excited about taking yet another step towards allowing all Wikipedias share structured data and collect and curate it together.--Lydia Pintscher 19:23, 24 Moranang 2013 (UTC)

Distributed viaGlobal message delivery. (Wrong page?Fix here.)

[en] Change to wiki account system and account renaming

[Fetola Motswedi]

Some accounts will soon be renamed due to a technical change that the developer team at Wikimedia are making.More details on Meta.

(Distributed viaglobal message delivery 04:13, 30 Moranang 2013 (UTC). Wrong page?Correct it here.)

[en] Change to section edit links

[Fetola Motswedi]

The default position of the "edit" link in page section headers is going to change soon. The "edit" link will be positioned adjacent to the page header text rather than floating opposite it.

Section edit links will be to the immediate right of section titles, instead of on the far right. If you're an editor of one of the wikis which already implemented this change, nothing will substantially change for you; however, scripts and gadgets depending on the previous implementation of section edit links will have to be adjusted to continue working; however, nothing else should break even if they are not updated in time.

Detailed information and a timeline is available on meta.

Ideas to do this all the way to 2009 at least. It is often difficult to track which of several potential section edit links on the far right is associated with the correct section, and many readers and anonymous or new editors may even be failing to notice section edit links at all, since they read section titles, which are far away from the links.

(Distributed viaglobal message delivery 19:03, 30 Moranang 2013 (UTC). Wrong page?Correct it here.)

Tech newsletter: Subscribe to receive the next editions

[Fetola Motswedi]
LatestTech news from the Wikimedia technical community.Please inform other users about these changes.
Recent software changes
(Not all changes will affect you.)
  • The latest version of MediaWiki (version1.22/wmf4) was added to non-Wikipedia wikis on May 13, and to the English Wikipedia (with a Wikidata software update) on May 20. It will be updated on all other Wikipedia sites on May 22.
  • A software update will perhaps result in temporary issues with images. Pleasereport any problems you notice.
  • MediaWiki recognizes links in twelve newschemes. Users can now link toSSH,XMPP andBitcoin directly from wikicode.
  • VisualEditor was added toall content namespaces on mediawiki.org on May 20.
  • A new extension ("TemplateData") was added to all Wikipedia sites on May 20. It will allow a future version of VisualEditor toedit templates.
  • New sites:Greek Wikivoyage andVenetian Wiktionary joined the Wikimedia family last week; the total number of project wikis is now 794.
  • The logo of 18 Wikipedias was changed toversion 2.0 in athird group of updates.
  • TheUploadWizard on Commons now shows links to the old upload form in 55 languages (bug 33513).
Future software changes
  • The next version of MediaWiki (version 1.22/wmf5) will be added to Wikimedia sites starting on May 27.
  • An updated version ofNotifications, with new features and fewer bugs, will be added to the English Wikipedia on May 23.
  • Thefinal version of the "single user login" (which allows people to use the same username on different Wikimedia wikis) is moved to August 2013. The software willautomatically rename some usernames.
  • Anew discussion system for MediaWiki, called "Flow", is under development. Wikimedia designers need your help to inform other users,test the prototype and discuss the interface..
  • The Wikimedia Foundation is hiring people to act as links between software developers and users for VisualEditor.
Tech news prepared bytech ambassadors and posted byGlobal message delivery •Contribute •Translate •Get help •Give feedback •Unsubscribe • 21:16, 20 Motsheganong 2013 (UTC)
Important note: This is the first edition of theTech News weekly summaries, which help you monitor recent software changes likely to impact you and your fellow Wikimedians.

If you want to continue to receive the next issues every week, pleasesubscribe to the newsletter. You can subscribe your personal talk page and a community page like this one. The newsletter can betranslated into your language.

You can alsobecome a tech ambassador,help us write the next newsletter andtell us what to improve. Your feedback is greatly appreciated.guillom 21:16, 20 Motsheganong 2013 (UTC)

Trademark discussion

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hi, apologies for posting this in English, but I wanted to alert your community to a discussion on Meta about potential changes to the Wikimedia Trademark Policy. Please translate this statement if you can. We hope that you will all participate in the discussion; we also welcome translations of the legal team’s statement into as many languages as possible and encourage you to voice your thoughts there. Please see theTrademark practices discussion (on Meta-Wiki) for more information. Thank you! --Mdennis (WMF) (talk)

Free Research Accounts from Leading Medical Publisher. Come and Sign up!

[Fetola Motswedi]

The Wikipedia Library gets Wikipedia editors free access to reliable sources that are behind paywalls. I want to alert you to our latest donation.

  • Cochrane Collaboration is an independent medical nonprofit organization that conducts systematic reviews of randomized controlled trials of health-care interventions, which it then publishes in the Cochrane Library.
  • Cochrane has generously agreed to givefree, full-access accounts to medical editors. Individual access would otherwise cost between $300 and $800 per account.
  • If you are active as a medical editor, come andsign up :)

Cheers,Ocaasi 21:21, 16 Seetebosigo 2013 (UTC)

Cochrane Library Sign-up (correct link)

[Fetola Motswedi]

My apologies for the incorrect link: You can sign up forCochrane Collaboration accounts at theCOCHRANE sign-up page. Cheers,Ocaasi 21:55, 16 Seetebosigo 2013 (UTC)

X!'s Edit Counter

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Sorry for writing in English. You cantranslate the proposal.)

ShouldX!'s edit counter retain the opt-in requirement? Your input is strongly encouraged.Voice your input here.——cyberpowerChatAutomation 05:05, 23 Seetebosigo 2013 (UTC)

Distributed viaGlobal message delivery. (Wrong page?Fix here.)

Universal Language Selector will be enabled on 2013-07-09

[Fetola Motswedi]

On July 9, 2013,Universal Language Selector (ULS) will be enabled on this wiki. The ULS provides a flexible way to configure and deliver language settings like interface language, fonts, and input methods (keyboard mappings). Making it available here is the last phase of making ULS available on all Wikimedia wikis.

Please read the announcement onMeta-Wiki for more information.Siebrand 13:00, 4 Phukwi 2013 (UTC)(viaGlobal message delivery).

Pywikipedia is migrating to git

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello, Sorry for English but It's very important for bot operators so I hope someone translates this.Pywikipedia is migrating to Git so after July 26, SVN checkouts won't be updated If you're using Pywikipedia you have to switch to git, otherwise you will use out-dated framework and your bot might not work properly. There is amanual for doing that and ablog post explaining about this change in non-technical language. If you have question feel free to ask inmw:Manual talk:Pywikipediabot/Gerrit,mailing list, or in theIRC channel. BestAmir(viaGlobal message delivery). 13:51, 23 Phukwi 2013 (UTC)

VisualEditor and your Wikipedia

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Please translate this message)

Greetings,

The Wikimedia Foundation will soon turn onVisualEditor for all users, all the time on your Wikipedia. Right now your Wikipedia does not have any local documents on VisualEditor, and we hope that your community can change that. To find out about how you can help with translations visit theTranslationCentral for VisualEditor and read the easy instructions onbringing information to your Wikipedia. TheUser Guide and theFAQ are very important to have in your language.

We want to find out as much as we can from you about VisualEditor and how it helps your Wikipedia, and having local pages is a great way to start. We also encourage you toleave feedback on Mediawiki where the community can offer ideas, opinions, and point out bugs that may still exist in the software that need to be reported toBugzilla. If you are able to speak for the concerns of others in English on MediaWiki or locally I encourage you to help your community to be represented in this process.

If you can help translate the user interface for VisualEditor to your language, you can help with that as well.Translatewiki has open tasks for translating VisualEditor. A direct link to translate the user interface ishere. You can see how we are doing with those translationshere. You need an account on Translatewiki to translate. This account is free and easy to create.

If we can help your community in any way with this process, please let me know and I will do my best to assist your Wikipedia with this |exciting development. You can contact me on mymeta talk page or byemail. You can also contactPatrick Earley for help with translations and documents on Mediawiki. We look forward to working with you to bring the VisualEditor experience to your Wikipedia!Keegan (WMF) (talk) 19:15, 30 Phukwi 2013 (UTC)

Distributed viaGlobal message delivery. (Wrong page?Fix here.)

HTTPS for users with an account

[Fetola Motswedi]

Greetings. Starting on August 21 (tomorrow), all users with an account will be usingHTTPS to access Wikimedia sites. HTTPS brings better security and improves your privacy. More information is available atm:HTTPS.

If HTTPS causes problems for you, tell uson bugzilla,on IRC (in the#wikimedia-operations channel) oron meta. If you can't use the other methods, you can also send an e-mail tohttps@wikimedia.org.

Greg Grossmeier(via theGlobal message delivery system). 19:46, 20 Phatwe 2013 (UTC)(wrong page?You can fix it.)

Request for consultation on community logo

[Fetola Motswedi]
Request for consultation on this community logo

First, I’d like to apologize for the English. If you can, please help to translate this for other members of your community.

The legal team at the Wikimedia Foundation would greatly appreciate your input on the best way to manage the "community logo" (pictured here) to best balance protection of the projects with community support. Accordingly, they have created a “request for consultation” on Meta where they set out briefly some of the issues to be considered and the options that they perceive.Your input would be invaluable in helping guide them in how best to serve our mission.

Thank you! --Mdennis (talk)(via theGlobal message delivery system). 03:17, 24 Lwetse 2013 (UTC)(wrong page?You can fix it.)

Notifications

[Fetola Motswedi]
Notifications inform you of new activity that affects you -- and let you take quick action.

(This message is in English, please translate as needed)

Greetings!

Notifications will inform users about new activity that affects them on this wiki in a unified way: for example, this new tool will let you know when you have new talk page messages, edit reverts, mentions or links -- and is designed to augment (rather than replace) the watchlist. The Wikimedia Foundation's editor engagement team developed this tool (code-named 'Echo') earlier this year, to help users contribute more productively to MediaWiki projects.

We're now getting ready to bring Notifications to almost all other Wikimedia sites, and are aiming for a 22 October deployment, as outlined inthis release plan. It is important that notifications is translated for all of the languages we serve.

There are three major points of translation needed to be either done or checked:

Please let us know if you have any questions, suggestions or comments about this new tool. For more information, visitthis project hub andthis help page.Keegan (WMF) (talk) 19:19, 4 Phalane 2013 (UTC)

(via theGlobal message delivery system) (wrong page?You can fix it.)

Speak up about the trademark registration of the Community logo.

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hi all,

Please join the consultation about the Community logo that represents Meta-Wiki:m:Community Logo/Request for consultation.

This community consultation was commenced on September 24. The following day, two individuals filed a legal opposition against the registration of the Community logo.

The question is whether the Wikimedia Foundation should seek a collective membership mark with respect to this logo or abandon its registration and protection of the trademark.

We want to make sure that everyone get a chance to speak up so that we can get clear direction from the community. We would therefore really appreciate the community's help in translating this announcement from English so that everyone is able to understand it.

Thanks,Geoff &Yana 20:57, 8 Phalane 2013 (UTC)

Introducting Beta Features

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Apologies for writing in English. Please translate if necessary)

We would like to let you know aboutBeta Features, a new program from the Wikimedia Foundation that lets you try out new features before they are released for everyone.

Think of it as a digital laboratory where community members can preview upcoming software and give feedback to help improve them. This special preference page lets designers and engineers experiment with new features on a broad scale, but in a way that's not disruptive.

Beta Features is now ready for testing onMediaWiki.org. It will also be released on Wikimedia Commons and MetaWiki this Thursday, 7 November. Based on test results, the plan is to release it on all wikis worldwide on 21 November, 2013.

Here are the first features you can test this week:

Would you like to try out Beta Features now? After you log in on MediaWiki.org, a small 'Beta' link will appear next to your 'Preferences'. Click on it to see features you can test, check the ones you want, then click 'Save'. Learn more on theBeta Features page.

After you've tested Beta Features, please let the developers know what you think onthis discussion page -- or report any bugshere on Bugzilla. You're also welcome to jointhis IRC office hours chat on Friday, 8 November at 18:30 UTC.

Beta Features was developed by the Wikimedia Foundation's Design, Multimedia and VisualEditor teams. Along with other developers, they will be adding new features to this experimental program every few weeks. They are very grateful to all the community members who helped create this project — and look forward to many more productive collaborations in the future.

Enjoy, and don't forget to let developers know what you think!Keegan (WMF) (talk) 20:44, 5 Ngwanatsele 2013 (UTC)

Distributed viaGlobal message delivery (wrong page?Correct it here), 20:44, 5 Ngwanatsele 2013 (UTC)

Call for comments on draft trademark policy

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hi all,

The Wikimedia legal team invites you to participate in the development of the new Wikimedia trademark policy.

Thecurrent trademark policy was introduced in 2009 to protect theWikimedia marks. We are now updating this policy to better balance permissive use of the marks with the legal requirements for preserving them for the community. The new draft trademark policy is ready for your reviewhere, and we encourage you to discuss ithere.

We would appreciate if someone would translate this message into your language so more members of your community can contribute to the conversation.

Thanks,
Yana &Geoff

VisualEditor coming to Tswana Wikipedia

[Fetola Motswedi]

Dumela. :) Hi. :)

Please pardon my English. I hope someone will translate my message into Setswana or any other language that people speak here.

Leina la me ko Anna. :) My name is Anna. :) I am a Community Advocate at the Wikimedia Foundation inSan Francisco. It's nice to meet you. :)

VisualEditor is coming to the Tswana Wikipedia, probably sometime in January. VisualEditor is software in development to allow people to edit pages in MediaWiki without needing to learn wikitext syntax (like typing[[ and]] to link to another page). It is already available and in use on some Wikipedia projects. Please seemw:Help:VisualEditor/FAQ for more information.

When this software arrives, you will have the option to use it or to use the current wikitext editor. When you press "Edit", you will get the new VisualEditor software. To use the wikitext editor, you can press "Edit source". For more information about how to use VisualEditor, seemw:Help:VisualEditor/User guide.

It is important that editors on this wiki test the new editor before it is deployed. This would let us know about any serious issues specific to this Wikipedia before the rollout.To enable VisualEditor now, go to your "Preferences", select "Beta Features", and check the box to enable "VisualEditor".

Please let us know if you find any problems. If you are willing and if you are able, pleasereport any problems in Bugzilla in the"VisualEditor" product. Or you can explain any problems on thecentral feedback page on MediaWiki.org.

If you notice major issues impacting your project, please let us know directly. You can email me or leave a note on my talk page or, if there is an emergency, like an unexpected bug is causing widespread problems, contact James Forrester, the Product Manager, at jforrester@wikimedia.org for immediate attention.

We would also appreciate help translating the user interface and other pages about VisualEditor here on tn.wikipeida.org and on MediaWiki.org. SeeVisualEditor TranslationCentral for general information.

To help with translations, you will need to create an account onTranslateWiki. An administrator will approve your account request.

Here is what needs to be translated into Setswana:

On each of these pages, you will see the text needs to be translated: words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs. The original English text will be on one side, with the option to "edit" on the other. Pressing "edit" will open an edit window where you can enter the translated text.

There are resources for translators atmw:VisualEditor/TranslationCentral#To_do.

If you want to help with translations and would like to talk about how, please email me or leave me message on my talk page.

I have started a local page about VisualEditorhere. Please feel free to add to it.

Ke itumetse! Thank you! And happy editing! :) --18:00, 17 Sedimonthole 2013 (UTC)

Translators Needed

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hi! :) Dumela! :)

Please pardon my English. I hope someone will translate my message into Setswana or another language that people speak here too.

VisualEditor is coming to the Tswana Wikipedia, sometime in January and we need help translating the user interface and other pages about VisualEditor here on tn.wikipeida.org and on MediaWiki.org.

0% of the user interface, user guide,, FAQ, and portal page have been translated (see Tswanahere).

To help with translations, you must create an account onTranslateWiki. An administrator will approve your account request.

Here is what still must be translated into Setswana:

On each of these pages, you will see the text needs to be translated: words, phrases, sentences, paragraphs. The original English text will be on one side, with the option to "edit" on the other. Pressing "edit" will open an edit window where you can enter the translated text.

SeeVisualEditor TranslationCentral for general information. Seemw:VisualEditor/TranslationCentral#To_do for resources for translators.

If you want to help with translations and would like to talk about how, please email me or leave me message on my talk page.

I have started a local page about VisualEditorhere. Please feel free to add to it.

Ke itumetse! Thank you all very much! :) --Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 23:17, 17 Sedimonthole 2013 (UTC)

VisualEditor Office Hours

[Fetola Motswedi]

Dumela. :) Apologies for writing in English. Translation assistance is appreciated. :)

The WMF engineering department has plannedoffice hours to discussVisualEditor -- software that will make it easier to edit Setswana Wikipedia. These discussions will be on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) atirc://irc.freenode.net/wikimedia-office. The first is on January 15th, at2300 UTC; the second is a week later, on January 22nd, at2300 UTC. Product Manager James Forrester will discuss VisualEditor and upcoming plans. Logs will be postedon Meta after each office hour completes.

If you don't use Internet Relay Chat, you can go tohttp://webchat.freenode.net/?channels=wikimedia-office to join in. Choose a nickname and type in the captcha code when prompted. You may also have to click through a security warning, but I'm told that it's safe. :)

If you want to ask a question or provide feedback but can't attend, or don't speak English, you can post your question or comment here or on my talk page or email me, and I will present it on your behalf. I’ll post another reminder closer to the office hours.

You can test the new interface before it is deployed.To enable VisualEditor now, go to your "Preferences", select "Beta Features", and check the box to enable "VisualEditor". Please let us know what you like and what you don't like, what works well and what could be improved.

Ke itumetse!Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 20:20, 31 Sedimonthole 2013 (UTC)

Maybe you should link to webchat as well. Not everyone has an IRC client, but they may want to participate "live". Not that many people will read this page. Maybe Oarabile will.PiRSquared17 (talk) 22:52, 1 Firikgong 2014 (UTC)
That's actually a really helpful suggestion,Pi, thank you! :) I didn't know that you could link to an IRC channel in a web browser like that. Thanks so much for showing me how. :) I've updated the post to include that information and I've reached out toOarabile. Here's hoping! :)Anna Koval (WMF) (talk) 23:20, 3 Firikgong 2014 (UTC)
  • Thanks for reaching out to me about this amazing good news, i remember from our last wiki community meetup last month 2013 when we discussed about Visual Editor and having it enabled on our local page. Once again thanks so much on behalf of Planning Wikimedia Botswana user group we hope to utilise this feature to its maximum.Oarabile Mudongo (talk) 10:06, 24 Firikgong 2014 (UTC)

Request for comment on Commons: Should Wikimedia support MP4 video?

[Fetola Motswedi]

I apologize for this message being only in English. Please translate it if needed to help your community.

The Wikimedia Foundation'smultimedia team seeks community guidance on a proposal to support theMP4 video format. This digital video standard is used widely around the world to record, edit and watch videos on mobile phones, desktop computers and home video devices. It is also known asH.264/MPEG-4 or AVC.

Supporting the MP4 format would make it much easier for our users to view and contribute video on Wikipedia and Wikimedia projects -- and video files could be offered in dual formats on our sites, so we could continue to support current open formats (WebM and Ogg Theora).

However, MP4 is a patent-encumbered format, and using a proprietary format would be a departure from our current practice of only supporting open formats on our sites -- even though the licenses appear to have acceptable legal terms, with only a small fee required.

We would appreciate your guidance on whether or not to support MP4. Our Request for Comments presents views both in favor and against MP4 support, based on opinions we’ve heard in our discussions with community and team members.

Please join this RfC -- and share your advice.

All users are welcome to participate, whether you are active on Commons, Wikipedia, other Wikimedia project -- or any site that uses content from our free media repository.

You are also welcome to join tomorrow'sOffice hours chat on IRC, this Thursday, January 16, at 19:00 UTC, if you would like to discuss this project with our team and other community members.

We look forward to a constructive discussion with you, so we can make a more informed decision together on this important topic.Keegan (WMF) (talk) 06:47, 16 Firikgong 2014 (UTC)

Universal Language Selector will be enabled by default again on this wiki by 21 February 2014

[Fetola Motswedi]

On January 21 2014 the MediaWiki extensionUniversal Language Selector (ULS) wasdisabled on this wiki. A new preference was added for logged-in users to turn on ULS. This was done to prevent slow loading of pages due to ULS webfonts, a behaviour that had been observed by the Wikimedia Technical Operations team on some wikis.

We are now ready to enable ULS again. The temporary preference to enable ULS will be removed. Anew checkbox has been added to the Language Panel to enable/disable font delivery. This will be unchecked by default for this wiki, but can be selected at any time by the users to enable webfonts. This is an interim solution while we improve the feature of webfonts delivery.

You can read theannouncement and thedevelopment plan for more information. Apologies for writing this message only in English. Thank you.Runa

Amendment to the Terms of Use

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello all,

Please join a discussion about aproposed amendment to theWikimedia Terms of Use regarding undisclosed paid editing and we encourage you to voice your thoughts there. Please translate this statement if you can, and we welcome you to translate the proposed amendment and introduction. Please seethe discussion on Meta Wiki for more information. Thank you!Slaporte (WMF) 22:00, 21 Tlhakole 2014 (UTC)

Call for project ideas: funding is available for community experiments

[Fetola Motswedi]

I apologize if this message is not in your language. Please help translate it.

Do you have an idea for a project that could improve your community?Individual Engagement Grants from the Wikimedia Foundation help support individuals and small teams to organize experiments for 6 months. You can get funding to try out your idea for online community organizing, outreach, tool-building, or research to help makeWikipedia better. In March, we’re looking for new project proposals.

Examples of past Individual Engagement Grant projects:

Proposals are due by 31 March 2014. There are a number of ways toget involved!

Hope to have your participation,

--Siko Bouterse, Head of IndividualEngagement Grants, Wikimedia Foundation 19:44, 28 Tlhakole 2014 (UTC)

Proposed optional changes to Terms of Use amendment

[Fetola Motswedi]
Hello all, in response to some community comments in the discussion on the amendment to the Terms of Use on undisclosed paid editing, we have prepared two optional changes. Pleaseread about these optional changes on Meta wiki and share your comments. If you can (and this is a non english project), please translate this announcement. Thanks!Slaporte (WMF) 21:55, 13 Mopitlo 2014 (UTC)

Changes to the default site typography coming soon

[Fetola Motswedi]

This week, the typography on Wikimedia sites will be updated for all readers and editors who use the default "Vector" skin. This change will involve new serif fonts for some headings, small tweaks to body content fonts, text size, text color, and spacing between elements. The schedule is:

  • April 1st: non-Wikipedia projects will see this change live
  • April 3rd: Wikipedias will see this change live

This change is very similar to the "Typography Update" Beta Feature that has been available on Wikimedia projects since November 2013. After several rounds of testing and with feedback from the community, this Beta Feature will be disabled and successful aspects enabled in the default site appearance. Users who are logged in may still choose to use another skin, or alter theirpersonal CSS, if they prefer a different appearance. Localcommon CSS styles will also apply as normal, for issues with local styles and scripts that impact all users.

For more information:

--Steven Walling (Product Manager) on behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation'sUser Experience Design team

Using onlyUploadWizard for uploads

[Fetola Motswedi]
Wikimedia Commons logo

Hello! It was noted that on this wiki you haveless than 10 local files. Presumably, you therefore don't have interest nor energies to havehundreds templates with thenow required HTML, even less a localEDP. However, this means that users here will experience a mostly broken and/orillegal uploading.I propose to

so that you can avoid local maintenance and all users can have a functioning, easy upload interfacein their own language. All registered users can upload on Commons andexisting files will not be affected.

I'll get this done in one week from now.

  1. If you disagree with the proposal, justremove your wiki from the list.
  2. To make the UploadWizard even better, please tell your experience and ideas oncommons:Commons:Upload Wizard feedback.

Nemo 20:38, 19 Motsheganong 2014 (UTC)

Media Viewer

[Fetola Motswedi]


Greetings, my apologies for writing in English.

I wanted to let you know thatMedia Viewer will be released to this wiki in the coming weeks. Media Viewer allows readers of Wikimedia projects to have an enhanced view of files without having to visit the file page, but with more detail than a thumbnail. You can try Media Viewer out now by turning it on in yourBeta Features. If you do not enjoy Media Viewer or if it interferes with your work after it is turned on you will be able to disable Media Viewer as well in yourpreferences. I invite you toshare what you think about Media Viewer and how it can be made better in the future.

Thank you for your time. -Keegan (WMF) 21:29, 23 Motsheganong 2014 (UTC)

--This message was sent usingMassMessage. Was there an error?Report it!


Media Viewer is now live on this wiki

[Fetola Motswedi]


Media Viewer lets you see images in larger size

Greetings— and sorry for writing in English, please translate if it will help your community,

The Wikimedia Foundation'sMultimedia team is happy to announce thatMedia Viewer was just released on this site today.

Media Viewer displays images in larger size when you click on their thumbnails, to provide a better viewing experience. Users can now view images faster and more clearly, without having to jump to separate pages — and its user interface is more intuitive, offering easy access to full-resolution images and information, with links to the file repository for editing. The tool has been tested extensively across all Wikimedia wikis over the past six months as aBeta Feature and has beenreleased to the largest Wikipedias, all language Wikisources, and the English Wikivoyage already.

If you do not like this feature, you can easily turn it off by clicking on "Disable Media Viewer" at the bottom of the screen, pulling up the information panel (or in youryour preferences) whether you have an account or not. Learn morein this Media Viewer Help page.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments about Media Viewer. You are invited toshare your feedback in this discussion on MediaWiki.org in any language, to help improve this feature. You are also welcome totake this quick survey in English,en français,o español.

We hope you enjoy Media Viewer. Many thanks to all the community members who helped make it possible. -Fabrice Florin (WMF) (talk) 21:54, 19 Seetebosigo 2014 (UTC)

--This message was sent usingMassMessage. Was there an error?Report it!

VisualEditor global newsletter—June 2014

[Fetola Motswedi]

This is aone-time mailing to projects that may need this information. Future newsletters will be available asopt-in only. To receive future newsletters (about one per month), pleaseadd your page to the subscribers' list atm:VisualEditor/Newsletter. You're welcome to translate to your language.


The character formatting menu

Did you know?

The character formatting menu, or "Style text" menu lets you set bold, italic, and other text styles. "Clear formatting" removes all text styles and removes links to other pages.

Do you think that clear formatting should remove links? Are there changes you would like to see for this menu?Share your opinion at MediaWiki.org.

The user guide has information about how to use VisualEditor.

TheVisualEditor team is mostly working to fix bugs, improve performance, reduce technical debt, and other infrastructure needs. You can findon Mediawiki.org weekly updates detailing recent work.

  • They have moved the "Keyboard shortcuts" link out of the "Page options" menu, into the "Help" menu. Within dialog boxes, buttons are now more accessible (via the Tab key) from the keyboard.
  • You can nowsee the target of the link when you click on it, without having to open the inspector.
  • The team also expandedTemplateData: You can now add a parameter type  "date" for dates and times in the ISO 8601 format, and  "boolean" for values which are true or false. Also, templates that redirect to other templates (like{{citeweb}} →{{cite web}}) now get the TemplateData of their target (bug 50964). You can test TemplateData by editingmw:Template:Sandbox/doc.
  • Category: and File: pages now display their contents correctly after saving an edit (bug 65349,bug 64239)
  • They have also improvedreference editing: You should no longer be able to add empty citations with VisualEditor (bug 64715), as with references. When you edit a reference, you can now empty it and click the "use an existing reference" button to replace it with another reference instead. 
  • It is now possible to editinline images with VisualEditor. Remember that inline images cannot display captions, so existing captions get removed. Many other bugs related to images were also fixed.
  • You can now add and edit {{DISPLAYTITLE}} and __DISAMBIG__ in the "Page options" menu, rounding out the full set of page options currently planned.
  • The tool to insertspecial characters is now wider and simpler.

Looking ahead

[Fetola Motswedi]

The VisualEditor team has posted a draft of their goals for the next fiscal year. You can read them and suggest changeson MediaWiki.org.

The team posts details about planned work onVisualEditor's roadmap. You will soon be able todrag-and-drop text as well as images. If you drag an image to a new place, it won't let you place it in the middle of a paragraph. All dialog boxes and windows will be simplified based on user testing and feedback. The VisualEditor teamplans to addautofill features for citations.Yourideas about making referencing quick and easy are still wanted. Support forupright image sizes is being developed. The designers are also working on support forviewing and editing hidden HTML comments andadding rows and columns to tables.

Supporting your wiki

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please readVisualEditor/Citation tool for information on configuring the newcitation template menu, labeled "⧼visualeditor-toolbar-cite-label⧽". This menu will not appear unless it has been configured on your wiki.

If you speak a language other than English,we need your help with translatingthe user guide. The guide is out of date or incomplete for many languages, and what's on your wiki may not be the most recent translation. Pleasecontact us if you need help getting started with translation work on MediaWiki.org.

VisualEditor can be made available to most non-Wikipedia projects. If your community would like to test VisualEditor, please contact product managerJames Forrester or file an enhancement request in Bugzilla.

Please share your questions, suggestions, or problems by posting a note atmw:VisualEditor/Feedback or by joining theoffice hours onSaturday, 19 July 2014 at21:00 UTC (daytime for the Americas and Pacific Islands) or onThursday, 14 August 2014 at9:00 UTC (daytime for Europe, Middle East, Asia).

If you'd like to get this newsletter on your own page (about once a month), please subscribe atMeta (or atw:en:Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Newsletter for English Wikipedia only). Thank you! --Elitre (WMF), 22:33, 25 Seetebosigo 2014 (UTC)

IMPORTANT: Admin activity review

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello. A new policy regarding the removal of "advanced rights" (administrator, bureaucrat, etc) was recently adopted byglobal community consensus (your community received a notice about the discussion). According to this policy, thestewards are reviewing administrators' activity on smaller wikis. To the best of our knowledge, your wiki does not have a formal process for removing "advanced rights" from inactive accounts. This means that the stewards will take care of this according to the newadmin activity review here.

We have determined that the following users meet the inactivity criteria (no edits and no log actions for more than 2 years):

  1. Effeietsanders (administrator)
  2. Tefo (administrator)

These users will receive a notification soon, asking them to start a community discussion if they want to retain some or all of their rights. If the users do not respond, then their advanced rights will be removed by the stewards.

However, if you as a community would like to create your own activity review process superseding the global one, want to make another decision about these inactive rights holders, or already have a policy that we missed, then please notify thestewards on Meta-Wiki so that we know not to proceed with the rights review on your wiki. Thanks,Rschen7754 06:04, 11 Phukwi 2014 (UTC)

Updates related to VisualEditor

[Fetola Motswedi]
Please help translate this message in your language. Thanks :)

Hi, everybody. This is a reminder that we invite you to discuss VisualEditor's recent development and plans ahead during thenext office hours with James Forrester (Product Manager):

If you are not able to attend but have a question for James, you can leave your questionat mediawiki.org or on my talk pageby the day before, and I will try to get a response. We plan to continue these monthly sessions as long as there is community interest, and to announce them through theVisualEditor global newsletter as well (please subscribe your talk page there to get the latest news about the software).

Most of the VisualEditor team will be atWikimania in London in August! You'll be able to meet the developers during the Hackaton or at the following sessions:

WMF community liaisons will share a booth with community advocates at the Community Village and look forward to talking to you there. Thanks for your attention! --User:Elitre (WMF) 16:02, 31 Phukwi 2014 (UTC)

VisualEditor global newsletter—July and August 2014

[Fetola Motswedi]

TheVisualEditor team is currently working mostly to fix bugs, improve performance, reduce technical debt, and other infrastructure needs. You can findon Mediawiki.org weekly updates detailing recent work.

Screenshot of VisualEditor's link tool
Dialog boxes in VisualEditor have been re-designed to use action words instead of icons. This has increased the number ofitems that need to be translated.The user guide is also being updated.

The biggest visible change since the last newsletter was to the dialog boxes.The design for each dialog box and window was simplified. The most commonly needed buttons are now at the top. Based on user feedback, the buttons are now labeled with simple words (like "Cancel" or "Done") instead of potentially confusing icons (like "<" or "X"). Many of the buttons to edit links, images, and other items now also show the linked page, image name, or other useful information when you click on them.

  • Hidden HTML comments (notes visible to editors, but not to readers) can now be read, edited, inserted, and removed. A small icon (a white exclamation mark on a dot) marks the location of each comments. You can click on the icon to see the comment.
  • You can nowdrag and drop text and templates as well as images. A new placement line makes it much easier to see where you are dropping the item. Images can no longer be dropped into the middle of paragraphs.
  • All references and footnotes (<ref> tags) are now made through the "⧼visualeditor-toolbar-cite-label⧽" menu, including the "⧼visualeditor-dialogbutton-reference-tooltip⧽" (manual formatting) footnotes and the ability to re-use an existing citation, both of which were previously accessible only through the "Insert" menu. The "⧼visualeditor-dialogbutton-referencelist-tooltip⧽" is still added via the "Insert" menu.
  • When you add an image or other media file, you are now prompted to add animage caption immediately. You can also replace an image whilst keeping the original caption and other settings.
  • All tablet users visiting themobile web version of Wikipedias will be able to opt-in to a version of VisualEditor from 14 August. You can test the new tool by choosing the beta version of the mobile view in the Settings menu.
  • Thelink tool has a new "Open" button that will open a linked page in another tab so you can make sure a link is the right one.
  • The"Cancel" button in the toolbar has been removed based on user testing. To cancel any edit, you can leave the page by clicking the Read tab, the back button in your browser, or closing the browser window without saving your changes.

Looking ahead

[Fetola Motswedi]

The team posts details about planned work on theVisualEditor roadmap. The VisualEditor teamplans to addauto-fill features for citations soon.Yourideas about making referencing quick and easy are still wanted. Support forupright image sizes is being developed. The designers are also working on support foradding rows and columns to tables. Work to supportInternet Explorer is ongoing.

Feedback opportunities

[Fetola Motswedi]

The Editing team will be making two presentations this weekend atWikimania in London. The first is with product manager James Forrester and developer Trevor Parscal onSaturday at 16:30. The second is with developers Roan Kattouw and Trevor Parscal onSunday at 12:30. There is aVisualEditor Translation Sprint going on during Wikimania; whether you're in London or not, any contributions are welcome!

Please share your questions, suggestions, or problems by posting a note at theVisualEditor feedback page or by joining theoffice hours discussion on Thursday, 14 August 2014 at09:00 UTC (daytime for Europe, Middle East and Asia) or on Thursday, 18 September 2014 at16:00 UTC (daytime for the Americas; evening for Europe).

If you'd like to get this newsletter on your own page (about once a month), please subscribe atw:en:Wikipedia:VisualEditor/Newsletter for English Wikipedia only or atMeta for any project. Thank you! --Elitre (WMF), 14:40, 9 Phatwe 2014 (UTC)

Letter petitioning WMF to reverse recent decisions

[Fetola Motswedi]

The Wikimedia Foundation recently created a new feature, "superprotect" status. The purpose is to prevent pages from being edited by elected administrators -- but permitting WMF staff to edit them. It has been put to use in only one case: to protect the deployment of the Media Viewer software on German Wikipedia, in defiance of a clear decision of that community to disable the feature by default, unless users decide to enable it.

If you oppose these actions, please add your name to this letter. If you know non-Wikimedians who support our vision for the free sharing of knowledge, and would like to add their names to the list, please ask them to sign an identical version of the letter on change.org.

--JurgenNL (talk) 17:35, 21 Phatwe 2014 (UTC)

Process ideas for software development

[Fetola Motswedi]

’’My apologies for writing in English.’’

Hello,

I am notifying you that a brainstorming session has beenstarted on Meta to help the Wikimedia Foundation increase and better affect community participation in software development across all wiki projects. Basically, how can you be more involved in helping to create features on Wikimedia projects? We are inviting all interested users to voice their ideas on how communities can be more involved and informed in the product development process at the Wikimedia Foundation. It would be very appreciated if you could translate this message to help inform your local communities as well.

I and the rest ofmy team welcome you to participate. We hope to see you on Meta.

Kind regards,--Rdicerb (WMF)talk 22:15, 21 Phatwe 2014 (UTC)

--This message was sent usingMassMessage. Was there an error?Report it!

Grants to improve your project

[Fetola Motswedi]
Apologies for English. Please help translate this message.

Greetings! TheIndividual Engagement Grants program is accepting proposals for funding new experiments from September 1st to 30th. Your idea could improve Wikimedia projects with a new tool or gadget, a better process to support community-building on your wiki, research on an important issue, or something else we haven't thought of yet. Whether you need $200 or $30,000 USD, Individual Engagement Grants can cover your own project development time in addition to hiring others to help you.

VisualEditor available on Internet Explorer 11

[Fetola Motswedi]

VisualEditor will become available to users of Microsoft Internet Explorer 11 during today's regular software update. Support for some earlier versions of Internet Explorer is being worked on. If you encounter problems with VisualEditor on Internet Explorer, please contact the Editing team by leaving a message atVisualEditor/Feedback on Mediawiki.org. Happy editing,Elitre (WMF) 07:29, 11 Lwetse 2014 (UTC).

PS. Please subscribe to theglobal monthly newsletter to receive further news about VisualEditor.

VisualEditor News #8—2014

[Fetola Motswedi]
Did you know?

TemplateData is a separate program that organizes information about the parameters that can be used in a template. VisualEditor reads that data, and uses it to populate its simplified template dialogs.

With the new TemplateData editor, it is easier to add information about parameters, because the ones you need to use are pre-loaded.

Seethe help page for TemplateData for more information about adding TemplateData.The user guide has information about how to use VisualEditor.

Since the last newsletter, theEditing team has reduced technical debt, simplified some workflows for template and citation editing, made major progress on Internet Explorer support, and fixedover 125 bugs and requests. Several performance improvements were made, especially to the system around re-using references and reference lists. Weekly updates are postedon Mediawiki.org.

There were three issues that required urgent fixes: a deployment error that meant that many buttons didn't work correctly (bugs69856 and69864), a problem with edit conflicts that left the editor with nowhere to go (bug 69150), and a problem in Internet Explorer 11 that replaced some categories with a link to the system messageMediaWiki:Badtitletext (bug 70894) when you saved. The developers apologize for the disruption, and thank the people who reported these problems quickly.

Increased support for devices and browsers

[Fetola Motswedi]

Internet Explorer 10 and 11 users now have access to VisualEditor. This means that about 5% of Wikimedia's users will now get an "Edit" tab alongside the existing "Edit source" tab. Support for Internet Explorer 9 is planned for the future.

Tablet users browsing the site's mobile mode now have the option of using a mobile-specific form of VisualEditor. More editing tools, and availability of VisualEditor on smartphones, is planned for the future. Themobile version of VisualEditor was tweaked to show the context menu for citations instead of basic references (bug 68897). A bug that broke the editor in iOS was corrected and released early (bug 68949). For mobile tablet users, three bugs related to scrolling were fixed (bug 66697,bug 68828,bug 69630). You can use VisualEditor on the mobile version of Wikipedia from your tablet by clicking on the cog in the top-right when editing a page and choosing which editor to use.

TemplateData editor

[Fetola Motswedi]

The tool for editingTemplateData has been deployed to 30 more Wikipedias this week. Other Wikipedias and some other projects may receive access next month. This tool makes it easier to add TemplateData to the template's documentation. When the tool is enabled, it will add a button above every editing window for a template (including documentation subpages). To use it, edit the template page or a subpage, and then click the "Edit template data" button at the top. Readthe help page for TemplateData. You can test the TemplateData editorin a sandbox at Mediawiki.org. Remember that TemplateData should be placed either on a documentation subpageor on the template page itself. Only one block of TemplateData will be used per template.

Other changes

[Fetola Motswedi]

Several interfacemessages and labels were changed to be simpler, clearer, or shorter, based on feedback from translators and editors. The formatting of dialogs was changed, and more changes to the appearance will be coming soon, when VisualEditor implements the new MediaWiki theme from Design. (A preview of the theme isavailable on Labs for developers.) The team also made some improvements for users of theMonobook skin that improved the size of text in toolbars and fixed selections that overlapped menus.

VisualEditor-MediaWiki now supplies themw-redirect andmw-disambig class onlinks to redirects and disambiguation pages, so that user gadgets that colour in these types of links can be created.

Templates' fields can be marked as 'required'in TemplateData. If a parameter is marked as required, then you cannot delete that field when you add a new template or edit an existing one (bug 60358).

Language support improved by making annotations use bi-directional isolation (so they display correctly with cursoring behaviour as expected) and by fixing a bug that crashed VisualEditor when trying to edit a page with adir attribute but nolang set (bug 69955).

Looking ahead

[Fetola Motswedi]

The team posts details about planned work on theVisualEditor roadmap. The VisualEditor teamplans to addauto-fill featuresfor citations soon, perhaps in late October.

The team is also working on support foradding rows and columns to tables, and early work for this may appear within the month.Please comment on the designat Mediawiki.org.

In the future, real-time collaborative editing may be possible in VisualEditor. Some early preparatory work for this was recently done.

Supporting your wiki

[Fetola Motswedi]

At Wikimania, several developers gave presentations about VisualEditor. A translation sprint focused on improving access to VisualEditor was supported by many people.Deryck Chan was the top translator. Special honors also go toसंजीव कुमार (Sanjeev Kumar),Robby,Takot,Bachounda,Bjankuloski06 andАта. Asummary of the work achieved by the translation community is available. Thank you all for your work.

This was the first translatable VisualEditor newsletter, so thanks to everybody who made this possible! If it hasn't been delivered in your language, and you'd like to help with translations in the future, please subscribe to theTranslators mailing list or contactElitre (WMF), so that you will be notified when the next issue is due.

VisualEditor can be made available to most non-Wikipedia projects. If your community would like to test VisualEditor, please contact product managerJames Forrester or file anenhancement request in Bugzilla.

Please join theoffice hours on Saturday, 18 October 2014 at18:00 UTC (daytime for the Americas; evening for Africa and Europe) and on Wednesday, 19 November at16:00 UTC onIRC.

Give feedback on VisualEditor atmw:VisualEditor/Feedback. Subscribe or unsubscribe atMeta. Thank you! —Elitre (WMF)

09:49, 13 Phalane 2014 (UTC)

Meta RfCs on two new global groups

[Fetola Motswedi]
Hello all,

There are currently requests for comment open on meta to create two new global groups. The first is a group for members of the OTRS permissions queue, which would grant them autopatrolled rights on all wikis except those who opt-out. That proposal can be found atm:Requests for comment/Creation of a global OTRS-permissions user group. The second is a group for Wikimedia Commons admins and OTRS agents to view deleted file pages through the 'viewdeletedfile' right on all wikis except those who opt-out. The second proposal can be found atm:Requests for comment/Global file deletion review.

We would like to hear what you think on both proposals. Both are in English; if you wanted to translate them into your native language that would also be appreciated.

It is possible for individual projects to opt-out, so that users in those groups do not have any additional rights on those projects. To do this please start a local discussion, and if there is consensus you can request to opt-out of either or both atm:Stewards' noticeboard.

Thanks and regards,Ajraddatz (talk) 18:05, 26 Phalane 2014 (UTC)

New Wikipedia Library Accounts Now Available (November 2014)

[Fetola Motswedi]

Apologies for writing in English, please help translate this into your local language.Hello Wikimedians!

The TWL OWL says sign up today :)

The Wikipedia Library is announcing signups today for, free, full-access accounts to published research as part of ourPublisher Donation Program. You can sign up for:

  • DeGruyter: 1000 new accounts for English and German-language research. Sign up on one of two language Wikipedias:
  • Fold3: 100 new accounts for American history and military archives
  • Scotland's People: 100 new accounts for Scottish genealogy database
  • British Newspaper Archive: expanded by 100+ accounts for British newspapers
  • Highbeam: 100+ remaining accounts for newspaper and magazine archives
  • Questia: 100+ remaining accounts for journal and social science articles
  • JSTOR: 100+ remaining accounts for journal archives

Do better research and help expand the use of high quality references across Wikipedia projects: sign up today!
--The Wikipedia Library Team.23:19, 5 Ngwanatsele 2014 (UTC)

You can host and coordinate signups for a Wikipedia Library branch in your own language. Please contactOcaasi (WMF).
This message was delivered via theGlobal Mass Message toThe Wikipedia Library Global Delivery List.

Global AbuseFilter

[Fetola Motswedi]
Hello,

AbuseFilter is a MediaWiki extension used to detect likely abusive behavior patterns, like pattern vandalism and spam. In 2013,Global AbuseFilters were enabled on a limited set of wikis including Meta-Wiki, MediaWiki.org, Wikispecies and (in early 2014) all the "small wikis". Recently, global abuse filters were enabled on "medium sized wikis" as well. These filters are currently managed by stewards on Meta-Wiki and have shown to be very effective in preventing mass spam attacks across Wikimedia projects. However, there is currently no policy on how the global AbuseFilters will be managed although there are proposals. There is an ongoingrequest for comment on policy governing the use of the global AbuseFilters. In the meantime, specific wikis can opt out of using the global AbuseFilter. These wikis can simply add a request tothis list on Meta-Wiki. More details can be found onthis page at Meta-Wiki. If you have any questions, feel free to ask onm:Talk:Global AbuseFilter.

Thanks,

PiRSquared17,Glaisher

— 17:34, 14 Ngwanatsele 2014 (UTC)

VisualEditor News #9—2014

[Fetola Motswedi]
Screenshot on an iPad, showing how to switch from one editor to the other

Did you know?

VisualEditor is also available on the mobile version of Wikipedia. Log in and click the pencil icon to open the page you want to edit. Click on the gear-shaped settings button in the upper-right corner to pick which editor to use. Choose "⧼Mobile-frontend-editor-visual-editor⧽" to use VisualEditor, or "⧼Mobile-frontend-editor-source-editor⧽" to use the wikitext editor.

It will remember whether you used wikitext or VisualEditor, and use the same editor the next time you edit an article.

The user guide has information about how to use VisualEditor. Not all features are available on the mobile website.

Since the last newsletter, theEditing Team has fixed manybugs and requests, and worked on support for editing tables and for using non-Latin languages. Their weekly updates are postedon Mediawiki.org. Informal notes from the recent quarterly review were postedon Meta.

Recent improvements

[Fetola Motswedi]

Basic support forinserting tables and changing the number of rows and columns in them was just introduced to Wikipedias. Advanced features, like dragging columns to different places, will be added later.

To help editors find the most important items more quickly, some items in the toolbar menus are now hidden behinda "More" item, such as "Underline" in the styling menu.

The French Wikipedia should seebetter search results for links, templates, and media because thenew search engine was turned on for everyone there. This change is expected at the Chinese and German Wikipedias this week, and the following week at the English Wikipedia.

The "pawn" system has been mostly replaced. Bugs in this system sometimes added a chess pawn character to wikitext. The replacement provides better support fornon-Latin languages, with full support hopefully coming soon.

VisualEditor is now provided to editors who useInternet Explorer 10 or 11 on desktop and mobile devices. Internet Explorer 9 is not supported yet.

Thekeyboard shortcuts for items in the toolbar menus are now shown in the menus.

VisualEditor will replace the existing design with anew theme from theUser Experience/Design group. The appearance of dialog boxes has already changed in the mobile version. The appearance on desktops will change soon. You are welcome to comparethe old "Apex" design andthe new "MediaWiki" theme which will replace it.

Several bugs were fixed for internal and external links. Improvements to MediaWiki's search solved an annoying problem: If you searched for the full name of the page or file that you wanted to link, sometimes the search engine could not find the page. A link inside a template to a local page that does not exist will now show red, exactly as it does when reading the page. Due to an error, for about two weeks this also affected all external links inside templates. Opening an auto-numbered link node like with the keyboard used to open the wrong link tool. These problems have all been fixed.

TemplateData

[Fetola Motswedi]

The tool for quickly editingTemplateData has been deployed to all Wikimedia Foundation wikis on Thursday, 6 November. This tool was already available on the biggest 40 Wikipedias, and now all wikis will have access to it. This tool makes it easier to add TemplateData to the template's documentation. When the tool is enabled, it will add a button above every editing window for a template (including documentation subpages). To use it, edit the template or a subpage, and then click the "Edit template data" button at the top. Readthe help page for TemplateData to learn more about it. You can test the TemplateData editorin a sandbox at Mediawiki.org. Remember that TemplateData should be placed either on a documentation subpageor on the template page itself. Only one block of TemplateData will be used per template.

You can use thenew autovalue setting to pre-load a value into a template. This can be used to substitute dates, as inthis example, or to add the most common value for that parameter. The autovalue can be overridden by the editor, by typing something else in the field.

In TemplateData, you maydefine a parameter as "required". The template dialog box in VisualEditor will warn editors if they leave a "required" parameter empty, and they will not be able to delete that parameter. If the template can function without this parameter, then please mark it as "suggested" or "optional" in TemplateData instead.

Looking ahead

[Fetola Motswedi]

The VisualEditor teamplans to addauto-fill featuresfor citations soon. The appearance of the media search dialog will improve, to make picking between possible images easier and more visual. The team posts details about planned work on theVisualEditor roadmap.

Theuser guide is being updated to add information about editing tables.The translations of the user guide for most languages except Spanish, French, and Dutch are significantly out of date.Please helpcomplete the current translations for users who speak your language.Talk to us if you need help exporting the translated guide to your wiki.

You can influence VisualEditor's design! Tell the VisualEditor team what you want changed during theoffice hours viaIRC. The next sessions are on Wednesday, 19 November at16:00 UTC and on Wednesday 7 January 2015 at22:00 UTC. You can also share your ideas atmw:VisualEditor/Feedback.

Also,user experience researcherAbbey Ripstra is looking for editors to show her how they edit Wikipedia. Pleasesign up for the research program if you would like to hear about opportunities.

If you would like to help with translations of this newsletter, please subscribe to theTranslators mailing list or contactus directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Subscribe or unsubscribe atMeta. Thank you!—Elitre (WMF)

23:29, 14 Ngwanatsele 2014 (UTC)

New Wikipedia Library Accounts Now Available (December 2014)

[Fetola Motswedi]

Apologies for writing in English, please help translate this into your local language.Hello Wikimedians!

The TWL OWL says sign up today :)

The Wikipedia Library is announcing signups today for, free, full-access accounts to published research as part of ourPublisher Donation Program. You can sign up for new accounts and research materials from:

Other partnerships with accounts available are listed onour partners page. Do better research and help expand the use of high quality references across Wikipedia projects: sign up today!
--The Wikipedia Library Team.00:22, 18 Sedimonthole 2014 (UTC)

You can host and coordinate signups for a Wikipedia Library branch in your own language. Please contactOcaasi (WMF).
This message was delivered via theGlobal Mass Message tool toThe Wikipedia Library Global Delivery List.

VisualEditor News #10—2014

[Fetola Motswedi]
VisualEditor
Screenshot showing how to add or remove columns from a table

Did you know?

Basic table editing is now available in VisualEditor. You can add and remove rows and columns from tables at the click of a button.

The user guide has more information about how to use VisualEditor.

Since the last newsletter, theEditing Team has fixed many bugs and worked on table editing and performance. Their weekly status reports are postedon mediawiki.org. Upcoming plans are posted at theVisualEditor roadmap.

VisualEditor was deployed to several hundred remaining wikis as an opt-inbeta feature at the end of November, except for most Wiktionaries (which depend heavily upon templates) and all Wikisources (which await integration withProofreadPage).

Recent improvements

[Fetola Motswedi]

Basic support forediting tables is now available. You can add and delete tables, add and remove rows and columns, set or remove a caption for a table, and merge cells together. To change the contents of a cell, double-click inside it. More features will be added in the coming months. In addition, VisualEditor now ignores broken, invalidrowspan andcolspan elements, instead of trying to repair them.

You can now usefind and replace in VisualEditor, reachable through the tool menu or by pressing^ Ctrl+F or⌘ Cmd+F.

You can now create and edit simple<blockquote> paragraphs for quoting and indenting content. This changes a "Paragraph" into a "Block quote".

Somenew keyboard sequences can be used to format content. At the start of the line, typing "*" will make the line a bullet list; "1." or "#" will make it a numbered list; "==" will make it a section heading; ":" will make it a blockquote. If you didn't mean to use these tools, you can press undo to undo the formatting change.

There are also two other keyboard sequences: "[[" for opening the link tool, and "{{" for opening the template tool, to help experienced editors. The existing standard keyboard shortcuts, like^ Ctrl+K to open the link editor, still work.

If you add a category that has been redirected, then VisualEditor now adds its target. Categories without description pages show up as red.

You can again create and editgalleries as wikitext code.

Looking ahead

[Fetola Motswedi]

The current VisualEditor design will be replaced with anew theme designed by theUser Experience group. The new theme will be visible for desktop systems at mediawiki.org in late December and on other sites in early January. (You can see a developer preview ofthe old "Apex" theme andthe new "MediaWiki" one which will replace it.)

The Editing teamplans to addauto-fill featuresfor citations in January.

Planned changes to the media search dialog will make choosing between possible images easier.

Let's work together

[Fetola Motswedi]

—Elitre (WMF)

18:59, 26 Sedimonthole 2014 (UTC)

VisualEditor News #1—2015

[Fetola Motswedi]
VisualEditor

Since the last newsletter, theEditing Team has fixed many bugs and worked on VisualEditor's appearance, the coming Citoid reference service, and support for languages with complex input requirements. Status reports are postedon mediawiki.org. Upcoming plans are posted at theVisualEditor roadmap.

The Wikimedia Foundation has namedits top priorities for this quarter (January to March). The first priority is making VisualEditor ready for deployment by default to all new users and logged-out users at the remaining large Wikipedias. You can help identify these requirements.There will be weeklytriage meetingswhich will be open to volunteers beginning Wednesday, 11 February 2015 at12:00 (noon) PST (20:00 UTC). Tell Vice President of EngineeringDamon Sicore, Product ManagerJames Forrester and other team members which bugs and features are most important to you. The decisions made at these meetings will determine what work is necessary for this quarter's goal of making VisualEditor ready for deployment to new users. The presence of volunteers who enjoy contributing MediaWiki code is particularly appreciated. Information about how to join the meeting will be posted atmw:Talk:VisualEditor/Portal shortly before the meeting begins.

Due to some breaking changes in MobileFrontend and VisualEditor, VisualEditor was not working correctly on the mobile site for a couple of days in early January. The teams apologize for the problem.

Recent improvements

[Fetola Motswedi]

The new design for VisualEditor aligns with MediaWiki'sFront-End Standards as led by the Design team. Several new versions of theOOjs UI library have also been released, and these also affect the appearance of VisualEditor and other MediaWiki software extensions. Most changes were minor, like changing the text size and the amount of white space in some windows. Buttons are consistently color-coded to indicate whether the action:

  • starts a new task, like opening the⧼visualeditor-toolbar-savedialog⧽ dialog: blue,
  • takes a constructive action, like inserting a citation: green,
  • might remove or lose your work, like removing a link: red, or
  • is neutral, like opening a link in a new browser window: gray.

TheTemplateData editor has been completely re-written to use a different design based on the same OOjs UI system as VisualEditor. (T67815,T73746.) This change fixed a couple of existing bugs and improved usability. (T73077,T73078.)

Search and replace in long documents is now faster. It does not highlight every occurrence if there are more than 100 on-screen at once.(T78234.)

Editors at the Hebrew and Russian Wikipedia requested the ability to use VisualEditor in the "Article Incubator" or drafts namespace. (T86688,T87027.) If your community would likeVisualEditor enabled on another namespace on your wiki, then you can file a request in Phabricator. Please include a link to a community discussion about the requested change.

Looking ahead

[Fetola Motswedi]

The Editing team will soon addauto-fill featuresfor citations. TheCitoid service takes aURL orDOI for a reliable source, and returns a pre-filled, pre-formatted bibliographic citation. After creating it, you will be able to change or add information to the citation, in the same way that you edit any other pre-existing citation in VisualEditor. Support for ISBNs, PMIDs, and other identifiers is planned. Later, editors will be able to contribute to the Citoid service's definitions for each website, to improve precision and reduce the need for manual corrections.

We will need editors to help test thenew design of the special character inserter, especially if you speak Welsh, Breton, or another language that uses diacritics or special characters extensively. The new version should be available for testing next week. Please contactUser:Whatamidoing (WMF) if you would like to be notified when the new version is available. After the special character tool is completed, VisualEditor will be deployed to all users atPhase 5 Wikipedias. This will affect about 50 mid-size and smaller Wikipedias, includingAfrikaans, Azerbaijani, Breton, Kyrgyz, Macedonian, Mongolian, Tatar, and Welsh. The date for this change has not been determined.

Let's work together

[Fetola Motswedi]


—Elitre (WMF)

18:30, 5 Tlhakole 2015 (UTC)

[Global proposal] m.Wikipedia.org:(all)Edit pages

[Fetola Motswedi]
MediaWiki mobile

Hi, this message is to let you know that, on domains liketn.m.wikipedia.org,unregistered users cannot edit. At the Wikimedia Forum, where global configuration changes are normally discussed, a few dozens userspropose to restore normal editing permissions on all mobile sites. Please read and comment!

Thanks and sorry for writing in English,Nemo 22:33, 1 Mopitlo 2015 (UTC)

New Wikipedia Library Accounts Available Now (March 2015)

[Fetola Motswedi]

Apologies for writing in English, please help translate this into your local language.Hello Wikimedians!

The TWL OWL says sign up today!

The Wikipedia Library is announcing signups today for, free, full-access accounts to published research as part of ourPublisher Donation Program. You can sign up for new accounts and research materials from:

Many other partnerships with accounts available are listed onour partners page. Do better research and help expand the use of high quality references across Wikipedia projects: sign up today!
--The Wikipedia Library Team 21:14, 2 Mopitlo 2015 (UTC)

Help us coordinate Wikipedia Library's distribution of accounts, communication of access opportunities and more! Please join our team atour new coordinator page.
This message was delivered via theGlobal Mass Message tool toThe Wikipedia Library Global Delivery List.

Inspire Campaign: Improving diversity, improving content

[Fetola Motswedi]

This March, we’re organizing an Inspire Campaign to encourage and support new ideas for improving gender diversity on Wikimedia projects. Less than 20% of Wikimedia contributors are women, and many important topics are still missing in our content. We invite all Wikimedians to participate. If you have an idea that could help address this problem, please get involved today! The campaign runs until March 31.

All proposals are welcome - research projects, technical solutions, community organizing and outreach initiatives, or something completely new! Funding is available from the Wikimedia Foundation for projects that need financial support. Constructive, positive feedback on ideas is appreciated, and collaboration is encouraged - your skills and experience may help bring someone else’s project to life. Join us at the Inspire Campaign and help this project better represent the world’s knowledge!

(Sorry for the English - please translate this message!)MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 20:01, 4 Mopitlo 2015 (UTC)

SUL finalization update

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hi all,apologies for writing in English, please readthis page for important information and an update involvingSUL finalization, scheduled to take place in one month. Thanks.Keegan (WMF) (talk) 19:45, 13 Mopitlo 2015 (UTC)

Stewards confirmation rules

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello, I madea proposal on Meta to change the rules for the steward confirmations. Currently consensus to remove is required for a steward to lose his status, however I think it's fairer to the community if every steward needed the consensus to keep. As this is an issue that affects all WMF wikis, I'm sending this notification to let people know & be able to participate. Best regards, --MF-W 16:12, 10 Moranang 2015 (UTC)

VisualEditor News #2—2015

[Fetola Motswedi]
VisualEditor


Did you know?

WithCitoid in VisualEditor, you click the 'book with bookmark' icon and paste in the URL for a reliable source:


Screenshot of Citoid's first dialog


Citoid looks up the source for you and returns the citation results. Click the green "Insert" button to accept its results and add them to the article:


Screenshot of Citoid's initial results


After inserting the citation, you can change it. Select the reference, and click the "Edit" button in the context menu to make changes.

The user guide has more information about how to use VisualEditor.

Since the last newsletter, theEditing Team has fixed many bugs and worked on VisualEditor's performance, theCitoid reference service, and support for languages with complex input requirements. Status reports are postedon Mediawiki.org. The worklist for April through June is availablein Phabricator.

The weeklytask triage meetings continue to be open to volunteers, each Wednesday at11:00 (noon) PDT (18:00 UTC). You do not need to attend the meeting to nominate a bug for consideration as a Q4 blocker. Instead, go to Phabricator and "associate" theEditing team's Q4 blocker project with the bug. Learn how to join the meetings and how to nominate bugs atmw:Talk:VisualEditor/Portal.

Recent improvements

[Fetola Motswedi]

VisualEditor is now substantially faster. In many cases, opening the page in VisualEditor is now faster than opening it in the wikitext editor. The new system has improved the code speed by 37% andnetwork speed by almost 40%.

The Editing team is slowly addingauto-fill featuresfor citations. This is currently available only at the French, Italian, and English Wikipedias. TheCitoid service takes aURL orDOI for a reliable source, and returns a pre-filled, pre-formatted bibliographic citation. After creating it, you will be able to change or add information to the citation, in the same way that you edit any other pre-existing citation in VisualEditor. Support forISBNs,PMIDs, and other identifiers is planned. Later, editors will be able to improve precision and reduce the need for manual corrections by contributing to the Citoid service's definitions for each website.

Citoid requires goodTemplateData for your citation templates. If you would like to request this feature for your wiki, please post a request in theCitoid project on Phabricator. Include links to the TemplateData for the most important citation templates on your wiki.

Thespecial character inserter has been improved, based upon feedback from active users. After this, VisualEditor was made available to all users of Wikipedias on thePhase 5 list on 30 March. This affected 53 mid-size and smaller Wikipedias, includingAfrikaans,Azerbaijani,Breton,Kyrgyz,Macedonian,Mongolian,Tatar, and Welsh.

Work continues to support languages with complex requirements, such as Korean and Japanese. These languages useinput method editors ("IMEs”). Recent improvements to cursoring, backspace, and delete behavior will simplify typing in VisualEditor for these users.

The design for the image selection process is now using a "masonry fit" model. Images in the search results are displayed at the same height but at variable widths, similar to bricks of different sizes in a masonry wall, or the"packed" mode in image galleries. This style helps you find the right image by making it easier to see more details in images.

You can nowdrag and drop categories to re-arrange their order of appearance ​on the page.

The pop-up window that appears when you click on a reference, image, link, or other element, is called the "context menu". It now displays additional useful information, such as the destination of the link or the image's filename. The team has also added an explicit "Edit" button in the context menu, which helps new editors open the tool to change the item.

Invisible templates are marked by a puzzle piece icon so they can be interacted with. Users also will be able to see and edit HTML anchors now in section headings.

Users of the TemplateData GUI editor can now set a string as an optional text for the 'deprecated' property in addition to boolean value, which lets you tell users of the template what they should do instead. (T90734)

Looking ahead

[Fetola Motswedi]

The special character inserter in VisualEditor will soon use the same special character list as the wikitext editor. Admins at each wiki will also have the option of creating a custom section for frequently used characters at the top of the list. Instructions for customizing the list will be postedat mediawiki.org.

The team is discussing a test of VisualEditor with new users at the English Wikipedia, to see whether they have met their goals of making VisualEditor suitable for those editors. The timing is unknown, but might be relatively soon. (T90666)

Let's work together

[Fetola Motswedi]
  • Share your ideas and ask questions atmw:VisualEditor/Feedback.
  • Can you translate from English into any other language? Please checkthis list to see whether more interface translations are needed for your language.Contact us to get an account if you want to help!
  • The design research team wants to see how real editors work. Pleasesign up for their research program.
  • File requests for language-appropriate "Bold" and "Italic" icons for the character formatting menuin Phabricator.

Subscribe, unsubscribe or change the page where this newsletter is delivered atMeta. If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to theTranslators mailing list orcontact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you!

—Elitre (WMF)

19:48, 10 Moranang 2015 (UTC)

Nominations are being accepted for 2015 Wikimedia Foundation elections

[Fetola Motswedi]

This is a message from the2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee.Translations are available.

Greetings,

I am pleased to announce that nominations are now being accepted for the 2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections. This year the Board and the FDC Staff are looking for a diverse set of candidates from regions and projects that are traditionally under-represented on the board and in the movement as well as candidates with experience in technology, product or finance. To this end they havepublished letters describing what they think is needed and, recognizing that those who know the community the best are the community themselves, the election committee isaccepting nominations for community members you think should run and will reach out to those nominated to provide them with information about the job and the election process.

This year, elections are being held for the following roles:

Board of Trustees
The Board of Trustees is the decision-making body that is ultimately responsible for the long term sustainability of the Foundation, so we value wide input into its selection. There are three positions being filled. More information about this role can be found atthe board elections page.

Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC)
The Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) makes recommendations about how to allocate Wikimedia movement funds to eligible entities. There are five positions being filled. More information about this role can be found atthe FDC elections page.

Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) Ombud
The FDC Ombud receives complaints and feedback about the FDC process, investigates complaints at the request of the Board of Trustees, and summarizes the investigations and feedback for the Board of Trustees on an annual basis. One position is being filled. More information about this role can be found atthe FDC Ombudsperson elections page.

The candidacy submission phase lasts from 00:00 UTC April 20 to 23:59 UTC May 5 for the Board and from 00:00 UTCApril 20 to 23:59 UTC April 30 for the FDC and FDC Ombudsperson. This year, we are accepting both self-nominations and nominations of others. More information on this election and the nomination process can be found onthe 2015 Wikimedia elections page on Meta-Wiki.

Please feel free to post a note about the election on your project's village pump. Any questions related to the election can be posted on the talk page on Meta, or sent to the election committee's mailing list, board-elections -at- wikimedia.org

On behalf of the Elections Committee,
-Gregory Varnum (User:Varnent)
Coordinator,2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee

Posted by theMediaWiki message delivery on behalf of the2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee, 05:03, 21 April 2015 (UTC) •Translate •Get help

Content Translation now available as a beta feature on this Wikipedia

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello, we enabledContent Translation today as a beta feature on this Wikipedia. Content Translation is a tool that will help editors quickly create new articles by translating from a Wikipedia page in another language. The tool is currently in use in over40 Wikipedias as a beta feature. To start translating, you will have to enable the beta feature and go toSpecial:ContentTranslation or to your contributions page and create a new translation by selecting the source language, the article name you wish to translate and target language i.e. the language of the new article you are creating. If the article already exists then a warning will be displayed. After you translate the article, you can publish it directly as a new page on the Wikipedia. In case the article gets created by another user while you were translating, you will see an option to save the newly published translation under your user namespace. The number of published pages can be seen on theContent Translation stats page.

Since, this is the first time we have installed the tool on this Wikipedia, there are chances that there may be some problems or service disruptions which we are not yet aware of. We will be monitoring the usage to check for any failures or issues, but please do let us know on theContent Translation talk page or throughPhabricator if you spot any problems that prevent you from using the tool. For more information, please readabout how to use the tool. You can also view ashort screencast on how to use Content Translation. My apologies for writing this announcement only in English. Please feel free to translate this message. Thank you.Runa Bhattacharjee 15:49, 30 Moranang 2015 (UTC)


Message sent usingm:Global_message_delivery

Wikimedia Foundation Funds Dissemination Committee elections 2015

[Fetola Motswedi]

This is a message from the2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee.Translations are available.

Voting has begun foreligible voters in the 2015 elections for theFunds Dissemination Committee (FDC) andFDC Ombudsperson. Questions and discussion with the candidates for theFunds Dissemination Committee (FDC) andFDC Ombudsperson will continue during the voting. Nominations for theBoard of Trustees will be accepted until 23:59 UTC May 5.

TheFunds Dissemination Committee (FDC) makes recommendations about how to allocate Wikimedia movement funds to eligible entities. There are five positions on the committee being filled.

TheFDC Ombudsperson receives complaints and feedback about the FDC process, investigates complaints at the request of theBoard of Trustees, and summarizes the investigations and feedback for the Board of Trustees on an annual basis. One position is being filled.

The voting phase lasts from 00:00 UTC May 3 to 23:59 UTC May 10.Click here to vote. Questions and discussion with the candidates will continue during that time.Click here to ask the FDC candidates a question.Click here to ask the FDC Ombudsperson candidates a question. More information on the candidates and the elections can be found on the2015 FDC election page, the2015 FDC Ombudsperson election page, and the2015 Board election page on Meta-Wiki.

On behalf of the Elections Committee,
-Gregory Varnum (User:Varnent)
Volunteer Coordinator,2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee

Posted by theMediaWiki message delivery 03:45, 4 May 2015 (UTC) •Translate •Get help

New Wikipedia Library Accounts Available Now (May 2015)

[Fetola Motswedi]

Apologies for writing in English, please help translate this into your local language.Hello Wikimedians!

The TWL OWL says sign up today!

TodayThe Wikipedia Library announces signups for more free, full-access accounts to published research as part of ourPublisher Donation Program. You can sign up for new accounts and research materials from:

  • MIT Press Journals — scholarly journals in the humanities, sciences, and social sciences (200 accounts)
  • Loeb Classical Library — Harvard University Press versions of Classical Greek and Latin literature with commentary and annotation (25 accounts)
  • RIPM — music periodicals published between 1760 and 1966 (20 accounts)
  • Sage Stats — social science data for geographies within the United States (10 accounts)
  • HeinOnline — an extensive legal research database, including 2000 law-related journals as well as international legal history materials (25 accounts)

Many other partnerships with accounts available are listed onour partners page, includingProject MUSE,JSTOR,DeGruyter,Newspapers.com andBritish Newspaper Archive. Do better research and help expand the use of high quality references across Wikipedia projects: sign up today!
--The Wikipedia Library Team 22:12, 4 Motsheganong 2015 (UTC)

We need your help! Help coordinate Wikipedia Library's account distribution and global development! Please join our team atGlobal our new coordinator signup.
This message was delivered via theMass Message tool toThe Wikipedia Library Global Delivery List

Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees elections 2015

[Fetola Motswedi]

This is a message from the2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee.Translations are available.

Voting has begun foreligible voters in the 2015 elections for theWikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Questions and discussion with the candidates for theBoard will continue during the voting.

TheWikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees is the ultimate governing authority of the Wikimedia Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization registered in the United States. The Wikimedia Foundation manages many diverse projects such as Wikipedia and Commons.

The voting phase lasts from 00:00 UTC May 17 to 23:59 UTC May 31.Click here to vote. More information on the candidates and the elections can be found on the2015Board election page on Meta-Wiki.

On behalf of the Elections Committee,
-Gregory Varnum (User:Varnent)
Volunteer Coordinator,2015 Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee

Posted by theMediaWiki message delivery 17:20, 17 May 2015 (UTC) •Translate •Get help

Pywikibot compat will no longer be supported - Please migrate to pywikibot core

[Fetola Motswedi]

Sorry for English, I hope someone translates this.
Pywikibot (then "Pywikipediabot") was started back in 2002. In 2007 a new branch (formerly known as "rewrite", now called "core") was started from scratch using the MediaWiki API. The developers of Pywikibot have decided to stop supporting the compat version of Pywikibot due to bad performance and architectural errors that make it hard to update, compared to core. If you are using pywikibot compat it is likely your code will break due to upcoming MediaWiki API changes (e.g.T101524). It is highly recommended you migrate to the core framework. There is amigration guide, and pleasecontact us if you have any problem.

There is an upcoming MediaWiki API breaking change that compat will not be updated for. If your bot's name is inthis list, your bot will most likely break.

Thank you,
The Pywikibot development team, 19:30, 5 June 2015 (UTC)

VisualEditor News #3—2015

[Fetola Motswedi]
VisualEditor

Did you know?

When you click on a link to an article, you now see more information:

Screenshot showing the link tool's context menu


The link tool has been re-designed:

Screenshot of the link inspector


There are separate tabs for linking to internal and external pages.The user guide has more information about how to use VisualEditor.

Since the last newsletter, theEditing Team has created new interfaces for the link and citation tools and fixed many bugs and changed some elements of the design. Some of these bugs affected users of VisualEditor on mobile devices. Status reports are postedon mediawiki.org. The worklist for April through June is availablein Phabricator.

Atest of VisualEditor's effect on new editors at the English Wikipedia has just completed the first phase. During this test, half of newly registered editors had VisualEditor automatically enabled, and half did not. The main goal of the study is to learn which group was more likely to save an edit and to make productive, unreverted edits. Initialresults will be posted at Meta later this month.

Recent improvements

[Fetola Motswedi]

Auto-fill featuresfor citations are available at a few Wikipedias through thecitoid service. Citoid takes aURL orDOI for a reliable source, and returns a pre-filled, pre-formatted bibliographic citation. If Citoid is enabled on your wiki, then the design of the citation workflow changed during May. All citations are now created inside a single tool. Inside that tool, choose the tab you want (⧼citoid-citeFromIDDialog-mode-auto⧽,⧼citoid-citeFromIDDialog-mode-manual⧽, or⧼citoid-citeFromIDDialog-mode-reuse⧽). The cite button is now labeled with the word "⧼visualeditor-toolbar-cite-label⧽" rather than a book icon, and the autofill citation dialog now has a more meaningful label, "⧼Citoid-citeFromIDDialog-lookup-button⧽", for the submit button.

Thelink tool has been redesigned based on feedback from Wikipedia editors and user testing. It now has two separate sections: one for links to articles and one for external links. When you select a link, its pop-up context menu shows the name of the linked page, a thumbnail image from the linked page, Wikidata's description, and appropriate icons for disambiguation pages, redirect pages and empty pages (where applicable). Search results have been reduced to the first five pages. Several bugs were fixed, including a dark highlight that appeared over the first match in the link inspector. (T98085)

Thespecial character inserter in VisualEditor now uses the same special character list as the wikitext editor. Admins at each wiki can also create a custom section for frequently used characters at the top of the list. Please read the instructions for customizing the listat mediawiki.org. Also, there is now a tooltip to describing each character in the special character inserter. (T70425)

Several improvements have been made totemplates. When you search for a template to insert, the list of results now contains descriptions of the templates. The parameter list inside the template dialog now remains open after inserting a parameter from the list, so that users don’t need to click on "⧼visualeditor-dialog-transclusion-add-param⧽" each time they want to add another parameter. (T95696) The team added anew property for TemplateData, "Example", for template parameters. This optional, translatable property will show up when there is text describing how to use that parameter. (T53049)

Thedesign of the main toolbar and several other elements have changed slightly, to be consistent with the MediaWiki theme. In the Vector skin, individual items in the menu are separated visually by pale gray bars. Buttons and menus on the toolbar can now contain both an icon and a text label, rather than just one or the other. This new design feature is being used for the cite button on wikis where the Citoid service is enabled.

The team has released a long-desired improvement to the handling ofnon-existent images. If a non-existent image is linked in an article, then it is now visible in VisualEditor and can be selected, edited, replaced, or removed.

Let's work together

[Fetola Motswedi]
  • Share your ideas and ask questions atmw:VisualEditor/Feedback.
  • The weekly task triage meetings continue to be open to volunteers, usually on Wednesday at 12:00 (noon) PDT (19:00 UTC). Learn how to join the meetings and how to nominate bugs atmw:VisualEditor/Weekly triage meetings. You do not need to attend the meeting to nominate a bug for consideration as a Q4 blocker, though. Instead, go to Phabricator and "associate" theVisualEditor Q4 blocker project with the bug.
  • If your Wikivoyage, Wikibooks, Wikiversity, or other community wants to have VisualEditor made available by default to contributors, then please contactJames Forrester.
  • If you would like to request the Citoid automatic reference feature for your wiki, please post a request in theCitoid project on Phabricator. Include links to theTemplateData for the most important citation templates on your wiki.
  • The team is planning the second VisualEditor-related "translathon" for July. Please followthis task on Phabricator for details and updates! Announcements will follow in due course.

Subscribe, unsubscribe or change the page where this newsletter is delivered atMeta. If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to theTranslators mailing list orcontact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you!

—Elitre (WMF)

10:44, 13 Seetebosigo 2015 (UTC)

VisualEditor News #3—2015

[Fetola Motswedi]
VisualEditor

Did you know?

When you click on a link to an article, you now see more information:

Screenshot showing the link tool's context menu


The link tool has been re-designed:

Screenshot of the link inspector


There are separate tabs for linking to internal and external pages.The user guide has more information about how to use VisualEditor.

Since the last newsletter, theEditing Team has created new interfaces for the link and citation tools and fixed many bugs and changed some elements of the design. Some of these bugs affected users of VisualEditor on mobile devices. Status reports are postedon mediawiki.org. The worklist for April through June is availablein Phabricator.

Atest of VisualEditor's effect on new editors at the English Wikipedia has just completed the first phase. During this test, half of newly registered editors had VisualEditor automatically enabled, and half did not. The main goal of the study is to learn which group was more likely to save an edit and to make productive, unreverted edits. Initialresults will be posted at Meta later this month.

Recent improvements

[Fetola Motswedi]

Auto-fill featuresfor citations are available at a few Wikipedias through thecitoid service. Citoid takes aURL orDOI for a reliable source, and returns a pre-filled, pre-formatted bibliographic citation. If Citoid is enabled on your wiki, then the design of the citation workflow changed during May. All citations are now created inside a single tool. Inside that tool, choose the tab you want (⧼citoid-citeFromIDDialog-mode-auto⧽,⧼citoid-citeFromIDDialog-mode-manual⧽, or⧼citoid-citeFromIDDialog-mode-reuse⧽). The cite button is now labeled with the word "⧼visualeditor-toolbar-cite-label⧽" rather than a book icon, and the autofill citation dialog now has a more meaningful label, "⧼Citoid-citeFromIDDialog-lookup-button⧽", for the submit button.

Thelink tool has been redesigned based on feedback from Wikipedia editors and user testing. It now has two separate sections: one for links to articles and one for external links. When you select a link, its pop-up context menu shows the name of the linked page, a thumbnail image from the linked page, Wikidata's description, and appropriate icons for disambiguation pages, redirect pages and empty pages (where applicable). Search results have been reduced to the first five pages. Several bugs were fixed, including a dark highlight that appeared over the first match in the link inspector. (T98085)

Thespecial character inserter in VisualEditor now uses the same special character list as the wikitext editor. Admins at each wiki can also create a custom section for frequently used characters at the top of the list. Please read the instructions for customizing the listat mediawiki.org. Also, there is now a tooltip to describing each character in the special character inserter. (T70425)

Several improvements have been made totemplates. When you search for a template to insert, the list of results now contains descriptions of the templates. The parameter list inside the template dialog now remains open after inserting a parameter from the list, so that users don’t need to click on "⧼visualeditor-dialog-transclusion-add-param⧽" each time they want to add another parameter. (T95696) The team added anew property for TemplateData, "Example", for template parameters. This optional, translatable property will show up when there is text describing how to use that parameter. (T53049)

Thedesign of the main toolbar and several other elements have changed slightly, to be consistent with the MediaWiki theme. In the Vector skin, individual items in the menu are separated visually by pale gray bars. Buttons and menus on the toolbar can now contain both an icon and a text label, rather than just one or the other. This new design feature is being used for the cite button on wikis where the Citoid service is enabled.

The team has released a long-desired improvement to the handling ofnon-existent images. If a non-existent image is linked in an article, then it is now visible in VisualEditor and can be selected, edited, replaced, or removed.

Let's work together

[Fetola Motswedi]
  • Share your ideas and ask questions atmw:VisualEditor/Feedback.
  • The weekly task triage meetings continue to be open to volunteers, usually on Wednesday at 12:00 (noon) PDT (19:00 UTC). Learn how to join the meetings and how to nominate bugs atmw:VisualEditor/Weekly triage meetings. You do not need to attend the meeting to nominate a bug for consideration as a Q4 blocker, though. Instead, go to Phabricator and "associate" theVisualEditor Q4 blocker project with the bug.
  • If your Wikivoyage, Wikibooks, Wikiversity, or other community wants to have VisualEditor made available by default to contributors, then please contactJames Forrester.
  • If you would like to request the Citoid automatic reference feature for your wiki, please post a request in theCitoid project on Phabricator. Include links to theTemplateData for the most important citation templates on your wiki.
  • The team is planning the second VisualEditor-related "translathon" for July. Please followthis task on Phabricator for details and updates! Announcements will follow in due course.

Subscribe, unsubscribe or change the page where this newsletter is delivered atMeta. If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to theTranslators mailing list orcontact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you!

—Elitre (WMF)

15:06, 13 Seetebosigo 2015 (UTC)

New Wikipedia Library Accounts Available Now (June 2015)

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello Wikimedians!

The TWL OWL says sign up today!

TodayThe Wikipedia Library announces signups for more free, full-access accounts to published research as part of ourPublisher Donation Program. You can sign up for new accounts and research materials from:

  • Taylor & Francis — academic publisher of journals. The pilot includes two subject collections: Arts & Humanities and Biological, Environment & Earth Sciences. (30 accounts)
  • World Bank eLibrary — digital platform containing all books, working papers, and journal articles published by the World Bank from the 1990s to the present. (100 accounts)
  • AAAS — general interest science publisher, who publishes the journalScience among other sources (50 accounts)

New French-Language Branch!

  • Érudit (en Francais) — Érudit is a French-Canadian scholarly aggregator primarily, humanities and social sciences, and contains sources in both English and French. Signups on both English and French Wikipedia (50 accounts).
  • Cairn.info (en Francais) — Cairn.info is a Switzerland based online web portal of scholarly materials in the humanities and social sciences. Most sources are in French, but some also in English. Signups on both English and French Wikipedia (100 accounts).
  • L'Harmattan — French language publisher across a wide range of non-fiction and fiction, with a strong selection of francophone African materials (1000 accounts).

Many other partnerships with accounts available are listed onour partners page, including an expansion of accounts forRoyal Society journals and remaining accounts onProject MUSE,JSTOR,DeGruyter,HighbeamNewspapers.com andBritish Newspaper Archive. If you have suggestions for journals or databases we should seek access tomake a request! Do better research and help expand the use of high quality references across Wikipedia projects: sign up today!
--The Wikipedia Library Team 22:08, 15 June 2015 (UTC)

We need your help! Help coordinate Wikipedia Library's account distribution and global development! Please join our team atour new coordinator signup.
This message was delivered via the Global Mass Message tool toThe Wikipedia Library Global Delivery List

HTTPS

[Fetola Motswedi]

Apologies for writing in English.

Hi everyone.

Over the last few years, the Wikimedia Foundation hasbeen working towards enablingHTTPS by default for all users, including unregistered ones, for better privacy and security for both readers and editors. This has taken a long time, as there were different aspects to take into account. Our servers haven't been ready to handle it. The Wikimedia Foundation has had to balance sometimes conflicting goals.

Forced HTTPS has just been implemented on all Wikimedia projects. Some of you might already be aware of this, as a few Wikipedia language versions were converted to HTTPS last week and the then affected communities were notified.

Most of Wikimedia editors shouldn't be affected at all. If you edit as registered user, you've probably already had to log in through HTTPS. We'll keep an eye on this to make sure everything is working as it should. Do get in touch withus if you have any problems after this change or contact me if you have any other questions.

/Johan (WMF)

22:01, 19 Seetebosigo 2015 (UTC)

HTTPS

[Fetola Motswedi]

Apologies for writing in English.

Hi everyone.

Over the last few years, the Wikimedia Foundation hasbeen working towards enablingHTTPS by default for all users, including unregistered ones, for better privacy and security for both readers and editors. This has taken a long time, as there were different aspects to take into account. Our servers haven't been ready to handle it. The Wikimedia Foundation has had to balance sometimes conflicting goals.

Forced HTTPS has just been implemented on all Wikimedia projects. Some of you might already be aware of this, as a few Wikipedia language versions were converted to HTTPS last week and the then affected communities were notified.

Most of Wikimedia editors shouldn't be affected at all. If you edit as registered user, you've probably already had to log in through HTTPS. We'll keep an eye on this to make sure everything is working as it should. Do get in touch withus if you have any problems after this change or contact me if you have any other questions.

/Johan (WMF)

01:01, 20 Seetebosigo 2015 (UTC)

Proposal to create PNG thumbnails of static GIF images

[Fetola Motswedi]
The thumbnail of this gif is of really bad quality.
How a PNG thumb of this GIF would look like

There is aproposal at the Commons Village Pump requesting feedback about the thumbnails of static GIF images: It states that static GIF files should have their thumbnails created in PNG. The advantages of PNG over GIF would be visible especially with GIF images using an alpha channel. (compare the thumbnails on the side)

This change would affect all wikis, so if you support/oppose or want to give general feedback/concerns, please post them to theproposal page. Thank you. --McZusatz (talk) &MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 05:07, 24 Phukwi 2015 (UTC)

Proposal to create PNG thumbnails of static GIF images

[Fetola Motswedi]
The thumbnail of this gif is of really bad quality.
How a PNG thumb of this GIF would look like

There is aproposal at the Commons Village Pump requesting feedback about the thumbnails of static GIF images: It states that static GIF files should have their thumbnails created in PNG. The advantages of PNG over GIF would be visible especially with GIF images using an alpha channel. (compare the thumbnails on the side)

This change would affect all wikis, so if you support/oppose or want to give general feedback/concerns, please post them to theproposal page. Thank you. --McZusatz (talk) &MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 06:21, 24 Phukwi 2015 (UTC)

What does a Healthy Community look like to you?

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hi,
The Community Engagement department at the Wikimedia Foundation has launched a new learning campaign. The WMF wants to record community impressions about what makes a healthy online community.Share your views and/or create a drawing and take a chance to win a Wikimania 2016 scholarship!Join the WMF as we begin a conversation about Community Health. Contribute a drawing or answer the questionson the campaign's page.

Why get involved?

[Fetola Motswedi]

The world is changing. The way we relate to knowledge is transforming. As the next billion people come online, the Wikimedia movement is working to bring more users on the wiki projects. The way we interact and collaborate online are key to building sustainable projects. How accessible are Wikimedia projects to newcomers today? Are we helping each other learn?
Share your views on this matter that affects us all!
We invite everyone to take part in this learning campaign. Wikimedia Foundation will distribute one Wikimania Scholarship 2016 among those participants who are eligible.

More information

[Fetola Motswedi]


Happy editing!

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:43, 31 Phukwi 2015 (UTC)

Wikidata: Access to data from arbitrary items is coming

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Sorry for writing in English)

When using data from Wikidata on Wikipedia and other sister projects, there is currently a limitation in place that hinders some use cases: data can only be accessed from the corresponding item. So, for example, the Wikipedia article about Berlin can only get data from the Wikidata item about Berlin but not from the item about Germany. This had technical reasons. We are now removing this limitation. It is already done for many projects. Your project is one of the next ones. We will roll out this feature here on August 12.

We invite you to play around with this new feature if you are one of the people who have been waiting for this for a long time. If you have technical issues/questions with this you can come tod:Wikidata:Contact the development team.

A note of caution: Please be careful with how many items you use for a single page. If it is too many pages, loading might get slow. We will have to see how the feature behaves in production to see where we need to tweak and how.

How to use it, once it is enabled:

CheersLydia PintscherMediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:46, 3 Phatwe 2015 (UTC)

Wikidata: Access to data from arbitrary items is coming

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Sorry for writing in English)

When using data from Wikidata on Wikipedia and other sister projects, there is currently a limitation in place that hinders some use cases: data can only be accessed from the corresponding item. So, for example, the Wikipedia article about Berlin can only get data from the Wikidata item about Berlin but not from the item about Germany. This had technical reasons. We are now removing this limitation. It is already done for many projects. Your project is one of the next ones. We will roll out this feature here on August 12.

We invite you to play around with this new feature if you are one of the people who have been waiting for this for a long time. If you have technical issues/questions with this you can come tod:Wikidata:Contact the development team.

A note of caution: Please be careful with how many items you use for a single page. If it is too many pages, loading might get slow. We will have to see how the feature behaves in production to see where we need to tweak and how.

How to use it, once it is enabled:

CheersLydia PintscherMediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:30, 3 Phatwe 2015 (UTC)

Wikidata: Access to data from arbitrary items is here

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Sorry for writing in English)

Hi everyone,

As I have previously announced here we have now enabled the arbitrary access feature here. This means from now on you can make use of data from any Wikidata item in any article here. Before you could for example only access data about Berlin in the article about Berlin. If you want to find out more or have questions please come tod:Wikidata:Arbitrary access. I hope this will open up great possibilities for you and make your work easier.CheersLydia Pintscher (WMDE) 13:32, 12 Phatwe 2015 (UTC)

List of admins

[Fetola Motswedi]

There are currently1 administrators on the Tswana Wikipedia. A list can be foundhere.

VisualEditor News #4—2015

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this in another language •Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

VisualEditor

Did you know?

You can add quotations marks before and after a title or phrase with a single click.

Select the relevant text. Find the correct quotations marks in the special character inserter tool (marked as Ω in the toolbar).

Screenshot showing the special character tool, selected text, and the special character that will be inserted


Click the button. VisualEditor will add the quotation marks on either side of the text you selected.

Screenshot showing the special character tool and the same text after the special character has been inserted


You can read and help translatethe user guide, which has more information about how to use VisualEditor.

Since the last newsletter, theEditing Team have been working on mobile phone support. They have fixed many bugs and improved language support. They post weekly status reportson mediawiki.org. Their workboard is availablein Phabricator. Theircurrent priorities are improving language support and functionality on mobile devices.

Wikimania

[Fetola Motswedi]

The team attended Wikimania 2015 in Mexico City. There they participated in the Hackathon and met with individuals and groups of users. They also made several presentations aboutVisualEditor and thefuture of editing.

Following Wikimania, we announced winners for theVisualEditor 2015 Translathon. Our thanks and congratulations to usersHalan-tul,Renessaince,जनक राज भट्ट (Janak Bhatta),Vahe Gharakhanyan,Warrakkk, andEduardogobi.

Forinterface messages (translated attranslatewiki.net), we saw the initiative affecting 42 languages. The average progress in translations across all languages was 56.5% before the translathon, and 78.2% after (+21.7%). In particular, Sakha improved from 12.2% to 94.2%; Brazilian Portuguese went from 50.6% to 100%; Taraškievica went from 44.9% to 85.3%; Doteli went from 1.3% to 41.2%. Also, while 1.7% of the messages were outdated across all languages before the translathon, the percentage dropped to 0.8% afterwards (-0.9%).

Fordocumentation messages (on mediawiki.org), we saw the initiative affecting 24 languages. The average progress in translations across all languages was 26.6% before translathon, and 46.9% after (+20.3%). There were particularly notable achievements for three languages. Armenian improved from 1% to 99%; Swedish, from 21% to 99%, and Brazilian Portuguese, from 34% to 83%. Outdated translations across all languages were reduced from 8.4% before translathon to 4.8% afterwards (-3.6%).

We published some graphs showing the effect of the event on the Translathon page. We thank the translators for participating and the translatewiki.net staff for facilitating this initiative.

Recent improvements

[Fetola Motswedi]

Auto-fill features for citations can be enabled on each Wikipedia. The tool uses thecitoid service to convert aURL orDOI into a pre-filled, pre-formatted bibliographic citation. You can see an animated GIF of the quick,simple process at mediawiki.org. So far, about a dozen Wikipedias have enabled the auto-citation tool. To enable it for your wiki, follow theinstructions at mediawiki.org.

Your wiki can customize the first section of thespecial character inserter in VisualEditor. Please follow theinstructions at mediawiki.org to put the characters you want at the top. In other changes, if you need to fill in aCAPTCHA and get it wrong, then you can click to get a new one to complete. VisualEditor can now display and editVega-based graphs. If you use the Monobook skin, VisualEditor's appearance is now more consistent with other software.

Future changes

[Fetola Motswedi]

The team will be changing theappearance of selected links inside VisualEditor. The purpose is to make it easy to see whether your cursor is inside or outside the link. When you select a link, the link label (the words shown on the page) will be enclosed in a faint box. If you place your cursor inside the box, then your changes to the link label will be part of the link. If you place your cursor outside the box, then it will not. This will make it easy to know when new characters will be added to the link and when they will not.

On the English Wikipedia, 10% of newly created accounts are now offered both the visual and the wikitext editors. Arecent controlled trial showed no significant difference in survival or productivity for new users in the short term. New users with access to VisualEditor were very slightly less likely to produce results that needed reverting. You can learn more about this by watching a video of theJuly 2015 Wikimedia Research Showcase. The proportion of new accounts with access to both editing environments will be gradually increased over time. Eventually all new users have the choice between the two editing environments.

Let's work together

[Fetola Motswedi]
  • Share your ideas and ask questions atmw:VisualEditor/Feedback. This feedback page is now usingFlow instead of LiquidThreads.
  • Can you read and type in Korean or Japanese? Language engineerDavid Chan needs people who know which tools people use to type in some languages. If you speak Japanese or Korean, you can help him test support for these languages. Please see the instructions atmediawiki.org if you can help.
  • If your wiki would likeVisualEditor enabled on another namespace, you can file a request in Phabricator. Please include a link to a community discussion about the requested change.
  • Please file requests for language-appropriate "Bold" and "Italic" icons for the styling menuin Phabricator.
  • The design research team wants to see how real editors work. Pleasesign up for their research program.
  • The weekly task triage meetings continue to be open to volunteers, usually on Tuesdays at 12:00 (noon) PDT (19:00 UTC). Learn how to join the meetings and how to nominate bugs atmw:VisualEditor/Weekly triage meetings. You do not need to attend the meeting to nominate a bug for consideration as a Q1 blocker, though. Instead, go to Phabricator and "associate" the mainVisualEditor project with the bug.

If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to theTranslators mailing list orcontact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you!

—Elitre (WMF), 02:40, 15 Phatwe 2015 (UTC)

How can we improve Wikimedia grants to support you better?

[Fetola Motswedi]

My apologies for posting this message in English. Please help translate it if you can.

Hello,

The Wikimedia Foundation would like your feedback about how we canreimagine Wikimedia Foundation grants, to better support people and ideas in your Wikimedia project. Ways to participate:

Feedback is welcome in any language.

With thanks,

I JethroBT (WMF),Community Resources, Wikimedia Foundation.

(Opt-out Instructions)This message was sent byI JethroBT (WMF) throughMediaWiki message delivery. 00:06, 19 Phatwe 2015 (UTC)

Introducing the Wikimedia public policy site

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hi all,

We are excited to introduce a new Wikimedia Public Policy site. The site includes resources and position statements on access, copyright, censorship, intermediary liability, and privacy. The site explains how good public policy supports the Wikimedia projects, editors, and mission.

Visit the public policy portal:https://policy.wikimedia.org/

Please help translate thestatements on Meta Wiki. You canread more on the Wikimedia blog.

Thanks,

Yana andStephen (Talk) 18:13, 2 Lwetse 2015 (UTC)

(Sent with theGlobal message delivery system)

Open call for Individual Engagement Grants

[Fetola Motswedi]

My apologies for posting this message in English. Please help translate it if you can.

Greetings! TheIndividual Engagement Grants program is accepting proposals until September 29th to fund new tools, community-building processes, and other experimental ideas that enhance the work of Wikimedia volunteers. Whether you need a small or large amount of funds (up to $30,000 USD), Individual Engagement Grants can support you and your team’s project development time in addition to project expenses such as materials, travel, and rental space.

Thanks,

I JethroBT (WMF),Community Resources, Wikimedia Foundation. 20:52, 4 Lwetse 2015 (UTC)

(Opt-out Instructions)This message was sent byI JethroBT (WMF) (talk) throughMediaWiki message delivery.

Open call for Individual Engagement Grants

[Fetola Motswedi]

My apologies for posting this message in English. Please help translate it if you can.

Greetings! TheIndividual Engagement Grants program is accepting proposals until September 29th to fund new tools, community-building processes, and other experimental ideas that enhance the work of Wikimedia volunteers. Whether you need a small or large amount of funds (up to $30,000 USD), Individual Engagement Grants can support you and your team’s project development time in addition to project expenses such as materials, travel, and rental space.

Thanks,

I JethroBT (WMF),Community Resources, Wikimedia Foundation. 21:53, 4 Lwetse 2015 (UTC)

(Opt-out Instructions)This message was sent byI JethroBT (WMF) (talk) throughMediaWiki message delivery.

New Wikipedia Library Database Access (September 2015)

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello Wikimedians!

The TWL OWL says sign up today!

The Wikipedia Library is announcing signups today for free, full-access accounts to published research as part of ourPublisher Donation Program. You can sign up for new accounts and research materials from:

  • EBSCOHost - this is one of our largest access donations so far: access to a wide variety of academic, newspaper and magazine sources through their Academic Search Complete, Business Source Complete and MasterFILE Complete
  • Newspaperarchive.com - historical newspapers from the United States, Canada, UK and 20 other countries, and includes an Open Access "clipping" feature (1000 accounts)
  • IMF Elibary- a digital collection of the IMF's reports, studies and research on global economics and development (50 accounts)
  • Sabinet - one of the largest African digital publishers, based in South Africa, with a wide range of content in English and other European and African languages (10 accounts)
  • Numérique Premium - a French language social science and humanities ebook database, with topical collections on a wide range of topics (100)
  • Al Manhal - an Arabic and English database with a wide range of sources, largely focused on or published in the Middle East (60 accounts)
  • Jamalon - an Arabic book distributor, who is providing targeted book delivery to volunteers (50 editors)

Many other partnerships with accounts available are listed onour partners page, including expanded accounts forElsevier ScienceDirect,British Medical Journal andDynamed and additional accounts forProject MUSE,DeGruyter,Newspapers.com,Highbeam andHeinOnline. Do better research and help expand the use of high quality references across Wikipedia projects: sign up today!
--The Wikipedia Library Team 19:42, 16 September 2015 (UTC)

We need help! Help us coordinate Wikipedia Library's distribution of accounts, communication of access opportunities and more! Please join our team atour new coordinator signup.
This message was delivered via theGlobal Mass Message tool toThe Wikipedia Library Global Delivery List.

Only one week left for Individual Engagement Grant proposals!

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Apologies for using English below, please help translate if you are able.)

There is still one week left to submitIndividual Engagement Grant (IEG) proposals before the September 29th deadline. If you have ideas for new tools, community-building processes, and other experimental projects that enhance the work of Wikimedia volunteers, start your proposal today! Please encourage others who have great ideas to apply as well. Support is available if you want help turning your idea into a grant request.

I JethroBT (WMF),Community Resources 21:02, 22 Lwetse 2015 (UTC)

Reimagining WMF grants report

[Fetola Motswedi]

(My apologies for using English here, please help translate if you are able.)

Last month, we asked for community feedback on a proposal to change the structure of WMF grant programs. Thanks to the 200+ people who participated!A report on what we learned and changed based on this consultation is now available.

Come read about the findings and next steps as WMF’s Community Resources team begins to implement changes based on your feedback. Your questions and comments are welcome onthe outcomes discussion page.

With thanks,I JethroBT (WMF) 16:56, 28 Lwetse 2015 (UTC)

Reimagining WMF grants report

[Fetola Motswedi]

(My apologies for using English here, please help translate if you are able.)

Last month, we asked for community feedback on a proposal to change the structure of WMF grant programs. Thanks to the 200+ people who participated!A report on what we learned and changed based on this consultation is now available.

Come read about the findings and next steps as WMF’s Community Resources team begins to implement changes based on your feedback. Your questions and comments are welcome onthe outcomes discussion page.

With thanks,I JethroBT (WMF) 19:02, 28 Lwetse 2015 (UTC)

VisualEditor News #5—2015

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this in another language •Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

VisualEditor

Did you know?

You can use the visual editor on smartphones and tablets.

Screenshot showing the menu for switching from the wikitext editor to the visual editor

Click the pencil icon to open the editor for a page. Inside that, use the gear menu in the upper right corner to "Switch to visual editing".

The editing button will remember which editing environment you used last time, and give you the same one next time. The desktop site will be switching to a system similar to this one in the coming months.

You can read and help translatethe user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.

Since the last newsletter, theVisualEditor Team has fixed many bugs, added new features, and made some small design changes. They post weekly status reportson mediawiki.org. Their workboard is availablein Phabricator. Theircurrent priorities are improving support for languages like Japanese and Arabic, making it easier to edit on mobile devices, and providing rich-media tools for formulæ, charts, galleries and uploading.

Recent improvements

[Fetola Motswedi]

Educational features: The first time ever you use the visual editor, it now draws your attention to theLink and⧼visualeditor-toolbar-cite-label⧽ tools. When you click on the tools, it explains why you should use them. (T108620) Alongside this, the welcome message for new users has been simplified to make editing more welcoming. (T112354) More in-software educational features are planned.

Links: It is now easier to understand when you are adding text to a link and when you are typing plain text next to it. (T74108,T91285) The editor now fully supports ISBN, PMID or RFC numbers. (T109498,T110347,T63558) These"magic links" use a custom link editing tool.

Uploads: Registered editors can nowupload images and other media to Commons while editing. Click the new tab in the "InsertDitshwantsho le metswedi ya tshedimosetso" tool. You will be guided through the process without having to leave your edit. At the end, the image will be inserted. This tool is limited to one file at a time, owned by the user, and licensed under Commons's standard license. For more complex situations, the tool links to more advanced upload tools. You can also drag the image into the editor. This will be available in the wikitext editor later.

Mobile: Previously, the visual editor was available on the mobile Wikipedia site only on tablets. Now, editors can use it on all devices regardless of size if they wish. (T85630) Edit conflicts were previously broken on the mobile website. Edit conflicts can now be resolved in both wikitext and visual editors. (T111894) Sometimes templates and similar items could not be deleted on the mobile website. Selecting them caused the on-screen keyboard to hide with some browsers. Now there is a new "Delete" button, so that these things can be removed if the keyboard hides. (T62110) You can also edit table cells in mobile now.

Rich editing tools: You can now add and editsheetmusic in the visual editor. (T112925) There are separate tabs for advanced options, such as MIDI and Ogg audio files. (T114227,T113354) When editingformulæ and other blocks, errors are shown as you edit. It is also possible to edit some types ofgraphs; adding new ones, and support for new types, will be coming.

On theEnglish Wikipedia, the visual editor is now automatically available to anyone who creates an account. The preference switch was moved to the normal location, underSpecial:Preferences.

Future changes

[Fetola Motswedi]

You will soon be able toswitch from the wikitext to the visual editor after you start editing. (T49779) Previously, you could only switch from the visual editor to the wikitext editor. Bi-directional switching will make possible asingle edit tab. (T102398) This project will combine the "Fetola" and "Fetola Motswedi" tabs into a single "Fetola" tab, similar to the system already used on the mobile website. The "Fetola" tab will open whichever editing environment you used last time.

Let's work together

[Fetola Motswedi]

If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to theTranslators mailing list orcontact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready. Thank you!

—Elitre (WMF), 18:18, 30 Phalane 2015 (UTC)

Community Wishlist Survey

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hi everyone! Apologies for posting in English. Translations are very welcome.

TheCommunity Tech team at the Wikimedia Foundation is focused on building improved curation and moderation tools for experienced Wikimedia contributors. We're now starting aCommunity Wishlist Survey to find the most useful projects that we can work on.

For phase 1 of the survey, we're inviting all active contributors to submit brief proposals, explaining the project that you'd like us to work on, and why it's important. Phase 1 will last for 2 weeks. In phase 2, we'll ask you to vote on the proposals. Afterwards, we'll analyze the top 10 proposals and create a prioritized wishlist.

While most of this process will be conducted in English, we're inviting people from any Wikimedia wiki to submit proposals. We'll also invite volunteer translators to help translate proposals into English.

Your proposal should include: the problem that you want to solve, who would benefit, and a proposed solution, if you have one. You can submit your proposal on the Community Wishlist Survey page, using the entry field and the big blue button. We will be accepting proposals for 2 weeks, ending on November 23.

We're looking forward to hearing your ideas!

Community Tech Team viaMediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:57, 9 Ngwanatsele 2015 (UTC)

Wikimania 2016 scholarships ambassadors needed

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello!Wikimania 2016 scholarships will soon be open; by the end of the week we'll form the committee and we need your help, seeScholarship committee for details.

If you want to carefully review nearly a thousand applications in January, you might be a perfect committee member. Otherwise, you canvolunteer as "ambassador": you will observe all the committee activities, ensure that people from your language or project manage to apply for a scholarship, translatescholarship applications written in your language to English and so on. Ambassadors are allowed to ask for a scholarship, unlike committee members.

Wikimania 2016 scholarships subteam 10:48, 10 Ngwanatsele 2015 (UTC)

Harassment consultation

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please help translate to your language

The Community Advocacy team the Wikimedia Foundation has opened a consultation on the topic ofharassment onMeta. The consultation period is intended to run for one month from today, November 16, and end on December 17. Please share your thoughts there on harassment-related issues facing our communities and potential solutions. (Note: this consultation is not intended to evaluate specific cases of harassment, but rather to discuss the problem of harassment itself.)

Regards,Community Advocacy, Wikimedia Foundation

Your input requested on the proposed #FreeBassel banner campaign

[Fetola Motswedi]

This is a message regarding theproposed 2015 Free Bassel banner.Translations are available.

Hi everyone,

This is to inform all Wikimedia contributors that astraw poll seeking your involvement has just been started on Meta-Wiki.

As some of your might be aware, a small group of Wikimedia volunteers have proposed a banner campaign informing Wikipedia readers about the urgent situation of our fellow Wikipedian, open source software developer and Creative Commons activist,Bassel Khartabil. An exemplarybanner and anexplanatory page have now been prepared, and translated into about half a dozen languages by volunteer translators.

We are seekingyour involvement to decide if the global Wikimedia community approves starting a banner campaign asking Wikipedia readers to call on the Syrian government to release Bassel from prison. We understand that a campaign like this would be unprecedented in Wikipedia's history, which is why we're seeking the widest possible consensus among the community.

Given Bassel's urgent situation and the resulting tight schedule, we ask everyone toget involved with the poll and the discussion to the widest possible extent, and to promote it among your communities as soon as possible.

(Apologies for writing in English; please kindlytranslate this message into your own language.)

Thank you for your participation!

Posted by theMediaWiki message delivery 21:47, 25 November 2015 (UTC) •Translate •Get help

Community Wishlist Survey

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hi everyone! Apologies for posting this in English. Translations are very welcome.

We're beginning the second part of the Community Tech team'sCommunity Wishlist Survey, and we're inviting all active contributors to vote on the proposals that have been submitted.

Thanks to you and other Wikimedia contributors, 111 proposals were submitted to the team. We've split the proposals into categories, and now it's time to vote! You can vote for any proposal listed on the pages, using the{{Support}} tag. Feel free to add comments pro or con, but only support votes will be counted. The voting period will be 2 weeks, ending on December 14.

The proposals with the most support votes will be the team's top priority backlog to investigate and address. Thank you for participating, and we're looking forward to hearing what you think!

Community Tech via

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:38, 1 Sedimonthole 2015 (UTC)

New Wikipedia Library Accounts Available Now (December 2015)

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello Wikimedians!

The TWL OWL says sign up today!

The Wikipedia Library is announcing signups today for, free, full-access accounts to published research as part of ourPublisher Donation Program. You can sign up for new accounts and research materials from:

  • Gale - multidisciplinary periodicals, newspapers, and reference sources - 10 accounts
  • Brill - academic e-books and journals in English, Dutch, and other languages - 25 accounts
  • Finnish Literature Society (in Finnish)
  • Magiran (in Farsi) - scientific journal articles - 100 articles
  • Civilica (in Farsi) - Iranian journal articles, seminars, and conferences - 50 accounts

Many other partnerships with accounts available are listed onour partners page, includingEBSCO,DeGruyter, andNewspaperarchive.com. Do better research and help expand the use of high quality references across Wikipedia projects: sign up today!
--The Wikipedia Library Team 01:01, 11 December 2015 (UTC)

Help us a start Wikipedia Library in your language! Email us at wikipedialibrary@wikimedia.org
This message was delivered via theGlobal Mass Message tool toThe Wikipedia Library Global Delivery List.

Get involved in Wikipedia 15!

[Fetola Motswedi]

This is a message from theWikimedia Foundation.Translations are available.

As many of you know, January 15 is Wikipedia’s 15th Birthday!

People around the world are getting involved in the celebration and have started adding theirevents on Meta Page. While we are celebrating Wikipedia's birthday, we hope that all projects and affiliates will be able to utilize this celebration to raise awareness of our community's efforts.

Haven’t started planning? Don’t worry, there’s lots of ways to get involved. Here are some ideas:

Everything is linked on theWikipedia 15 Meta page. You’ll find a set of ten data visualization works that you can show at your events, and alist of all the Wikipedia 15 logos that community members have already designed.

If you have any questions, please contactZachary McCune orJoe Sutherland.

Thanks and Happy nearly Wikipedia 15!
-The Wikimedia Foundation Communications team

Posted by theMediaWiki message delivery, 20:59, 18 Sedimonthole 2015 (UTC) •Please help translate to your language •Thuso

VisualEditor News #6—2015

[Fetola Motswedi]
The visual editor

Did you know?

A new, simpler system for editing will offer a single Edit button. Once the page has opened, you can switch back and forth between visual and wikitext editing.

Screenshot showing a pop-up dialog for switching from the wikitext editor to the visual editor

If you prefer having separate edit buttons, then you can set that option in your preferences, either in a pop-up dialog the next time you open the visual editor, or by going toSpecial:Preferences and choosing the setting that you want:

Screenshot showing a drop-down menu in Special:Preferences

The current plan is for the default setting to have the Edit button open the editing environment you used most recently.

You can read and help translatethe user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.

Read this in another language •Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

Since the last newsletter, thevisual editor team has fixed many bugs and expanded the mathematics formula tool. Their workboard is availablein Phabricator. Theircurrent priorities are improving support for languages such as Japanese and Arabic, and providing rich-media tools for formulæ, charts, galleries and uploading.

Recent improvements

[Fetola Motswedi]

You canswitch from the wikitext editor to the visual editor after you start editing. TheLaTeX mathematics formula editor has been significantly expanded. (T118616) You can see the formula as you change the LaTeX code. You can click buttons to insert the correct LaTeX code for many symbols.

Future changes

[Fetola Motswedi]

Thesingle edit tab project will combine the "Fetola" and "Fetola Motswedi" tabs into a single "Fetola" tab, like the system already used on the mobile website. (T102398,T58337) Initially, the "Fetola" tab will open whichever editing environment you used last time. Your last editing choice will be stored as a cookie for logged-out users and as an account preference for logged-in editors. Logged-in editors will be able to set a default editor in theEditing tab ofSpecial:Preferences in the drop-down menu about "Editing mode:".

The visual editor will be offered to all editors at the following Wikipedias in early 2016:Amharic,Buginese,Min Dong,Cree,Manx,Hakka,Armenian,Georgian,Pontic,Serbo-Croatian,Tigrinya,Mingrelian,Zhuang, andMin Nan. (T116523) Please post your comments and the language(s) that you tested atthe feedback thread on mediawiki.org. The developers would like to know how well it works. Please tell them what kind of computer, web browser, and keyboard you are using.

In 2016, thefeedback pages for the visual editor on many Wikipedias will be redirected to mediawiki.org. (T92661)

Testing opportunities

[Fetola Motswedi]
  • Please try the new system for thesingle edit tab ontest2.wikipedia.org. You can edit while logged out to see how it works for logged-out editors, or you can create a separate account to be able to set your account's preferences.Please share your thoughts about the single edit tab system atthe feedback topic on mediawiki.org orsign up for formal user research (type "single edit tab" in the question about other areas you're interested in). The new system has not been finalized, and your feedback can affect the outcome. The team particularly wants your thoughts about the options in Special:Preferences. The current choices in Special:Preferences are:
    • Remember my last editor,
    • Always give me the visual editor if possible,
    • Always give me the source editor, and
    • Show me both editor tabs. (This is the current state for people already using the visual editor. None of these options will be visible if you have disabled the visual editor in your preferences at that wiki.)
  • Can you read and type in Korean or Japanese? Language engineerDavid Chan needs people who know which tools people use to type in some languages. If you speak Japanese or Korean, you can help him test support for these languages. Please see the instructions atWhat to test if you can help, and report it on Phabricator (Korean -Japanese) or on Wikipedia (Korean -Japanese).

If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to theTranslators mailing list orcontact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready.Thank you!

Elitre (WMF), 00:06, 25 Sedimonthole 2015 (UTC)

VisualEditor News #6—2015

[Fetola Motswedi]
The visual editor

Did you know?

A new, simpler system for editing will offer a single Edit button. Once the page has opened, you can switch back and forth between visual and wikitext editing.

Screenshot showing a pop-up dialog for switching from the wikitext editor to the visual editor

If you prefer having separate edit buttons, then you can set that option in your preferences, either in a pop-up dialog the next time you open the visual editor, or by going toSpecial:Preferences and choosing the setting that you want:

Screenshot showing a drop-down menu in Special:Preferences

The current plan is for the default setting to have the Edit button open the editing environment you used most recently.

You can read and help translatethe user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.

Read this in another language •Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

Since the last newsletter, thevisual editor team has fixed many bugs and expanded the mathematics formula tool. Their workboard is availablein Phabricator. Theircurrent priorities are improving support for languages such as Japanese and Arabic, and providing rich-media tools for formulæ, charts, galleries and uploading.

Recent improvements

[Fetola Motswedi]

You canswitch from the wikitext editor to the visual editor after you start editing. TheLaTeX mathematics formula editor has been significantly expanded. (T118616) You can see the formula as you change the LaTeX code. You can click buttons to insert the correct LaTeX code for many symbols.

Future changes

[Fetola Motswedi]

Thesingle edit tab project will combine the "Fetola" and "Fetola Motswedi" tabs into a single "Fetola" tab, like the system already used on the mobile website. (T102398,T58337) Initially, the "Fetola" tab will open whichever editing environment you used last time. Your last editing choice will be stored as a cookie for logged-out users and as an account preference for logged-in editors. Logged-in editors will be able to set a default editor in theEditing tab ofSpecial:Preferences in the drop-down menu about "Editing mode:".

The visual editor will be offered to all editors at the following Wikipedias in early 2016:Amharic,Buginese,Min Dong,Cree,Manx,Hakka,Armenian,Georgian,Pontic,Serbo-Croatian,Tigrinya,Mingrelian,Zhuang, andMin Nan. (T116523) Please post your comments and the language(s) that you tested atthe feedback thread on mediawiki.org. The developers would like to know how well it works. Please tell them what kind of computer, web browser, and keyboard you are using.

In 2016, thefeedback pages for the visual editor on many Wikipedias will be redirected to mediawiki.org. (T92661)

Testing opportunities

[Fetola Motswedi]
  • Please try the new system for thesingle edit tab ontest2.wikipedia.org. You can edit while logged out to see how it works for logged-out editors, or you can create a separate account to be able to set your account's preferences.Please share your thoughts about the single edit tab system atthe feedback topic on mediawiki.org orsign up for formal user research (type "single edit tab" in the question about other areas you're interested in). The new system has not been finalized, and your feedback can affect the outcome. The team particularly wants your thoughts about the options in Special:Preferences. The current choices in Special:Preferences are:
    • Remember my last editor,
    • Always give me the visual editor if possible,
    • Always give me the source editor, and
    • Show me both editor tabs. (This is the current state for people already using the visual editor. None of these options will be visible if you have disabled the visual editor in your preferences at that wiki.)
  • Can you read and type in Korean or Japanese? Language engineerDavid Chan needs people who know which tools people use to type in some languages. If you speak Japanese or Korean, you can help him test support for these languages. Please see the instructions atWhat to test if you can help, and report it on Phabricator (Korean -Japanese) or on Wikipedia (Korean -Japanese).

If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to theTranslators mailing list orcontact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready.Thank you!

Elitre (WMF), 01:06, 25 Sedimonthole 2015 (UTC)

Wikimania 2016 Scholarships - Deadline soon!

[Fetola Motswedi]
Please help translate to your language

A reminder - applications for scholarships for Wikimania 2016 in Esino Lario, Italy, are closing soon! Please get your applications in by January 9th. To apply, visit the page below:

Patrick Earley (WMF) viaMediaWiki message delivery (talk) 01:49, 5 Firikgong 2016 (UTC)

2016 WMF Strategy consultation

[Fetola Motswedi]
Please help translate to your language

Hello, all.

The Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) has launched a consultation to help create and prioritize WMF strategy beginning July 2016 and for the 12 to 24 months thereafter. This consultation will be open, on Meta, from 18 January to 26 February, after which the Foundation will also use these ideas to help inform its Annual Plan. (More on our timeline can be found on that Meta page.)

Your input is welcome (and greatly desired) at the Meta discussion,2016 Strategy/Community consultation.

Apologies for English, where this is posted on a non-English project. We thought it was more important to get the consultation translated as much as possible, and good headway has been made there in some languages. There is still much to do, however! We createdm:2016 Strategy/Translations to try to help coordinate what needs translation and what progress is being made. :)

If you have questions, please reach out to me on my talk page or on the strategy consultation's talk page or by email to mdennis@wikimedia.org.

I hope you'll join us!Maggie Dennis viaMediaWiki message delivery (talk) 19:07, 18 Firikgong 2016 (UTC)

Tswana is missing

[Fetola Motswedi]

Tswana is missing from this page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/There_is_also_a_Wikipedia_in_your_language
More than 100 languages are now listed.
Thank you,Varlaam (talk) 07:44, 31 Firikgong 2016 (UTC)

VisualEditor News #1—2016

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this in another language •Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

The visual editor

Did you know?

Among experienced editors, the visual editor's table editing is one of the most popular features.

Screenshot showing a pop-up menu for column operations in a table

If you select the top of a column or the end of a row, you can quickly insert and remove columns and rows.

Now, you can also rearrange columns and rows. Click "Move before" or "Move after" to swap the column or row with its neighbor.

You can read and help translatethe user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.

Since the last newsletter, theVisualEditor Team has fixed many bugs. Their workboard is availablein Phabricator. Theircurrent priorities are improving support for Japanese, Korean, Arabic, Indic, and Han scripts, and improving the single edit tab interface.

Recent changes

[Fetola Motswedi]

You canswitch from the wikitext editor to the visual editor after you start editing. This function is available to nearly all editors at most wikis except the Wiktionaries and Wikisources.

Many localfeedback pages for the visual editor have been redirected tomw:VisualEditor/Feedback.

You can now re-arrange columns and rows intables, as well as copying a row, column or any other selection of cells and pasting it in a new location.

Theformula editor has two options: you can choose "Quick edit" to see and change only the LaTeX code, or "Edit" to use the full tool. The full tool offers immediate preview and an extensive list of symbols.

Future changes

[Fetola Motswedi]

Thesingle edit tab project will combine the "Fetola" and "Fetola Motswedi" tabs into a single "Fetola" tab. This is similar to the system already used on the mobile website. (T102398) Initially, the "Fetola" tab will open whichever editing environment you used last time. Your last editing choice will be stored as an account preference for logged-in editors, and as a cookie for logged-out users. Logged-in editors will have these options in theEditing tab ofSpecial:Preferences:

  • Remember my last editor,
  • Always give me the visual editor if possible,
  • Always give me the source editor, and
  • Show me both editor tabs. (This is the state for people using the visual editor now.)

The visual editor uses the same search engine asSpecial:Search to find links and files. This search will get better at detecting typos and spelling mistakes soon. These improvements to search will appear in the visual editor as well.

The visual editor will be offered to all editors at most"Phase 6" Wikipedias during the next few months. This will affect the following languages, amongst others:Japanese,Korean,Urdu,Persian,Arabic,Tamil,Marathi,Malayalam,Hindi,Bengali,Assamese,Thai,Aramaic.

Let's work together

[Fetola Motswedi]

If you aren't reading this in your favorite language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to theTranslators mailing list orcontact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready.Thank you!

Elitre (WMF), 21:21, 26 Tlhakole 2016 (UTC)

Completion suggestor

[Fetola Motswedi]

Updates to wiki search auto completion are arriving 10 March

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello!

Please help translate to your language.Thank you!

Thecompletion suggester beta feature will become the default at the first group of wikis onThursday, 10 March. This initial rollout will start with some of the smaller wikis to ensure the change happens in an organized way. The remaining wikis will receive the update on Wednesday, 16 March. This update brings three major improvements to search. Improved search result ordering, a tolerance for a small number of spelling errors, and suggests fewer typos.

Since December 2015, 19,000 editors have already opted into the completion suggester beta feature. Contributors are encouraged totry out the feature ahead of the release. Please share any comments on the Completion Suggesterdiscussion page in any language.

To learn more about the work of the Discovery department and other improvements to search, please check outthe Wikimedia blog. Read aboutCirrusSearch, the MediaWiki extension that makes wiki search possible.

-User:CKoerner (WMF) (talk) 22:09, 7 Mopitlo 2016 (UTC)

New Wikipedia Library Accounts Available Now (March 2016)

[Fetola Motswedi]

Apologies for writing in English.Please help translate to your language

Hello Wikimedians!

The TWL OWL says sign up today!

The Wikipedia Library is announcing signups today for free, full-access accounts to published research as part of ourPublisher Donation Program. You can sign up for access to research materials from:

  • Cambridge University Press - a major publisher of academic journals and e-books in a variety of subject areas. Access includes both Cambridge Journals Online and Cambridge Books. 25 accounts.
  • Alexander StreetAcademic Video Online - a large academic video collection good for a wide range of subjects, including news programs (such as PBS and BBC), music and theatre, lectures and demonstrations, and documentaries. 25 accounts.
  • Baylor University Press - a publisher of academic e-books primarily in religious studies and the humanities. 50 accounts.
  • Future Science Group - a publisher of medical, biotechnological and scientific research. 30 accounts.
  • Annual Reviews - a publisher of review articles in the biomedical sciences. 100 accounts.
  • Miramar Ship Index - an index to ships and their histories since the early 19th century. 30 accounts.

Non-English

  • Noormags - Farsi-language aggregator of academic and professional journals and magazines. 30 accounts.
  • Kotobna - Arabic-language ebook publishing platform. 20 accounts.

Expansions

  • Gale - aggregator of newspapers, magazines and journals. 50 accounts.
  • Elsevier ScienceDirect - an academic publishing company that publishes medical and scientific literature. 100 accounts.

Many other partnerships with accounts available are listed onour partners page, includingProject MUSE,De Gruyter,EBSCO,Newspapers.com andBritish Newspaper Archive. Do better research and help expand the use of high quality references across Wikipedia projects: sign up today!
--The Wikipedia Library Team 20:30, 17 Mopitlo 2016 (UTC)


You can host and coordinate signups for a Wikipedia Library branch in your own language. Please contactOcaasi (WMF).
This message was delivered via theGlobal Mass Message tool toThe Wikipedia Library Global Delivery List.

Open Call for Individual Engagement Grants

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please help translate to your language:

Greetings! TheIndividual Engagement Grants (IEG) program is accepting proposals until April 12th to fund new tools, research, outreach efforts, and other experiments that enhance the work of Wikimedia volunteers.Whether you need a small or large amount of funds (up to $30,000 USD), IEGs can support you and your team’s project development time in addition to project expenses such as materials, travel, and rental space.

With thanks,I JethroBT (WMF) 15:47, 31 Mopitlo 2016 (UTC)

Server switch 2016

[Fetola Motswedi]

TheWikimedia Foundation will be testing its newest data center in Dallas.This will make sure Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster.To make sure everything is working, the Wikimedia Technology department needs to conduct a planned test. This test will show whether they can reliably switch from one data center to the other. It requires many teams to prepare for the test and to be available to fix any unexpected problems.

They will switch all traffic to the new data center onTuesday, 19 April.
OnThursday, 21 April, they will switch back to the primary data center.

Unfortunately, because of some limitations inMediaWiki, all editing must stop during those two switches.We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.

  • You will not be able to edit for approximately 15 to 30 minutes on Tuesday, 19 April and Thursday, 21 April, starting at 14:00 UTC (15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10:00 EDT, 07:00 PDT).

If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message.We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it.If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal.Then you should be able to save your edit.But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:

  • Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped.

Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal.If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual.Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.

  • There will be a code freeze for the week of 18 April.

No non-essential code deployments will take place.

This test was originally planned to take place on March 22.April 19th and 21st are the new dates. You can read the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org.They will post any changes on that schedule.There will be more notifications about this.Please share this information with your community. /User:Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 21:07, 17 Moranang 2016 (UTC)

Wikipedia to the Moon

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello! Sorry that this is in English only, but we are using village pump messaging in order to reach as many language communities as possible. Wrong page? Please fix ithere.

This is an invitation to all Wikipedians: Wikimedia Deutschland has been given data space to include Wikipedia content in an upcoming mission to the Moon. (No joke!) We have launched a community discussion about how to do that, because we feel that this is for the global community of editors. Please,join the discussion on Meta-Wiki (and translate this invitation to your language community)! Best,Moon team at Wikimedia Deutschland 15:35, 21 Moranang 2016 (UTC)

Wikipedia to the Moon: voting has begun

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello, after six weeks of community discussion aboutWikipedia to the Moon, there are now 10 different proposals for content for the mission. Starting today,you can vote for them on Meta-Wiki, and decide what we will work on: a Wikipedia canon, different lists, the Moon in 300 languages, an astronomy editathon, featured articles, articles about technology, endangered things, or DNA-related topics. You can even vote against community involvement. Voting is open until 24 June. Sorry that this message is again in English only, but we are using village pumps to reach as many communities as possible, so that everyone knows they can vote. Best,Moon team at Wikimedia Deutschland 15:31, 10 Seetebosigo 2016 (UTC)

Compact Language Links enabled in this wiki today

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please help translate to your language

Screenshot of Compact Language Links interlanguage list

Compact Language Links has been available as a beta-feature on all Wikimedia wikis since 2014. With compact language links enabled, users are shown a much shorter list of languages on the interlanguage link section of an article (see image). Based on several factors, this shorter list of languages is expected to be more relevant for them and valuable for finding similar content in a language known to them. More information about compact language links can be found inthe documentation.

From today onwards, compact language links has been enabled as the default listing of interlanguage links on this wiki. Using the button at the bottom, you will be able to see a longer list of all the languages the article has been written in. The setting for this compact list can be changed by using the checkbox underUser Preferences -> Appearance -> Languages

The compact language links feature has been tested extensively by the Wikimedia Language team, which developed it. However, in case there are any problems or other feedback please let us know on theproject talk page or on this discussion thread. It is to be noted that on some wikis the presence of an existing older gadget that was used for a similar purpose may cause an interference for compact language list. We would like to bring this to the attention of the admins of this wiki. Full details are onthis phabricator ticket (in English).

Due to the large scale enablement of this feature, we have had to useMassMessage for this announcement and as a result it is only written in English. We will really appreciate if this message can be translated for other users of this wiki. Thank you. On behalf of the Wikimedia Language team:Runa Bhattacharjee (WMF) (talk) 07:04, 24 Seetebosigo 2016 (UTC)

Wikipedia to the Moon: invitation to edit

[Fetola Motswedi]

Three weeks ago, you were invited to vote on how to take Wikipedia articles to the Moon. Community voting is over and the winning idea is to send all ‘’featured articles and lists’’ to the Moon. This decision means that, starting today, Wikipedians from all language communities are warmly invited to intensively work on their best articles and lists, and submit them to Wikipedia to the Moon. The central site to coordinate between communities will be Meta-Wiki. You will find anoverview and more information there. Hopefully, we will be able to represent as many languages as possible, to show Wikipedia’s diversity. Please feel kindly invited to edit on behalf of your community and tell us about your work on featured content!

Best,Moon team at Wikimedia Deutschland 14:10, 1 Phukwi 2016 (UTC)

Editing News #2—2016

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this in another language •Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

VisualEditor
Did you know?

It's quick and easy to insert a references list.

Screenshot showing a dropdown menu with many items

Place the cursor where you want to display the references list (usually at the bottom of the page). Open the "Insert" menu and click the "References list" icon (three books).

If you are using several groups of references, which is relatively rare, you will have the opportunity to specify the group. If you do that, then only the references that belong to the specified group will be displayed in this list of references.Finally, click "Insert" in the dialog to insert theReferences list. This list will change as you add more footnotes to the page.

You can read and help translatethe user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.

Since the last newsletter, theVisualEditor Team has fixed many bugs. Their workboard is availablein Phabricator. Theircurrent priorities are improving support for Arabic and Indic scripts, and adapting the visual editor to the needs of the Wikivoyages and Wikisources.

Recent changes

[Fetola Motswedi]

The visual editor is now available to all users at mostWikivoyages. It was also enabled for all contributors at the French Wikinews.

Thesingle edit tab feature combines the "Fetola" and "Fetola Motswedi" tabs into a single "Fetola" tab. It has been deployed to several Wikipedias, including Hungarian, Polish, English and Japanese Wikipedias, as well as to all Wikivoyages. At these wikis, you can change your settings for this feature in the "Editing" tab ofSpecial:Preferences. The team is now reviewing the feedback and considering ways to improve the design before rolling it out to more people.

Future changes

[Fetola Motswedi]

The "Boloka tsebe" button will say "Tsenya tsebe". This will affect both the visual and wikitext editing systems. Moreinformation is available on Meta.

The visual editor will be offered to all editors at the remaining"Phase 6" Wikipedias during the next few months. The developers want to know whether typing in your language feels natural in the visual editor. Please post your comments and the language(s) that you tested atthe feedback thread on mediawiki.org. This will affect several languages, including:Arabic,Hindi,Thai,Tamil,Marathi,Malayalam,Urdu,Persian,Bengali,Assamese,Aramaic and others.

The team is working with the volunteer developers who power Wikisource to provide the visual editor there, for opt-in testing right now and eventually for all users. (T138966)

The team is working on a modern wikitext editor. It will look like the visual editor, and be able to use the citoid service and other modern tools. This new editing system may become available as a Beta Feature on desktop devices around September 2016. You can read about this project in ageneral status update on the Wikimedia mailing list.

Let's work together

[Fetola Motswedi]

If you aren't reading this in your preferred language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to theTranslators mailing list orcontact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready.Thank you!

m:User:Elitre (WMF), 17:20, 3 Phukwi 2016 (UTC)

Save/Publish

[Fetola Motswedi]

TheEditing team is planning to change the name of the“Boloka tsebe” button to“Tsenya tsebe” and“Tsenya diphetogo”. “Tsenya tsebe” will be used when you create a new page. “Tsenya diphetogo” will be used when you change an existing page. The names will be consistent in all editing environments.

This change will probably happen during the week of 30 August 2016. The change will be announced inTech News when it happens.

If you are fluent in a language other than English, please check the status of translations at translatewiki.net for“Tsenya tsebe” and“Tsenya diphetogo”.

The main reason for this change is to avoid confusion for new editors. Repeated user research studies with new editors have shown that some new editors believed that“Boloka tsebe” would save a private copy of a new page in their accounts, rather than permanently publishing their changes on the web. It is important for this part of the user interface to be clear, since it is difficult to remove public information after it is published. We believe that the confusion caused by the “Boloka tsebe” button increases the workload for experienced editors, who have to clean up the information that people unintentionally disclose, and report it to the functionaries and stewards to suppress it. Clarifying what the button does will reduce this problem.

Beyond that, the goal is to make all the wikis and languages more consistent, and some wikis made this change many years ago. TheLegal team at the Wikimedia Foundation supports this change. Making the edit interface easier to understand will make it easier to handle licensing and privacy questions that may arise.

Any help pages or other basic documentation about how to edit pages will also need to be updated, on-wiki and elsewhere. On wiki pages, you can use the wikitext codes{{int:Publishpage}} and{{int:Publishchanges}} to display the new labels in the user's preferred language. For the language settings inyour account preferences, these wikitext codes produce “Tsenya tsebe” and “Tsenya diphetogo”.

Please share this news with community members who teach new editors and with others who may be interested.

Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 18:04, 9 Phatwe 2016 (UTC)

New Wikipedia Library accounts available now (August 2016)

[Fetola Motswedi]


Hello Wikimedians!

The TWL OWL says sign up today!

The Wikipedia Library is announcing signups today for free, full-access, accounts to published research as part of ourpublisher donation program. You can now sign up for new accounts and research materials from:

  • Nomos– Primarily German-language publisher of law and social sciences books and journals - 25 accounts
  • World Scientific– Scientific, technical, and medical journals - 50 accounts
  • Edinburgh University Press– Humanities and social sciences journals - 25 accounts
  • American Psychological Association– Psychology books and journals - 10 accounts
  • Emerald– Journals on a range of topics including business, education, health care, and engineering - 10 accounts

Many other partnerships with accounts available are listed onour partners page, includingProject MUSE,EBSCO,DeGruyter,Gale andNewspaperarchive.com.

Do better research and help expand the use of high quality references across Wikipedia projects: sign up today!
--The Wikipedia Library Team 18:38, 30 Phatwe 2016 (UTC)

You can host and coordinate signups for a Wikipedia Library branch in your own language! Please contactOcaasi (WMF).
This message was delivered via theGlobal Mass Message tool toThe Wikipedia Library Global Delivery List.

RevisionSlider

[Fetola Motswedi]
From September 13th on,RevisionSlider will be available as abeta feature in your wiki. The RevisionSlider adds a slider view to the diff page, so that you can easily move between revisions. The feature fulfills a wish from theGerman Community’s Technical Wishlist. Everyone is invited to test the feature and we hope that it will serve you well in your work!

Birgit Müller (WMDE) 15:08, 12 Lwetse 2016 (UTC)

Grants to improve your project

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please help translate to your language:

Greetings! TheProject Grants program is currently accepting proposals for funding. There is just over a week left to submit before the October 11 deadline. If you have ideas for software, offline outreach, research, online community organizing, or other projects that enhance the work of Wikimedia volunteers, start your proposal today! Please encourage others who have great ideas to apply as well. Support is available if you want help turning your idea into a grant request.

I JethroBT (WMF) (talk) 20:11, 30 Lwetse 2016 (UTC)

Creative Commons 4.0

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello! I'm writing from the Wikimedia Foundation to invite you to give your feedback on a proposed move from CC BY-SA 3.0 to a CC BY-SA 4.0 license across all Wikimedia projects. The consultation will run from October 5 to November 8, and we hope to receive a wide range of viewpoints and opinions. Please, if you are interested,take part in the discussion on Meta-Wiki.

Apologies that this message is only in English.This message can be read and translated in more languages here.Joe Sutherland (talk) 01:35, 6 Phalane 2016 (UTC)

Editing News #3—2016

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this in another language •Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

VisualEditor
Did you know?
Did you know that you can easily re-arrange columns and rows in the visual editor?
Screenshot showing a dropdown menu with options for editing the table structure


Select a cell in the column or row that you want to move. Click the arrow at the start of that row or column to open the dropdown menu (shown). Choose either "Move before" or "Move after" to move the column, or "Move above" or "Move below" to move the row.

You can read and help translatethe user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.

Since the last newsletter, theVisualEditor Team has mainly worked on a new wikitext editor. They have also released some small features and the new map editing tool. Their workboard is availablein Phabricator. You can find links to the list of work finished each week atmw:VisualEditor/Weekly triage meetings. Theircurrent priorities are fixing bugs, releasing the 2017 wikitext editor as abeta feature, and improving language support.

Recent changes

[Fetola Motswedi]
  • You can now set text as small or big.
  • Invisible templates have been shown as a puzzle icon. Now, the name of the invisible template is displayed next to the puzzle icon. A similar feature will display the first part of hidden HTML comments.
  • Categories are displayed at the bottom of each page. If you click on the categories, the dialog for editing categories will open.
  • At many wikis, you can now addmaps to pages. Go to the Insert menu and choose the "Maps" item. The Discovery department is adding more features to this area, like geoshapes. You can read more at mediawiki.org.
  • The "Save" button now says "Save page" when you create a page, and "Save changes" when you change an existing page. In the future, the "Boloka tsebe" button will say "Tsenya tsebe". This will affect both the visual and wikitext editing systems. Moreinformation is available on Meta.
  • Image galleries now use a visual mode for editing. You can see thumbnails of the images, add new files, remove unwanted images, rearrange the images by dragging and dropping, and add captions for each image. Use the "Options" tab to set the gallery's display mode, image sizes, and add a title for the gallery.

Future changes

[Fetola Motswedi]

The visual editor will be offered to all editors at the remaining 10"Phase 6" Wikipedias during the next month. The developers want to know whether typing in your language feels natural in the visual editor. Please post your comments and the language(s) that you tested atthe feedback thread on mediawiki.org. This will affect several languages, includingThai,Burmese andAramaic.

The team is working on a modern wikitext editor. The2017 wikitext editor will look like the visual editor and be able to use the citoid service and other modern tools. This new editing system may become available as a Beta Feature on desktop devices in October 2016. You can read about this project in ageneral status update on the Wikimedia mailing list.

Let's work together

[Fetola Motswedi]
  • If you aren't reading this in your preferred language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to theTranslators mailing list orcontact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready.Thank you!

—Elitre (WMF)

17:49, 15 Phalane 2016 (UTC)

New Wikipedia Library Accounts Available Now (November 2016)

[Fetola Motswedi]


Hello Wikimedians!

The TWL OWL says sign up today!

The Wikipedia Library is announcing signups today for free, full-access, accounts to published research as part of ourPublisher Donation Program. You can sign up for new accounts and research materials from:

Expansions

Many other partnerships with accounts available are listed onour partners page. Sign up today!
--The Wikipedia Library Team 18:30, 1 Ngwanatsele 2016 (UTC)

You can host and coordinate signups for a Wikipedia Library branch in your own language. Please contactOcaasi (WMF).
This message was delivered via theGlobal Mass Message tool toThe Wikipedia Library Global Delivery List.

Password reset

[Fetola Motswedi]

I apologise that this message is in English.⧼Centralnotice-shared-help-translate⧽

We are having a problem with attackers taking over wiki accounts with privileged user rights (for example, admins, bureaucrats, oversighters, checkusers). It appears that this may be because of weak or reused passwords.

Community members are working along with members of multiple teams at the Wikimedia Foundation to address this issue.

In the meantime, we ask that everyone takes a look at the passwords they have chosen for their wiki accounts. If you know that you've chosen a weak password, or if you've chosen a password that you are using somewhere else, please change those passwords.

Select strong passwords – eight or more characters long, and containing letters, numbers, and punctuation.Joe Sutherland (bua) /MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:59, 13 Ngwanatsele 2016 (UTC)

Adding to the above section (Password reset)

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please accept my apologies - that first line should read "Help with translations!".Joe Sutherland (WMF) (talk) /MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 00:11, 14 Ngwanatsele 2016 (UTC)

New way to edit wikitext

[Fetola Motswedi]

Summary: There's a new opt-in Beta Feature of awikitext mode for the visual editor. Pleasego try it out.


We in the Wikimedia Foundation's Editing department are responsible for making editing better for all our editors, new and experienced alike. We've been slowly improvingthe visual editor based on feedback, user tests, and feature requests. However, that doesn't work for all our user needs: whether you need to edit a wikitext talk page, create a template, or fix some broken reference syntax, sometimes you need to use wikitext, and many experienced editors prefer it.

Consequently, we've planned a "wikitext mode" for the visual editor for a long time. It provides as much of the visual editor's features as possible, for those times that you need or want wikitext. It has the same user interface as the visual editor, including the same toolbar across the top with the same buttons. It provides access to thecitoid service for formatting citations, integrated search options for inserting images, and the ability to add new templates in a simple dialog. Like in the visual editor, if you paste in formatted text copied from another page, then formatting (such as bolding) will automatically be converted into wikitext.

All wikis now have access to this mode as aBeta Feature. When enabled, it replaces your existingwikitext editor everywhere. If you don't like it, you can reverse this at any time by turning off the Beta Feature in your preferences. We don't want to surprise anyone, so it's strictly anopt-in-only Beta Feature. It won't switch on automatically for anyone, even if you have previously checked the box to "Automatically enable most beta features".

The new wikitext edit mode is based on the visual editor, so it requires JavaScript (as does thecurrent wikitext editor). It doesn't work with gadgets that have only been designed for the older one (andvice versa), so some users will miss gadgets they find important. We're happy towork with gadget authors to help them update their code to work with both editors. We're not planning to get rid of the current main wikitext editor on desktop in the foreseeable future. We're also not going to remove the existing ability to edit plain wikitext without JavaScript. Finally, though it should go without saying, if you prefer to continue using the current wikitext editor, then you may so do.

This is an early version, and we'd love to know what you think so we can make it better. Please leave feedback about the new modeon the feedback page. You may write comments in any language. Thank you.

James Forrester (Product Manager, Editing department, Wikimedia Foundation) --19:31, 14 Sedimonthole 2016 (UTC)

Review of initial updates on Wikimedia movement strategy process

[Fetola Motswedi]

Note: Apologies for cross-posting and sending in English.Message is available for translation on Meta-Wiki.

The Wikimedia movement is beginning a movement-wide strategy discussion, a process which will run throughout 2017. For 15 years, Wikimedians have worked together to build the largest free knowledge resource in human history. During this time, we've grown from a small group of editors to a diverse network of editors, developers, affiliates, readers, donors, and partners. Today, we are more than a group of websites. We are a movement rooted in values and a powerful vision: all knowledge for all people. As a movement, we have an opportunity to decide where we go from here.

This movement strategy discussion will focus on the future of our movement: where we want to go together, and what we want to achieve. We hope to design an inclusive process that makes space for everyone: editors, community leaders, affiliates, developers, readers, donors, technology platforms, institutional partners, and people we have yet to reach. There will be multiple ways to participate including on-wiki, in private spaces, and in-person meetings. You are warmly invited to join and make your voice heard.

The immediate goal is to have a strategic direction by Wikimania 2017 to help frame a discussion on how we work together toward that strategic direction.

Regular updates are being sent to theWikimedia-l mailing list, and postedon Meta-Wiki. Beginning with this message, monthly reviews of these updates will be sent to this page as well.Sign up to receive future announcements and monthly highlights of strategy updates on your user talk page.

Here is a review of the updates that have been sent so far:

More information about the movement strategy is available on theMeta-Wiki 2017 Wikimedia movement strategy portal.

Posted byMediaWiki message delivery on behalf of theWikimedia Foundation, 20:32, 15 Tlhakole 2017 (UTC) •Please help translate to your language •Get help

Overview #2 of updates on Wikimedia movement strategy process

[Fetola Motswedi]

Note: Apologies for cross-posting and sending in English.This message is available for translation on Meta-Wiki.

As we mentioned last month, the Wikimedia movement is beginning a movement-wide strategy discussion, a process which will run throughout 2017. This movement strategy discussion will focus on the future of our movement: where we want to go together, and what we want to achieve.

Regular updates are being sent to theWikimedia-l mailing list, and postedon Meta-Wiki. Each month, we are sending overviews of these updates to this page as well.Sign up to receive future announcements and monthly highlights of strategy updates on your user talk page.

Here is a overview of the updates that have been sent since our message last month:

More information about the movement strategy is available on theMeta-Wiki 2017 Wikimedia movement strategy portal.

Posted byMediaWiki message delivery on behalf of theWikimedia Foundation, 19:43, 9 Mopitlo 2017 (UTC) •Please help translate to your language •Get help

We invite you to join the movement strategy conversation (now through April 15)

[Fetola Motswedi]
This message, "We invite you to join the movement strategy conversation (now through April 15)", was sent through multiple channels byGregory Varnum on 15 and 16 of March 2017 to village pumps, affiliate talk pages, movement mailing lists, and MassMessage groups. A similar message was sent byNicole Ebber to organized groups and their mailing lists on 15 of March 2017. This version of the message is available for translation and documentation purposes

Dear Wikimedians/Wikipedians:

Today we are starting a broad discussion to define Wikimedia's future role in the world and develop a collaborative strategy to fulfill that role. You are warmly invited to join the conversation.

There are many ways to participate, by joining an existing conversation or starting your own:

Track A (organized groups): Discussions with your affiliate, committee or other organized group (these are groups that support the Wikimedia movement).

Track B (individual contributors):On Meta or yourlocal language or project wiki.

This is the first of three conversations, and it will run between now and April 15. The purpose of cycle 1 is to discuss the future of the movement and generate major themes around potential directions. What do we want to build or achieve together over the next 15 years?

We welcome you, as we create this conversation together, and look forward to broad and diverse participation from all parts of our movement.

Sincerely,

Nicole Ebber (Track A Lead), Jaime Anstee (Track B Lead), & theengagement support teams

05:09, 18 Mopitlo 2017 (UTC)

Start of the 2017 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees elections

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please accept our apologies for cross-posting this message.This message is available for translation on Meta-Wiki.

On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee, I am pleased to announce that self-nominations are being accepted for the2017 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees Elections.

TheBoard of Trustees (Board) is the decision-making body that is ultimately responsible for the long-term sustainability of the Wikimedia Foundation, so we value wide input into its selection. More information about this role can be foundon Meta-Wiki. Please read theletter from the Board of Trustees calling for candidates.

Thecandidacy submission phase will last from April 7 (00:00 UTC) to April 20 (23:59 UTC).

We will also be accepting questions to ask the candidates from April 7 to April 20.You can submit your questions on Meta-Wiki.

Once the questions submission period has ended on April 20, the Elections Committee will then collate the questions for the candidates to respond to beginning on April 21.

The goal of this process is to fill thethree community-selected seats on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. The election results will be used by the Board itself to select its new members.

The full schedule for the Board elections is as follows. All dates areinclusive, that is, from the beginning of the first day (UTC) to the end of the last.

  • April 7 (00:00 UTC) – April 20 (23:59 UTC) –Board nominations
  • April 7 – April 20 –Board candidates questions submission period
  • April 21 – April 30 –Board candidates answer questions
  • May 1 – May 14 –Board voting period
  • May 15–19 –Board vote checking
  • May 20 –Board result announcement goal

In addition to the Board elections, we will also soon be holding elections for the following roles:

  • Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC)
    • There are five positions being filled. More information about this election will be availableon Meta-Wiki.
  • Funds Dissemination Committee Ombudsperson (Ombuds)
    • One position is being filled. More information about this election will be availableon Meta-Wiki.

Please note that this year the Board of Trustees elections will be held before the FDC and Ombuds elections. Candidates who are not elected to the Board are explicitly permitted and encouraged to submit themselves as candidates to the FDC or Ombuds positions after the results of the Board elections are announced.

More information on this year's elections can be foundon Meta-Wiki. Any questions related to the election can be posted on theelection talk page on Meta-Wiki, or sent to the election committee's mailing list,board-elections(at)wikimedia.org.

On behalf of the Election Committee,
Katie Chan, Chair,Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee
Joe Sutherland, Community Advocate, Wikimedia Foundation

Posted byMediaWiki message delivery on behalf of theWikimedia Foundation Elections Committee, 03:37, 7 Moranang 2017 (UTC) •Please help translate to your language •Get help

Read-only mode for 20 to 30 minutes on 19 April and 3 May

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this message in another language •Please help translate to your language

TheWikimedia Foundation will be testing its secondary data center in Dallas. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster. To make sure everything is working, the Wikimedia Technology department needs to conduct a planned test. This test will show whether they can reliably switch from one data center to the other. It requires many teams to prepare for the test and to be available to fix any unexpected problems.

They will switch all traffic to the secondary data center onWednesday, 19 April 2017.OnWednesday, 3 May 2017, they will switch back to the primary data center.

Unfortunately, because of some limitations inMediaWiki, all editing must stop during those two switches. We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.

  • You will not be able to edit for approximately 20 to 30 minutes on Wednesday, 19 April and Wednesday, 3 May. The test will start at14:00 UTC (15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10:00 EDT, 07:00 PDT, 23:00 JST, and in New Zealand at 02:00 NZST on Thursday 20 April and Thursday 4 May).
  • If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message. We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it. If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal. Then you should be able to save your edit. But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:

  • Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal. If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual. Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.
  • There will be code freezes for the weeks of 17 April 2017 and 1 May 2017. Non-essential code deployments will not happen.

This project may be postponed if necessary. You canread the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule. There will be more notifications about this.Please share this information with your community. /User:Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk)

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 17:33, 11 Moranang 2017 (UTC)

Wikidata description editing in the Wikipedia Android app

[Fetola Motswedi]

Wikidata description editing is a new experiment being rolled out on the Wikipedia app for Android. While this primarily impacts Wikidata, the changes are also addressing a concern about the mobile versions of Wikipedia, so that mobile users will be able to edit directly the descriptions shown under the title of the page and in the search results.

We began by rolling out this feature several weeks ago to a pilot group of Wikipedias (Russian, Hebrew, and Catalan), and have seen very positiveresults including numerous quality contributions in the form of new and updated descriptions, and a low rate of vandalism.

We are now ready for the next phase of rolling out this feature, which is to enable it in a few days for all Wikipedias except the top ten by usage within the app (i.e. except English, German, Italian, French, Spanish, Japanese, Dutch, Portuguese, Turkish, and Chinese). We will enable the feature for those languages instead at some point in the future, as we closely monitor user engagement with our expanded set of pilot communities.As always, if have any concerns, please reach out to us on wiki atthe talk page for this project or by email at reading@wikimedia.org. Thanks!

-DBrant (WMF) 08:41, 14 Moranang 2017 (UTC)

New Page previews feature

[Fetola Motswedi]

New Page previews feature

Read this message in another language •Please help translate to your language

Hello,

The Reading web team at the Wikimedia Foundation has been working to enablePage previews,a beta feature known previously as Hovercards, as opt-in behavior for logged-in users and the default behavior for logged-out users across Wikipedia projects. Page previews provide a preview of any linked article, giving readers a quick understanding of a related article without leaving the current page. For this project, we are expecting to collect feedback over the following few weeks and tentatively enable the feature in early May, 2017.

A quick note on the implementation:

  • For logged-in users who are not currently testing out the beta feature, Page previews will be off by default. Users may turn them on fromtheir user preferences page.
  • For logged-out users, the feature will be on by default. Users may disable it at any time by selecting the setting cog available in each preview.
  • For users of the Navigation popups gadget, you will not be able to turn on the Page previews feature while using navigational popups. If you would like to try out the Page preview feature, make sure to first turn Navigation popups off prior to turning Page previews on.

You can read more aboutthe feature andthe tests we used to evaluate performance, try it out by enabling it from the beta features page, and leave feedback or questionson the talk page.

Thank you,MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:52, 19 Moranang 2017 (UTC)

New Wikipedia Library Accounts Available Now (May 2017)

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello Wikimedians!

The TWL OWL says sign up today!

The Wikipedia Library is announcing signups today for free, full-access, accounts to published research as part of ourPublisher Donation Program. You can sign up for new accounts and research materials from:

Expansions

  • Gale – Biography In Context database added
  • Adam Matthew – all 53 databases now available

Many other partnerships with accounts available are listed onour partners page, includingProject MUSE,EBSCO,Taylor & Francis andNewspaperarchive.com.

Do better research and help expand the use of high quality references across Wikipedia projects: sign up today!
--The Wikipedia Library Team 18:52, 2 Motsheganong 2017 (UTC)

You can host and coordinate signups for a Wikipedia Library branch in your own language. Please contactAaron.
This message was delivered via theGlobal Mass Message tool toThe Wikipedia Library Global Delivery List.

Voting has begun in 2017 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees elections

[Fetola Motswedi]
This is a message from theWikimedia Foundation Elections Committee.Translations are available.

Voting has begun foreligible voters in the 2017 elections for theWikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees.

TheWikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees is the ultimate governing authority of the Wikimedia Foundation, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization registered in the United States. The Wikimedia Foundation manages many diverse projects such as Wikipedia and Commons.

The voting phase lasts from 00:00 UTC May 1 to 23:59 UTC May 14.Click here to vote. More information on the candidates and the elections can be found on the2017 Board of Trustees election page on Meta-Wiki.

On behalf of the Elections Committee,
Katie Chan, Chair,Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee
Joe Sutherland, Community Advocate, Wikimedia Foundation

Posted by theMediaWiki message delivery •Translate •Get help

19:14, 3 Motsheganong 2017 (UTC)

Beta Feature Two Column Edit Conflict View

[Fetola Motswedi]
From May 9, theTwo Column Edit Conflict View will be available as abeta feature on all wikis. The Two Column Edit Conflict View is a new interface for the edit conflict resolution page. It highlights differences between the editor's and the conflicting changes to make it easy to copy and paste pieces of the text and resolve the conflict. The feature fulfils a request for a more user-friendly edit conflict resolution from theGerman Community’s Technical Wishlist. Everyone is invited to test the feature and we hope that it will serve you well!

Birgit Müller (WMDE) 14:41, 8 Motsheganong 2017 (UTC)

Editing News #1—2017

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this in another language •Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

VisualEditor
Did you know?

Did you know that you can review your changes visually?

Screenshot showing some changes to an article. Most changes are highlighted with text formatting.
When you are finished editing the page, type your edit summary and then choose "Review your changes".

In visual mode, you will see additions, removals, new links, and formatting highlighted. Other changes, such as changing the size of an image, are described in notes on the side.


Toggle button showing visual and wikitext options; visual option is selected.


Click the toggle button to switch between visual and wikitext diffs.


Screenshot showing the same changes, in the two-column wikitext diff display.


The wikitext diff is the same diff tool that is used in the wikitext editors and in the page history. You can read and help translatethe user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.


Since the last newsletter, theVisualEditor Team has spent most of their time supportingthe 2017 wikitext editor mode which is available inside the visual editor as a Beta Feature, and addingthe new visual diff tool. Their workboard is availablein Phabricator. You can find links to the work finished each week atmw:VisualEditor/Weekly triage meetings. Theircurrent priorities are fixing bugs, supporting the 2017 wikitext editor as abeta feature, and improving the visual diff tool.

Recent changes

[Fetola Motswedi]
  • Anew wikitext editing mode is available as a Beta Feature on desktop devices. The2017 wikitext editor has the same toolbar as the visual editor and can use the citoid service and other modern tools. Go toSpecial:Preferences#mw-prefsection-betafeatures to enable the⧼Visualeditor-preference-newwikitexteditor-label⧽.
  • A newvisual diff tool is available in VisualEditor's visual mode. You can toggle between wikitext and visual diffs. More features will be added to this later. In the future, this tool may be integrated into other MediaWiki components.
  • The team have addedmulti-column support for lists of footnotes. The<references /> block can automatically display long lists of references in columns on wide screens. This makes footnotes easier to read. You canrequest multi-column support for your wiki.
  • You can now use your web browser's function to switch typing direction in the new wikitext mode. This is particularly helpful for RTL language users like Urdu or Hebrew who have to write JavaScript or CSS. You can use Command+Shift+X or Control+Shift+X to trigger this.
  • The way to switch between the visual editing mode and the wikitext editing mode is now consistent. There is a drop-down menu that shows the two options. This is now the same in desktop and mobile web editing, and inside things that embed editing, such as Flow.
  • TheCategories item has been moved to the top of thePage options menu (from clicking on the "hamburger" icon) for quicker access. There is also now a "Templates used on this page" feature there.
  • You can now create<chem> tags (sometimes used as<ce>) for chemical formulas inside the visual editor.
  • Tables can be set as collapsed or un-collapsed.
  • TheSpecial character menu now includes characters for Canadian Aboriginal Syllabics and angle quotation marks (‹› and ⟨⟩) . The team thanks the volunteer developer,Tpt.
  • A bug caused some section edit conflicts to blank the rest of the page. This has been fixed. The team are sorry for the disruption.
  • There is a new keyboard shortcut for citations:Control+Shift+K on a PC, orCommand+Shift+K on a Mac. It is based on the keyboard shortcut for making links, which isControl+K orCommand+K respectively.

Future changes

[Fetola Motswedi]
  • The team is working on a syntax highlighting tool. It will highlight matching pairs of<ref> tags and other types of wikitext syntax. You will be able to turn it on and off. It will first become available in VisualEditor's built-in wikitext mode, maybe late in 2017.
  • The kind of button used toSupa gore go tlaa lebega jang,Supa diphetogo, and finish an edit will change in all WMF-supported wikitext editors. The new buttons will useOOjs UI. The buttons will be larger, brighter, and easier to read. The labels will remain the same. You can test the new button by editing a page and adding&ooui=1 to the end of the URL, like this:https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:Sandbox?action=edit&ooui=1 The old appearance will no longer be possible, even with local CSS changes.
  • Theoutdated 2006 wikitext editor will be removed later this year. It is used by approximately 0.03% of active editors. Seea list of editing tools on mediawiki.org if you are uncertain which one you use.
  • If you aren't reading this in your preferred language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to theTranslators mailing list orcontact us directly, so that we can notify you when the next issue is ready.Thank you!

—Elitre (WMF)

18:06, 12 Motsheganong 2017 (UTC)

Prototype for editing Wikidata infoboxes on Wikipedia

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello,

I’m sorry for writing in English. It’d be great if someone could translate this message if necessary.

One of the most requested features for Wikidata is to enable editing of Wikidata’s data directly from Wikipedia, so the editors can continue their workflow without switching websites.

The Wikidata development team has been working on a tool to achieve this goal:fill and edit the Wikipedia infoboxes with information from Wikidata, directly on Wikipedia, via the Visual Editor.

We alreadyasked for feedback in 2015, and collected some interesting ideas which weshared with you in this thesis. Now we would like to present to you our first prototype and collect your feedback, in order to improve and continue the development of this feature.

We present this work to you very early, so we can include your feedback before and all along the development. You are the core users of this feature, so we want to make sure that it fits your needs and editing processes.

You will find the prototype, description of the features, and a demo video,on this page. Feel free to add any comment or feedback on the talk page. The page is currently not translated in every languages, but you can add your contribution by helping to translate it.

Unfortunately, I won’t be able to follow all the discussions on Wikipedia, so if you want to be sure that your feedback is read, please add it on the Wikidata page, in your favorite language. Thanks for your understanding.

Thanks,Lea Lacroix (WMDE)

RevisionSlider

[Fetola Motswedi]
RevisionSlider will be available as a default feature for all users on all wikis from May 17. The RevisionSlider adds a slider view to the diff page so that you can easily move between revisions. The slider view is collapsed by default, and will load by clicking on it. It can also be turned off entirely in the user preferences. RevisionSlider has been a default feature on German, Arabic and Hebrew Wikipedia for 6 months and a beta feature on all wikis for 8 months. The feature fulfills a wish from theGerman Community’s Technical Wishlist. Thanks to everyone who tested RevisionSlider and gave valuable feedback to improve the feature! We hope that RevisionSlider will continue to serve you well in your work.

Birgit Müller (WMDE) 14:44, 16 Motsheganong 2017 (UTC)

Join the next cycle of Wikimedia movement strategy discussions (underway until June 12)

[Fetola Motswedi]
Message is available for translation on Meta-Wiki

The Wikimedia movement strategy core team and working groups have completed reviewing the more than 1800 thematic statements we received from the first discussion. They have identified5 themes that were consistent across all the conversations - each with their own set of sub-themes. These are not the final themes, just an initial working draft of the core concepts.

You are invited tojoin the online and offline discussions taking place on these 5 themes. This round of discussions will take place between now and June 12th. You can discuss as many as you like; we ask you to participate in the ones that are most (or least) important to you.

Here are the five themes, each has a page on Meta-Wiki with more information about the theme and how to participate in that theme's discussion:

On themovement strategy portal on Meta-Wiki, you can find more information about each of these themes, their discussions, and how to participate.

Posted byMediaWiki message delivery on behalf of theWikimedia Foundation •Please help translate to your language •Get help

21:08, 16 Motsheganong 2017 (UTC)

Start of the 2017 Wikimedia Foundation Funds Dissemination Committee elections

[Fetola Motswedi]
Translations of this message are available on Meta-Wiki.

On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee, we are pleased to announce that self-nominations are being accepted for the2017 Wikimedia Foundation Funds Dissemination Committee andFunds Dissemination Committee Ombudsperson elections. Please read the letter from the Wikimedia Foundation calling for candidates aton the 2017 Wikimedia Foundation elections portal.

Funds Dissemination Committee
The Funds Dissemination Committee (FDC) makes recommendations about how to allocate Wikimedia movement funds to eligible entities. There are five positions being filled. More information about this role can be found atthe FDC elections page.

Funds Dissemination Committee Ombudsperson
The Funds Dissemination Committee Ombudsperson receives complaints and feedback about the FDC process, investigates complaints at the request of the Board of Trustees, and summarizes the investigations and feedback for the Board of Trustees on an annual basis. One position is being filled. More information about this role can be found atthe FDC Ombudsperson elections page.

Thecandidacy submission phase will last until May 28 (23:59 UTC).

We will also be accepting questions to ask the candidates until May 28.You can submit your questions on Meta-Wiki. Once the questions submission period has ended on May 28, the Elections Committee will then collate the questions for the candidates to respond to.

The goal of this process is to fill thefive community-selected seats on the Wikimedia Foundation Funds Dissemination Committee and thecommunity-selected ombudsperson. The election results will be used by the Board itself to make the appointments.

The full schedule for the FDC elections is as follows. All dates areinclusive, that is, from the beginning of the first day (UTC) to the end of the last.

  • May 15 (00:00 UTC) – May 28 (23:59 UTC) –Nominations
  • May 15 – May 28 –Candidates questions submission period
  • May 29 – June 2 –Candidates answer questions
  • June 3 – June 11 –Voting period
  • June 12–14 –Vote checking
  • June 15 –Goal date for announcing election results

More information on this year's elections can be found atthe 2017 Wikimedia Foundation elections portal.

Please feel free to post a note about the election on your project's village pump. Any questions related to the election can be posted onthe talk page on Meta-Wiki, or sent to the election committee's mailing list,board-elections(at)wikimedia.org.

On behalf of the Election Committee,
Katie Chan, Chair,Wikimedia Foundation Elections Committee
Joe Sutherland, Community Advocate, Wikimedia Foundation

Posted by theMediaWiki message delivery •Translate •Get help

21:06, 23 Motsheganong 2017 (UTC)

Accessible editing buttons

[Fetola Motswedi]
The MediaWiki developers have been slowly improving the accessibility of the user interface. The next step in this transition will change the appearance of some buttons and may break some outdated (non-updated or unmaintained) user scripts and gadgets.

You can see and use theold andnew versions now. Most editors will only notice that some buttons are slightly larger and have different colors.

  • Comparison of old and new styles
  • Buttons before the change
    Buttons before the change
  • Buttons after the change
    Buttons after the change

However, this change also affects some user scripts and gadgets. Unfortunately, some of them may not work well in the new system.If you maintain any user scripts or gadgets that are used for editing, please seemw:Contributors/Projects/Accessible editing buttons for information on how to test and fix your scripts. Outdated scripts can be tested and fixed now.

This change will probably reach this wiki onTuesday, 18 July 2017. Please leave a note atmw:Talk:Contributors/Projects/Accessible editing buttons if you need help.

Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 22:22, 10 Phukwi 2017 (UTC)

Page Previews (Hovercards) update

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello,

A quick update on the progress of enablingPage Previews (previously named Hovercards) on this project. Page Previews provide a preview of any linked article, giving readers a quick understanding of a related article without leaving the current page. As mentioned in December we're preparing to remove the feature from Beta and make it the default behavior for logged-out users. We have recently made a large update to the code which fixes most outstanding bugs.

Due to some issues with our instrumentation, we delayed our deployment by a few months. We are finally ready to deploy the feature. Page Previews will be off by default and available in the user preferences page for logged-in users the week of July 24th. The feature will be on by default for current beta users and logged-out users. If you would like to preview the feature, you can enable it as abeta feature. For more information seePage Previews. Questions can be lefton the talk page in your preferred language.

Thank you again.

CKoerner (WMF) (talk) 22:32, 20 Phukwi 2017 (UTC)

RfC regarding "Interlinking of accounts involved with paid editing to decrease impersonation"

[Fetola Motswedi]

There is currently a RfC open on Meta regarding "requiring those involved with paid editing on Wikipedia to link on their user page to all other active accounts through which they advertise paid Wikipedia editing business."

Note this is to apply to Wikipedia and not necessarily other sister projects, this is only to apply to websites where people are specifically advertising that they will edit Wikipedia for pay and not any other personal, professional, or social media accounts a person may have.

Please comment on meta. Thanks. Send on behalf ofUser:Doc James.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 21:06, 17 Lwetse 2017 (UTC)

Discussion on synced reading lists

[Fetola Motswedi]

Discussion on synced reading lists

Hello,

The Reading Infrastructure team at the Wikimedia Foundation is developing a cross-platform reading list service for the mobile Wikipedia app. Reading lists are like bookmark folders in your web browser. They allow readers using the Wikipedia app to bookmark pages into folders to read later. This includes reading offline. Reading lists do not create or alter content in any way.

To create Reading Lists, app users will register an account and marked pages will be tied to that account. Reading List account preferences sync between devices. You can read the same pages on different mobile platforms (tablets, phones). This is the first time we are syncing preference data between devices in such a way. We want to hear and address concerns about privacy and data security. We also want to explain why the current watchlist system is not being adapted for this purpose.

Background

[Fetola Motswedi]

In 2016 the Android team replaced the simple Saved Pages feature with Reading Lists. Reading Lists allow users to bookmark pages into folders and for reading offline. The intent of this feature was to allow "syncing" of these lists for users with many devices. Due to overlap with the Gather feature and related community concerns, this part was put on hold.

The Android team has identified this lack of synching as a major area of complaint from users. They expect lists to sync. The iOS team has held off implementing Reading Lists, as syncing was seen as a "must have" for this feature. A recenttechnical RfC has allowed these user stories and needs to be unblocked. Initially for Android, then iOS, and with web to potentially follow.

Reading lists are private, stored as part of a user's account, not as a public wiki page. There is no sharing or publishing ability for reading lists. No planned work to make these public. The target audience are people that read Wikipedia and want to bookmark and organize that content in the app. There is a potential for the feature to be available on the web in the future.

Why not watchlists

[Fetola Motswedi]

Watchlists offer similar functionality to Reading Lists. The Reading Infrastructure team evaluated watchlist infrastructure before exploring other options. In general, the needs of watchlists differ from Reading Lists in a few key ways:

  • Reading lists focus on Reading articles, not the monitoring of changes.
  • Watchlists are focused on monitoring changes of pages/revisions.
    • The Watchlist infrastructure is key to our contributor community for monitoring content changes manually and through the use of automated tools (bots). Because of these needs, expanding the scope of Watchlists to reading purposes will only make the project harder to maintain and add more constraints.
  • By keeping the projects separate it is easier to scale resources. We can serve these two different audiences and prioritize the work accordingly. Reading Lists are, by their nature, less critical to the health of Wikipedia/MediaWiki.
  • Multi-project support. Reading Lists are by design cross-wiki/project. Watchlists are tied to specific wikis. While there have been many discussion for making them cross-wiki, resolution is not in the near term.

More information can be found on MediaWiki.org where feedback and ideas are welcome.

Thank you

CKoerner (WMF) (talk) 20:35, 20 Lwetse 2017 (UTC)

Changes to the global ban policy

[Fetola Motswedi]
Hello. Some changes to thecommunity global ban policy have been proposed. Your comments are welcome atm:Requests for comment/Improvement of global ban policy. Please translate this message to your language, if needed. Cordially.Matiia (Matiia) 00:34, 12 Ngwanatsele 2017 (UTC)

New print to pdf feature for mobile web readers

[Fetola Motswedi]

New print to pdf feature for mobile web readers

The Readers web team will be deploying a new feature this week to make iteasier to download PDF versions of articles on the mobile website.

Providing better offline functionality was one of the highlighted areas fromthe research done by the New Readers team in Mexico, Nigeria, and India. The teams created a prototype for mobile PDFs which was evaluated by user research and community feedback. Theprototype evaluation received positive feedback and results, so development continued.

For the initial deployment, the feature will be available to Google Chrome browsers on Android. Support for other mobile browsers to come in the future. For Chrome, the feature will use the native Android print functionality. Users can choose to download a webpage as a PDF.Mobile print styles will be used for these PDFs to ensure optimal readability for smaller screens.

The feature is available starting Wednesday, Nov 15. For more information, seethe project page on MediaWiki.org.

Thank you!

CKoerner (WMF) (talk) 22:07, 20 Ngwanatsele 2017 (UTC)

Call for Wikimania 2018 Scholarships

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hi all,

We wanted to inform you that scholarship applications forWikimania 2018 which is being held in Cape Town, South Africa on July 18–22, 2018 are now being accepted.Applications are open until Monday, 22 January 2018 23:59 UTC.

Applicants will be able to apply for a partial or full scholarship. A full scholarship will cover the cost of an individual's round-trip travel, shared accommodation, and conference registration fees as arranged by the Wikimedia Foundation. A partial scholarship will cover conference registration fees and shared accommodation. Applicants will be rated using a pre-determined selection process and selection criteria established by the Scholarship Committee and the Wikimedia Foundation, who will determine which applications are successful. To learn more about Wikimania 2018 scholarships, please visit:wm2018:Scholarships.

To apply for a scholarship, fill out the multi-language application form on:https://scholarships.wikimedia.org/apply

It is highly recommended that applicants review all the material on the Scholarships page andthe associated FAQ before submitting an application. If you have any questions, please contact: wikimania-scholarships at wikimedia.org or leave a message at:wm2018:Talk:Scholarships. Please help us spread the word and translate pages!

Best regards,David Richfield andMartin Rulsch for theScholarship Committee 19:24, 20 Sedimonthole 2017 (UTC)

User group for Military Historians

[Fetola Motswedi]

Greetings,

"Military history" is one of the most important subjects when speak of sum of all human knowledge. To support contributors interested in the area over various language Wikipedias, we intend to form a user group. It also provides a platform to share the best practices between military historians, and various military related projects on Wikipedias. An initial discussion was has been done between the coordinators and members of WikiProject Military History on English Wikipedia. Now this discussion has been taken to Meta-Wiki. Contributors intrested in the area of military history are requested to share their feedback and give suggestions atTalk:Discussion to incubate a user group for Wikipedia Military Historians.

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:46, 21 Sedimonthole 2017 (UTC)

Editing News #1—2018

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this in another language •Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

Did you know?

Did you know that you can now use thevisual diff tool on any page?

Screenshot showing some changes, in the two-column wikitext diff display

Sometimes, it is hard to see important changes in a wikitext diff. This screenshot of a wikitext diff (click to enlarge) shows that the paragraphs have been rearranged, but it does not highlight the removal of a word or the addition of a new sentence.

If youenable the Beta Feature for "⧼visualeditor-preference-visualdiffpage-label⧽", you will have a new option. It will give you a new box at the top of every diff page. This box will let you choose either diff system on any edit.

Toggle button showing visual and wikitext options; visual option is selected

Click the toggle button to switch between visual and wikitext diffs.

In the visual diff, additions, removals, new links, and formatting changes will be highlighted. Other changes, such as changing the size of an image, are described in notes on the side.

Screenshot showing the same changes to an article. Most changes are highlighted with text formatting.

This screenshot shows the same edit as the wikitext diff. The visual diff highlights the removal of one word and the addition of a new sentence.

You can read and help translatethe user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.

Sincethe last newsletter, theEditing Team has spent most of their time supportingthe 2017 wikitext editor mode, which is available inside the visual editor as a Beta Feature, and improvingthe visual diff tool. Their work board is availablein Phabricator. You can find links to the work finished each week atmw:VisualEditor/Weekly triage meetings. Theircurrent priorities are fixing bugs, supporting the 2017 wikitext editor, and improving the visual diff tool.

Recent changes

[Fetola Motswedi]
  • The2017 wikitext editor isavailable as a Beta Feature on desktop devices. It has the same toolbar as the visual editor and can use the citoid service and other modern tools. The team have been comparing the performance of different editing environments. They have studied how long it takes to open the page and start typing. The study uses data for more than one million edits during December and January. Some changes have been made to improve the speed of the 2017 wikitext editor and the visual editor. Recently, the 2017 wikitext editor opened fastest for most edits, and the 2010 WikiEditor was fastest for some edits. More information will be posted atmw:Contributors/Projects/Editing performance.
  • Thevisual diff tool was developed for the visual editor. It is now available to all users of the visual editor and the 2017 wikitext editor. When you review your changes, you can toggle between wikitext and visual diffs. You can alsoenable the new Beta Feature for "Visual diffs". The Beta Feature lets you use the visual diff tool to view other people's edits on page histories andSpecial:RecentChanges.
  • Wikitext syntax highlighting is available as a Beta Feature for boththe 2017 wikitext editor and the 2010 wikitext editor.
  • Thecitoid service automatically translates URLs, DOIs, ISBNs, and PubMed id numbers into wikitext citation templates. It is very popular and useful to editors, although it can be a bit tricky to set up.Your wiki can have this service. Pleaseread the instructions. You canask the team to help you enable citoid at your wiki.

Let's work together

[Fetola Motswedi]

—Elitre (WMF)

20:56, 2 Mopitlo 2018 (UTC)

AdvancedSearch

[Fetola Motswedi]
From May 8,AdvancedSearch will be available as abeta feature in your wiki. The feature enhances thesearch page through an advanced parameters form and aims to makeexisting search options more visible and accessible for everyone. AdvancedSearch is a project byWMDE Technical Wishes. Everyone is invited to test the feature and we hope that it will serve you well in your work!

Birgit Müller (WMDE) 14:53, 7 Motsheganong 2018 (UTC)

New Wikipedia Library Accounts Available Now (May 2018)

[Fetola Motswedi]


Hello Wikimedians!

The TWL OWL says sign up today!

The Wikipedia Library is announcing signups today for free, full-access, accounts to research and tools as part of ourPublisher Donation Program. You can sign up for new accounts and research materials on theLibrary Card platform:

  • Rock's Backpages – Music articles and interviews from the 1950s onwards - 50 accounts
  • Invaluable – Database of more than 50 million auctions and over 500,000 artists - 15 accounts
  • Termsoup – Translation tool

Expansions

Many other partnerships with accounts available are listed onour partners page, includingBaylor University Press,Loeb Classical Library,Cairn,Gale andBloomsbury.

Do better research and help expand the use of high quality references across Wikipedia projects: sign up today!
--The Wikipedia Library Team 18:03, 30 Motsheganong 2018 (UTC)

You can host and coordinate signups for a Wikipedia Library branch in your own language. Please contactOcaasi (WMF).
This message was delivered via theGlobal Mass Message tool toThe Wikipedia Library Global Delivery List.

Global preferences are available

[Fetola Motswedi]

Global preferences are now available, you can set them by visiting your newglobal preferences page. Visitmediawiki.org for information on how to use them andleave feedback. --Keegan (WMF) (talk)

19:20, 10 Phukwi 2018 (UTC)

New user group for editing sitewide CSS / JS

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Please help translate to your language)

Hi all!

To improve the security of our readers and editors, permission handling for CSS/JS pages has changed. (These are pages likeMediaWiki:Common.css andMediaWiki:Vector.js which contain code that is executed in the browsers of users of the site.)A new user group,interface-admin, has been created.Starting four weeks from now, only members of this group will be able edit CSS/JS pages that they do not own (that is, any page ending with.css or.js that is either in theMediaWiki: namespace or is another user's user subpage).

You can learn more about the motivation behind the changehere.

Please add users who need to edit CSS/JS to the new group (this can be done the same way new administrators are added, by stewards or local bureaucrats).This is a dangerous permission; a malicious user or a hacker taking over the account of a careless interface-admin can abuse it in far worse ways than admin permissions could be abused. Please only assign it to users who need it, who are trusted by the community, and who follow common basic password and computer security practices (use strong passwords, do not reuse passwords, use two-factor authentication if possible, do not install software of questionable origin on your machine, use antivirus software if that's a standard thing in your environment).

Thanks!
Tgr (talk) 17:45, 30 Phukwi 2018 (UTC)(viaglobal message delivery)


IMPORTANT: Admin activity review

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello. A new policy regarding the removal of "advanced rights" (administrator, bureaucrat, etc) was adopted byglobal community consensus in 2013. According to this policy, thestewards are reviewing administrators' activity on smaller wikis. To the best of our knowledge, your wiki does not have a formal process for removing "advanced rights" from inactive accounts. This means that the stewards will take care of this according to theadmin activity review.

We have determined that the following users meet the inactivity criteria (no edits and no log actions for more than 2 years):

  1. לערי ריינהארט (administrator)

These users will receive a notification soon, asking them to start a community discussion if they want to retain some or all of their rights. If the users do not respond, then their advanced rights will be removed by the stewards.

However, if you as a community would like to create your own activity review process superseding the global one, want to make another decision about these inactive rights holders, or already have a policy that we missed, then please notify thestewards on Meta-Wiki so that we know not to proceed with the rights review on your wiki. Thanks,Rschen7754 05:53, 10 Phatwe 2018 (UTC)

Editing of sitewide CSS/JS is only possible for interface administrators from now

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Please help translate to your language)

Hi all,

asannounced previously, permission handling for CSS/JS pages has changed: only members of theinterface-admin (Interface administrators) group, and a few highly privileged global groups such as stewards, can edit CSS/JS pages that they do not own (that is, any page ending with .css or .js that is either in the MediaWiki: namespace or is another user's user subpage). This is done to improve the security of readers and editors of Wikimedia projects. More information is available atCreation of separate user group for editing sitewide CSS/JS. If you encounter any unexpected problems, please contact me or file a bug.

Thanks!
Tgr (talk) 12:40, 27 Phatwe 2018 (UTC)(viaglobal message delivery)

Read-only mode for up to an hour on 12 September and 10 October

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this message in another language •Please help translate to your language

TheWikimedia Foundation will be testing its secondary data centre. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster. To make sure everything is working, the Wikimedia Technology department needs to do a planned test. This test will show if they can reliably switch from one data centre to the other. It requires many teams to prepare for the test and to be available to fix any unexpected problems.

They will switch all traffic to the secondary data center onWednesday, 12 September 2018.OnWednesday, 10 October 2018, they will switch back to the primary data center.

Unfortunately, because of some limitations inMediaWiki, all editing must stop when we switch. We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.

  • You will not be able to edit for up to an hour on Wednesday, 12 September and Wednesday, 10 October. The test will start at14:00 UTC (15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10:00 EDT, 07:00 PDT, 23:00 JST, and in New Zealand at 02:00 NZST on Thursday 13 September and Thursday 11 October).
  • If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message. We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it. If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal. Then you should be able to save your edit. But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:

  • Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal. If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual. Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.
  • There will be code freezes for the weeks of 10 September 2018 and 8 October 2018. Non-essential code deployments will not happen.

This project may be postponed if necessary. You canread the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule. There will be more notifications about this.Please share this information with your community. /User:Johan(WMF) (talk)

13:33, 6 Lwetse 2018 (UTC)

Editing News #2—2018

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this in another language •Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

Did you know?

Did you know that you can use the visual editor on a mobile device?

Screenshot showing the location of the pencil icon

Tap on the pencil icon to start editing. The page will probably open in the wikitext editor.

You will see another pencil icon in the toolbar. Tap on that pencil icon to the switch between visual editing and wikitext editing.

Toolbar with menu opened

Remember to publish your changes when you're done.

You can read and help translatethe user guide, which has more information about how to use the visual editor.

Since the last newsletter, theEditing Team has wrapped up most of their work on the2017 wikitext editor andthe visual diff tool. The team has begun investigating the needs of editors who use mobile devices. Their work board is availablein Phabricator. Theircurrent priorities are fixing bugs and improving mobile editing.

Recent changes

[Fetola Motswedi]

Let's work together

[Fetola Motswedi]
  • The Editing team wants to improve visual editing on the mobile website.Please readtheir ideas and tell the team what you think would help editors who use the mobile site.
  • TheCommunity Wishlist Survey begins next week.
  • If you aren't reading this in your preferred language, then please help us with translations! Subscribe to theTranslators mailing list orcontact us directly. We will notify you when the next issue is ready for translation.Thank you!

—Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk)

14:17, 2 Ngwanatsele 2018 (UTC)

Change coming to how certain templates will appear on the mobile web

[Fetola Motswedi]

Change coming to how certain templates will appear on the mobile web

Please help translate to your language

Example of improvements

Hello,

In a few weeks the Readers web team will be changing how some templates look on the mobile web site. We will make these templates more noticeable when viewing the article. We ask for your help in updating any templates that don't look correct.

What kind of templates? Specifically templates that notify readers and contributors about issues with the content of an article – the text and information in the article. Examples likeTemplate:Unreferenced orTemplate:More citations needed. Right now these notifications are hidden behind a link under the title of an article. We will format templates like these (mostly those that use Template:Ambox or message box templates in general) to show a short summary under the page title. You can tap on the "Learn more" link to get more information.

For template editors we havesome recommendations on how to make templates that are mobile-friendly and also furtherdocumentation on our work so far.

If you have questions about formatting templates for mobile,please leave a note on the project talk page orfile a task in Phabricator and we will help you.

Thank you!

CKoerner (WMF) (talk) 19:35, 13 Ngwanatsele 2018 (UTC)

Advanced Search

[Fetola Motswedi]
Advanced Search will become a default feature on your wiki on November 28. This new interface allows you to perform specialized searches on thesearch page, even if you don’t know anysearch syntax. Advanced Search originates from theGerman Community’s Technical Wishes project. It's already a default feature on German, Arabic, Farsi and Hungarian Wikipedia. Besides, more than 40.000 users across all wikis have tested the beta version. Feedback is welcome on thecentral feedback page.

Johanna Strodt (WMDE) (talk) 11:03, 26 Ngwanatsele 2018 (UTC)

New Wikimedia password policy and requirements

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please help translate to your language

The Wikimedia Foundation security team is implementing a newpassword policy and requirements.You can learn more about the project on MediaWiki.org.

These new requirements will apply to new accounts and privileged accounts. New accounts will be required to create a password with a minimum length of 8 characters. Privileged accounts will be prompted to update their password to one that is at least 10 characters in length.

These changes are planned to be in effect on December 13th. If you think your work or tools will be affected by this change, please let us know onthe talk page.

Thank you!

CKoerner (WMF) (talk) 20:03, 6 Sedimonthole 2018 (UTC)

Invitation from Wiki Loves Love 2019

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please help translate to your language

Love is an important subject for humanity and it is expressed in different cultures and regions in different ways across the world through different gestures, ceremonies, festivals and to document expression of this rich and beautiful emotion, we need your help so we can share and spread the depth of cultures that each region has, the best of how people of that region, celebrate love.

Wiki Loves Love (WLL) is an international photography competition of Wikimedia Commons with the subject love testimonials happening in the month of February.

The primary goal of the competition is to document love testimonials through human cultural diversity such as monuments, ceremonies, snapshot of tender gesture, and miscellaneous objects used as symbol of love; to illustrate articles in the worldwide free encyclopedia Wikipedia, and other Wikimedia Foundation (WMF) projects.

The theme of 2019 iteration isCelebrations, Festivals, Ceremonies and rituals of love.

Sign up your affiliate or individually atParticipants page.

To know more about the contest, check out ourCommons Page andFAQs

There are several prizes to grab. Hope to see you spreading love this February with Wiki Loves Love!

Kind regards,

Wiki Loves Love Team

Imagine... the sum of all love!

--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 10:13, 27 Sedimonthole 2018 (UTC)

FileExporter beta feature

[Fetola Motswedi]
Coming soon: the beta featureFileExporter

A new beta feature will soon be released on all wikis: TheFileExporter. It allows exports of files from a local wiki to Wikimedia Commons, including their file history and page history. Which files can be exported is defined by each wiki's community:Please check your wiki'sconfiguration file if you want to use this feature.

The FileExporter has already been a beta feature onmediawiki.org,meta.wikimedia, deWP, faWP, arWP, koWP and onwikisource.org. After some functionality was added, it's now becoming a beta feature on all wikis. Deployment is planned for January 16. More information can be foundon the project page.

As always, feedback is highly appreciated. If you want to test the FileExporter, please activate it in youruser preferences. The best place for feedback is thecentral talk page. Thank you from Wikimedia Deutschland'sTechnical Wishes project.

Johanna Strodt (WMDE) 09:41, 14 Firikgong 2019 (UTC)

No editing for 30 minutes on 17 January

[Fetola Motswedi]
You willnot be able to edit the wikis for up to 30 minutes on17 January 07:00 UTC. This is because of a database problem that has to be fixed immediately. You can still read the wikis. Some wikis are not affected. They don't get this message. You can see which wikis arenot affectedon this page. Most wikis are affected. The time you can not edit might be shorter than 30 minutes. /Johan (WMF)

18:55, 16 Firikgong 2019 (UTC)

Talk to us about talking

[Fetola Motswedi]
"icon depicting two speech Bubbles"

The Wikimedia Foundation is planning aglobal consultation about communication. The goal is to bring Wikimedians and wiki-minded people together to improve tools for communication.

We want all contributors to be able to talk to each other on the wikis, whatever their experience, their skills or their devices.

We are looking for input from as many different parts of the Wikimedia community as possible. It will come from multiple projects, in multiple languages, and with multiple perspectives.

We are currently planning the consultation. We need your help.

We need volunteers to help talk to their communities or user groups.

You can help by hosting a discussion at your wiki. Here's what to do:

  1. First,sign up your group here.
  2. Next, create a page (or a section on a Village pump, or an e-mail thread – whatever is natural for your group) to collect information from other people in your group. This is not a vote or decision-making discussion: we are just collecting feedback.
  3. Then ask people what they think about communication processes. We want to hear stories and other information about how people communicate with each other on and off wiki. Please consider asking these five questions:
    1. When you want to discuss a topic with your community, what tools work for you, and what problems block you?
    2. What about talk pages works for newcomers, and what blocks them?
    3. What do others struggle with in your community about talk pages?
    4. What do you wish you could do on talk pages, but can't due to the technical limitations?
    5. What are the important aspects of a "wiki discussion"?
  4. Finally, please go toTalk pages consultation 2019 on Mediawiki.org and report what you learned from your group. Please include links if the discussion is available to the public.

You can also help build the list of the many different ways people talk to each other.

Not all groups active on wikis or around wikis use the same way to discuss things: it can happen on wiki, on social networks, through external tools... Tell ushow your group communicates.

You can read more aboutthe overall process on mediawiki.org. If you have questions or ideas, you canleave feedback about the consultation process in the language you prefer.

Thank you! We're looking forward to talking with you.

Trizek (WMF) 15:01, 21 Tlhakole 2019 (UTC)

Request for adminship

[Fetola Motswedi]

Am here requesting for adminship because I do believe that I can bring some change in this tswana Wikipedia ..most of the info is outdated and also some of the info is inaccurate. Tswana wikipedia can be better only if I might be granted the adminship position ...being granted this position means that I will have access to some pages that I couldn't edit as a regular user

New Wikipedia Library Accounts Available Now (March 2019)

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello Wikimedians!

The TWL OWL says sign up today!

The Wikipedia Library is announcing signups today for free, full-access, accounts to published research as part of ourPublisher Donation Program. You can sign up for new accounts and research materials on theLibrary Card platform:

  • Kinige – Primarily Indian-language ebooks - 10 books per month
  • Gale – Times Digital Archive collection added (covering 1785-2013)
  • JSTOR – New applications now being taken again

Many other partnerships with accounts available are listed onour partners page, includingBaylor University Press,Taylor & Francis,Cairn,Annual Reviews andBloomsbury. You can request new partnerships on ourSuggestions page.

Do better research and help expand the use of high quality references across Wikipedia projects: sign up today!
--The Wikipedia Library Team 17:40, 13 Mopitlo 2019 (UTC)

You can host and coordinate signups for a Wikipedia Library branch in your own language. Please contactOcaasi (WMF).
This message was delivered via theGlobal Mass Message tool toThe Wikipedia Library Global Delivery List.

Read-only mode for up to 30 minutes on 11 April

[Fetola Motswedi]
You willnot be able to edit most Wikimedia wikis for up to 30 minutes on11 April 05:00 UTC. This is because of a hardware problem. You can still read the wikis. Youcan see which wikis are affected. The time you can not edit might be shorter than 30 minutes. /Johan (WMF)

10:56, 8 Moranang 2019 (UTC)

Wikimedia Foundation Medium-Term Plan feedback request

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please help translate to your language

The Wikimedia Foundation has published aMedium-Term Plan proposal covering the next 3–5 years. We want your feedback! Please leave all comments and questions, in any language, onthe talk page, by April 20.Thank you!Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 17:35, 12 Moranang 2019 (UTC)

Campaigning for being an admin

[Fetola Motswedi]

I would like to be an admin bcoz I believe that I can make Tswana wikipedia a better place ..The information in this Tswana wikipedia is so outdated just remember that we are not the only ones who uses this Tswana wiki ,students do use this Tswana wiki what will happen to them when they get wrong info? so am willing as a Tswana wiki user to provide updated info to the users and also the main page ever since I was using the Tswana wiki the main page has been the same that's boring .Thank you

Editing News #1—July 2019

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this in another language •Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

Did you know?

Did you know that you can use the visual editor on a mobile device?

Every article has a pencil icon at the top. Tap on the pencil icon to start editing.

Edit Cards

Toolbar with menu opened

This is what the newEdit Cards for editing links in the mobile visual editor look like. You can try the prototype here:📲 Try Edit Cards.

Welcome back to theEditing newsletter.

Sincethe last newsletter, the team has released two new features for themobile visual editor and has started developing three more. All of this work is part of the team's goal tomake editing on mobile web simpler.

Before talking about the team's recent releases, we have a question for you:

Are you willing to try a new way to add and change links?

If you are interested, we would value your input! You can try this new link tool in the mobile visual editor on a separate wiki.

Follow these instructions and share your experience:

📲 Try Edit Cards.

Recent releases

[Fetola Motswedi]

The mobile visual editor is a simpler editing tool, for smartphones and tablets using themobile site. The Editing team recently launched two new features to improve the mobile visual editor:

  1. Section editing
    • The purpose is to help contributors focus on their edits.
    • The team studied this with an A/B test.This test showed that contributors who could use section editing were1% more likely to publish the edits they started than people with only full-page editing.
  2. Loading overlay
    • The purpose is to smooth the transition between reading and editing.

Section editing and the new loading overlay arenow available to everyone using the mobile visual editor.

New and active projects

[Fetola Motswedi]

This is a list of our most active projects.Watch these pages to learn about project updates and to share your input on new designs, prototypes and research findings.

  • Edit cards: This is a clearer way to add and edit links, citations, images, templates, etc. in articles. You can try this feature now.Go here to see how:📲Try Edit Cards.
  • Mobile toolbar refresh: This project will learn if contributors are more successful when the editing tools are easier to recognize.
  • Mobile visual editor availability: This A/B test asks:Are newer contributors more successful if they use the mobile visual editor? We are collaborating with20 Wikipedias to answer this question.
  • Usability improvements: This project will make the mobile visual editor easier to use. The goal is to let contributors stay focused on editing and to feel more confident in the editing tools.

Looking ahead

[Fetola Motswedi]
  • Wikimania: Several members of the Editing Team will be attendingWikimania in August 2019. They will lead a session about mobile editing in theCommunity Growth space. Talk to the team about how editing can be improved.
  • Talk Pages: In the coming months, the Editing Team will beginimproving talk pages and communication on the wikis.

Learning more

[Fetola Motswedi]

TheVisualEditor on mobile is a good place to learn more about the projects we are working on. The team wants to talk with you about anything related to editing. If you have something to say or ask, please leave a message atTalk:VisualEditor on mobile.

PPelberg (WMF) (talk) &Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk)

18:32, 23 Phukwi 2019 (UTC)

Update on the consultation about office actions

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello all,

Last month, the Wikimedia Foundation's Trust & Safety teamannounced a future consultation about partial and/or temporaryoffice actions. We want to let you know that thedraft version of this consultation has now beenposted on Meta.

This is adraft. It is not intended to be the consultation itself, which will be posted on Meta likely in early September. Please do not treat this draft as a consultation. Instead, we ask your assistance in forming the final language for the consultation.

For that end, we would like your input over the next couple of weeks about what questions the consultation should ask about partial and temporary Foundation office action bans and how it should be formatted.Please post it on the draft talk page. Our goal is to provide space for the community to discuss all the aspects of these office actions that need to be discussed, and we want to ensure with your feedback that the consultation is presented in the best way to encourage frank and constructive conversation.

Please visitthe consultation draft on Meta-wiki and leave your comments on the draft’s talk page about what the consultation should look like and what questions it should ask.

Thank you for your input! -- TheTrust & Safety team 08:03, 16 Phatwe 2019 (UTC)

New tools and IP masking

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hey everyone,

The Wikimedia Foundation wants to work on two things that affect how we patrol changes and handle vandalism and harassment. We want to make the tools that are used to handle bad edits better. We also want to get better privacy for unregistered users so their IP addresses are no longer shown to everyone in the world. We would not hide IP addresses until we have better tools for patrolling.

We have an idea of what toolscould be working better and how a more limited access to IP addresses would change things, but we need to hear from more wikis. You can read more about the projecton Meta andpost comments and feedback. Now is when we need to hear from you to be able to give you better tools to handle vandalism, spam and harassment.

You can post in your language if you can't write in English.

Johan (WMF)

14:18, 21 Phatwe 2019 (UTC)

The consultation on partial and temporary Foundation bans just started

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello,

In arecent statement, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trusteesrequested that staff hold a consultation to "re-evaluat[e] or add community input to the two new office action policy tools (temporary and partial Foundation bans)".

Accordingly, the Foundation's Trust & Safety team invites all Wikimediansto join this consultation and give their feedback from 30 September to 30 October.

How can you help?

  • Suggest how partial and temporary Foundation bans should be used, if they should (eg: On all projects, or only on a subset);
  • Give ideas about how partial and temporary Foundation bans should ideally implemented, if they should be; and/or
  • Propose changes to the existing Office Actions policy on partial and temporary bans.

We offer our thanks in advance for your contributions, and we hope to get as much input as possible from community members during this consultation!

--Kbrown (WMF) 17:14, 30 Lwetse 2019 (UTC)

Feedback wanted on Desktop Improvements project

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please help translate to your language

Hello. The Readers Web team at the WMF will work on someimprovements to the desktop interface over the next couple of years. The goal is to increase usability without removing any functionality. We have been inspired by changes made by volunteers, but that currently only exist as local gadgets and user scripts, prototypes, and volunteer-led skins. We would like to begin the process of bringing some of these changes into the default experience on all Wikimedia projects.

We are currently in the research stage of this project and are looking for ideas for improvements, as well as feedback on our current ideas and mockups. So far, we have performed interviews with community members at Wikimania. We have gathered lists of previous volunteer and WMF work in this area. We are examining possible technical approaches for such changes.

We would like individual feedback on the following:

  • Identifying focus areas for the project we have not yet discovered
  • Expanding the list of existing gadgets and user scripts that are related to providing a better desktop experience. If you can think of some of these from your wiki, please let us know
  • Feedback on the ideas and mockups we have collected so far

We would also like to gather a list of wikis that would be interested in being test wikis for this project - these wikis would be the first to receive the updates once we’re ready to start building.

When giving feedback, please consider the following goals of the project:

  • Make it easier for readers to focus on the content
  • Provide easier access to everyday actions (e.g. search, language switching, editing)
  • Put things in logical and useful places
  • Increase consistency in the interface with other platforms - mobile web and the apps
  • Eliminate clutter
  • Plan for future growth

As well as the following constraints:

  • Not touching the content - no work will be done in terms of styling templates or to the structure of page contents themselves
  • Not removing any functionality - things might move around, but all navigational items and other functionality currently available by default will remain
  • No drastic changes to the layout - we're taking an evolutionary approach to the changes and want the site to continue feeling familiar to readers and editors

Please give all feedback (in any language) atmw:Talk:Reading/Web/Desktop Improvements

After this round of feedback, we plan on building a prototype of suggested changes based on the feedback we receive. You’ll hear from us again asking for feedback on this prototype.

Thank you!Quiddity (WMF) (talk)

07:18, 16 Phalane 2019 (UTC)

Beta feature "Reference Previews"

[Fetola Motswedi]

A new beta feature will soon be deployed to your wiki:Reference Previews. As you might guess from the name, this feature gives you a preview of references in the article text. That means, you can look up a reference without jumping down to the bottom of the page.

Reference Previews have already been a beta feature on German and Arabic Wikipedia since April. Now they will become available on more wikis. Deployment is planned for October 24. More information can be foundon the project page.

As always, feedback is highly appreciated. If you want to test Reference Previews, please activate the beta feature in youruser preferences and let us know what you think. The best place for feedback is thecentral talk page. We hope the feature will serve you well in your work. Thank you from Wikimedia Deutschland'sTechnical Wishes project.

--Johanna Strodt (WMDE) 09:47, 23 Phalane 2019 (UTC)

Editing News #2 – Mobile editing and talk pages

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this in another language •Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

Inside this newsletter, theEditing team talks about their work on themobile visual editor, onthe new talk pages project, and atWikimania 2019.

What talk page interactions do you remember? Is it a story about how someone helped you to learn something new? Is it a story about how someone helped you get involved in a group? Something else? Whatever your story is, we want to hear it!

Please tell us a story about how you used a talk page.Please share a link to a memorable discussion, or describe it on thetalk page for this project. The team wants your examples. These examples will help everyone develop a shared understanding of what this project should support and encourage.

Talk pages project

[Fetola Motswedi]

TheTalk Pages Consultation was a global consultation to define better tools for wiki communication. From February through June 2019, more than 500 volunteers on 20 wikis, across 15 languages and multiple projects, came together with members of the Foundation to create a product direction for a set of discussion tools. ThePhase 2 Report of the Talk Page Consultation was published in August. It summarizes the product direction the team has started to work on, which you can read more about here:Talk Page Project project page.

The team needs and wants your help at this early stage. They are starting to develop the first idea. Please add your name to the"Getting involved" section of the project page, if you would like to hear about opportunities to participate.

Mobile visual editor

[Fetola Motswedi]

The Editing team is trying to make it simpler to edit on mobile devices. The team is changing thevisual editor on mobile. If you have something to say about editing on a mobile device, please leave a message atTalk:VisualEditor on mobile.

What happens when you click on a link. The new Edit Card is bigger and has more options for editing links.
The editing toolbar is changing in the mobile visual editor. The old system had two different toolbars. Now, all the buttons are together.Tell the team what you think about the new toolbar.
  • In September, the Editing team updated the mobile visual editor's editing toolbar. Anyone could see these changes in the mobile visual editor.
    • One toolbar: All of the editing tools are located in one toolbar. Previously, the toolbar changed when you clicked on different things.
    • New navigation: The buttons for moving forward and backward in the edit flow have changed.
    • Seamless switching: animproved workflow for switching between the visual and wikitext modes.
  • Feedback: You can try the refreshed toolbar by opening the mobile VisualEditor on a smartphone. Please post your feedback on theToolbar feedback talk page.

Wikimania

[Fetola Motswedi]

The Editing Team attendedWikimania 2019 in Sweden. They led a session onthe mobile visual editor and a session onthe new talk pages project. They testedtwo newfeatures in the mobile visual editor with contributors. You can read more about what the team did and learned inthe team's report on Wikimania 2019.

Looking ahead

[Fetola Motswedi]
  • Talk Pages Project: The team is thinking about the first set of proposed changes. The team will be working with a few communities to pilot those changes. The best way to stay informed is by adding your username to the list on the project page:Getting involved.
  • Testing the mobile visual editor as the default: The Editing team plans to post results before the end of the calendar year. The best way to stay informed is by adding the project page to your watchlist:VisualEditor as mobile default project page.
  • Measuring the impact of Edit Cards: This study asks whether the project helped editors add links and citations. The Editing team hopes to share results in November. The best way to stay informed is by adding the project page to your watchlist:Edit Cards project page.

–PPelberg (WMF) (talk) &Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk)

11:12, 29 Phalane 2019 (UTC)

Movement Learning and Leadership Development Project

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello

The Wikimedia Foundation’s Community Development team is seeking to learn more about the way volunteers learn and develop into the many different roles that exist in the movement. Our goal is to build a movement informed framework that provides shared clarity and outlines accessible pathways on how to grow and develop skills within the movement. To this end, we are looking to speak with you, our community to learn about your journey as a Wikimedia volunteer. Whether you joined yesterday or have been here from the very start, we want to hear about the many ways volunteers join and contribute to our movement.

To learn more about the project,please visit the Meta page. If you are interested in participating in the project, please completethis simple Google form. Although we may not be able to speak to everyone who expresses interest, we encourage you to complete this short form if you are interested in participating!

--LMiranda (WMF) (talk) 19:01, 22 Firikgong 2020 (UTC)

Additional interface for edit conflicts on talk pages

[Fetola Motswedi]

Sorry, for writing this text in English. If you could help to translate it, it would be appreciated.

You might know the new interface for edit conflicts (currently a beta feature). Now, Wikimedia Germany is designing an additional interface to solve edit conflicts on talk pages. This interface is shown to you when you write on a discussion page and another person writes a discussion post in the same line and saves it before you do. With this additional editing conflict interface you can adjust the order of the comments and edit your comment. We are inviting everyone to have a look atthe planned feature. Let us know what you think on ourcentral feedback page! -- For the Technical Wishes Team:Max Klemm (WMDE) 14:15, 26 Tlhakole 2020 (UTC)

Editing news 2020 #1 – Discussion tools

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this in another language •Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

Screenshot showing what the Reply tool looks like
This early version of the Reply tool automatically signs and indents comments.

TheEditing team has been working onthe talk pages project. The goal of the talk pages project is to help contributors communicate on wiki more easily. This project is the result of theTalk pages consultation 2019.

Reply tool improved with edit tool buttons
In a future update, the team plans to test a tool for easily linking to another user's name, a rich-text editing option, and other tools.

The team is building anew tool for replying to comments now. This early version can sign and indent comments automatically.Pleasetest the new Reply tool.

  • On 31 March 2020, the newaraba tool was offered as aBeta Feature editors at four Wikipedias:Arabic,Dutch,French, andHungarian. If your community also wants early access to the new tool, contactUser:Whatamidoing (WMF).
  • The team is planning some upcoming changes.Pleasereview the proposed design and share your thoughts on the talk page. The team will test features such as:
    • an easy way to mention another editor ("pinging"),
    • a rich-text visual editing option, and
    • other features identified through user testing or recommended by editors.

To hear more about Editing Team updates, please add your name to the"Get involved" section of the project page. You can also watch these pages:the main project page,Updates,Replying, andUser testing.

–PPelberg (WMF) (talk) &Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk)

19:27, 8 Moranang 2020 (UTC)

Editing news 2020 #2

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this in another language •Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

Mockup of the new reply feature, showing new editing tools
The new features include a toolbar.What do you think should be in the toolbar?

This issue of theEditing newsletter includes information theTalk pages project, an effort to help contributors communicate on wiki more easily.

  • Reply tool: This is available as a Beta Feature at the four partner wikis (Arabic, Dutch, French, and Hungarian Wikipedias). The Beta Feature is called "Discussion tools". The Beta Feature will getnew features soon. The new features include writing comments in a new visual editing mode and pinging other users by typing@. You cantest the new features on theBeta Cluster now. Some other wikis will have a chance to try the Beta Feature in the coming months.
  • New requirements for user signatures: Soon, users will not be able to save invalid custom signatures inSpecial:Preferences. This will reduce signature spoofing, prevent page corruption, and make new talk page tools more reliable. Most editors will not be affected.
  • New discussion tool: The Editing team is beginning work on a simpler process for starting new discussions. You cansee the initial design on the project page.
  • Research on the use of talk pages: The Editing team worked with theWikimedia research team to study how talk pages help editors improve articles. We learned that new editors who use talk pages make more edits to the main namespace than new editors who don't use talk pages.

–Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk)

20:33, 17 Seetebosigo 2020 (UTC)

Annual contest Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos

[Fetola Motswedi]
Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos (WPWP)
Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos (WPWP)

This is to invite you to join the Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos (WPWP) campaign to help improve Wikipedia articles with photos and win prizes. The campaign starts today 1st July 2020 and closes 31st August 2020.

The campaign primarily aims at using images from Wikimedia Commons on Wikipedia articles that are lacking images. Participants will choose among Wikipedia pages without photo images, then add a suitable file from among the many thousands of photos in the Wikimedia Commons, especially those uploaded from thematic contests (Wiki Loves Africa, Wiki Loves Earth, Wiki Loves Folklore, etc.) over the years.

Please visit thecampaign page to learn more about the WPWP Campaign.

With kind regards,

Thank you,

Deborah Schwartz Jacobs, Communities Liaison, On behalf of the Wikipedia Pages Wanting Photos Organizing Team - 08:24, 1 Phukwi 2020 (UTC)

feel free to translate this message to your local language when this helps your community

Feedback on movement names

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello. Apologies if you are not reading this message in your native language.Please help translate to your language if necessary.Thank you!

There are a lot of conversations happening about the future of our movement names. We hope that you are part of these discussions and that your community is represented.

Since 16 June, the Foundation Brand Team has been running asurvey in 7 languages about3 naming options. There are also community members sharing concerns about renaming in aCommunity Open Letter.

Our goal in this call for feedback is to hear from across the community, so we encourage you to participate in the survey, the open letter, or both. The survey will go through 7 July in all timezones. Input from the survey and discussions will be analyzed and published on Meta-Wiki.

Thanks for thinking about the future of the movement, --The Brand Project team, 19:42, 2 Phukwi 2020 (UTC)

Note: The survey is conducted via a third-party service, which may subject it to additional terms. For more information on privacy and data-handling, see thesurvey privacy statement.

Editing news 2020 #3

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this in another language •Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

A gold star with a blue ribbon, and the text 50m
More than50 million edits have been made using the visual editor on desktop.

Seven years ago this month, theEditing team offered the visual editor to most Wikipedia editors. Since then, editors have achieved many milestones:

  • More than50 million edits have been made using the visual editor on desktop.
  • More than2 million new articles have been created in the visual editor. More than 600,000 of these new articles were created during 2019.
  • The visual editor isincreasingly popular. The proportion of all edits made using the visual editor has increased every year since its introduction.
  • In 2019,35% of the edits by newcomers (logged-in editors with ≤99 edits) used the visual editor. This percentage hasincreased every year.
  • Almost5 million edits on the mobile site have been made with the visual editor. Most of these edits have been made since the Editing team started improving themobile visual editor in 2018.
  • On 17 November 2019, thefirst edit from outer space was made in the mobile visual editor. 🚀 👩‍🚀
  • Editors have made more than7 million edits in the 2017 wikitext editor, including starting600,000 new articles in it. The2017 wikitext editor is VisualEditor's built-in wikitext mode. You canenable it in your preferences.

Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk)

12:55, 9 Phukwi 2020 (UTC)

Announcing a new wiki project! Welcome, Abstract Wikipedia

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hi all,

It is my honor to introduce Abstract Wikipedia, a new project that has been unanimously approved by the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. Abstract Wikipedia proposes a new way to generate baseline encyclopedic content in a multilingual fashion, allowing more contributors and more readers to share more knowledge in more languages. It is an approach that aims to make cross-lingual cooperation easier on our projects, increase the sustainability of our movement through expanding access to participation, improve the user experience for readers of all languages, and innovate in free knowledge by connecting some of the strengths of our movement to create something new.

This is our first new project in over seven years. Abstract Wikipedia was submitted as a project proposal by Denny Vrandečić in May 2020[1] after years of preparation and research, leading to a detailed plan and lively discussions in the Wikimedia communities. We know that the energy and the creativity of the community often runs up against language barriers, and information that is available in one language may not make it to other language Wikipedias. Abstract Wikipedia intends to look and feel like a Wikipedia, but build on the powerful, language-independent conceptual models of Wikidata, with the goal of letting volunteers create and maintain Wikipedia articles across our polyglot Wikimedia world.

The project will allow volunteers to assemble the fundamentals of an article using words and entities from Wikidata. Because Wikidata uses conceptual models that are meant to be universal across languages, it should be possible to use and extend these building blocks of knowledge to create models for articles that also have universal value. Using code, volunteers will be able to translate these abstract “articles” into their own languages. If successful, this could eventually allow everyone to read about any topic in Wikidata in their own language.

As you can imagine, this work will require a lot of software development, and a lot of cooperation among Wikimedians. In order to make this effort possible, Denny will join the Foundation as a staff member in July and lead this initiative. You may know Denny as the creator of Wikidata, a long-time community member, a former staff member at Wikimedia Deutschland, and a former Trustee at the Wikimedia Foundation[2]. We are very excited that Denny will bring his skills and expertise to work on this project alongside the Foundation’s product, technology, and community liaison teams.

It is important to acknowledge that this is an experimental project, and that every Wikipedia community has different needs. This project may offer some communities great advantages. Other communities may engage less. Every language Wikipedia community will be free to choose and moderate whether or how they would use content from this project.

We are excited that this new wiki-project has the possibility to advance knowledge equity through increased access to knowledge. It also invites us to consider and engage with critical questions about how and by whom knowledge is constructed. We look forward to working in cooperation with the communities to think through these important questions.

There is much to do as we begin designing a plan for Abstract Wikipedia in close collaboration with our communities. I encourage you to get involved by going to the project page and joining the new mailing list[3]. We recognize that Abstract Wikipedia is ambitious, but we also recognize its potential. We invite you all to join us on a new, unexplored path.

Yours,

Katherine Maher (Executive Director, Wikimedia Foundation)

  1. ↑Abstract Wikipedia
  2. ↑User:Denny
  3. ↑Abstract Wikipedia mailing list

Sent bym:User:Elitre (WMF) 20:10, 9 Phukwi 2020 (UTC) -m:Special:MyLanguage/Abstract Wikipedia/July 2020 announcement

The Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC): we want to hear from you.

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello. Apologies that you may not be reading this message in your native language: translations of the following message may be available onMeta.Please help translate to your language.Thank you!

At times, our contributor communities and projects have suffered from a lack of guidelines that can help us create an environment where free knowledge can be shared safely without fear. There has been talk about the need for a global set of conduct rules in different communities over time.

Recently, the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees announced aCommunity Culture Statement, asking for new standards to address harassment and promote inclusivity across projects.

The universal code of conduct will be a binding minimum set of standards across all Wikimedia projects, and will apply to all of us, staff and volunteers alike, all around the globe. It is of great importance that we all participate in expressing our opinions and thoughts about UCoC and its values. We should think about what we want it to cover or include and what it shouldn’t include, and how it may create difficulties or help our groups.

This is the time to talk about it. Before starting drafting the code of conduct, we would like to hear from you and to solicit the opinions and feedback of your colleagues. In order for your voice to be heard, we encourage and invite you to read more aboutthe universal code of conduct (UCoC) and then write down your opinions or feedbackon the discussion page.

To reduce language barriers during the process, you are welcome to translatethe universal code of conduct main page from English into your respective local language. You and your community may choose to provide your opinions/feedback using your local languages.

Thanks in advance for your attention and contributions,The Trust and Safety team at Wikimedia Foundation 16:42, 22 Phukwi 2020 (UTC)

Technical Wishes: FileExporter and FileImporter become default features on all Wikis

[Fetola Motswedi]

TheFileExporter and FileImporter will become a default features on all wikis until August 7, 2020. They are planned to help you to move files from your local wiki to Wikimedia Commons easier while keeping all original file information (Description, Source, Date, Author, View History) intact. Additionally, the move is documented in the files view history. How does it work?

Step 1: If you are an auto-confirmed user, you will see a link "Move file to Wikimedia Commons" on the local file page.

Step 2: When you click on this link, the FileImporter checks if the file can in fact be moved to Wikimedia Commons. These checks are performed based on the wiki'sconfiguration file which is created and maintained by each local wiki community.

Step 3: If the file is compatible with Wikimedia Commons, you will be taken to an import page, at which you can update or add information regarding the file, such as the description. You can also add the 'Now Commons' template to the file on the local wiki by clicking the corresponding check box in the import form. Admins can delete the file from the local wiki by enabling the corresponding checkbox. By clicking on the 'Import' button at the end of the page, the file is imported to Wikimedia Commons.

If you want to know more about theFileImporter extension or theTechnical Wishes Project, follow the links. --For the Technical Wishes Team:

Max Klemm (WMDE) 09:14, 6 Phatwe 2020 (UTC)

Important: maintenance operation on September 1st

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this message in another language •Please help translate to your language

TheWikimedia Foundation will be testing its secondary data centre. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster. To make sure everything is working, the Wikimedia Technology department needs to do a planned test. This test will show if they can reliably switch from one data centre to the other. It requires many teams to prepare for the test and to be available to fix any unexpected problems.

They will switch all traffic to the secondary data centre onTuesday, September 1st 2020.

Unfortunately, because of some limitations inMediaWiki, all editing must stop while the switch is made. We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.

  • You will not be able to edit for up to an hour on Tuesday, September 1st. The test will start at14:00 UTC (15:00 BST, 16:00 CEST, 10:00 EDT, 19:30 IST, 07:00 PDT, 23:00 JST, and in New Zealand at 02:00 NZST on Wednesday September 2).
  • If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message. We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it. If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal. Then you should be able to save your edit. But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:

  • Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal. If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual. Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.
  • There will be code freezes for the week of September 1st, 2020. Non-essential code deployments will not happen.

This project may be postponed if necessary. You canread the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule. There will be more notifications about this.Please share this information with your community.

Trizek (WMF) (talk) 13:49, 26 Phatwe 2020 (UTC)

New Wikipedia Library Collections Now Available (September 2020)

[Fetola Motswedi]


Hello Wikimedians!

The TWL owl says sign up today!

The Wikipedia Library is announcing new free, full-access, accounts to reliable sources as part of ourresearch access program. You can sign up for new accounts and research materials on theLibrary Card platform:

Many other partnerships are listed onour partners page, includingAdam Matthew,EBSCO,Gale andJSTOR.

A significant portion of our collection now no longer requires individual applications to access! Read more in ourrecent blog post.

Do better research and help expand the use of high quality references across Wikipedia projects!
--The Wikipedia Library Team 09:49, 3 Lwetse 2020 (UTC)

This message was delivered via theGlobal Mass Message tool toThe Wikipedia Library Global Delivery List.

Invitation to participate in the conversation

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello. Apologies for cross-posting, and that you may not be reading this message in your native language: translations of the following announcement may be available onMeta.Please help translate to your language.Thank you!

We are excited to sharea draft of the Universal Code of Conduct, which the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees called for earlier this year, for your review and feedback. The discussion will be open until October 6, 2020.

The UCoC Drafting Committee wants to learn which parts of the draft would present challenges for you or your work. What is missing from this draft? What do you like, and what could be improved?

Please join the conversation and share this invitation with others who may be interested to join, too.

To reduce language barriers during the process, you are welcomed to translate this message and theUniversal Code of Conduct/Draft review. You and your community may choose to provide your opinions/feedback using your local languages.

To learn more about the UCoC project, see theUniversal Code of Conduct page, and theFAQ, on Meta.

Thanks in advance for your attention and contributions,The Trust and Safety team at Wikimedia Foundation, 17:55, 10 Lwetse 2020 (UTC) 

Wiki of functions naming contest

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please help translate to your language

Hello. Please help pick a name for the new Wikimedia wiki project. This project will be a wiki where the community can work together on a library offunctions. The community can create new functions, read about them, discuss them, and share them. Some of these functions will be used to help create language-independent Wikipedia articles that can be displayed in any language, as part of the Abstract Wikipedia project. But functions will also be usable in many other situations.

There will be two rounds of voting, each followed by legal review of candidates, with voting beginning on 29 September and 27 October. Our goal is to have a final project name selected on 8 December. If you would like to participate, thenplease learn more and vote now at meta-wiki.Thank you! --Quiddity (WMF)

21:22, 29 Lwetse 2020 (UTC)

Call for feedback about Wikimedia Foundation Bylaws changes and Board candidate rubric

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello. Apologies if you are not reading this message in your native language.Please help translate to your language.

Today the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees starts two calls for feedback. One is about changes to the Bylaws mainly to increase the Board size from 10 to 16 members. The other one is about a trustee candidate rubric to introduce new, more effective ways to evaluate new Board candidates. The Board welcomes your comments through 26 October. For more details,check the full announcement.

Thank you!Qgil-WMF (talk) 17:17, 7 Phalane 2020 (UTC)

Important: maintenance operation on October 27

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this message in another language •Please help translate to your language

TheWikimedia Foundation tests the switch between its first and secondary data centers. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster. To make sure everything is working, the Wikimedia Technology department needs to do a planned test. This test will show if they can reliably switch from one data centre to the other. It requires many teams to prepare for the test and to be available to fix any unexpected problems.

They will switch all traffic back to the primary data center onTuesday, October 27 2020.

Unfortunately, because of some limitations inMediaWiki, all editing must stop while the switch is made. We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.

  • You will not be able to edit for up to an hour on Tuesday, October 27. The test will start at14:00 UTC (14:00 WET, 15:00 CET, 10:00 EDT, 19:30 IST, 07:00 PDT, 23:00 JST, and in New Zealand at 03:00 NZDT on Wednesday October 28).
  • If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message. We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it. If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal. Then you should be able to save your edit. But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:

  • Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal. If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual. Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.
  • There will be code freezes for the week of October 26, 2020. Non-essential code deployments will not happen.
This project may be postponed if necessary. You canread the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule. There will be more notifications about this. A banner will be displayed on all wikis 30 minutes before this operation happens.Please share this information with your community.

--Trizek (WMF) (talk) 17:11, 21 Phalane 2020 (UTC)

Wiki of functions naming contest - Round 2

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello.Reminder: Please help to choose the name for the new Wikimedia wiki project - the library of functions. The finalist vote starts today. The finalists for the name are:Wikicode, Wikicodex, Wikifunctions, Wikifusion, Wikilambda, Wikimedia Functions. If you would like to participate, thenplease learn more and vote now at Meta-wiki.Thank you! --Quiddity (WMF)

22:10, 5 Ngwanatsele 2020 (UTC)

Community Wishlist Survey 2021

[Fetola Motswedi]

The2021 Community Wishlist Survey is now open!This survey is the process where communities decide what theCommunity Tech team should work on over the next year. We encourage everyone to submit proposals until the deadline on30 Ngwanatsele, or comment on other proposals to help make them better.The communities will vote on the proposals between8 Sedimonthole and21 Sedimonthole.

The Community Tech team is focused on tools for experienced Wikimedia editors.You can write proposals in any language, and we will translate them for you. Thank you, and we look forward to seeing your proposals!

SGrabarczuk (WMF)

18:09, 20 Ngwanatsele 2020 (UTC)

Wikidata descriptions changes to be included more often in Recent Changes and Watchlist

[Fetola Motswedi]

Sorry for sending this message in English. Translations are available onthis page. Feel free to translate it in more languages!

As you may know, you can include changes coming from Wikidata in your Watchlist and Recent Changes (in your preferences). Until now, this feature didn’t always include changes made on Wikidata descriptions due to the way Wikidata tracks the data used in a given article.

Starting on December 3rd, the Watchlist and Recent Changes will include changes on the descriptions of Wikidata Items that are used in the pages that you watch. This will only include descriptions in the language of your wiki to make sure that you’re only seeing changes that are relevant to your wiki.

This improvement was requested by many users from different projects. We hope that it can help you monitor the changes on Wikidata descriptions that affect your wiki and participate in the effort of improving the data quality on Wikidata for all Wikimedia wikis and beyond.

Note: if you didn’t use the Wikidata watchlist integration feature for a long time, feel free to give it another chance! The feature has been improved since the beginning and the content it displays is more precise and useful than at the beginning of the feature in 2015.

If you encounter any issue or want to provide feedback, feel free to usethis Phabricator ticket. Thanks!

Lea Lacroix (WMDE) 14:39, 30 Ngwanatsele 2020 (UTC)

2020 Coolest Tool Award Ceremony on December 11th

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello all,

The ceremony of the 2020Wikimedia Coolest Tool Award will take place virtually on Friday, December 11th, at 17:00 GMT. This award is highlighting tools that have been nominated by contributors to the Wikimedia projects, and the ceremony will be a nice moment to show appreciation to the tools developers and maybe discover new tools!

You will find more informationhere about the livestream and the discussions channels. Thanks for your attention,Lea Lacroix (WMDE) 10:55, 7 Sedimonthole 2020 (UTC)

Community Wishlist Survey 2021

[Fetola Motswedi]

We invite all registered users to vote on the2021 Community Wishlist Survey. You can vote from now until21 December for as many different wishes as you want.

In the Survey, wishes for new and improved tools for experienced editors are collected. After the voting, we will do our best to grant your wishes. We will start with the most popular ones.

We, theCommunity Tech, are one of theWikimedia Foundation teams. We create and improve editing and wiki moderation tools. What we work on is decided based on results of the Community Wishlist Survey. Once a year, you can submit wishes. After two weeks, you can vote on the ones that you're most interested in. Next, we choose wishes from the survey to work on. Some of the wishes may be granted by volunteer developers or other teams.

You can view and vote all proposals here.

We are waiting for your votes. Thank you!

SGrabarczuk (WMF)

00:52, 15 Sedimonthole 2020 (UTC)

Moving Wikimania 2021 to a Virtual Event

[Fetola Motswedi]
Wikimania's logo.

Hello. Apologies if you are not reading this message in your native language.Please help translate to your language.Thank you!

Wikimania will be a virtual event this year, and hosted by a wide group of community members. Whenever the next in-person large gathering is possible again,the ESEAP Core Organizing Team will be in charge of it. Stay tuned for more information about howyou can get involved in the planningprocess and other aspects of the event.Please read the longer version of this announcement on wikimedia-l.

ESEAP Core Organizing Team, Wikimania Steering Committee, Wikimedia Foundation Events Team, 15:16, 27 Firikgong 2021 (UTC)

Project Grant Open Call

[Fetola Motswedi]

This is the announcement for theProject Grants program open call that started on January 11, with the submission deadline of February 10, 2021.
This first open call will be focussed on Community Organizing proposals. A second open call focused on research and software proposals is scheduled from February 15 with a submission deadline of March 16, 2021.

For the Round 1 open call, we invite you to propose grant applications that fall under community development and organizing (offline and online) categories. Project Grant funds are available to support individuals, groups, and organizations to implement new experiments and proven ideas, from organizing a better process on your wiki, coordinating a campaign or editathon series to providing other support for community building. We offer the following resources to help you plan your project and complete a grant proposal:

Program officers are also available to offer individualized proposal support upon request. Contact us if you would like feedback or more information.

We are excited to see your grant ideas that will support our community and make an impact on the future of Wikimedia projects. Put your idea into motion, andsubmit your proposal by February 10, 2021!

Please feel free to get in touch with questions about getting started with your grant application, or about serving on the Project Grants Committee. Contact us at projectgrantsTempolete:Atwikimedia.org. Please help us translate this message to your local language.MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 08:01, 28 Firikgong 2021 (UTC)

New Wikipedia Library Collections Available Now (February 2021)

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello Wikimedians!

The TWL owl says sign up today!

The Wikipedia Library is announcing new free, full-access, accounts to reliable sources as part of ourresearch access program. You can sign up to access research materials on theLibrary Card platform:

  • Taxmann – Taxation and law database
  • PNAS – Official journal of the National Academy of Sciences
  • EBSCO – New Arabic and Spanish language databases added

We have a wide array ofother collections available, and a significant number now no longer require individual applications to access! Read more in ourblog post.

Do better research and help expand the use of high quality references across Wikipedia projects!

This message was delivered via theGlobal Mass Message tool toThe Wikipedia Library Global Delivery List.

--12:57, 1 Tlhakole 2021 (UTC)

Feminism & Folklore 1 February - 31 March

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please help translate to your language

Greetings!

You are invited to participate inFeminism and Folklore writing contest. This year Feminism and Folklore will focus on feminism, women's biographies and gender-focused topics for the project in league with Wiki Loves Folklore gender gap focus with folk culture theme on Wikipedia. folk activities, folk games, folk cuisine, folk wear, fairy tales, folk plays, folk arts, folk religion, mythology, etc.

You can help us in enriching the folklore documentation on Wikipedia from your region by creating or improving articles centered on folklore around the world, including, but not limited to folk festivals, folk dances, folk music, women and queer personalities in folklore, folk culture (folk artists, folk dancers, folk singers, folk musicians, folk game athletes, women in mythology, women warriors in folklore, witches and witch-hunting, fairy tales and more. You can contribute to new articles or translate from the list ofsuggested articles here.

You can also support us in translating theproject page and help us spread the word in your native language.

Learn more about the contest and prizes from ourproject page. Thank you.

Feminism and Folklore team,

Joy Agyepong (talk) 02:40, 16 Tlhakole 2021 (UTC)

Wikifunctions logo contest

[Fetola Motswedi]
Hello. Please help to choose a design concept for the logo of the new Wikifunctions wiki. Voting starts today and will be open for 2 weeks. If you would like to participate, thenplease learn more and vote now at Meta-Wiki.Thank you! --Quiddity (WMF)

01:47, 2 Mopitlo 2021 (UTC)

Universal Code of Conduct – 2021 consultations

[Fetola Motswedi]

Universal Code of Conduct Phase 2

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please help translate to your language

TheUniversal Code of Conduct (UCoC) provides a universal baseline of acceptable behavior for the entire Wikimedia movement and all its projects. The project is currently in Phase 2, outlining clear enforcement pathways. You can read more about the whole project on itsproject page.

Drafting Committee: Call for applications

[Fetola Motswedi]

The Wikimedia Foundation is recruiting volunteers to join a committee to draft how to make the code enforceable. Volunteers on the committee will commit between 2 and 6 hours per week from late April through July and again in October and November. It is important that the committee be diverse and inclusive, and have a range of experiences, including both experienced users and newcomers, and those who have received or responded to, as well as those who have been falsely accused of harassment.

To apply and learn more about the process, seeUniversal Code of Conduct/Drafting committee.

2021 community consultations: Notice and call for volunteers / translators

[Fetola Motswedi]

From 5 April – 5 May 2021 there will be conversations on many Wikimedia projects about how to enforce the UCoC. We are looking for volunteers to translate key material, as well as to help host consultations on their own languages or projects using suggestedkey questions. If you are interested in volunteering for either of these roles, pleasecontact us in whatever language you are most comfortable.

To learn more about this work and other conversations taking place, seeUniversal Code of Conduct/2021 consultations.

--Xeno (WMF) (talk) 22:09, 5 Moranang 2021 (UTC)

Line numbering coming soon to all wikis

[Fetola Motswedi]
Example

From April 15, you can enable line numbering in some wikitext editors - for now in the template namespace, coming to more namespaces soon. This will make it easier to detect line breaks and to refer to a particular line in discussions. These numbers will be shown if you enable the syntax highlighting feature (CodeMirror extension), which is supported in the2010 and2017 wikitext editors.

More information can be found onthis project page. Everyone is invited to test the feature, and to give feedbackon this talk page.

--Johanna Strodt (WMDE) 15:09, 12 Moranang 2021 (UTC)

Suggested Values

[Fetola Motswedi]

From April 29, it will be possible to suggest values for parameters in templates. Suggested values can be added toTemplateData and will then be shown as a drop-down list inVisualEditor. This allows template users to quickly select an appropriate value. This way, it prevents potential errors and reduces the effort needed to fill the template with values. It will still be possible to fill in values other than the suggested ones.

More information, including the supported parameter types and how to create suggested values:[1][2]. Everyone is invited to test the feature, and to give feedbackon this talk page.

Timur Vorkul (WMDE) 14:08, 22 Moranang 2021 (UTC)

Universal Code of Conduct News – Issue 1

[Fetola Motswedi]

Universal Code of Conduct News
Issue 1, June 2021Read the full newsletter

Welcome to the first issue ofUniversal Code of Conduct News! This newsletter will help Wikimedians stay involved with the development of the new code, and will distribute relevant news, research, and upcoming events related to the UCoC.

Please note, this is the first issue of UCoC Newsletter which is delivered to all subscribers and projects as an announcement of the initiative. If you want the future issues delivered to your talk page, village pumps, or any specific pages you find appropriate, you need tosubscribe here.

You can help us by translating the newsletter issues in your languages to spread the news and create awareness of the new conduct to keep our beloved community safe for all of us. Pleaseadd your name here if you want to be informed of the draft issue to translate beforehand. Your participation is valued and appreciated.

  • Affiliate consultations – Wikimedia affiliates of all sizes and types were invited to participate in the UCoC affiliate consultation throughout March and April 2021. (continue reading)
  • 2021 key consultations – The Wikimedia Foundation held enforcement key questions consultations in April and May 2021 to request input about UCoC enforcement from the broader Wikimedia community. (continue reading)
  • Roundtable discussions – The UCoC facilitation team hosted two 90-minute-long public roundtable discussions in May 2021 to discuss UCoC key enforcement questions. More conversations are scheduled. (continue reading)
  • Phase 2 drafting committee – The drafting committee for the phase 2 of the UCoC started their work on 12 May 2021. Read more about their work. (continue reading)
  • Diff blogs – The UCoC facilitators wrote several blog posts based on interesting findings and insights from each community during local project consultation that took place in the 1st quarter of 2021. (continue reading)

--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 23:06, 11 Seetebosigo 2021 (UTC)

Wikimania 2021: Individual Program Submissions

[Fetola Motswedi]

Dear all,

Wikimania 2021 will behosted virtually for the first time in the event's 15-year history. Since there is no in-person host, the event is being organized by a diverse group of Wikimedia volunteers that form theCore Organizing Team (COT) for Wikimania 2021.

Event Program - Individuals or a group of individuals can submit their session proposals to be a part of the program. There will be translation support for sessions provided in a number of languages. See more informationhere.

Below are some links to guide you through;

Please note that the deadline for submission is 18th June 2021.

Announcements- To keep up to date with the developments around Wikimania, the COT sends out weekly updates. You can view them in the Announcement sectionhere.

Office Hour - If you are left with questions, the COT will be hosting some office hours (in multiple languages), in multiple time-zones, to answer any programming questions that you might have. Details can be foundhere.

Best regards,

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:18, 16 Seetebosigo 2021 (UTC)

On behalf of Wikimania 2021 Core Organizing Team

Editing news 2021 #2

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this in another language •Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

Junior contributors comment completion rate across all participating Wikipedias
When newcomers had the Reply tool and tried to post on a talk page, they were more successful at posting a comment. (Source)

Earlier this year, the Editing team ran a large study ofthe Reply Tool. The main goal was to find out whether the Reply Tool helpednewer editors communicate on wiki. The second goal was to see whether the comments that newer editors made using the tool needed to be reverted more frequently than comments newer editors made with the existing wikitext page editor.

The key results were:

  • Newer editors who had automatic ("default on") access to the Reply tool weremore likely to post a comment on a talk page.
  • The comments that newer editors made with the Reply Tool were alsoless likely to be reverted than the comments that newer editors made with page editing.

These results give the Editing team confidence that the tool is helpful.

Looking ahead

The team is planning to make the Reply tool available to everyone as an opt-out preference in the coming months. This has already happened at the Arabic, Czech, and Hungarian Wikipedias.

The next step is toresolve a technical challenge. Then, they will deploy the Reply tool first to theWikipedias that participated in the study. After that, they will deploy it, in stages, to the other Wikipedias and all WMF-hosted wikis.

You can turn on "Discussion tools"in Beta Features now. After you get the Reply tool, you can change your preferences at any time inSpecial:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing-discussion.

–Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk)

14:14, 24 Seetebosigo 2021 (UTC)

Server switch

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this message in another language •Please help translate to your language

TheWikimedia Foundation tests the switch between its first and secondary data centers. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster. To make sure everything is working, the Wikimedia Technology department needs to do a planned test. This test will show if they can reliably switch from one data centre to the other. It requires many teams to prepare for the test and to be available to fix any unexpected problems.

Unfortunately, because of some limitations inMediaWiki, all editing must stop while the switch is made. We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.

  • You will not be able to edit for up to an hour on Tuesday, 29 June 2021. The test will start at14:00 UTC (07:00 PDT, 10:00 EDT, 15:00 WEST/BST, 16:00 CEST, 19:30 IST, 23:00 JST, and in New Zealand at 02:00 NZST on Wednesday 30 June).
  • If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message. We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it. If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal. Then you should be able to save your edit. But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:

  • Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal. If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual. Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.
  • There will be code freezes for the week of June 28. Non-essential code deployments will not happen.
This project may be postponed if necessary. You canread the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule. There will be more notifications about this. A banner will be displayed on all wikis 30 minutes before this operation happens.Please share this information with your community.

SGrabarczuk (WMF) 01:19, 27 Seetebosigo 2021 (UTC)

New Wikipedia Library collections and design update (August 2021)

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello Wikimedians!

The TWL OWL says log in today!

The Wikipedia Library is pleased to announce the addition of new collections, alongside a new interface design. New collections include:

Additionally,De Gruyter andNomos have been centralised from their previous on-wiki signup location on the German Wikipedia. Many other collections are freely available by simply logging in toThe Wikipedia Library with your Wikimedia login!

We are also excited to announce that the first version of a new design for My Library was deployed this week. We will be iterating on this design with more features over the coming weeks. Read more on theproject page on Meta.

Lastly, an Echo notification will begin rolling out soon to notify eligible editors about the library (T132084). If you can translate the notification please do soat TranslateWiki!

--The Wikipedia Library Team 13:23, 11 Phatwe 2021 (UTC)

This message was delivered via theGlobal Mass Message tool toThe Wikipedia Library Global Delivery List.

Universal Code of Conduct - Enforcement draft guidelines review

[Fetola Motswedi]

TheUniversal Code of Conduct Phase 2 drafting committee would like comments about theenforcement draft guidelines for theUniversal Code of Conduct (UCoC). This review period is planned for 17 August 2021 through 17 October 2021.

These guidelines are not final but you can help move the progress forward. The committee will revise the guidelines based upon community input.

Comments can be shared in any language on thedraft review talk page andmultiple other venues. Community members are encouraged to organize conversations in their communities.

There are planned live discussions about the UCoC enforcement draft guidelines:

Wikimania 2021 session (recorded 16 August)
Conversation hours - 24 August, 31 August, 7 September @ 03:00 UTC & 14:00 UTC
Roundtable calls - 18 September @ 03:00 UTC & 15:00 UTC

Summaries of discussions will be posted every two weekshere.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Xeno (WMF) 23:20, 17 Phatwe 2021 (UTC)

Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees election has come to an end

[Fetola Motswedi]

Thank you for participating in the2021 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees election! Voting closed August 31 at 23:59. The official data, including the four most voted candidates, will be announced as soon as theElections Committee completes their review of the ballots. The official announcement of the new trustees appointed will happen later, once the selected candidates have been confirmed by the Board.

6,946 community members from 216 wiki projects have voted. This makes 10.2% global participation, 1.1% higher than in the last Board elections. In 2017, 5167 people from 202 wiki projects cast their vote. A full analysis is planned to be published in a few days when the confirmed results are announced. In the meantime, you can check thedata produced during the election.

Diversity was an important goal with these elections. Messages about the Board election were translated into 61 languages. This outreach worked well. There were 70 communities with eligible voters voting in this election for the first time. With your help, next year’s Board of Trustees election will be even better.

10:03, 2 Lwetse 2021 (UTC)

The 2022 Community Wishlist Survey will happen in January

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello everyone,

We hope all of you are as well and safe as possible during these trying times! We wanted to share some news about a change to the Community Wishlist Survey 2022. We would like to hear your opinions as well.

Summary:

We will be running theCommunity Wishlist Survey 2022 in January 2022. We need more time to work on the 2021 wishes. We also need time to prepare some changes to the Wishlist 2022. In the meantime, you can use adedicated sandbox to leave early ideas for the 2022 wishes.

Proposing and wish-fulfillment will happen during the same year

[Fetola Motswedi]

In the past, theCommunity Tech team has run the Community Wishlist Survey for the following year in November of the prior year. For example, we ran theWishlist for 2021 in November 2020. That worked well a few years ago. At that time, we used to start working on the Wishlist soon after the results of the voting were published.

However, in 2021, there was a delay between the voting and the time when we could start working on the new wishes. Until July 2021, we were working on wishes from theWishlist for 2020.

We hope having the Wishlist 2022 in January 2022 will be more intuitive. This will also give us time to fulfill more wishes from the 2021 Wishlist.

Encouraging wider participation from historically excluded communities

[Fetola Motswedi]

We are thinking how to make the Wishlist easier to participate in. We want to support more translations, and encourage under-resourced communities to be more active. We would like to have some time to make these changes.

A new space to talk to us about priorities and wishes not granted yet

[Fetola Motswedi]

We will have gone 365 days without a Wishlist. We encourage you to approach us. We hope to hear from you in thetalk page, but we also hope to see you at our bi-monthly Talk to Us meetings! These will be hosted at two different times friendly to time zones around the globe.

We will begin our first meetingSeptember 15th at 23:00 UTC. More details about the agenda and format coming soon!

Brainstorm and draft proposals before the proposal phase

[Fetola Motswedi]

If you have early ideas for wishes, you can use thenew Community Wishlist Survey sandbox. This way, you will not forget about these before January 2022. You will be able to come back and refine your ideas. Remember, edits in the sandbox don't count as wishes!

Feedback

[Fetola Motswedi]
  • What should we do to improve the Wishlist pages?
  • How would you like to use our newsandbox?
  • What, if any, risks do you foresee in our decision to change the date of the Wishlist 2022?
  • What will help more people participate in the Wishlist 2022?

Answer on thetalk page (in any language you prefer) or at our Talk to Us meetings.

SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 00:23, 7 Lwetse 2021 (UTC)

Call for Candidates for the Movement Charter Drafting Committee ending 14 September 2021

[Fetola Motswedi]

Movement Strategy announcesthe Call for Candidates for the Movement Charter Drafting Committee. The Call opens August 2, 2021 and closes September 14, 2021.

The Committee is expected to representdiversity in the Movement. Diversity includes gender, language, geography, and experience. This comprises participation in projects, affiliates, and the Wikimedia Foundation.

English fluency is not required to become a member. If needed, translation and interpretation support is provided. Members will receive an allowance to offset participation costs. It is US$100 every two months.

We are looking for people who have some of the followingskills:

  • Know how to write collaboratively. (demonstrated experience is a plus)
  • Are ready to find compromises.
  • Focus on inclusion and diversity.
  • Have knowledge of community consultations.
  • Have intercultural communication experience.
  • Have governance or organization experience in non-profits or communities.
  • Have experience negotiating with different parties.

The Committee is expected to start with 15 people. If there are 20 or more candidates, a mixed election and selection process will happen. If there are 19 or fewer candidates, then the process of selection without election takes place.

Will you help move Wikimedia forward in this important role? Submit your candidacyhere. Please contact strategy2030(_AT_)wikimedia.org with questions.

Xeno (WMF) 17:02, 10 Lwetse 2021 (UTC)

Server switch

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this message in another language •Please help translate to your language

TheWikimedia Foundation tests the switch between its first and secondary data centers. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster. To make sure everything is working, the Wikimedia Technology department needs to do a planned test. This test will show if they can reliably switch from one data centre to the other. It requires many teams to prepare for the test and to be available to fix any unexpected problems.

They will switch all traffic back to the primary data center onTuesday, 14 September 2021.

Unfortunately, because of some limitations inMediaWiki, all editing must stop while the switch is made. We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.

  • You will not be able to edit for up to an hour on Tuesday, 14 September 2021. The test will start at14:00 UTC (07:00 PDT, 10:00 EDT, 15:00 WEST/BST, 16:00 CEST, 19:30 IST, 23:00 JST, and in New Zealand at 02:00 NZST on Wednesday, 15 September).
  • If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message. We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it. If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal. Then you should be able to save your edit. But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:

  • Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal. If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual. Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.
  • We expect the code deployments to happen as any other week. However, some case-by-case code freezes could punctually happen if the operation require them afterwards.
This project may be postponed if necessary. You canread the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule. There will be more notifications about this. A banner will be displayed on all wikis 30 minutes before this operation happens.Please share this information with your community.

SGrabarczuk (WMF) (bua) 00:45, 11 Lwetse 2021 (UTC)

Talk to the Community Tech

[Fetola Motswedi]

Tempolete:Dir

Read this message in another language •Please help translate to your language

Hello!

As we haverecently announced, we, the team working on theCommunity Wishlist Survey, would like to invite you to an online meeting with us. It will take place onSeptember 15th, 23:00 UTC on Zoom, and will last an hour.Click here to join.

Agenda

Format

The meeting will not be recorded or streamed. Notes without attribution will be taken and published on Meta-Wiki. The presentation (first three points in the agenda) will be given in English.

We can answer questions asked in English, French, Polish, and Spanish. If you would like to ask questions in advance, add themon the Community Wishlist Survey talk page or send to sgrabarczuk@wikimedia.org.

Natalia Rodriguez (theCommunity Tech manager) will be hosting this meeting.

Invitation link

See you!SGrabarczuk (WMF) (bua) 03:04, 11 Lwetse 2021 (UTC)

Select You the question statements for candidates of Drafting Committee Movement Charter

[Fetola Motswedi]

Into 2021-10-04 11:59:59 UTC you can selectquestion statements for thecandidates ofDrafting CommitteeMovement Charter. ✍️Dušan Kreheľ (talk) 01:48, 30 Lwetse 2021 (UTC)

Voting for the election for the members for the Movement Charter drafting committee is now open

[Fetola Motswedi]

Voting for the election for the members for the Movement Charter drafting committee is now open. In total, 70 Wikimedians from around the world are running for 7 seats in these elections.

Voting is open from October 12 to October 24, 2021.

The committee will consist of 15 members in total: The online communities vote for 7 members, 6 members will be selected by the Wikimedia affiliates through a parallel process, and 2 members will be appointed by the Wikimedia Foundation. The plan is to assemble the committee by November 1, 2021.

Learn about each candidate to inform your vote in the language that you prefer: <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Movement_Charter/Drafting_Committee/Candidates>

Learn about the Drafting Committee: <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Movement_Charter/Drafting_Committee>

We are piloting a voting advice application for this election. Click yourself through the tool and you will see which candidate is closest to you! Check at <https://mcdc-election-compass.toolforge.org/>

Read the full announcement: <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Movement_Charter/Drafting_Committee/Elections>

Go vote at SecurePoll on: <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Movement_Charter/Drafting_Committee/Elections>

Best,

Movement Strategy & Governance Team, Wikimedia Foundation

Xeno (WMF) 02:25, 14 Phalane 2021 (UTC)

Learn how Movement Strategy Implementation Grants can support your Movement Strategy plans

[Fetola Motswedi]

Movement Strategy Implementation grants now provide more than $2,000 USD to put Movement Strategy plans into action. Find out more aboutMovement Strategy Implementation grants, the criteria, and how to apply.

MNadzikiewicz (WMF) (talk) 13:30, 29 October 2021 (UTC)

Meet the new Movement Charter Drafting Committee members

[Fetola Motswedi]

The Movement Charter Drafting Committee election and selection processes are complete.

The committee will convene soon to start its work. The committee can appoint up to three more members to bridge diversity and expertise gaps.

If you are interested in engaging withMovement Charter drafting process, follow the updateson Meta and join theTelegram group.

With thanks from the Movement Strategy and Governance team

15:53, 5 Ngwanatsele 2021 (UTC)

Upcoming Call for Feedback about the Board of Trustees elections

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

The Board of Trustees is preparing a call for feedback about the upcoming Board Elections, from January 7 - February 10, 2022.

While details will be finalized the week before the call, we have confirmed at least two questions that will be asked during this call for feedback:

  • What is the best way to ensure fair representation of emerging communities among the Board?
  • What involvement should candidates have during the election?

While additional questions may be added, the Movement Strategy and Governance team wants to provide time for community members and affiliates to consider and prepare ideas on the confirmed questions before the call opens. We apologize for not having a complete list of questions at this time. The list of questions should only grow by one or two questions. The intention is to not overwhelm the community with requests, but provide notice and welcome feedback on these important questions.

Do you want to help organize local conversation during this Call?

Contact theMovement Strategy and Governance team on Meta, onTelegram, or via email at msg(_AT_)wikimedia.org.

Reach out if you have any questions or concerns. The Movement Strategy and Governance team will be minimally staffed until January 3. Please excuse any delayed response during this time. We also recognize some community members and affiliates are offline during the December holidays. We apologize if our message has reached you while you are on holiday.

Best,

Movement Strategy and Governance

Thank you.Xeno (WMF) 17:56, 27 Sedimonthole 2021 (UTC)

Feminism and Folklore 2022

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please help translate to your language

Greetings! You are invited to participate inFeminism and Folklore 2022 writing competion. This year Feminism and Folklore will focus on feminism, women biographies and gender-focused topics for the project in league with Wiki Loves Folklore gender gap focus with folk culture theme on Wikipedia.

You can help us in enriching the folklore documentation on Wikipedia from your region by creating or improving articles focused on folklore around the world, including, but not limited to folk festivals, folk dances, folk music, women and queer personalities in folklore, folk culture (folk artists, folk dancers, folk singers, folk musicians, folk game athletes, women in mythology, women warriors in folklore, witches and witch hunting, fairy tales and more. You can contribute to new articles or translate from the list of suggested articleshere.

You can also support us in organizing the contest on your local Wikipedia by signing up your community to participate in this project and also translating theproject page and help us spread the word in your native language.

Learn more about the contest and prizes from our project page. Feel free to contact us on ourtalk page or via Email if you need any assistance...

Thank you.

Feminism and Folklore Team,

Tiven2240--05:49, 11 Firikgong 2022 (UTC)

Call for Feedback about the Board of Trustees elections is now open

[Fetola Motswedi]

:You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

The Call for Feedback: Board of Trustees elections is now open and will close on 7 February 2022.

With this Call for Feedback, the Movement Strategy and Governance team is taking a different approach. This approach incorporates community feedback from 2021. Instead of leading with proposals, the Call is framed around key questions from the Board of Trustees. The key questions came from the feedback about the 2021 Board of Trustees election. The intention is to inspire collective conversation and collaborative proposal development about these key questions.

Join the conversation.

Best,

Movement Strategy and Governance

Xeno (WMF) 01:04, 15 Firikgong 2022 (UTC)

Movement Strategy and Governance News – Issue 5

[Fetola Motswedi]

Movement Strategy and Governance News
Issue 5, January 2022Read the full newsletter

Welcome to the fifth issue of Movement Strategy and Governance News (formerly known as Universal Code of Conduct News)! This revamped newsletter distributes relevant news and events about the Movement Charter, Universal Code of Conduct, Movement Strategy Implementation grants, Board elections and other relevant MSG topics.

This Newsletter will be distributed quarterly, while more frequent Updates will also be delivered weekly or bi-weekly to subscribers. Please remember to subscribehere if you would like to receive these updates.

  • Call for Feedback about the Board elections - We invite you to give your feedback on the upcoming WMF Board of Trustees election. This call for feedback went live on 10th January 2022 and will be concluded on 16th February 2022. (continue reading)
  • Universal Code of Conduct Ratification - In 2021, the WMF asked communities about how to enforce the Universal Code of Conduct policy text. The revised draft of the enforcement guidelines should be ready for community vote in March. (continue reading)
  • Movement Strategy Implementation Grants - As we continue to review several interesting proposals, we encourage and welcome more proposals and ideas that target a specific initiative from the Movement Strategy recommendations. (continue reading)
  • The New Direction for the Newsletter - As the UCoC Newsletter transitions into MSG Newsletter, join the facilitation team in envisioning and deciding on the new directions for this newsletter. (continue reading)
  • Diff Blogs - Check out the most recent publications about MSG on Wikimedia Diff. (continue reading)

Xeno (WMF) 03:28, 29 Firikgong 2022 (UTC)

Updates on the Universal Code of Conduct Enforcement Guidelines Review

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

Hello everyone,

The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees released astatement on the ratification process for theUniversal Code of Conduct (UCoC) Enforcement Guidelines.

TheUniversal Code of Conduct (UCoC) provides a baseline of acceptable behavior for the entire movement. The UCoC and the Enforcement Guidelines were written byvolunteer-staff drafting committees following community consultations.

The revised guidelines were published 24 January 2022 as a proposed way to apply the policy across the movement. There is alist of changes made to the guidelines after theenforcement draft guidelines review.Comments about the guidelines can be sharedon the Enforcement Guidelines talk page on Meta-wiki.

To help to understand the guidelines and process, theMovement Strategy and Governance (MSG) team will be hosting Conversation Hours on 4 February 2022 at 15:00 UTC, 25 February 2022 at 12:00 UTC, and 4 March 2022 at 15:00 UTC.Join the conversation hours to speak with the UCoC project team and drafting committee members about the updated guidelines and voting process.

Thetimeline is available on Meta-wiki. The voting period is March 7 to 21. All eligible voters will have an opportunity to support or oppose the adoption of the Enforcement guidelines, and share why.See the voting information page for more details.

Many participants from across the movement have provided valuable input in these ongoing conversations. The UCoC and MSG teams want to thank the Drafting Committee and the community members for their contributions to this process.

Sincerely,

Movement Strategy and Governance
Wikimedia Foundation

Xeno (WMF) 03:55, 4 Tlhakole 2022 (UTC)

Leadership Development Task Force: Your feedback is appreciated

[Fetola Motswedi]

:You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

The Community Development team at the Wikimedia Foundation is supporting the creation of a global, community-driven Leadership Development Task Force. The purpose of the task force is to advise leadership development work.

The team is looking for feedback about the responsibilities of the Leadership Development Task Force. This Meta page shares the proposal for aLeadership Development Task Force and howyou can help. Feedback on the proposal will be collected from 7 to 25 February 2022.

Xeno (WMF) 02:35, 9 Tlhakole 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Loves Folklore is extended till 15th March

[Fetola Motswedi]
Please help translate to your language

Greetings from Wiki Loves Folklore International Team,

We are pleased to inform you thatWiki Loves Folklore an international photographic contest on Wikimedia Commons has been extended till the15th of March 2022. The scope of the contest is focused on folk culture of different regions on categories, such as, but not limited to, folk festivals, folk dances, folk music, folk activities, etc.

We would like to have your immense participation in the photographic contest to document your local Folk culture on Wikipedia. You can also help with thetranslation of project pages and share a word in your local language.

Best wishes,

International Team
Wiki Loves Folklore

MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:50, 22 Tlhakole 2022 (UTC)

Coming soon

[Fetola Motswedi]

Several improvements around templates

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello, from March 9, several improvements around templates will become available on your wiki:

All these changes are part of the “Templates” project byWMDE Technical Wishes. We hope they will help you in your work, and we would love to hear your feedback on the talk pages of these projects.

-Johanna Strodt (WMDE) 12:39, 28 Tlhakole 2022 (UTC)

Remember to Participate in the UCoC Conversations and Ratification Vote!

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

Hello everyone,

Avote in SecurePoll from 7 to 21 March 2022 is scheduled as part of the ratification process for the Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC) Enforcement guidelines. Eligible voters are invited to answer a poll question and share comments.Read voter information and eligibility details. During the poll, voters will be asked if they support the enforcement of the Universal Code of Conduct based on the proposed guidelines.

TheUniversal Code of Conduct (UCoC) provides a baseline of acceptable behavior for the entire movement. Therevised enforcement guidelines were published 24 January 2022 as a proposed way to apply the policy across the movement. AWikimedia Foundation Board statement calls for aratification process where eligible voters will have an opportunity to support or oppose the adoption of the UCoC Enforcement guidelines in a vote. Wikimedians are invited totranslate and share important information. For more information about the UCoC, please see theproject page andfrequently asked questions on Meta-wiki.

There are events scheduled to learn more and discuss:

  • Acommunity panel recorded on 18 February 2022 shares perspectives from small- and medium-sized community participants.
  • TheMovement Strategy and Governance (MSG) team is hosting Conversation Hours on 4 March 2022 at 15:00 UTC. Pleasesign-up to interact with the project team and the drafting committee about the updated enforcement guidelines and the ratification process. See theConversation Hour summaries for notes from 4 February 2022 and 25 February 2022.

You can comment on Meta-wiki talk pages in any language. You may also contact either team by email: msg(_AT_)wikimedia.org or ucocproject(_AT_)wikimedia.org

Sincerely,

Movement Strategy and Governance
Wikimedia Foundation

Xeno (WMF) 02:17, 2 Mopitlo 2022 (UTC)

Universal Code of Conduct Enforcement guidelines ratification voting open from 7 to 21 March 2022

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

Hello everyone,

The ratification voting process for therevised enforcement guidelines of theUniversal Code of Conduct (UCoC) is now open!Voting commenced on SecurePoll on 7 March 2022 and will conclude on 21 March 2022. Pleaseread more on the voter information and eligibility details.

The Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC) provides a baseline of acceptable behavior for the entire movement. The revised enforcement guidelines were published 24 January 2022 as a proposed way to apply the policy across the movement. You canread more about the UCoC project.

You can also comment on Meta-wiki talk pages in any language. You may also contact the team by email: ucocproject(_AT_)wikimedia.org

Sincerely,

Movement Strategy and Governance

Wikimedia Foundation

Xeno (WMF) 00:52, 8 Mopitlo 2022 (UTC)

Invitation to Hubs event: Global Conversation on 2022-03-12 at 13:00 UTC

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello!

The Movement Strategy and Governance team of the Wikimedia Foundation would like to invite you to the next event about "Regional and Thematic Hubs". The Wikimedia Movement is in the process of understanding what Regional and Thematic Hubs should be. Our workshop in November was a good start (read the report), but we're not finished yet.

Over the last weeks we conducted about 16 interviews with groups working on establishing a Hub in their context (see Hubs Dialogue). These interviews informed a report that will serve as a foundation for discussion on March 12. The report is planned to be published on March 9.

The event will take place on March 12, 13:00 to 16:00 UTC on Zoom. Interpretation will be provided in French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, and Portuguese. Registration is open, and will close on March 10. Anyone interested in the topic is invited to join us.More information on the event on Meta-wiki.

Best regards,

Kaarel Vaidla
Movement Strategy

01:31, 10 Mopitlo 2022 (UTC)

Wiki Loves Folklore 2022 ends tomorrow

[Fetola Motswedi]

International photographic contest Wiki Loves Folklore 2022 ends on 15th March 2022 23:59:59 UTC. This is the last chance of the year to upload images about local folk culture, festival, cuisine, costume, folklore etc on Wikimedia Commons. Watch out our social media handles for regular updates and declaration of Winners.

(Facebook ,Twitter ,Instagram)

The writing competition Feminism and Folklore will run till 31st of March 2022 23:59:59 UTC. Write about your local folk tradition, women, folk festivals, folk dances, folk music, folk activities, folk games, folk cuisine, folk wear, folklore, and tradition, including ballads, folktales, fairy tales, legends, traditional song and dance, folk plays, games, seasonal events, calendar customs, folk arts, folk religion, mythology etc. on your local Wikipedia. Check if yourlocal Wikipedia is participating

A special competition calledWiki Loves Falles is organised in Spain and the world during 15th March 2022 till 15th April 2022 to document local folk culture andFalles in Valencia, Spain. Learn more about it onCatalan Wikipedia project page.

We look forward for your immense co-operation.

Thanks Wiki Loves Folklore international TeamMediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:40, 14 Mopitlo 2022 (UTC)

Leadership Development Working Group: Apply to join! (14 March to 10 April 2022)

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

Hello everyone,

Thank you to everyone who participated in the feedback period for theLeadership Development Working Group initiative. Asummary of the feedback can be found on Meta-wiki. This feedback will be shared with the working group to inform their work. The application period to join the Working Group is now open and will close on April 10, 2022. Pleasereview the information about the working group, share with community members who might be interested, andapply if you are interested.

Thank you,

From the Community Development team

Xeno (WMF) 02:20, 18 Mopitlo 2022 (UTC)

Feminism and Folklore 2022 ends soon

[Fetola Motswedi]

Feminism and Folklore 2022 which is an international writing contest organized at Wikipedia ends soon that is on31 March 2022 11:59 UTC. This is the last chance of the year to write about feminism, women biographies and gender-focused topics such asfolk festivals, folk dances, folk music, folk activities, folk games, folk cuisine, folk wear, fairy tales, folk plays, folk arts, folk religion, mythology, folk artists, folk dancers, folk singers, folk musicians, folk game athletes, women in mythology, women warriors in folklore, witches and witch hunting, fairy tales and more

Keep an eye on the project page for declaration of Winners.

We look forward for your immense co-operation.

Thanks Wiki Loves Folklore international TeamMediaWiki message delivery (talk) 14:29, 26 Mopitlo 2022 (UTC)

Universal Code of Conduct Enforcement guidelines ratification voting is now closed

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

Greetings,

The ratification voting process for therevised enforcement guidelines of theUniversal Code of Conduct (UCoC) came to a close on 21 March 2022. Over2300 Wikimedians voted across different regions of our movement. Thank you to everyone who participated in this process! The scrutinizing group is now reviewing the vote for accuracy, so please allow up to two weeks for them to finish their work.

The final results from the voting process will be announcedhere, along with the relevant statistics and a summary of comments as soon as they are available. Please check outthe voter information page to learn about the next steps. You can comment on the project talk pageon Meta-wiki in any language. You may also contact the UCoC project team by email: ucocproject(_AT_)wikimedia.org

Best regards,

Movement Strategy and Governance

Xeno (WMF) 01:53, 30 Mopitlo 2022 (UTC)

Movement Strategy and Governance News – Issue 6

[Fetola Motswedi]

Movement Strategy and Governance News
Issue 6, April 2022Read the full newsletter

Welcome to the sixth issue of Movement Strategy and Governance News! This revamped newsletter distributes relevant news and events about the Movement Charter, Universal Code of Conduct, Movement Strategy Implementation grants, Board of trustees elections and other relevant MSG topics.

This Newsletter will be distributed quarterly, while the more frequent Updates will also be delivered weekly. Please remember to subscribehere if you would like to receive future issues of this newsletter.

  • Leadership Development - A Working Group is Forming! - The application to join the Leadership Development Working Group closed on April 10th, 2022, and up to 12 community members will be selected to participate in the working group. (continue reading)
  • Universal Code of Conduct Ratification Results are out! - The global decision process on the enforcement of the UCoC via SecurePoll was held from 7 to 21 March. Over 2,300 eligible voters from at least 128 different home projects submitted their opinions and comments. (continue reading)
  • Movement Discussions on Hubs - The Global Conversation event on Regional and Thematic Hubs was held on Saturday, March 12, and was attended by 84 diverse Wikimedians from across the movement. (continue reading)
  • Movement Strategy Grants Remain Open! - Since the start of the year, six proposals with a total value of about $80,000 USD have been approved. Do you have a movement strategy project idea? Reach out to us! (continue reading)
  • The Movement Charter Drafting Committee is All Set! - The Committee of fifteen members which was elected in October 2021, has agreed on the essential values and methods for its work, and has started to create the outline of the Movement Charter draft. (continue reading)
  • Introducing Movement Strategy Weekly - Contribute and Subscribe! - The MSG team have just launched the updates portal, which is connected to the various Movement Strategy pages on Meta-wiki. Subscriber to get up-to-date news about the various ongoing projects. (continue reading)
  • Diff Blogs - Check out the most recent publications about Movement Strategy on Wikimedia Diff. (continue reading)

Also, a draft of the2022-23 Wikimedia Foundation Annual Plan has been published. Input is being sought on-wiki and duringseveral conversations with Wikimedia Foundation CEO Maryana Iskander.

See full announcement on Meta-wiki.Xeno (WMF) 01:45, 22 Moranang 2022 (UTC)

New Wikipedia Library Collections Available Now - April 2022

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello Wikimedians!

The TWL owl says sign up today!

The Wikipedia Library has free access to new paywalled reliable sources. You can these and dozens more collections athttps://wikipedialibrary.wmflabs.org/:

  • Wiley – journals, books, and research resources, covering life, health, social, and physical sciences
  • OECD – OECD iLibrary, Data, and Multimedia​​ published by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
  • SPIE Digital Library – journals and eBooks on optics and photonics applied research

Many other sources are freely available for experienced editors, including collections which recently became accessible to all eligible editors: Cambridge University Press, BMJ, AAAS, Érudit and more.

Do better research and help expand the use of high quality references across Wikipedia projects: log in today!
--The Wikipedia Library Team 13:17, 26 Moranang 2022 (UTC)

This message was delivered via theGlobal Mass Message tool toThe Wikipedia Library Global Delivery List.

Coming soon: Improvements for templates

[Fetola Motswedi]
Fundamental changes in the template dialog.

Hello, more changes around templates are coming to your wiki soon:

Thetemplate dialog in VisualEditor and in the2017 Wikitext Editor (beta) will beimproved fundamentally: This should help users understand better what the template expects, how to navigate the template, and how to add parameters.

Insyntax highlighting (CodeMirror extension), you can activate acolorblind-friendly color scheme with a user setting.

Deployment is planned for May 10. This is the last set of improvements fromWMDE Technical Wishes' focus area “Templates”.

We would love to hear your feedback on our talk pages!

--Johanna Strodt (WMDE) 11:14, 29 Moranang 2022 (UTC)

Editing news 2022 #1

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this in another language •Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

New editors were more successful with this new tool.

TheNew topic tool helps editors create new ==Sections== on discussion pages. New editors are more successful with this new tool. You canread the report. Soon, the Editing team will offer this to all editors at the 20 Wikipedias that participated in the test. You will be able to turn it off atSpecial:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing-discussion.

Whatamidoing (WMF) 18:55, 2 Motsheganong 2022 (UTC)

2022 Board of Trustees Call for Candidates

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

The Board of Trustees seeks candidates for the 2022 Board of Trustees election.Read more on Meta-wiki.

The2022 Board of Trustees election is here! Please consider submitting your candidacy to serve on the Board of Trustees.

The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees oversees the Wikimedia Foundation's operations. Community-and-affiliate selected trustees and Board-appointed trustees make up the Board of Trustees. Each trustee serves a three year term. The Wikimedia community has the opportunity to vote for community-and-affiliate selected trustees.

The Wikimedia community will vote to fill two seats on the Board in 2022. This is an opportunity to improve the representation, diversity, and expertise of the Board as a team.

Who are potential candidates? Are you a potential candidate? Find out more on theApply to be a Candidate page.

Thank you for your support,

Movement Strategy and Governance on behalf of the Elections Committee and the Board of Trustees
10:39, 10 Motsheganong 2022 (UTC)

Deployment of FLORES Machine Translation to Tswana Wikipedia

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello Friends!

Apologies as this message is not in your native languagePlease help translate to your language.

The WMF Language team plans to introduce a machine translation (MT) support for the Content Translation in Tswana Wikipedia called FLORES. This means that you can choose to useFLORES machine translation when translating Wikipedia articles to Tswana usingthe Content Translation tool.

The FLORES Machine Translation is provided by anAI research team at Meta through a free for use API key that allows the Content Translation to access the service on the FLORES server for an evaluation trial period. This MT will be set as default in your Wikipedia, but you can choose not to use it by selecting "Start with empty paragraph" from the "Initial Translation" dropdown menu.

The Wikimedia Foundation has worked out an agreement that allows the use of FLORES without compromising Wikipedia’s policies about attribution of rights, your privacy as a user, and brand representation. You can find more information about the FLORES Machine translation onthis page.

Please note that the use of the FLORES MT is not compulsory. However, we would want your community to:

  • use it once it is deployed to improve the quality of the Machine Translation service
  • provide feedback about our plans, its quality once deployed and ask any questions you might have about this addition.

We trust that introducing this MT is a good support to the Content Translations tool towards having better quality articles in Tswana Wikipedia.

Thank you!

UOzurumba (WMF) (talk) 23:51, 31 Motsheganong 2022 (UTC)

FLORES Machine Translation deployed to Tswana Wikipedia

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello Friends!

The WMF Language team is pleased to inform you that we have deployed the FLORES machine translation (MT) support for the Content Translation in Tswana Wikipedia. Please remember that the FLORES machine translation is set as default in your Wikipedia. Still, you can choose not to use it by selecting "Start with empty paragraph" from the "Initial Translation" dropdown menu. However, we would want your community to:

  • use it to improve the quality of the Machine Translation service
  • provide feedback about its quality and ask any questions you might have about this addition.

We look forward to your community using the Machine Translation support in Content Translation to create better quality articles in Tswana Wikipedia.

Thank you!

UOzurumba (WMF) (talk) 14:00, 21 Seetebosigo 2022 (UTC) On behalf of the WMF Language team

Revisions to the Universal Code of Conduct (UCoC) Enforcement Guidelines

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello all,

We'd like to provide an update on the work on the Enforcement Guidelines for the Universal Code of Conduct. After the conclusion of the community vote on the guidelines in March, theCommunity Affairs committee (CAC) of the Boardasked that several areas of the guidelines be reviewed for improvements before the Board does its final review. These areas were identified based on community discussions and comments provided during the vote. The CAC also requested review of the controversial Note in 3.1 of the UCoC itself.

Once more, a big thank you to all who voted, especially to all who left constructive feedback and comments! The project team is working with the Board to establish a timeline for this work, and will communicate this next month.

Members of the two priorUCoC Drafting Committees have generously offered their time to help shape improvements to the Guidelines. You can read more about them and their workhere, as well as readsummaries of their weekly meetings in 2022.

Wikimedians have provided many valuable comments together with the vote and in other conversations. Given the size and diversity of the Wikimedia community, there are even more voices out there who can give ideas on how to improve the enforcement guidelines and add even more valuable ideas to the process. To help the Revisions committee identify improvements, input on several questions for the committee’s review is requested. Visit the Meta-wiki pages (Enforcement Guidelines revision discussions,Policy text revision discussions) to get your ideas to the Committee - it is very important that viewpoints are heard from different communities before the Committee begins drafting revision proposals.

On behalf of the UCoC project team

Xeno (WMF) 22:56, 3 Seetebosigo 2022 (UTC)

Administrator request

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello i'm an active user on theSetswana Wikipedia i would like to be an Admin on this Wiki, this rights will help as I'm improving this wiki. (Thanks)Rebel Agent (talk) 13:06, 23 Seetebosigo 2022 (UTC)

Enabling Content and Section translation tool in Tswana Wikipedia

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello Friends!

Apologies as this message is not in your native language,Please help translate to your language.

The WMF Language team is pleased to let you know that we will like to enable the Section and Content translation tool in Tswana Wikipedia. For this, our team will love you to read about the tool and test the newSection Translation tool so you can:

  • Give us your feedback
  • Ask us questions
  • Tell us how to improve it

Below is background information about the tools, why we have chosen to enable them in your Wikipedia and how you can test the Section translation tool.

Background information

Content Translation has been a successful tool for editors to create content in their language. More than one million articles have been created across all languages since the tool was released in 2015. However, the tool is not out of beta in Tswana Wikipedia, limiting the discoverability of the tool and its use and blocking the enablement of the Section translation in your Wikipedia

Section Translation extends the capabilities of Content Translation to support mobile devices. On mobile, the tool will:

  • Guide you to translate one section at a time in order to expand existing articles or create new ones
  • Make it easy to transfer knowledge across languages anytime from your mobile device

We plan to enable the tools on Tswana Wikipedia in the coming week if there are no objections from your community. After it is enabled, we’ll monitor the content created with the tools and process all the feedback. In any case, feel free to raise any concerns or questions you may already have as a reply to this message or onthe project talk page

Try the Section translation tool

Before the enablement, you can try the current implementation of the tool inour testing instance. Once it is enabled on Tswana Wikipedia, you’ll have access tohttps://tn.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:ContentTranslation with your mobile device. You can select an article to translate, and machine translation will be provided as a starting point for editors to improve.

Provide feedback

Please provide feedback about Section translation onthe project talk page. We want to hear about your impressions on

  • The section translation tool
  • What do you think about our plans to enable it
  • Your ideas for improving the tool

Thanks and we look forward to your feedback and questions.

UOzurumba (WMF) (talk) 16:34, 29 Seetebosigo 2022 (UTC) On behalf of the WMF Language team.

Content and Section Translation tool enabled in Tswana Wikipedia

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello Friends!

The WMF Language team is pleased to let you know that wehave enabled the Section translation andContent translation tools in Tswana Wikipedia.

TheContent translation tool can be discovered by usersthrough several entry points. However, users not interested in translation can disable itfrom their preferences. Also, with theSection translation tool, you can start translating an article on your mobile device right when you notice it is missing in Tswana. From a Wikipedia article in any language, switch languages and search for Setswana. If the article does not exist, an option to translate it will appear, as shown in the image below.

Image of the entry point














We know that these tools will help translators in your community to add content using any device with ease. Content created with the Content and Section Translation tool will be marked with the "contenttranslation" and “sectiontranslaiton” tag, respectively, for the community to review. We’ll monitor the content created, but we are very interested in hearing about your experience using the tools and reviewing the content created with it.

So, enjoy the tools andprovide feedback on improving it.

Thank you!

UOzurumba (WMF) (talk) 05:56, 10 Phatwe 2022 (UTC) On behalf of the WMF Language team.

Results of Wiki Loves Folklore 2022 is out!

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please help translate to your language

Hi, Greetings

The winners forWiki Loves Folklore 2022 is announced!

We are happy to share with you winning images for this year's edition. This year saw over 8,584 images represented on commons in over 92 countries. Kindly see imageshere

Our profound gratitude to all the people who participated and organized local contests and photo walks for this project.

We hope to have you contribute to the campaign next year.

Thank you,

Wiki Loves Folklore International Team

--MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 16:13, 4 Phukwi 2022 (UTC)

Propose statements for the 2022 Election Compass

[Fetola Motswedi]
You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

Hi all,

Community members in the2022 Board of Trustees election are invited topropose statements to use in the Election Compass.

An Election Compass is a tool to help voters select the candidates that best align with their beliefs and views. The community members will propose statements for the candidates to answer using a Lickert scale (agree/neutral/disagree). The candidates’ answers to the statements will be loaded into the Election Compass tool. Voters will use the tool by entering in their answer to the statements (agree/disagree/neutral). The results will show the candidates that best align with the voter’s beliefs and views.

Here is the timeline for the Election Compass
  • July 8 - 20: Community members propose statements for the Election Compass
  • July 21 - 22: Elections Committee reviews statements for clarity and removes off-topic statements
  • July 23 - August 1: Volunteers vote on the statements
  • August 2 - 4: Elections Committee selects the top 15 statements
  • August 5 - 12: candidates align themselves with the statements
  • August 15: The Election Compass opens for voters to use to help guide their voting decision

The Elections Committee will select the top 15 statements at the beginning of August. The Elections Committee will oversee the process, supported by the Movement Strategy and Governance team. MSG will check that the questions are clear, there are no duplicates, no typos, and so on.

Best,

Movement Strategy and Governance

This message was sent on behalf of the Board Selection Task Force and the Elections Committee

MNadzikiewicz (WMF) (talk) 11:34, 14 Phukwi 2022 (UTC)

Movement Strategy and Governance News – Issue 7

[Fetola Motswedi]

Movement Strategy and Governance News
Issue 7, July-September 2022Read the full newsletter

Welcome to the 7th issue of Movement Strategy and Governance News! The newsletter distributes relevant news and events about the implementation of Wikimedia'sMovement Strategy recommendations, other relevant topics regarding Movement governance, as well as different projects and activities supported by the Movement Strategy and Governance (MSG) team of the Wikimedia Foundation.

The MSG Newsletter is delivered quarterly, while the more frequentMovement Strategy Weekly will be delivered weekly. Please remember to subscribehere if you would like to receive future issues of this newsletter.

  • Movement sustainability: Wikimedia Foundation's annual sustainability report has been published. (continue reading)
  • Improving user experience: recent improvements on the desktop interface for Wikimedia projects. (continue reading)
  • Safety and inclusion: updates on the revision process of the Universal Code of Conduct Enforcement Guidelines. (continue reading)
  • Equity in decisionmaking: reports from Hubs pilots conversations, recent progress from the Movement Charter Drafting Committee, and a new white paper for futures of participation in the Wikimedia movement. (continue reading)
  • Stakeholders coordination: launch of a helpdesk for Affiliates and volunteer communities working on content partnership. (continue reading)
  • Leadership development: updates on leadership projects by Wikimedia movement organizers in Brazil and Cape Verde. (continue reading)
  • Internal knowledge management: launch of a new portal for technical documentation and community resources. (continue reading)
  • Innovate in free knowledge: high-quality audiovisual resources for scientific experiments and a new toolkit to record oral transcripts. (continue reading)
  • Evaluate, iterate, and adapt: results from the Equity Landscape project pilot (continue reading)
  • Other news and updates: a new forum to discuss Movement Strategy implementation, upcoming Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees election, a new podcast to discuss Movement Strategy, and change of personnel for the Foundation's Movement Strategy and Governance team. (continue reading)

Thank you for reading!RamzyM (WMF) 01:37, 18 Phukwi 2022 (UTC)

Announcing the six candidates for the 2022 Board of Trustees election

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

Hi everyone,

The Affiliate voting process has concluded. Representatives from each Affiliate organization learned about the candidates by reading candidates’ statements, reviewing candidates’ answers to questions, and considering the candidates’ ratings provided by the Analysis Committee. The selected 2022 Board of Trustees candidates are:

You may see more information about theResults andStatistics of this Board election.

Please take a moment to appreciate the Affiliate Representatives and Analysis Committee members for taking part in this process and helping to grow the Board of Trustees in capacity and diversity. These hours of volunteer work connect us across understanding and perspective. Thank you for your participation.

Thank you to the community members who put themselves forward as candidates for the Board of Trustees. Considering joining the Board of Trustees is no small decision. The time and dedication candidates have shown to this point speaks to their commitment to this movement. Congratulations to those candidates who have been selected. A great amount of appreciation and gratitude for those candidates not selected. Please continue to share your leadership with Wikimedia.

Thank you to those who followed the Affiliate process for this Board election. You may review the results of the Affiliate selection process.

The next part of the Board election process is the community voting period.You may view the Board election timeline here. To prepare for the community voting period, there are several things community members can engage with in the following ways:

Best,

Movement Strategy and Governance

This message was sent on behalf of the Board Selection Task Force and the Elections Committee

MNadzikiewicz (WMF) 14:03, 27 Phukwi 2022 (UTC)

Vote for Election Compass Statements

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

Hi all,

Volunteers in the2022 Board of Trustees election are invited tovote for statements to use in the Election Compass. You can vote for the statements you would like to see included in the Election Compass on Meta-wiki.

An Election Compass is a tool to help voters select the candidates that best align with their beliefs and views. The community members will propose statements for the candidates to answer using a Lickert scale (agree/neutral/disagree). The candidates’ answers to the statements will be loaded into the Election Compass tool. Voters will use the tool by entering in their answer to the statements (agree/disagree/neutral). The results will show the candidates that best align with the voter’s beliefs and views.

Here is the timeline for the Election Compass:

  • July 8 - 20: Volunteers propose statements for the Election Compass
  • July 21 - 22: Elections Committee reviews statements for clarity and removes off-topic statements
  • July 23 - August 1: Volunteers vote on the statements
  • August 2 - 4: Elections Committee selects the top 15 statements
  • August 5 - 12: candidates align themselves with the statements
  • August 15: The Election Compass opens for voters to use to help guide their voting decision

The Elections Committee will select the top 15 statements at the beginning of August

Best,

Movement Strategy and Governance

This message was sent on behalf of the Board Selection Task Force and the Elections Committee

MNadzikiewicz (WMF) 21:01, 27 Phukwi 2022 (UTC)

The 2022 Board of Trustees election Community Voting period is now open

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

Hi everyone,

The Community Voting period for the2022 Board of Trustees election is now open. Here are some helpful links to get you the information you need to vote:

If you are ready to vote, you may go toSecurePoll voting page to vote now.You may vote from August 23 at 00:00 UTC to September 6 at 23:59 UTC. To see about your voter eligibility, please visit thevoter eligibility page.

Best,

Movement Strategy and Governance

This message was sent on behalf of the Board Selection Task Force and the Elections Committee

MNadzikiewicz (WMF)

Invitation to join the Movement Strategy Forum

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello everyone,

TheMovement Strategy Forum (MS Forum) is a multilingual collaborative space for all conversations about Movement Strategy implementation.

We are inviting all Movement participants to collaborate on the MS Forum. The goal of the forum is to build community collaboration, using an inclusive multilingual platform.

TheMovement Strategy is a collaborative effort to imagine and build the future of the Wikimedia Movement. Anyone can contribute to the Movement Strategy, from a comment to a full-time project.

Join this forum with your Wikimedia account, engage in conversations, and ask questions in your language.

The Movement Strategy and Governance team (MSG) launched the proposal for the MS Forum in May 2022. There was a 2-month community review period, which ended on 24 July 2022. The community review process included several questions that resulted in interesting conversations. You can read theCommunity Review Report.

We look forward to seeing you at the MS Forum!

Best regards,

the Movement Strategy and Governance Team

User:MNadzikiewicz (WMF) 11:32, 29 Phatwe 2022 (UTC)

Enabling Extended Confirmed User Group

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello I suggest that extended confirmed user group be enabled on this Wiki, the rights will be automatically granted to a user who reach 200 edits as they will be having a little experience with editing Wikipedia, Some pages and templates will be restricted to this user group, Thank You.RebelAgentbua le nna 17:21, 4 Lwetse 2022 (UTC)

The Vector 2022 skin as the default in two weeks?

[Fetola Motswedi]
The slides for our presentation at Wikimania 2022

Hello. I'm writing on behalf of theWikimedia Foundation Web team.In two weeks, we would like to make the Vector 2022 skin the default on this wiki.

We have been working on it for the past three years. So far, it has been the default on more than 30 wikis, including sister projects, all accounting for more than 1 billion pageviews per month. On average87% of active logged-in users of those wikis use Vector 2022.

It would become the default for all logged-out users, and also all logged-in users who currently use Vector legacy. Logged-in users can at any time switch toany other skins. No changes are expected for users of these skins.

  • Top of an article
  • Vector legacy (current default)
    Vector legacy (current default)
  • Vector 2022
    Vector 2022
  • A section of an article
  • Vector legacy (current default)
    Vector legacy (current default)
  • Vector 2022
    Vector 2022

About the skin

[Fetola Motswedi]

[Why is a change necessary] The current default skin meets the needs of the readers and editors as these were 13 years ago. Since then, new users have begun using Wikimedia projects.The old Vector doesn't meet their needs.

[Objective] The objective for the new skin is to make the interface more welcoming and comfortable for readers and useful for advanced users. It draws inspiration from previous requests, theCommunity Wishlist Surveys, and gadgets and scripts. The work helped our code follow the standards and improve all other skins.We reduced PHP code in Wikimedia deployed skins by 75%. The project has also focused on making it easier to support gadgets and use APIs.

[Changes and test results] The skin introduces aseries of changes that improve readability and usability. The new skin does not remove any functionality currently available on the Vector skin.

  • The sticky header makes it easier to find tools that editors use often. It decreases scrolling to the top of the page by 16%.
  • The new table of contents makes it easier to navigate to different sections. Readers and editors jumped to different sections of the page 50% more than with the old table of contents. It also looks a bit different on talk pages.
  • The new search bar is easier to find and makes it easier to find the correct search result from the list. This increased the amount of searches started by 30% on the wikis we tested on.
  • The skin does not negatively affect pageviews, edit rates, or account creation. There is evidence of increases in pageviews and account creation across partner communities.

[Try it out] Try out the new skin by going to the appearance tab inyour preferences and selecting Vector 2022 from the list of skins.

How can editors change and customize this skin?

[Fetola Motswedi]

It's possible to configure and personalize our changes. We support volunteers who create new gadgets and user scripts. Check outour repository for a list of currently available customizations, or add your own.

Our plan

[Fetola Motswedi]

If no large concerns are raised, we plan on deploying in the week of October 3, 2022. If your community would like to request more time to discuss the changes, hit the button and write to us. We can adjust the calendar.

If you'd like ask our team anything, if you have questions, concerns, or additional thoughts, please ping me here or write on thetalk page of the project. We will gladly answer! Also,see our FAQ. Thank you!SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 04:15, 22 Lwetse 2022 (UTC)

Changing the auto time to (GMT+2)

[Fetola Motswedi]

Since most of the Setswana Speakers are from South Africa and Botswana we are planning to change the auto time zone of this wiki to (GMT+2) if you have a problem with this change you can tell us your reason or if you want us to wait for some more time, if no one has a problem this change will be made after 7 days, thank you.RebelAgentbua le nna 07:01, 23 Lwetse 2022 (UTC)

Admin renewal

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello my Temporary Admin rights will be ending soon, I have been a temporary Admin since the past three months but I would like to continue my work as an Admin last time I didn't request for Interface Admin rights but as I was working as an Admin I noticed I needed them as there is no Interface Administrator on this Wiki even though I don't know a lot about Java I promise to use the rights only when I know what I'm doing, Thank you.RebelAgent🇧🇼 11:39, 28 Lwetse 2022 (UTC)

Update on Vector 2022

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello. I'm sorry for not communicating in your language. I'll be grateful if you translated my message. I'm writing on behalf of theWeb team working on the new skin,Vector 2022.

We wanted to apologize for the delays in the deployment of Vector 2022. We know many of you are waiting for this eagerly. We have been delaying the deployment because we have been working on the logos. It has taken us more time than originally expected. Once the logos are ready, we will let you know the exact date of deployment.We are planning for either the next (more likely) or the following week. If your wiki doesn't currently have a localized logo, we encourage you toreach out to us and we can help make one.

We invite you toget involved in the project. Contact us if you have any questions or need any help, particularly with the compatibility of gadgets and user scripts. Thank you!SGrabarczuk (WMF) (talk) 23:24, 19 Phalane 2022 (UTC)

Invitation to attend “Ask Me Anything about Movement Charter” Sessions

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

Hello all,

During the 2022 Wikimedia Summit, theMovement Charter Drafting Committee (MCDC) presented the first outline of the Movement Charter, giving a glimpse on the direction of its future work, and the Charter itself. The MCDC then integrated the initial feedback collected during the Summit. Before proceeding with writing the Charter for the whole Movement, the MCDC wants to interact with community members and gather feedback on the drafts of the three sections: Preamble, Values & Principles, and Roles & Responsibilities (intentions statement). The Movement Charter drafts will be available on the Meta pagehere on November 14, 2022. Community wide consultation period on MC will take place from November 20 to December 18, 2022. Learn more about ithere.

With the goal of ensuring that people are well informed to fully participate in the conversations and are empowered to contribute their perspective on the Movement Charter, three“Ask Me Anything about Movement Charter" sessions have been scheduled in different time zones. Everyone in the Wikimedia Movement is invited to attend these conversations. The aim is to learn about Movement Charter - its goal, purpose, why it matters, and how it impacts your community. MCDC members will attend these sessions to answer your questions and hear community feedback.

The “Ask Me Anything” sessions accommodate communities from different time zones. Only the presentation of the session is recorded and shared afterwards, no recording of conversations. Below is the list of planned events:

  • Asia/Pacific: November 4, 2022 at 09:00 UTC (your local time). Interpretation is available in Chinese and Japanese.
  • Europe/MENA/Sub Saharan Africa: November 12, 2022 at 15:00 UTC (your local time). Interpretation is available in Arabic, French and Russian.
  • North and South America/ Western Europe: November 12, 2022 at 15:00 UTC (your local time). Interpretation is available in Spanish and Portuguese.

On theMeta page you will find more details; Zoom links will be shared 48 hours ahead of the call.

Call for Movement Charter Ambassadors

Individuals or groups from all communities who wish to help include and start conversations in their communities on the Movement Charter are encouraged to becomeMovement Charter Ambassadors (MC Ambassadors). MC Ambassadors will carry out their own activities and get financial support for enabling conversations in their own languages.Regional facilitators from the Movement Strategy and Governance team are available to support applicants with MC Ambassadors grantmaking. If you are interested please sign uphere. Should you have specific questions, please reach out to the MSG team via email: strategy2030@wikimedia.org or on the MS forum.

We thank you for your time and participation.

On behalf of the Movement Charter Drafting Committee,

MNadzikiewicz (WMF) 15:33, 7 Ngwanatsele 2022 (UTC)

Apply for Funding through the Movement Strategy Community Engagement Package to Support Your Community

[Fetola Motswedi]

The Wikimedia Movement Strategy implementation is a collaborative effort for all Wikimedians.Movement Strategy Implementation Grants support projects that take the current state of aMovement Strategy Initiative and push it one step forward. If you are looking for an example or some guide on how to engage your community further on Movement Strategy and the Movement Strategy Implementation Grants specifically, you may find thiscommunity engagement package helpful.

The goal of this community engagement package is to support more people to access the funding they might need for the implementation work. By becoming a recipient of this grant, you will be able to support other community members to develop further grant applications that fit with your local contexts to benefit your own communities. With this package, the hope is to break down language barriers and to ensure community members have needed information on Movement Strategy to connect with each other. Movement Strategy is a two-way exchange, we can always learn more from the experiences and knowledge of Wikimedians everywhere. We can train and support our peers by using this package, so more people can make use of this great funding opportunity.

If this information interests you or if you have any further thoughts or questions, please do not hesitate to reach out to us as yourregional facilitators to discuss further. We will be more than happy to support you. When you are ready, follow the steps onthis page to apply. We look forward to receiving your application.

Best regards,
Movement Strategy and Governance Team
Wikimedia Foundation

MNadzikiewicz (WMF) 16:26, 14 Ngwanatsele 2022 (UTC)

Opportunities open for the Ombuds commission and the Case Review Committee

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

More languages •Please help translate to your language

Hi everyone! The Ombuds commission (OC) and the Case Review Committee (CRC) are looking for members. People are encouraged to nominate themselves or encourage others they feel would contribute to these groups to do so. There is more information below about the opportunity and the skills that are needed.

About the Ombuds commission

The Ombuds commission (OC) works on all Wikimedia projects to investigate complaints about violations of the privacy policy, especially in use ofCheckUser andOversight (also known as Suppression) tools. The Commission mediates between the parties of the investigation and, when violations of the policies are identified, advises the Wikimedia Foundation on best handling. They may also assist the General Counsel, the Chief Executive Officer, or the Board of Trustees of the Foundation in these investigations when legally necessary. For more on the OC's duties and roles,see Ombuds commission on Meta-Wiki.

Volunteers serving in this role should be experienced Wikimedians, active on any project, who have previously used the CheckUser/Oversight tools OR who have the technical ability to understand these tools and the willingness to learn them. They must be able to communicate in English, the common language of the commission. They are expected to be able to engage neutrally in investigating these concerns and to know when to recuse when other roles and relationships may cause conflict. Commissioners will servetwo-year terms (note that this is different from past years, when the terms have been for one year).

About the Case Review Committee

The Case Review Committee (CRC) reviews appeals of eligible Trust & Safety office actions. The CRC is a critical layer of oversight to ensure that Wikimedia Foundation office actions are fair and unbiased. They also make sure the Wikimedia Foundation doesn’t overstep established practices or boundaries. For more about the role,see Case Review Committee on Meta-Wiki.

We are looking for current or former functionaries and experienced volunteers with an interest in joining this group. Applicants must be fluent in English (additional languages are a strong plus) and willing to abide by theterms of the Committee charter. If the work resonates and you qualify, please apply. Committee members will servetwo-year terms (note that this is different from past years, when the terms have been for one year).

Applying to join either of these groups

Members are required to sign theConfidentiality agreement for nonpublic information and must be willing to comply with the appropriate Wikimedia Foundation board policies (such as theaccess to non-public information policy and theFoundation privacy policy). These positions requires a high degree of discretion and trust. Members must also be over 18 years of age.

If you are interested in serving in either capacity listed above, please write in English to the Trust and Safety team at ca(_AT_)wikimedia.org (to apply to the OC) or to the Legal Team at legal(_AT_)wikimedia.org (to apply to the CRC) with information about:

  • Your primary projects
  • Languages you speak/write
  • Any experience you have serving on committees, whether movement or non-movement
  • Your thoughts on what you could bring to the OC or CRC if appointed
  • Any experience you have with the Checkuser or Oversight tools (OC only)
  • Any other information you think is relevant

The deadline for applications is 31 December 2022 in any timezone.

Please feel free to pass this invitation along to any users who you think may be qualified and interested. Thank you!

On behalf of the Committee Support team,

Admin Request

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello I was an admin before but I requested for my rights to be removed as I was busy, I expected to return next year but we finished sooner than I expected, I'm happy to be back and I would like to continue as an Administrator and Interface Administrator.RebelAgent🇧🇼17:13, 24 Ngwanatsele 2022 (CAT)[araba]

Community Wishlist Survey 2023 opens in January!

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please help translate to your language

Hello

TheCommunity Wishlist Survey (CWS) 2023, which lets contributors propose and vote for tools and improvements, starts next month on Monday,23 January 2023, at 18:00 UTC and will continue annually.

We are inviting you to share your ideas for technical improvements to our tools and platforms. Long experience in editing or technical skills is not required. If you have ever used our software and thought of an idea to improve it, this is the place to come share those ideas!

The dates for the phases of the Survey will be as follows:

  • Phase 1: Submit, discuss, and revise proposals – Monday, Jan 23, 2023 to Sunday, Feb 6, 2023
  • Phase 2: WMF/Community Tech reviews and organizes proposals – Monday, Jan 30, 2023 to Friday, Feb 10, 2023
  • Phase 3: Vote on proposals – Friday, Feb 10, 2023 to Friday, Feb 24, 2023
  • Phase 4: Results posted – Tuesday, Feb 28, 2023

If you want to start writing out your ideas ahead of the Survey, you can start thinking about your proposals and draft them inthe CWS sandbox.

We are grateful to all who participated last year. See you in January 2023!

Thank you!Community Tech,STei (WMF)14:59, 13 Sedimonthole 2022 (CAT)[araba]

Feminism and Folklore 2023

[Fetola Motswedi]
Please help translate to your language

Dear Wiki Community,

Christmas Greetings and a Happy New Year 2023,

You are humbly invited to organize theFeminism and Folklore 2023 writing competition from February 1, 2023, to March 31, 2023 on your local Wikipedia. This year, Feminism and Folklore will focus on feminism, women's issues, and gender-focused topics for the project, with aWiki Loves Folklore gender gap focus and a folk culture theme on Wikipedia.

You can help Wikipedia's coverage of folklore from your area by writing or improving articles about things like folk festivals, folk dances, folk music, women and queer folklore figures, folk game athletes, women in mythology, women warriors in folklore, witches and witch hunting, fairy tales, and more. Users can help create new articles, expand or translate from alist of suggested articles.

Organisers are requested to work on the following action items to sign up their communities for the project:

  1. Create a page for the contest on the local wiki.
  2. Set up a fountain tool or dashboard.
  3. Create the local list and mention the timeline and local and international prizes.
  4. Request local admins for site notice.
  5. Link the local page and the fountain/dashboard link on themeta project page.

This year we would be supporting the community's financial aid for Internet and childcare support. This would be provided for the local team including their jury and coordinator team. This support is opt-in and non mandatory. Kindly fill inthis Google form and mark a mail tosupport@wikilovesfolklore.org with the subject line starting as [Stipend] Name or Username/Language. The last date to sign up for internet and childcare aid from our team is 20th of January 2023, We encourage the language coordinators to sign up their community on this link by the 25th of January 2023.

Learn more about the contest and prizes on ourproject page. Feel free to contact us on ourmeta talk page or by email us if you need any assistance.

We look forward to your immense coordination.

Thank you and Best wishes,

Feminism and Folklore 2023 International Team

Stay connected 

--MediaWiki message delivery (talk)12:24, 24 Sedimonthole 2022 (CAT)[araba]

Editing news 2023 #1

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this in another language •Subscription list for this multilingual newsletter

This newsletter includes two key updates about theEditing team's work:

  1. The Editing team will finish adding new features to theTalk pages project and deploy it.
  2. They are beginning a new project,Edit check.

Talk pages project

Screenshot showing the talk page design changes that are currently available as beta features at all Wikimedia wikis. These features include information about the number of people and comments within each discussion.
Some of the upcoming changes

The Editing team is nearly finished with this first phase of theTalk pages project. Nearly allnew features are available now in theBeta Feature forDiscussion tools.

It will show information about how active a discussion is, such as the date of the most recent comment. There will soon be a new "Add topic" button. You will be able to turn them off atSpecial:Preferences#mw-prefsection-editing-discussion. Pleasetell them what you think.

Daily edit completion rate by test group: DiscussionTools (test group) and MobileFrontend overlay (control group)

An A/B test forDiscussion tools on the mobile site has finished. Editors weremore successful withDiscussion tools. The Editing team is enabling these features for all editors on the mobile site.

New Project: Edit Check

The Editing team is beginninga project to help new editors of Wikipedia. It will help people identify some problems before they click "Tsenya diphetogo". The first tool will encourage people to add references when they add new content. Pleasewatch that page for more information. You canjoin a conference call on 3 March 2023 to learn more.

–Whatamidoing (WMF) (bua)01:24, 23 Tlhakole 2023 (CAT)[araba]

Your wiki will be in read only soon

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this message in another language •Please help translate to your language

TheWikimedia Foundation tests the switch between its first and secondary data centers. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster. To make sure everything is working, the Wikimedia Technology department needs to do a planned test. This test will show if they can reliably switch from one data centre to the other. It requires many teams to prepare for the test and to be available to fix any unexpected problems.

All traffic will switch on1 March. The test will start at14:00 UTC.

Unfortunately, because of some limitations inMediaWiki, all editing must stop while the switch is made. We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.

  • You will not be able to edit for up to an hour onWednesday 1 March 2023.
  • If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message. We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it. If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal. Then you should be able to save your edit. But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:

  • Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal. If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual. Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.
  • We expect the code deployments to happen as any other week. However, some case-by-case code freezes could punctually happen if the operation require them afterwards.
  • GitLab will be unavailable for about 90 minutes.
This project may be postponed if necessary. You canread the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule. There will be more notifications about this. A banner will be displayed on all wikis 30 minutes before this operation happens.Please share this information with your community.

Trizek (WMF) (Puisano)23:21, 27 Tlhakole 2023 (CAT)[araba]

Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month 2023: We are back!

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please help translate to your language

Hello, dear Wikipedians!

Wikimedia Ukraine, in cooperation with theMinistry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine andUkrainian Institute, has launched the third edition of writing challenge "Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month", which lasts from 1st until 31st March 2023. The campaign is dedicated to famous Ukrainian artists of cinema, music, literature, architecture, design and cultural phenomena of Ukraine that are now part of world heritage. We accept contribution in every language! The most active contesters will receiveprizes.

We invite you to take part and help us improve the coverage of Ukrainian culture on Wikipedia in your language! Also, we plan to set up abanner to notify users of the possibility to participate in such a challenge!

ValentynNefedov (WMUA) (talk) 07:58, 1 March 2023 (UTC)

Wikimania 2023 Welcoming Program Submissions

[Fetola Motswedi]
Do you want to host an in-person or virtual session at Wikimania 2023? Maybe a hands-on workshop, a lively discussion, a fun performance, a catchy poster, or a memorable lightning talk?Submissions are open until March 28. The event will have dedicated hybrid blocks, so virtual submissions and pre-recorded content are also welcome. If you have any questions, please join us at an upcoming conversation on March 12 or 19, or reach out by email at wikimania@wikimedia.org or on Telegram. More information on-wiki.

Your wiki will be in read-only soon

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this message in another language •Please help translate to your language

TheWikimedia Foundation tests the switch between its first and secondary data centers. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster. To make sure everything is working, the Wikimedia Technology department needs to do a planned test. This test will show if they can reliably switch from one data centre to the other. It requires many teams to prepare for the test and to be available to fix any unexpected problems.

All traffic will switch on26 April. The test will start at14:00 UTC.

Unfortunately, because of some limitations inMediaWiki, all editing must stop while the switch is made. We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.

  • You will not be able to edit for up to an hour onWednesday 26 April 2023.
  • If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message. We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it. If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal. Then you should be able to save your edit. But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:

  • Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal. If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual. Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.
  • We expect the code deployments to happen as any other week. However, some case-by-case code freezes could punctually happen if the operation require them afterwards.
  • GitLab will be unavailable for about 90 minutes.
This project may be postponed if necessary. You canread the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule. There will be more notifications about this. A banner will be displayed on all wikis 30 minutes before this operation happens.Please share this information with your community.

MediaWiki message delivery02:42, 21 Moranang 2023 (CAT)[araba]

Seeking volunteers for the next step in the Universal Code of Conduct process

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello,

As follow-up tothe message about the Universal Code of Conduct Enforcement Guidelines by Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees Vice Chair, Shani Evenstein Sigalov, I am reaching out about the next steps. I want to bring your attention to the next stage of the Universal Code of Conduct process, which is forming a building committee for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C). I invite community members with experience and deep interest in community health and governance to nominate themselves to be part of the U4C building committee, which needs people who are:

  • Community members in good standing
  • Knowledgeable about movement community processes, such as, but not limited to, policy drafting, participatory decision making, and application of existing rules and policies on Wikimedia projects
  • Aware and appreciative of the diversity of the movement, such as, but not limited to, languages spoken, identity, geography, and project type
  • Committed to participate for the entire U4C Building Committee period from mid-May - December 2023
  • Comfortable with engaging in difficult, but productive conversations
  • Confidently able to communicate in English

The Building Committee shall consist of volunteer community members, affiliate board or staff, and Wikimedia Foundation staff.

The Universal Code of Conduct has been a process strengthened by the skills and knowledge of the community and I look forward to what the U4C Building Committee creates. If you are interested in joining the Building Committee, please eithersign up on the Meta-Wiki page, or contact ucocproject(_AT_)wikimedia.org by May 12, 2023.Read more on Meta-Wiki.

Best regards,

Xeno (WMF)21:01, 26 Moranang 2023 (CAT)[araba]

Selection of the U4C Building Committee

[Fetola Motswedi]

The next stage in the Universal Code of Conduct process is establishing a Building Committee to create the charter for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C). The Building Committee has been selected.Read about the members and the work ahead on Meta-wiki.

--UCoC Project Team, 06:20, 27 Motsheganong 2023 (CAT)

Admin renewal

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello everyone, i hope you are well i have been an Admin and an interface Admin since last year i would like to continue as an Admin and interface Admin, thank you.

Rebel Agent (talk)07:09, 11 Seetebosigo 2023 (CAT)[araba]

Announcing the new Elections Committee members

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

Hello there,

We are glad to announcethe new members and advisors of the Elections Committee. TheElections Committee assists with the design and implementation of the process to select Community- and Affiliate-Selected trustees for the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees. After an open nomination process, the strongest candidates spoke with the Board and four candidates were asked to join the Elections Committee. Four other candidates were asked to participate as advisors.

Thank you to all the community members who submitted their names for consideration. We look forward to working with the Elections Committee in the near future.

On behalf of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees,

RamzyM (WMF)20:00, 28 Seetebosigo 2023 (CAT)[araba]

Review the Charter for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello all,

I am pleased to share the next step in theUniversal Code of Conduct work. TheUniversal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) draft charter is now ready for your review.

TheEnforcement Guidelines require aBuilding Committee form to draft a charter that outlines procedures and details for a global committee to be called theUniversal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C). Over the past few months, the U4C Building Committee worked together as a group to discuss and draft the U4C charter. The U4C Building Committee welcomes feedback about the draft charter now through 22 September 2023. After that date, the U4C Building Committee will revise the charter as needed and a community vote will open shortly afterward.

Join the conversation during theconversation hours or onMeta-wiki.

Best,

RamzyM (WMF), on behalf of the U4C Building Committee,17:35, 28 Phatwe 2023 (CAT)[araba]

Your wiki will be in read-only soon

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this message in another language •Please help translate to your language

TheWikimedia Foundation will switch the traffic between its data centers. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster. To make sure everything is working, the Wikimedia Technology department needs to do a planned test. This test will show if they can reliably switch from one data centre to the other. It requires many teams to prepare for the test and to be available to fix any unexpected problems.

All traffic will switch on20 September. The test will start at14:00 UTC.

Unfortunately, because of some limitations inMediaWiki, all editing must stop while the switch is made. We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.

  • You will not be able to edit for up to an hour onWednesday 20 September 2023.
  • If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message. We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it. If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal. Then you should be able to save your edit. But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:

  • Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal. If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual. Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.
  • We expect the code deployments to happen as any other week. However, some case-by-case code freezes could punctually happen if the operation require them afterwards.
  • GitLab will be unavailable for about 90 minutes.
This project may be postponed if necessary. You canread the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule. There will be more notifications about this. A banner will be displayed on all wikis 30 minutes before this operation happens.Please share this information with your community.

Trizek_(WMF) (talk)11:24, 15 Lwetse 2023 (CAT)[araba]

== Opportunities open for the Affiliations Committee, Ombuds commission, and the Case Review Committee ==

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hi everyone! TheAffiliations Committee (AffCom),Ombuds commission (OC), and theCase Review Committee (CRC) are looking for new members. These volunteer groups provide important structural and oversight support for the community and movement. People are encouraged to nominate themselves or encourage others they feel would contribute to these groups to apply. There is more information about the roles of the groups, the skills needed, and the opportunity to apply on theMeta-wiki page.

On behalf of the Committee Support team,

~Keegan (WMF) (talk)18:41, 9 Phalane 2023 (CAT)[araba]

Review and comment on the 2024 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees selection rules package

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

Dear all,

Please review and comment on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees selection rules package from now until 29 October 2023. The selection rules package was based on older versions by the Elections Committee and will be used in the 2024 Board of Trustees selection. Providing your comments now will help them provide a smoother, better Board selection process.More on the Meta-wiki page.

Best,

Katie Chan
Chair of the Elections Committee

03:13, 17 Phalane 2023 (CAT)

Coming soon: Reference Previews

[Fetola Motswedi]

A new feature is coming to your wiki soon: Reference Previews are popups for references. Such popups have existed on wikis as local gadgets for many years. Now there is a central solution, available on all wikis, and consistent with thePagePreviews feature.

Reference Previews will be visible to everyone, including readers. If you don’t want to see them,you can opt out. If you areusing the gadgets Reference Tooltips or Navigation Popups, you won’t see Reference Previews unless you disable the gadget.

Reference Previews have been a beta feature on many wikis since 2019, and a default feature on some since 2021. Deployment is planned for November 22.

-- ForWikimedia Deutschland’s Technical Wishes team,

Johanna Strodt (WMDE),15:11, 15 Ngwanatsele 2023 (CAT)[araba]

(New) Feature onKartographer: Adding geopoints via QID

[Fetola Motswedi]

Since September 2022, it is possible to create geopoints using a QID. Many wiki contributors have asked for this feature, but it is not being used much. Therefore, we would like to remind you about it. More information can be found on theproject page. If you have any comments, please let us know on thetalk page. – Best regards, the team of Technical Wishes at Wikimedia Deutschland

Thereza Mengs (WMDE)14:31, 13 Sedimonthole 2023 (CAT)[araba]

Do you use Wikidata in Wikimedia sibling projects? Tell us about your experiences

[Fetola Motswedi]

Note: Apologies for cross-posting and sending in English.

Hello, theWikidata for Wikimedia Projects team at Wikimedia Deutschland would like to hear about your experiences using Wikidata in the sibling projects. If you are interested in sharing your opinion and insights, please consider signing up for an interview with us in thisRegistration form.
Currently, we are only able to conduct interviews in English.

The front page of the form has more details about what the conversation will be like, including how we wouldcompensate you for your time.

For more information, visit ourproject issue page where you can also share your experiences in written form, without an interview.
We look forward to speaking with you,Danny Benjafield (WMDE) (talk) 08:53, 5 January 2024 (UTC)

Reusing references: Can we look over your shoulder?

[Fetola Motswedi]

Apologies for writing in English.

The Technical Wishes team at Wikimedia Deutschland is planning tomake reusing references easier. For our research, we are looking for wiki contributors willing to show us how they are interacting with references.

  • The format will be a 1-hour video call, where you would share your screen.More information here.
  • Interviews can be conducted in English, German or Dutch.
  • Compensation is available.
  • Sessions will be held in January and February.
  • Sign up here if you are interested.
  • Please note that we probably won’t be able to have sessions with everyone who is interested. Our UX researcher will try to create a good balance of wiki contributors, e.g. in terms of wiki experience, tech experience, editing preferences, gender, disability and more. If you’re a fit, she will reach out to you to schedule an appointment.

We’re looking forward to seeing you, Thereza Mengs (WMDE)

Feminism and Folklore 2024

[Fetola Motswedi]
Please help translate to your language

Dear Wiki Community,

You are humbly invited to organize theFeminism and Folklore 2024 writing competition from February 1, 2023, to March 31, 2023 on your local Wikipedia. This year, Feminism and Folklore will focus on feminism, women's issues, and gender-focused topics for the project, with aWiki Loves Folklore gender gap focus and a folk culture theme on Wikipedia.

You can help Wikipedia's coverage of folklore from your area by writing or improving articles about things like folk festivals, folk dances, folk music, women and queer folklore figures, folk game athletes, women in mythology, women warriors in folklore, witches and witch hunting, fairy tales, and more. Users can help create new articles, expand or translate from a generated list of suggested articles.

Organisers are requested to work on the following action items to sign up their communities for the project:

  1. Create a page for the contest on the local wiki.
  2. Set up a campaign onCampWiz tool.
  3. Create the local list and mention the timeline and local and international prizes.
  4. Request local admins for site notice.
  5. Link the local page and the CampWiz link on themeta project page.

This year, the Wiki Loves Folklore Tech Team has introduced two new tools to enhance support for the campaign. These tools include theArticle List Generator by Topic andCampWiz. The Article List Generator by Topic enables users to identify articles on the English Wikipedia that are not present in their native language Wikipedia. Users can customize their selection criteria, and the tool will present a table showcasing the missing articles along with suggested titles. Additionally, users have the option to download the list in both CSV and wikitable formats. Notably, the CampWiz tool will be employed for the project for the first time, empowering users to effectively host the project with a jury. Both tools are now available for use in the campaign.Click here to access these tools

Learn more about the contest and prizes on ourproject page. Feel free to contact us on ourmeta talk page or by email us if you need any assistance.

We look forward to your immense coordination.

Thank you and Best wishes,

Feminism and Folklore 2024 International Team

Stay connected 

--MediaWiki message delivery (talk)09:26, 18 Firikgong 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Wiki Loves Folklore is back!

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please help translate to your language

Dear Wiki Community,You are humbly invited to participate in theWiki Loves Folklore 2024 an international photography contest organized on Wikimedia Commons to document folklore and intangible cultural heritage from different regions, including, folk creative activities and many more. It is held every year from the1st till the 31st of March.

You can help in enriching the folklore documentation on Commons from your region by taking photos, audios, videos, andsubmitting them in this commons contest.

You can alsoorganize a local contest in your country and support us in translating theproject pages to help us spread the word in your native language.

Feel free to contact us on ourproject Talk page if you need any assistance.

Kind regards,

Wiki loves Folklore International Team

--MediaWiki message delivery (talk)09:26, 18 Firikgong 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Vote on the Charter for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.Please help translate to your language

Hello all,

I am reaching out to you today to announce that the voting period for theUniversal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) Charter is now open. Community members maycast their vote and provide comments about the charter via SecurePoll now through2 February 2024. Those of you who voiced your opinions during the development of theUCoC Enforcement Guidelines will find this process familiar.

Thecurrent version of the U4C Charter is on Meta-wiki with translations available.

Read the charter, go vote and share this note with others in your community. I can confidently say the U4C Building Committee looks forward to your participation.

On behalf of the UCoC Project team,

RamzyM (WMF)20:08, 19 Firikgong 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Last days to vote on the Charter for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.Please help translate to your language

Hello all,

I am reaching out to you today to remind you that the voting period for theUniversal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) charter will close on2 February 2024. Community members maycast their vote and provide comments about the charter via SecurePoll. Those of you who voiced your opinions during the development of theUCoC Enforcement Guidelines will find this process familiar.

Thecurrent version of the U4C charter is on Meta-wiki with translations available.

Read the charter, go vote and share this note with others in your community. I can confidently say the U4C Building Committee looks forward to your participation.

On behalf of the UCoC Project team,

RamzyM (WMF)19:00, 31 Firikgong 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Announcing the results of the UCoC Coordinating Committee Charter ratification vote

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.Please help translate to your language

Dear all,

Thank you everyone for following the progress of the Universal Code of Conduct. I am writing to you today to announce the outcome of theratification vote on theUniversal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee Charter. 1746 contributors voted in this ratification vote with 1249 voters supporting the Charter and 420 voters not. The ratification vote process allowed for voters to provide comments about the Charter.

A report of voting statistics and a summary of voter comments will be published on Meta-wiki in the coming weeks.

Please look forward to hearing about the next steps soon.

On behalf of the UCoC Project team,

RamzyM (WMF)20:24, 12 Tlhakole 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month 2024: We are back!

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please help translate to your language

Hello, dear Wikipedians!

Wikimedia Ukraine, in cooperation with theMFA of Ukraine andUkrainian Institute, has launched the forth edition of writing challenge "Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month", which lasts from 1st until 31st March 2024. The campaign is dedicated to famous Ukrainian artists of cinema, music, literature, architecture, design and cultural phenomena of Ukraine that are now part of world heritage. We accept contribution in every language! The most active contesters will receive prizes.

We invite you to take part and help us improve the coverage of Ukrainian culture on Wikipedia in your language! Also, we plan to set up abanner to notify users of the possibility to participate in such a challenge!ValentynNefedov (WMUA) (talk)

Report of the U4C Charter ratification and U4C Call for Candidates now available

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.Please help translate to your language

Hello all,

I am writing to you today with two important pieces of information. First, thereport of the comments from the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) Charter ratification is now available. Secondly, the call for candidates for the U4C is open now through April 1, 2024.

TheUniversal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is a global group dedicated to providing an equitable and consistent implementation of the UCoC. Community members are invited to submit their applications for the U4C. For more information and the responsibilities of the U4C, pleasereview the U4C Charter.

Per the charter, there are 16 seats on the U4C: eight community-at-large seats and eight regional seats to ensure the U4C represents the diversity of the movement.

Read more and submit your application onMeta-wiki.

On behalf of the UCoC project team,

RamzyM (WMF)18:25, 5 Mopitlo 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees 2024 Selection

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.

Dear all,

This year, the term of 4 (four) Community- and Affiliate-selected Trustees on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees will come to an end [1]. The Board invites the whole movement to participate in this year’s selection process and vote to fill those seats.

TheElections Committee will oversee this process with support from Foundation staff [2]. The Board Governance Committee created a Board Selection Working Group from Trustees who cannot be candidates in the 2024 community- and affiliate-selected trustee selection process composed of Dariusz Jemielniak, Nataliia Tymkiv, Esra'a Al Shafei, Kathy Collins, and Shani Evenstein Sigalov [3]. The group is tasked with providing Board oversight for the 2024 trustee selection process, and for keeping the Board informed. More details on the roles of the Elections Committee, Board, and staff are here [4].

Here are the key planned dates:

  • May 2024: Call for candidates and call for questions
  • June 2024: Affiliates vote to shortlist 12 candidates (no shortlisting if 15 or less candidates apply) [5]
  • June-August 2024: Campaign period
  • End of August / beginning of September 2024: Two-week community voting period
  • October–November 2024: Background check of selected candidates
  • Board's Meeting in December 2024: New trustees seated

Learn more about the 2024 selection process - including the detailed timeline, the candidacy process, the campaign rules, and the voter eligibility criteria - onthis Meta-wiki page, and make your plan.

Election Volunteers

Another way to be involved with the 2024 selection process is to be an Election Volunteer. Election Volunteers are a bridge between the Elections Committee and their respective community. They help ensure their community is represented and mobilize them to vote. Learn more about the program and how to join on thisMeta-wiki page.

Best regards,

Dariusz Jemielniak (Governance Committee Chair, Board Selection Working Group)

[1]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2021/Results#Elected

[2]https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Committee:Elections_Committee_Charter

[3]https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Minutes:2023-08-15#Governance_Committee

[4]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_committee/Roles

[5] Even though the ideal number is 12 candidates for 4 open seats, the shortlisting process will be triggered if there are more than 15 candidates because the 1-3 candidates that are removed might feel ostracized and it would be a lot of work for affiliates to carry out the shortlisting process to only eliminate 1-3 candidates from the candidate list.

MPossoupe_(WMF)21:57, 12 Mopitlo 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Your wiki will be in read-only soon

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this message in another language •Please help translate to your language

TheWikimedia Foundation will switch the traffic between its data centers. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster.

All traffic will switch on20 March. The test will start at14:00 UTC.

Unfortunately, because of some limitations inMediaWiki, all editing must stop while the switch is made. We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.

  • You will not be able to edit for up to an hour onWednesday 20 March 2024.
  • If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message. We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it. If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal. Then you should be able to save your edit. But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:

  • Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal. If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual. Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.
  • We expect the code deployments to happen as any other week. However, some case-by-case code freezes could punctually happen if the operation require them afterwards.
  • GitLab will be unavailable for about 90 minutes.
This project may be postponed if necessary. You canread the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule. There will be more notifications about this. A banner will be displayed on all wikis 30 minutes before this operation happens.Please share this information with your community.

Trizek (WMF),02:01, 15 Mopitlo 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Vote now to select members of the first U4C

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.Please help translate to your language

Dear all,

I am writing to you to let you know the voting period for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is open now through May 9, 2024. Read the information on thevoting page on Meta-wiki to learn more about voting and voter eligibility.

The Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is a global group dedicated to providing an equitable and consistent implementation of the UCoC. Community members were invited to submit their applications for the U4C. For more information and the responsibilities of the U4C, pleasereview the U4C Charter.

Please share this message with members of your community so they can participate as well.

On behalf of the UCoC project team,

RamzyM (WMF)22:20, 25 Moranang 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Sign up for the language community meeting on May 31st, 16:00 UTC

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello all,

The next language community meeting is scheduled in a few weeks - May 31st at 16:00 UTC. If you're interested, you cansign up on this wiki page.

This is a participant-driven meeting, where we share language-specific updates related to various projects, collectively discuss technical issues related to language wikis, and work together to find possible solutions. For example, in the last meeting, the topics included the machine translation service (MinT) and the languages and models it currently supports, localization efforts from the Kiwix team, and technical challenges with numerical sorting in files used on Bengali Wikisource.

Do you have any ideas for topics to share technical updates related to your project? Any problems that you would like to bring for discussion during the meeting? Do you need interpretation support from English to another language? Please reach out to me at ssethi(__AT__)wikimedia.org andadd agenda items to the document here.

We look forward to your participation!

MediaWiki message delivery23:22, 14 Motsheganong 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Feedback invited on Procedure for Sibling Project Lifecycle

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.Please help translate to your language

Dear community members,

TheCommunity Affairs Committee (CAC) of theWikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees invites you to give feedback on adraft Procedure for Sibling Project Lifecycle. This draft Procedure outlines proposed steps and requirements for opening and closing Wikimedia Sibling Projects, and aims to ensure any newly approved projects are set up for success. This is separate from the procedures for opening or closing language versions of projects, which is handled by theLanguage Committee orclosing projects policy.

You can find the details onthis page, as well as the ways to give your feedback from today until the end of the day onJune 23, 2024, anywhere on Earth.

You can also share information about this with the interested project communities you work with or support, and you can also help us translate the procedure into more languages, so people can join the discussions in their own language.

On behalf of the CAC,

RamzyM (WMF)04:26, 22 Motsheganong 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Announcing the first Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.Please help translate to your language

Hello,

The scrutineers have finished reviewing the vote results. We are following up with the results of the firstUniversal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) election.

We are pleased to announce the following individuals as regional members of the U4C, who will fulfill a two-year term:

  • North America (USA and Canada)
    • –
  • Northern and Western Europe
  • Latin America and Caribbean
    • –
  • Central and East Europe (CEE)
    • —
  • Sub-Saharan Africa
    • –
  • Middle East and North Africa
  • East, South East Asia and Pacific (ESEAP)
  • South Asia
    • –

The following individuals are elected to be community-at-large members of the U4C, fulfilling a one-year term:

Thank you again to everyone who participated in this process and much appreciation to the candidates for your leadership and dedication to the Wikimedia movement and community.

Over the next few weeks, the U4C will begin meeting and planning the 2024-25 year in supporting the implementation and review of the UCoC and Enforcement Guidelines. Follow their work onMeta-wiki.

On behalf of the UCoC project team,

RamzyM (WMF)10:15, 3 Seetebosigo 2024 (CAT)[araba]

The final text of the Wikimedia Movement Charter is now on Meta

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.Please help translate to your language

Hi everyone,

The final text of theWikimedia Movement Charter is now up on Meta in more than 20 languages for your reading.

What is the Wikimedia Movement Charter?

The Wikimedia Movement Charter is a proposed document to define roles and responsibilities for all the members and entities of the Wikimedia movement, including the creation of a new body – the Global Council – for movement governance.

Join the Wikimedia Movement Charter “Launch Party”

Join the“Launch Party” onJune 20, 2024 at14.00-15.00 UTC (your local time). During this call, we will celebrate the release of the final Charter and present the content of the Charter. Join and learn about the Charter before casting your vote.

Movement Charter ratification vote

Voting will commence on SecurePoll onJune 25, 2024 at00:01 UTC and will conclude onJuly 9, 2024 at23:59 UTC. You can read more about thevoting process, eligibility criteria, and other details on Meta.

If you have any questions, please leave a comment on theMeta talk page or email the MCDC atmcdc@wikimedia.org.

On behalf of the MCDC,

RamzyM (WMF)10:45, 11 Seetebosigo 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Plans to enable MinT for Wiki readers in Tswana Wikipedia

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello Tswana Wikipedians!

Apologies as this message is not in your language,Please help translate to your language.

TheWMF Language team has been working onMinT for Wiki Readers. This feature will allow communities to access more content that is only available in other languages with machine translation in Wikipedia. We have enabled the initial version of this feature first in Igbo Wikipedia, and your Wikipedia is the next to test and have this feature since it will be beneficial for reading content in other languages. For this, our team would like you to read about the feature andtest it so you can:

  • Ask us questions
  • Tell us how to improve the feature
  • Give us your feedback on enabling it in your Wikipedia

About the feature

The MinT for Wiki Readers is a feature that will allow readers of Tswana Wikipedia to expand their reading options and knowledge beyond the language they are familiar with in Wikipedia. For instance, if someone is interested in a topic or content that only exists in the Japanese language and the person is not familiar with the language. While using the mobile web version of Wikipedia, the reader can access the machine translation version of that content in the Tswana language from the language selector or the article's footer (as shown in the media files below).

,Article footer entry point

These machine-generated translations of content are clearly identified as such, and the human-created content is surfaced and recommended if available.

This feature is in its initial development. It is an early and functional version, and many aspects will be improved based on your community member's feedback on what works and what can be improved to better support your needs as readers.

How to try the tool

Before we enable this feature in your Wikipedia by the 5th July 2024, we invite members of your community to try MinT for Wiki Readers in your Wikipedia atSpecial:AutomaticTranslation and give us early feedback in this thread or onthis talk page. Our team would like to know your impression on:

  • How do you use the feature
  • Anything we should consider for our plans to enable it?
  • Your ideas for improving it.

We greatly appreciate your time and effort in testing this tool. We eagerly look forward to your valuable feedback and questions, which will be instrumental in the further development of this feature. Thank you.

On behalf of the WMF Language team.UOzurumba (WMF) (talk)19:56, 24 Seetebosigo 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Voting to ratify the Wikimedia Movement Charter is now open – cast your vote

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.Please help translate to your language

Hello everyone,

The voting to ratify theWikimedia Movement Charter is now open. The Wikimedia Movement Charter is a document to define roles and responsibilities for all the members and entities of the Wikimedia movement, including the creation of a new body – the Global Council – for movement governance.

The final version of the Wikimedia Movement Charter isavailable on Meta in different languages and attachedhere in PDF format for your reading.

Voting commenced on SecurePoll onJune 25, 2024 at00:01 UTC and will conclude onJuly 9, 2024 at23:59 UTC. Please read more on thevoter information and eligibility details.

After reading the Charter, pleasevote here and share this note further.

If you have any questions about the ratification vote, please contact the Charter Electoral Commission atcec@wikimedia.org.

On behalf of the CEC,

RamzyM (WMF)12:52, 25 Seetebosigo 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Voting to ratify the Wikimedia Movement Charter is ending soon

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.Please help translate to your language

Hello everyone,

This is a kind reminder that the voting period to ratify theWikimedia Movement Charter will be closed onJuly 9, 2024, at23:59 UTC.

If you have not voted yet, please voteon SecurePoll.

On behalf of theCharter Electoral Commission,

RamzyM (WMF)05:46, 8 Phukwi 2024 (CAT)[araba]

U4C Special Election - Call for Candidates

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.Please help translate to your language

Hello all,

A special election has been called to fill additional vacancies on the U4C. The call for candidates phase is open from now through July 19, 2024.

TheUniversal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is a global group dedicated to providing an equitable and consistent implementation of theUCoC. Community members are invited to submit their applications in the special election for the U4C. For more information and the responsibilities of the U4C, please review theU4C Charter.

In this special election, according tochapter 2 of the U4C charter, there are 9 seats available on the U4C:four community-at-large seats andfive regional seats to ensure the U4C represents the diversity of the movement.No more than two members of the U4C can be elected from the same home wiki. Therefore, candidates must not have English Wikipedia, German Wikipedia, or Italian Wikipedia as their home wiki.

Read more and submit your application onMeta-wiki.

In cooperation with the U4C,

--Keegan (WMF) (talk)02:03, 10 Phukwi 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Wikimedia Movement Charter ratification voting results

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.Please help translate to your language

Hello everyone,

After carefully tallying both individual and affiliate votes, theCharter Electoral Commission is pleased to announce the final results of the Wikimedia Movement Charter voting.  

Ascommunicated by the Charter Electoral Commission, we reached the quorum for both Affiliate and individual votes by the time the vote closed onJuly 9, 23:59 UTC. We thank all 2,451 individuals and 129 Affiliate representatives who voted in the ratification process. Your votes and comments are invaluable for the future steps in Movement Strategy.

The final results of theWikimedia Movement Charter ratification voting held between 25 June and 9 July 2024 are as follows:

Individual vote:

Out of 2,451 individuals who voted as of July 9 23:59 (UTC), 2,446 have been accepted as valid votes. Among these,1,710 voted “yes”;623 voted “no”; and113 selected “–” (neutral). Because the neutral votes don’t count towards the total number of votes cast, 73.30% voted to approve the Charter (1710/2333), while 26.70% voted to reject the Charter (623/2333).

Affiliates vote:

Out of 129 Affiliates designated voters who voted as of July 9 23:59 (UTC), 129 votes are confirmed as valid votes. Among these,93 voted “yes”;18 voted “no”; and18 selected “–” (neutral). Because the neutral votes don’t count towards the total number of votes cast, 83.78% voted to approve the Charter (93/111), while 16.22% voted to reject the Charter (18/111).

Board of Trustees of the Wikimedia Foundation:

The Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees votednot to ratify the proposed Charter during their special Board meeting on July 8, 2024. The Chair of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees, Nataliia Tymkiv,shared the result of the vote, the resolution, meeting minutes and proposed next steps.  

With this, the Wikimedia Movement Charter in its current revision isnot ratified.

We thank you for your participation in this important moment in our movement’s governance.

The Charter Electoral Commission,

Abhinav619,Borschts,Iwuala Lucy,Tochiprecious,Der-Wir-Ing

MediaWiki message delivery (talk)19:52, 18 Phukwi 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Vote now to fill vacancies of the first U4C

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.Please help translate to your language

Dear all,

I am writing to you to let you know the voting period for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is open now throughAugust 10, 2024. Read the information on thevoting page on Meta-wiki to learn more about voting and voter eligibility.

The Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is a global group dedicated to providing an equitable and consistent implementation of the UCoC. Community members were invited to submit their applications for the U4C. For more information and the responsibilities of the U4C, pleasereview the U4C Charter.

Please share this message with members of your community so they can participate as well.

In cooperation with the U4C,

RamzyM (WMF)04:48, 27 Phukwi 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Reminder! Vote closing soon to fill vacancies of the first U4C

[Fetola Motswedi]

You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.Please help translate to your language

Dear all,

The voting period for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is closing soon. It is open through 10 August 2024. Read the information onthe voting page on Meta-wiki to learn more about voting and voter eligibility. If you are eligible to vote and have not voted in this special election, it is important that you vote now.

Why should you vote? The U4C is a global group dedicated to providing an equitable and consistent implementation of the UCoC. Community input into the committee membership is critical to the success of the UCoC.

Please share this message with members of your community so they can participate as well.

In cooperation with the U4C,

--Keegan (WMF) (talk)17:31, 6 Phatwe 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Coming soon: A new sub-referencing feature – try it!

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello. For many years, community members have requested an easy way to re-use references with different details. Now, a MediaWiki solution is coming: The new sub-referencing feature will work for wikitext and Visual Editor and will enhance the existing reference system. You can continue to use different ways of referencing, but you will probably encounter sub-references in articles written by other users. More information onthe project page.

We want your feedback to make sure this feature works well for you:

Wikimedia Deutschland’sTechnical Wishes team is planning to bring this feature to Wikimedia wikis later this year. We will reach out to creators/maintainers of tools and templates related to references beforehand.

Please help us spread the message. --Johannes Richter (WMDE) (talk) 10:36, 19 August 2024 (UTC)

Sign up for the language community meeting on August 30th, 15:00 UTC

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hi all,

The next language community meeting is scheduled in a few weeks—on August 30th at 15:00 UTC. If you're interested in joining, you cansign up on this wiki page.

This participant-driven meeting will focus on sharing language-specific updates related to various projects, discussing technical issues related to language wikis, and working together to find possible solutions. For example, in the last meeting, topics included the Language Converter, the state of language research, updates on the Incubator conversations, and technical challenges around external links not working with special characters on Bengali sites.

Do you have any ideas for topics to share technical updates or discuss challenges? Please add agenda items to the documenthere and reach out to ssethi(__AT__)wikimedia.org. We look forward to your participation!

MediaWiki message delivery (talk)01:20, 23 Phatwe 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Announcing the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee

[Fetola Motswedi]

Original message at wikimedia-l.You can find this message translated into additional languages on Meta-wiki.Please help translate to your language

Hello all,

The scrutineers have finished reviewing the vote and theElections Committee have certified theresults for theUniversal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) special election.

I am pleased to announce the following individual as regional members of the U4C, who will fulfill a term until 15 June 2026:

  • North America (USA and Canada)
    • Ajraddatz

The following seats were not filled during this special election:

  • Latin America and Caribbean
  • Central and East Europe (CEE)
  • Sub-Saharan Africa
  • South Asia
  • The four remaining Community-At-Large seats

Thank you again to everyone who participated in this process and much appreciation to the candidates for your leadership and dedication to the Wikimedia movement and community.

Over the next few weeks, the U4C will begin meeting and planning the 2024-25 year in supporting the implementation and review of the UCoC and Enforcement Guidelines. You can follow their work onMeta-Wiki.

On behalf of the U4C and the Elections Committee,

RamzyM (WMF)16:06, 2 Lwetse 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Have your say: Vote for the 2024 Board of Trustees!

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello all,

The voting period for the2024 Board of Trustees election is now open. There are twelve (12) candidates running for four (4) seats on the Board.

Learn more about the candidates byreading their statements and theiranswers to community questions.

When you are ready, go to theSecurePoll voting page to vote.The vote is open from September 3rd at 00:00 UTC to September 17th at 23:59 UTC.

To check your voter eligibility, please visit thevoter eligibility page.

Best regards,

The Elections Committee and Board Selection Working Group

MediaWiki message delivery (talk)14:14, 3 Lwetse 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Your wiki will be in read-only soon

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this message in another language •Please help translate to your language

TheWikimedia Foundation will switch the traffic between its data centers. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster.

All traffic will switch on25 September. The switch will start at15:00 UTC.

Unfortunately, because of some limitations inMediaWiki, all editing must stop while the switch is made. We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

A banner will be displayed on all wikis 30 minutes before this operation happens. This banner will remain visible until the end of the operation.

You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.

  • You will not be able to edit for up to an hour onWednesday 25 September 2024.
  • If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message. We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it. If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal. Then you should be able to save your edit. But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:

  • Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal. If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual. Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.
  • We expect the code deployments to happen as any other week. However, some case-by-case code freezes could punctually happen if the operation require them afterwards.
  • GitLab will be unavailable for about 90 minutes.

This project may be postponed if necessary. You canread the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule.

Please share this information with your community.

Trizek_(WMF),11:38, 20 Lwetse 2024 (CAT)[araba]

'Wikidata item' link is moving. Find out where...

[Fetola Motswedi]
Apologies for cross-posting in English. Please consider translating this message.Tempolete:Tracked

Hello everyone, a small change will soon be coming to the user-interface of your Wikimedia project.TheWikidata itemsitelink currently found under theGeneral section of theTools sidebar menu will move into theIn Other Projects section.

We would like the Wiki communities feedback so please let us know or ask questions on theDiscussion page before we enable the change which can take place October 4 2024, circa 15:00 UTC+2.More information can be found onthe project page.

We welcome your feedback and questions.
MediaWiki message delivery (talk)20:56, 27 Lwetse 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Invitation to Participate in Wiki Loves Ramadan Community Engagement Survey

[Fetola Motswedi]

Dear all,

Apologies for writing in English. Please help to translate in your language.We are excited to announce the upcomingWiki Loves Ramadan event, a global initiative aimed at celebrating Ramadan by enriching Wikipedia and its sister projects with content related to this significant time of year. As we plan to organize this event globally, your insights and experiences are crucial in shaping the best possible participation experience for the community.

To ensure that Wiki Loves Ramadan is engaging, inclusive, and impactful, we kindly invite you to participate in our community engagement survey. Your feedback will help us understand the needs of the community, set the event's focus, and guide our strategies for organizing this global event.

Survey link:https://forms.gle/f66MuzjcPpwzVymu5

Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts. Your input will make a difference!

Thank you for being a part of our journey to make Wiki Loves Ramadan a success.


Warm regards,

User:ZI Jony 05:20, 6 Phalane 2024 (CAT)

Wiki Loves Ramadan Organizing Team

Preliminary results of the 2024 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees elections

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello all,

Thank you to everyone who participated in the2024 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees election. Close to 6000 community members from more than 180 wiki projects have voted.

The following four candidates were the most voted:

  1. Christel Steigenberger
  2. Maciej Artur Nadzikiewicz
  3. Victoria Doronina
  4. Lorenzo Losa

While these candidates have been ranked through the vote, they still need to be appointed to the Board of Trustees. They need to pass a successful background check and meet the qualifications outlined in the Bylaws. New trustees will be appointed at the next Board meeting in December 2024.

Learn more about the results on Meta-Wiki.

Best regards,

The Elections Committee and Board Selection Working Group

MPossoupe_(WMF)10:26, 14 Phalane 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Seeking volunteers to join several of the movement’s committees

[Fetola Motswedi]

Each year, typically from October through December, several of the movement’s committees seek new volunteers.

Read more about the committees on their Meta-wiki pages:

Applications for the committees open on 16 October 2024. Applications for the Affiliations Committee close on 18 November 2024, and applications for the Ombuds commission and the Case Review Committee close on 2 December 2024. Learn how to apply byvisiting the appointment page on Meta-wiki. Post to the talk page or emailcst@wikimedia.org with any questions you may have.

For the Committee Support team,

--Keegan (WMF) (talk)01:08, 17 Phalane 2024 (CAT)[araba]

'Wikidata item' link is moving, finally.

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello everyone, I previously wrote on the 27th September to advise that theWikidata item sitelink will change places in the sidebar menu, moving from theGeneral section into theIn Other Projects section. The scheduled rollout date of 04.10.2024 was delayed due to a necessary request for Mobile/MinervaNeue skin. I am happy to inform that the global rollout can now proceed and will occur later today, 22.10.2024 at 15:00 UTC-2.Please let us know if you notice any problems or bugs after this change. There should be no need for null-edits or purging cache for the changes to occur. Kind regards, -Danny Benjafield (WMDE)13:28, 22 Phalane 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Final Reminder: Join us in Making Wiki Loves Ramadan Success

[Fetola Motswedi]

Dear all,

We’re thrilled to announce the Wiki Loves Ramadan event, a global initiative to celebrate Ramadan by enhancing Wikipedia and its sister projects with valuable content related to this special time of year. As we organize this event globally, we need your valuable input to make it a memorable experience for the community.

Last Call to Participate in Our Survey: To ensure that Wiki Loves Ramadan is inclusive and impactful, we kindly request you to complete our community engagement survey. Your feedback will shape the event’s focus and guide our organizing strategies to better meet community needs.

Please take a few minutes to share your thoughts. Your input will truly make a difference!

Volunteer Opportunity: Join the Wiki Loves Ramadan Team! We’re seeking dedicated volunteers for key team roles essential to the success of this initiative. If you’re interested in volunteer roles, we invite you to apply.

  • Application Link:Apply Here
  • Application Deadline: October 31, 2024

Explore Open Positions: For a detailed list of roles and their responsibilities, please refer to the position descriptions here:Position Descriptions

Thank you for being part of this journey. We look forward to working together to make Wiki Loves Ramadan a success!


Warm regards,
The Wiki Loves Ramadan Organizing Team 07:13, 29 Phalane 2024 (CAT)

Proposal to enable the "Contribute" entry point in Tswana Wikipedia

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello Tswana Wikipedians,

Apologies as this message is not in your language.Please help translate to your language.

TheWMF Language and Product Localization team proposes enabling an entry point called "Contribute" to your Wikipedia.

TheContribute entry point is based on collaborative work with other product teams in the Wikimedia Foundation onEdit discovery, which validated the entry point as a persistent and constant path that contributors took to discover ways to contribute content in Wikipedia.

Therefore, enabling this entry point in your Wikipedia will help contributors quickly discover available tools and immediately click to start using them. This entry point is designed to be a central point for discovering contribution tools in Tswana Wikipedia.

Who can access it

Once it is enabled in your Wikipedia, newcomers can access the entry point automatically by just logging into their account, click on the User drop-down menu and choose the "Contribute" icon, which takes you to another menu where you will find a self-guided description of what you can do to contribute content, as shown in the image below. An option to "view contributions" is also available to access the list of your contributions.

Mobile Contribute PageMobile contribute menu (detailed)

For experienced contributors, the Contribute icon is not automatically shown in their User drop-down menu. They will still see the "Contributions" option unless they change it to the "Contribute" manually.

This feature is available in four Wikipedia (Albanian, Malayalam, Mongolian, and Tagalog). We have gotten valuable feedback that helped us improve its discoverability. Now, it is ready to be enabled in other Wikis. One major improvement was tomake the entry point optional for experienced contributors who still want to have the "Contributions" entry point as default.          

We plan to enable iton mobile for Wikis, where the Section translation tool is enabled. In this way, we will provide a main entry point to the mobile translation dashboard, and the exposure can still be limited by targeting only the mobile platform for now. If there are no objections to having the entry point for mobile users from your community, we will enable it by 20th November 2024.

We welcome your feedback and questions in this thread on our proposal to enable it here. Suppose there are no objections, we will deploy the "Contribute" entry point in your Wikipedia.

We look forward to your response soon.

Thank you!

On behalf of the WMF Language and Product Localization team.UOzurumba (WMF) (talk)04:50, 7 Ngwanatsele 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Sign up for the language community meeting on November 29th, 16:00 UTC

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello everyone,

The next language community meeting is coming up next week, on November 29th, at 16:00 UTC (Zonestamp! For your timezone <https://zonestamp.toolforge.org/1732896000>). If you're interested in joining, you can sign up on this wiki page: <https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Language_and_Product_Localization/Community_meetings#29_November_2024>.

This participant-driven meeting will be organized by the Wikimedia Foundation’s Language Product Localization team and the Language Diversity Hub. There will be presentations on topics like developing language keyboards, the creation of the Moore Wikipedia, and the language support track at Wiki Indaba. We will also have members from the Wayuunaiki community joining us to share their experiences with the Incubator and as a new community within our movement. This meeting will have a Spanish interpretation.

Looking forward to seeing you at the language community meeting! Cheers,Srishti21:54, 21 Ngwanatsele 2024 (CAT)[araba]

Launching! Join Us for Wiki Loves Ramadan 2025!

[Fetola Motswedi]

Dear All,

We’re happy to announce the launch ofWiki Loves Ramadan 2025, an annual international campaign dedicated to celebrating and preserving Islamic cultures and history through the power of Wikipedia. As an active contributor to the Local Wikipedia, you are specially invited to participate in the launch.

This year’s campaign will be launched for you to join us write, edit, and improve articles that showcase the richness and diversity of Islamic traditions, history, and culture.

To get started, visit thecampaign page for details, resources, and guidelines: Wiki Loves Ramadan 2025.

Addyour community here, and organized Wiki Loves Ramadan 2025 in your local language.

Whether you’re a first-time editor or an experienced Wikipedian, your contributions matter. Together, we can ensure Islamic cultures and traditions are well-represented and accessible to all.

Feel free to invite your community and friends too. Kindly reach out if you have any questions or need support as you prepare to participate.

Let’s make Wiki Loves Ramadan 2025 a success!

For theInternational Team 14:08, 16 Firikgong 2025 (CAT)

Enabling Dark mode for logged-out users in this Wikipedia

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello Wikipedians,

Apologies, as this message is not written in your native language.Please help translate to your language.

TheWikimedia Foundation Web team will be enablingdark mode here on your Wikipedia by February 2025 now that pages on your wiki have passed our checks for accessibility and other quality checks. Congratulations!

The plan to enable is made possible by the diligent work of editors and other technical contributors in your community who ensured that templates, gadgets, and other parts of pages can be accessible in dark mode. Thank you all for making dark mode available for everybody!

For context, the Web team has concluded work on dark mode. If, on some wikis, the option is not yet available for logged-out users, this is likely because many pages do not yet display well in dark mode. As communities make progress on this work, we enable this feature on additional wikis once per month.

If you notice any issues after enabling dark mode, please create a page:Reading/Web/Accessibility for reading/Reporting/xx.wikipedia.org in MediaWiki (like these pages), and report the issue in the created page.

Thank you!

On behalf of theWikimedia Foundation Web team.

UOzurumba (WMF)00:14, 22 Firikgong 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Universal Code of Conduct annual review: provide your comments on the UCoC and Enforcement Guidelines

[Fetola Motswedi]

My apologies for writing in English.Please help translate to your language.

I am writing to you to let you know the annual review period for the Universal Code of Conduct and Enforcement Guidelines is open now. You can make suggestions for changes through 3 February 2025. This is the first step of several to be taken for the annual review.Read more information and find a conversation to join on the UCoC page on Meta.

TheUniversal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is a global group dedicated to providing an equitable and consistent implementation of the UCoC. This annual review was planned and implemented by the U4C. For more information and the responsibilities of the U4C,you may review the U4C Charter.

Please share this information with other members in your community wherever else might be appropriate.

-- In cooperation with the U4C,Keegan (WMF) (talk)03:11, 24 Firikgong 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Feminism and Folklore 2025 starts soon

[Fetola Motswedi]
Please help translate to your language

Dear Wiki Community,

You are humbly invited to organize theFeminism and Folklore 2025 writing competition from February 1, 2025, to March 31, 2025 on your local Wikipedia. This year, Feminism and Folklore will focus on feminism, women's issues, and gender-focused topics for the project, with aWiki Loves Folklore gender gap focus and a folk culture theme on Wikipedia.

You can help Wikipedia's coverage of folklore from your area by writing or improving articles about things like folk festivals, folk dances, folk music, women and queer folklore figures, folk game athletes, women in mythology, women warriors in folklore, witches and witch hunting, fairy tales, and more. Users can help create new articles, expand or translate from a generated list of suggested articles.

Organisers are requested to work on the following action items to sign up their communities for the project:

  1. Create a page for the contest on the local wiki.
  2. Set up a campaign onCampWiz tool.
  3. Create the local list and mention the timeline and local and international prizes.
  4. Request local admins for site notice.
  5. Link the local page and the CampWiz link on themeta project page.

This year, the Wiki Loves Folklore Tech Team has introduced two new tools to enhance support for the campaign. These tools include theArticle List Generator by Topic andCampWiz. The Article List Generator by Topic enables users to identify articles on the English Wikipedia that are not present in their native language Wikipedia. Users can customize their selection criteria, and the tool will present a table showcasing the missing articles along with suggested titles. Additionally, users have the option to download the list in both CSV and wikitable formats. Notably, the CampWiz tool will be employed for the project for the first time, empowering users to effectively host the project with a jury. Both tools are now available for use in the campaign.Click here to access these tools

Learn more about the contest and prizes on ourproject page. Feel free to contact us on ourmeta talk page or by email us if you need any assistance.

We look forward to your immense coordination.

Thank you and Best wishes,

Feminism and Folklore 2025 International Team

Stay connected 

--MediaWiki message delivery (talk)04:36, 29 Firikgong 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Wiki Loves Folklore is back!

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please help translate to your language

Dear Wiki Community,You are humbly invited to participate in theWiki Loves Folklore 2025 an international media contest organized on Wikimedia Commons to document folklore and intangible cultural heritage from different regions, including, folk creative activities and many more. It is held every year from the1st till the 31st of March.

You can help in enriching the folklore documentation on Commons from your region by taking photos, audios, videos, andsubmitting them in this commons contest.

You can alsoorganize a local contest in your country and support us in translating theproject pages to help us spread the word in your native language.

Feel free to contact us on ourproject Talk page if you need any assistance.

Kind regards,

Wiki loves Folklore International Team--MediaWiki message delivery (talk)04:36, 29 Firikgong 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Reminder: first part of the annual UCoC review closes soon

[Fetola Motswedi]

My apologies for writing in English.Please help translate to your language.

This is a reminder that the first phase of the annual review period for the Universal Code of Conduct and Enforcement Guidelines will be closing soon. You can make suggestions for changes throughthe end of day, 3 February 2025. This is the first step of several to be taken for the annual review.Read more information and find a conversation to join on the UCoC page on Meta. After review of the feedback, proposals for updated text will be published on Meta in March for another round of community review.

Please share this information with other members in your community wherever else might be appropriate.

-- In cooperation with the U4C,Keegan (WMF) (talk)02:49, 3 Tlhakole 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Upcoming Language Community Meeting (Feb 28th, 14:00 UTC) and Newsletter

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello everyone!

An image symbolising multiple languages

We’re excited to announce that the nextLanguage Community Meeting is happening soon,February 28th at 14:00 UTC! If you’d like to join, simply sign up on thewiki page.

This is a participant-driven meeting where we share updates on language-related projects, discuss technical challenges in language wikis, and collaborate on solutions. In our last meeting, we covered topics like developing language keyboards, creating the Moore Wikipedia, and updates from the language support track at Wiki Indaba.

Got a topic to share? Whether it’s a technical update from your project, a challenge you need help with, or a request for interpretation support, we’d love to hear from you! Feel free toreply to this message or add agenda items to the documenthere.

Also, we wanted to highlight that the sixth edition of the Language & Internationalization newsletter (January 2025) is available here:Wikimedia Language and Product Localization/Newsletter/2025/January. This newsletter provides updates from the October–December 2024 quarter on new feature development, improvements in various language-related technical projects and support efforts, details about community meetings, and ideas for contributing to projects. To stay updated, you can subscribe to the newsletter on its wiki page:Wikimedia Language and Product Localization/Newsletter.

We look forward to your ideas and participation at the language community meeting, see you there!

MediaWiki message delivery10:29, 22 Tlhakole 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Universal Code of Conduct annual review: proposed changes are available for comment

[Fetola Motswedi]

My apologies for writing in English.Please help translate to your language.

I am writing to you to let you know thatproposed changes to theUniversal Code of Conduct (UCoC) Enforcement Guidelines andUniversal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) Charter are open for review.You can provide feedback on suggested changes through theend of day on Tuesday, 18 March 2025. This is the second step in the annual review process, the final step will be community voting on the proposed changes.Read more information and find relevant links about the process on the UCoC annual review page on Meta.

TheUniversal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is a global group dedicated to providing an equitable and consistent implementation of the UCoC. This annual review was planned and implemented by the U4C. For more information and the responsibilities of the U4C,you may review the U4C Charter.

Please share this information with other members in your community wherever else might be appropriate.

-- In cooperation with the U4C,Keegan (WMF)20:51, 7 Mopitlo 2025 (CAT)[araba]

An improved dashboard for the Content Translation tool

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello Wikipedians,

Apologies as this message is not in your language,Please help translate to your language.

TheLanguage and Product Localization team has improved theContent Translation dashboard to create a consistent experience for all contributors using mobile and desktop devices. The improved translation dashboard allows all logged-in users of the tool to enjoy a consistent experience regardless of their type of device.

With a harmonized experience, logged-in desktop users now have access to the capabilities shown in the image below.

Notice that in this screenshot, the new dashboard allows: Users to adjust suggestions with the "For you" and "...More" buttons to select general topics or community-created collections (like the example of Climate topic).  Also, users can use translation to create new articles (as before) and expand existing articles section by section. You can see how suggestions are provided in the new dashboard  in two groups ("Create new pages" and "Expand with new sections")-one for each activity.
In the current dashboard, you will notice that you can't adjust suggestions to select topics or community-created collections. Also, you can't expand on existing articles by translating new sections.

We will implementthis improvement on your wikion Monday, March 17th, 2025 and remove the current dashboardby May 2025.Please reach out with any questions concerning the dashboard in this thread.

Thank you!

On behalf of the Language and Product Localization team.

UOzurumba (WMF)04:56, 13 Mopitlo 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Your wiki will be in read-only soon

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this message in another language •Please help translate to your language

TheWikimedia Foundation will switch the traffic between its data centers. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster.

All traffic will switch on19 March. The switch will start at14:00 UTC.

Unfortunately, because of some limitations inMediaWiki, all editing must stop while the switch is made. We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

A banner will be displayed on all wikis 30 minutes before this operation happens. This banner will remain visible until the end of the operation.

You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.

  • You will not be able to edit for up to an hour onWednesday 19 March 2025.
  • If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message. We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it. If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal. Then you should be able to save your edit. But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:

  • Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal. If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual. Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.
  • We expect the code deployments to happen as any other week. However, some case-by-case code freezes could punctually happen if the operation require them afterwards.
  • GitLab will be unavailable for about 90 minutes.

This project may be postponed if necessary. You canread the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule.

Please share this information with your community.

MediaWiki message delivery01:14, 15 Mopitlo 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Machine in Translation (MinT) for Wiki Readers

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello Tswana Wikipedians!

Apologies as this message is not in your language,Please help translate to your language.

Last year, the Wikimedia Language and Product Localization teaminformed you about theMinT for Wiki Readers feature. As you may recall,this feature enables readers to access content in other languages when it's not available in their own language, using automatic machine translation.

We are ready to implement the article footer entry point for this feature in Tswana Wikipedia. Through this entry point, readers can expand their reading options beyond their native language. For example, if a user is interested in a topic that is only written in Japanese and they don’t understand Japanese, they can go down to the footer of that article to access the automatic translated version of that content in Tswana language while using the mobile web version of Wikipedia, as shown in the image below.

Next Steps

Before we enable iton April 7th 2025, your feedback remains valuable to us, and we welcome any questions about this work. You can also help translatethe message string in translatewiki to ensure the interface is in your language.

Please share your feedback in this thread or onthis talk page.

Thank you!

On behalf of the Wikimedia Language and Product Localization TeamUOzurumba (WMF) (talk)21:03, 31 Mopitlo 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Final proposed modifications to the Universal Code of Conduct Enforcement Guidelines and U4C Charter now posted

[Fetola Motswedi]

The proposed modifications to theUniversal Code of Conduct Enforcement Guidelines and the U4C Charterare now on Meta-wiki for community notice in advance of the voting period. This final draft was developed from the previous two rounds of community review. Community members will be able to vote on these modifications starting on 17 April 2025. The vote will close on 1 May 2025, and results will be announced no later than 12 May 2025. The U4C election period, starting with a call for candidates, will open immediately following the announcement of the review results. More information will be posted onthe wiki page for the election soon.

Please be advised that this process will require more messages to be sent here over the next two months.

TheUniversal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is a global group dedicated to providing an equitable and consistent implementation of the UCoC. This annual review was planned and implemented by the U4C. For more information and the responsibilities of the U4C, you mayreview the U4C Charter.

Please share this message with members of your community so they can participate as well.

-- In cooperation with the U4C,Keegan (WMF) (talk)04:04, 4 Moranang 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month 2025: Invitation

[Fetola Motswedi]

Please help translate to your language

Hello, dear Wikipedians!

Wikimedia Ukraine, in cooperation with theMFA of Ukraine andUkrainian Institute, has launched the fifth edition of writing challenge "Ukraine's Cultural Diplomacy Month", which lasts from14th April until16th May 2025. The campaign is dedicated to famous Ukrainian artists of cinema, music, literature, architecture, design, and cultural phenomena of Ukraine that are now part of world heritage. We accept contributions in every language!

The most active contesters will receive prizes.

If you are interested in coordinating long-term community engagement for the campaign and becoming a local ambassador, we would love to hear from you! Please let us know your interest.

We invite you to take part and help us improve the coverage of Ukrainian culture on Wikipedia in your language! Also, we plan to set up abanner to notify users of the possibility to participate in such a challenge!OlesiaLukaniuk (WMUA) (talk)

18:11, 16 Moranang 2025 (CAT)

Vote now on the revised UCoC Enforcement Guidelines and U4C Charter

[Fetola Motswedi]

The voting period for the revisions to the Universal Code of Conduct Enforcement Guidelines ("UCoC EG") and the UCoC's Coordinating Committee Charter is open now through the end of 1 May (UTC) (find in your time zone).Read the information on how to participate and read over the proposal before voting on the UCoC page on Meta-wiki.

TheUniversal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is a global group dedicated to providing an equitable and consistent implementation of the UCoC. This annual review of the EG and Charter was planned and implemented by the U4C. Further information will be provided in the coming months about the review of the UCoC itself. For more information and the responsibilities of the U4C, you mayreview the U4C Charter.

Please share this message with members of your community so they can participate as well.

In cooperation with the U4C --Keegan (WMF) (talk)02:35, 17 Moranang 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Sub-referencing: User testing

[Fetola Motswedi]

Apologies for writing in English, please help us by providing a translation below

Hi I’m Johannes fromWikimedia Deutschland'sTechnical Wishes team. We are making great strides with the newsub-referencing feature and we’d love to invite you to take part in two activities to help us move this work further:

  1. Try it out and share your feedback
    Please try the updatedwikitext featureon the beta wiki and let us know what you think, eitheron our talk page or bybooking a call with our UX researcher.
  2. Get a sneak peak and help shape theVisual Editor user designs
    Help us test the new design prototypes by participating in user sessions –sign up here to receive an invite. We're especially hoping to speak with people from underrepresented and diverse groups. If that's you, please consider signing up! No prior or extensive editing experience is required. User sessions will startMay 14th.

We plan to bring this feature to Wikimedia wikis later this year. We’ll reach out to wikis for piloting in time for deployments. Creators and maintainers of reference-related tools and templates will be contacted beforehand as well.

Thank you very much for your support and encouragement so far in helping bring this feature to life!

Johannes Richter (WMDE) (talk)17:04, 28 Moranang 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Vote on proposed modifications to the UCoC Enforcement Guidelines and U4C Charter

[Fetola Motswedi]

The voting period for the revisions to the Universal Code of Conduct Enforcement Guidelines and U4C Charter closes on 1 May 2025 at 23:59 UTC (find in your time zone).Read the information on how to participate and read over the proposal before voting on the UCoC page on Meta-wiki.

TheUniversal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is a global group dedicated to providing an equitable and consistent implementation of the UCoC. This annual review was planned and implemented by the U4C. For more information and the responsibilities of the U4C, you mayreview the U4C Charter.

Please share this message with members of your community in your language, as appropriate, so they can participate as well.

In cooperation with the U4C --

Keegan (WMF) (talk)05:41, 29 Moranang 2025 (CAT)[araba]

We will be enabling the new Charts extension on your wiki soon!

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Apologies for posting in English)

Hi all! We have good news to share regarding the ongoing problem with graphs and charts affecting all wikis that use them.

As you probably know, theold Graph extension was disabled in 2023due to security reasons. We’ve worked in these two years to find a solution that could replace the old extension, and provide a safer and better solution to users who wanted to showcase graphs and charts in their articles. We therefore developed theCharts extension, which will be replacing the old Graph extension and potentially also theEasyTimeline extension.

After successfully deploying the extension on Italian, Swedish, and Hebrew Wikipedia, as well as on MediaWiki.org, as part of a pilot phase, we are now happy to announce that we are moving forward with the next phase of deployment, which will also include your wiki.

The deployment will happen in batches, and will start fromMay 6. Please, consultour page on MediaWiki.org to discover when the new Charts extension will be deployed on your wiki. You can alsoconsult the documentation about the extension on MediaWiki.org.

If you have questions, need clarifications, or just want to express your opinion about it, please refer to theproject’s talk page on Mediawiki.org, or ping me directly under this thread. If you encounter issues using Charts once it gets enabled on your wiki, please report it on thetalk page or atPhabricator.

Thank you in advance! --User:Sannita (WMF) (talk)17:07, 6 Motsheganong 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Call for Candidates for the Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C)

[Fetola Motswedi]

The results of voting on the Universal Code of Conduct Enforcement Guidelines and Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) Charter isavailable on Meta-wiki.

You may nowsubmit your candidacy to serve on the U4C through 29 May 2025 at 12:00 UTC. Information abouteligibility, process, and the timeline are on Meta-wiki. Voting on candidates will open on 1 June 2025 and run for two weeks, closing on 15 June 2025 at 12:00 UTC.

If you have any questions, you can ask onthe discussion page for the election. -- in cooperation with the U4C,

Keegan (WMF) (bua)00:07, 16 Motsheganong 2025 (CAT)[araba]

RfC ongoing regarding Abstract Wikipedia (and your project)

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Apologies for posting in English, if this is not your first language)

Hello all! We opened a discussion on Meta about a very delicate issue for the development ofAbstract Wikipedia: where to store the abstract content that will be developed through functions from Wikifunctions and data from Wikidata. Since some of the hypothesis involve your project, we wanted to hear your thoughts too.

We want to make the decision process clear: we do not yet know which option we want to use, which is why we are consulting here. We will take the arguments from the Wikimedia communities into account, and we want to consult with the different communities and hear arguments that will help us with the decision. The decision will be made and communicated after the consultation period by the Foundation.

You can read the various hypothesis and have your say atAbstract Wikipedia/Location of Abstract Content. Thank you in advance! --Sannita (WMF) (bua)17:27, 22 Motsheganong 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees 2025 Selection & Call for Questions

[Fetola Motswedi]

More languages •Please help translate to your language

Dear all,

This year, the term of 2 (two) Community- and Affiliate-selected Trustees on the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees will come to an end [1]. The Board invites the whole movement to participate in this year’s selection process and vote to fill those seats.

The Elections Committee will oversee this process with support from Foundation staff [2]. The Governance Committee, composed of trustees who are not candidates in the 2025 community-and-affiliate-selected trustee selection process (Raju Narisetti, Shani Evenstein Sigalov, Lorenzo Losa, Kathy Collins, Victoria Doronina and Esra’a Al Shafei) [3], is tasked with providing Board oversight for the 2025 trustee selection process and for keeping the Board informed. More details on the roles of the Elections Committee, Board, and staff are here [4].

Here are the key planned dates:

  • May 22 – June 5: Announcement (this communication) and call for questions period [6]
  • June 17 – July 1, 2025: Call for candidates
  • July 2025: If needed, affiliates vote to shortlist candidates if more than 10 apply [5]
  • August 2025: Campaign period
  • August – September 2025: Two-week community voting period
  • October – November 2025: Background check of selected candidates
  • Board’s Meeting in December 2025: New trustees seated

Learn more about the 2025 selection process - including the detailed timeline, the candidacy process, the campaign rules, and the voter eligibility criteria - on this Meta-wiki page[link].

Call for Questions

In each selection process, the community has the opportunity to submit questions for the Board of Trustees candidates to answer. The Election Committee selects questions from the list developed by the community for the candidates to answer. Candidates must answer all the required questions in the application in order to be eligible; otherwise their application will be disqualified. This year, the Election Committee will select 5 questions for the candidates to answer. The selected questions may be a combination of what’s been submitted from the community, if they’re alike or related.[link]

Election Volunteers

Another way to be involved with the 2025 selection process is to be an Election Volunteer. Election Volunteers are a bridge between the Elections Committee and their respective community. They help ensure their community is represented and mobilize them to vote. Learn more about the program and how to join on this Meta-wiki page[link].

Thank you!

[1]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2022/Results

[2]https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Committee:Elections_Committee_Charter

[3]https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Resolution:Committee_Membership,_December_2024

[4]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections_committee/Roles

[5]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2025/FAQ

[6]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2025/Questions_for_candidates

Best regards,

Victoria Doronina

Board Liaison to the Elections Committee

Governance Committee

MediaWiki message delivery (talk)05:08, 28 Motsheganong 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Upcoming Deployment of the CampaignEvents Extension

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello everyone,

(Apologies for posting in English if English is not your first language. Please help translate to your language.)

The Campaigns Product Team is planning a global deployment of theCampaignEvents extension to all Wikipedias, including this wiki, during theweek of June 23rd.

This extension is designed to help organizers plan and manage events, WikiProjects, and other on-wiki collaborations - and to make these efforts more discoverable.

The three main features of this extension are:

Note: The extension comes with a new user right called"Event Organizer", which will be managed by administrators on this wiki. Organizer tools like Event Registration and Invitation Lists will only work if someone is granted this right. The Collaboration List is available to everyone immediately after deployment.

The extension is already live on several wikis, includingMeta, Wikidata, English Wikipedia, and more ( See the full deployment list)

If you have any questions, concerns, or feedback, please feel free to share them on the extension talkpage. We’d love to hear from you before the rollout.

Thank you!

Udehb-WMF (bua)18:47, 29 Motsheganong 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Vote now in the 2025 U4C Election

[Fetola Motswedi]

Apologies for writing in English.Please help translate to your language

Eligible voters are asked to participate in the 2025Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee election. More information–including an eligibility check, voting process information, candidate information, and a link to the vote–are available on Meta at the2025 Election information page. The vote closes on 17 June 2025 at12:00 UTC.

Please vote if your account is eligible. Results will be available by 1 July 2025. -- In cooperation with the U4C,Keegan (WMF) (talk)01:01, 14 Seetebosigo 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees 2025 - Call for Candidates

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello all,

Thecall for candidates for the 2025 Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees selection is now open from June 17, 2025 – July 2, 2025 at 11:59 UTC [1]. The Board of Trustees oversees the Wikimedia Foundation's work, and each Trustee serves a three-year term [2]. This is a volunteer position.

This year, the Wikimedia community will vote in late August through September 2025 to fill two (2) seats on the Foundation Board. Could you – or someone you know – be a good fit to join the Wikimedia Foundation's Board of Trustees? [3]

Learn more about what it takes to stand for these leadership positions and how to submit your candidacy onthis Meta-wiki page or encourage someone else to run in this year's election.

Best regards,

Abhishek Suryawanshi
Chair of the Elections Committee

On behalf of the Elections Committee and Governance Committee

[1]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2025/Call_for_candidates

[2]https://foundation.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal:Bylaws#(B)_Term.

[3]https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MyLanguage/Wikimedia_Foundation_elections/2025/Resources_for_candidates

MediaWiki message delivery (talk)19:44, 17 Seetebosigo 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Sister Projects Task Force reviews Wikispore and Wikinews

[Fetola Motswedi]

Dear Wikimedia Community,

TheCommunity Affairs Committee (CAC) of the Wikimedia Foundation Board of Trustees assignedthe Sister Projects Task Force (SPTF) to update and implement a procedure for assessing the lifecycle of Sister Projects – wikiprojects supported by Wikimedia Foundation (WMF).

A vision of relevant, accessible, and impactful free knowledge has always guided the Wikimedia Movement. As the ecosystem of Wikimedia projects continues to evolve, it is crucial that we periodically review existing projects to ensure they still align with our goals and community capacity.

Despite their noble intent, some projects may no longer effectively serve their original purpose.Reviewing such projects is not about giving up – it's about responsible stewardship of shared resources. Volunteer time, staff support, infrastructure, and community attention are finite, and the non-technical costs tend to grow significantly as our ecosystem has entered a different age of the internet than the one we were founded in. Supporting inactive projects or projects that didn't meet our ambitions can unintentionally divert these resources from areas with more potential impact.

Moreover, maintaining projects that no longer reflect the quality and reliability of the Wikimedia name stands for, involves a reputational risk. An abandoned or less reliable project affects trust in the Wikimedia movement.

Lastly,failing to sunset or reimagine projects that are no longer working can make it much harder to start new ones. When the community feels bound to every past decision – no matter how outdated – we risk stagnation. A healthy ecosystem must allow for evolution, adaptation, and, when necessary, letting go. If we create the expectation that every project must exist indefinitely, we limit our ability to experiment and innovate.

Because of this, SPTF reviewed two requests concerning the lifecycle of the Sister Projects to work through and demonstrate the review process. We chose Wikispore as a case study for a possible new Sister Project opening and Wikinews as a case study for a review of an existing project. Preliminary findings were discussed with the CAC, and a community consultation on both proposals was recommended.

Wikispore

[Fetola Motswedi]

Theapplication to consider Wikispore was submitted in 2019. SPTF decided to review this request in more depth because rather than being concentrated on a specific topic, as most of the proposals for the new Sister Projects are, Wikispore has the potential to nurture multiple start-up Sister Projects.

After careful consideration, the SPTF has decidednot to recommend Wikispore as a Wikimedia Sister Project. Considering the current activity level, the current arrangement allowsbetter flexibility and experimentation while WMF provides core infrastructural support.

We acknowledge the initiative's potential and seek community input on what would constitute a sufficient level of activity and engagement to reconsider its status in the future.

As part of the process, we shared the decision with the Wikispore community and invited one of its leaders, Pharos, to an SPTF meeting.

Currently, we especially invite feedback on measurable criteria indicating the project's readiness, such as contributor numbers, content volume, and sustained community support. This would clarify the criteria sufficient for opening a new Sister Project, including possible future Wikispore re-application. However, the numbers will always be a guide because any number can be gamed.

Wikinews

[Fetola Motswedi]

We chose to review Wikinews among existing Sister Projects because it is the one for which we have observed the highest level of concern in multiple ways.

Since the SPTF was convened in 2023, its members have asked for the community's opinions during conferences and community calls about Sister Projects that did not fulfil their promise in the Wikimedia movement.[1][2][3] Wikinews was the leading candidate for an evaluation because people from multiple language communities proposed it. Additionally, by most measures, it is the least active Sister Project, with the greatest drop in activity over the years.

While the Language Committee routinely opens and closes language versions of the Sister Projects in small languages, there has never been a valid proposal to close Wikipedia in major languages or any project in English. This is not true for Wikinews, where there was a proposal to close English Wikinews, which gained some traction but did not result in any action[4][5], see section 5 as well as a draft proposal to close all languages of Wikinews[6].

Initial metrics compiled by WMF staff also support the community's concerns about Wikinews.

Based on this report, SPTF recommends a community reevaluation of Wikinews. We conclude that its current structure and activity levels are the lowest among the existing sister projects. SPTF also recommends pausing the opening of new language editions while the consultation runs.

SPTF brings this analysis to a discussion and welcomes discussions of alternative outcomes, including potential restructuring efforts or integration with other Wikimedia initiatives.

Options mentioned so far (which might be applied to just low-activity languages or all languages) include but are not limited to:

  • Restructure how Wikinews works and is linked to other current events efforts on the projects,
  • Merge the content of Wikinews into the relevant language Wikipedias, possibly in a new namespace,
  • Merge content into compatibly licensed external projects,
  • Archive Wikinews projects.

Your insights and perspectives are invaluable in shaping the future of these projects. We encourage all interested community members to share their thoughts on the relevant discussion pages or through other designated feedback channels.

Feedback and next steps

[Fetola Motswedi]

We'd be grateful if you want to take part in a conversation on the future of these projects and the review process. We are setting up two different project pages:Public consultation about Wikispore andPublic consultation about Wikinews. Please participate between 27 June 2025 and 27 July 2025, after which we will summarize the discussion to move forward. You can write in your own language.

I will also host a community conversation 16th July Wednesday 11.00 UTC and 17th July Thursday 17.00 UTC (call links to follow shortly) and will be around at Wikimania for more discussions.

--Victoria on behalf of the Sister Project Task Force,22:57, 27 Seetebosigo 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Wikidata Item and Property labels soon displayed in Wiki Watchlist/Recent Changes

[Fetola Motswedi]

(Apologies for posting in English, you can help by translating into your language)

Hello everyone, theWikidata For Wikimedia Projects team is excited to announce an upcoming change in how Wikidata edit changelogs are displayed in yourWatchlists andRecent Changes lists. If an edit is made on Wikidata that affects a page in another Wikimedia Project, the changelog will contain some information about the nature of the edit. This can include a QID (or Q-number), a PID (or P-number) and a value (which can be text, numbers, dates, or also QID or PID’s). Confused by these terms? See theWikidata:Glossary for further explanations.

The upcoming change is scheduled for17.07.2025, between1300 - 1500 UTC.The change will display the label (item name) alongside any QID or PIDs, as seen in the image below:An edit sum entry on Wikidata, labels display alongside their P- and Q-no.'s

These changes will only be visible if you have Wikidata edits enabled in your User Preferences for Watchlists and Recent Changes, or have the active filter ‘Wikidata edits’ checkbox toggled on, directly on the Watchlist and Recent Changes pages.

Your bot and gadget may be affected! There are thousands of bots, gadgets and user-scripts and whilst we have researched potential effects to many of them, we cannot guarantee there won’t be some that are broken or affected by this change.

Further information and context about this change, including how your bot may be affected can be found on thisproject task page. We welcome your questions and feedback, please write to us on this dedicatedTalk page.

Thank you, -Danny Benjafield (WMDE) on behalf of the Wikidata For Wikimedia Projects Team.MediaWiki message delivery (talk)14:46, 14 Phukwi 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Temporary accounts will be rolled out soon

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello, we are the Wikimedia FoundationProduct Safety and Integrity team. We would like to announce thatwe plan to enabletemporary accounts for this wiki in the week of September 1.

Temporary accounts are successfully live on 30 wikis, including many large ones like German, Japanese, and French. The change they bring is especially relevant to logged-out editors, who this feature is designed to protect. But it is also relevant to community members like mentors, patrollers, and admins – anyone who reverts edits, blocks users, or otherwise interacts with logged-out editors as part of keeping the wikis safe and accurate.

Why we are building temporary accounts

Our wikis should be safer to edit by default for logged-out editors. Temporary accounts allow people to continue editing the wikis without creating an account, while avoiding publicly tying their edits to their IP address. We believe this is in the best interest of our logged-out editors, who make valuable contributions to the wikis and who may later create accounts and grow our community of editors, admins, and other roles. Even though the wikis do warn logged-out editors that their IP address will be associated with their edit, many people may not understand what an IP address is, or that it could be used to connect them to other information about them in ways they might not expect.

Additionally, our moderation software and tools rely too heavily on network origin (IP addresses) to identify users and patterns of activity, especially as IP addresses themselves are becoming less stable as identifiers. Temporary accounts allow for more precise interactions with logged-out editors, including more precise blocks, and can help limit how often we unintentionally end up blocking good-faith users who use the same IP addresses as bad-faith users.

How temporary accounts work

Any time a logged-out user publishes an edit on this wiki, a cookie will be set in this user's browser, and a temporary account tied with this cookie will be automatically created. This account's name will follow the pattern:~2025-12345-67 (a tilde, current year, a number). On pages like Recent Changes or page history, this name will be displayed. The cookie will expire 90 days after its creation. As long as it exists, all edits made from this device will be attributed to this temporary account. It will be the same account even if the IP address changes, unless the user clears their cookies or uses a different device or web browser. A record of the IP address used at the time of each edit will be stored for 90 days after the edit. However, only some logged-in users will be able to see it.

What does this mean for different groups of users?

For logged-out editors

  • This increases privacy: currently, if you do not use a registered account to edit, then everybody can see the IP address for the edits you made, even after 90 days. That will no longer be possible on this wiki.
  • If you use a temporary account to edit from different locations in the last 90 days (for example at home and at a coffee shop), the edit history and the IP addresses for all those locations will now be recorded together, for the same temporary account. Users whomeet the relevant requirements will be able to view this data. If this creates any personal security concerns for you, please contact talktohumanrights at wikimedia.org for advice.

For community members interacting with logged-out editors

  • A temporary account is uniquely linked to a device. In comparison, an IP address can be shared with different devices and people (for example, different people at school or at work might have the same IP address).
  • Compared to the current situation, it will be safer to assume that a temporary user's talk page belongs to only one person, and messages left there will be read by them. As you can see in the screenshot, temporary account users will receive notifications. It will also be possible to thank them for their edits, ping them in discussions, and invite them to get more involved in the community.

For users who use IP address data to moderate and maintain the wiki

  • For patrollers who track persistent abusers, investigate violations of policies, etc.: Users whomeet the requirements will be able to reveal temporary users' IP addresses and all contributions made by temporary accounts from a specific IP address or range (Special:IPContributions). They will also have access to useful information about the IP addresses thanks to theIP Info feature. Many other pieces of software have been built or adjusted to work with temporary accounts, including AbuseFilter, global blocks, Global User Contributions, and more. (For information for volunteer developers on how to update the code of your tools – see the last part of the message.)
  • For admins blocking logged-out editors:
    • It will be possible to block many abusers by just blocking their temporary accounts. A blocked person won't be able to create new temporary accounts quickly if the admin selects theautoblock option.
    • It will still be possible to block an IP address or IP range.
  • Temporary accounts will not be retroactively applied to contributions made before the deployment. On Special:Contributions, you will be able to see existing IP user contributions, but not new contributions made by temporary accounts on that IP address. Instead, you should use Special:IPContributions for this.

Our requests for you, and next steps

  • If you know of any tools, bots, gadgets etc. using data about IP addresses or being available for logged-out users, you may want to test if they work ontestwiki ortest2wiki. If you are a volunteer developer,read our documentation for developers, and in particular, the section onhow your code might need to be updated.
  • If you want to test the temporary account experience, for example just to check what it feels like, go to testwiki or test2wiki and edit without logging in.
  • Tell us if you know of any difficulties that need to be addressed. We will try to help, and if we are not able, we will consider the available options.
  • Look at ourprevious message about requirements for users without extended rights who may need access to IP addresses.

To learn more about the project, check outour FAQ – you will find many useful answers there. You may alsolook at the updates (we have just posted one) andsubscribe to our new newsletter. If you'd like to talk to me (Szymon) off-wiki, you will find me on Discord and Telegram. Thank you!

NKohli (WMF),SGrabarczuk (WMF)23:36, 26 Phatwe 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Server switch - Your wiki will be read-only for a short time soon

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this message in another language •Please help translate to your language

TheWikimedia Foundation will switch the traffic between its data centers. This will make sure that Wikipedia and the other Wikimedia wikis can stay online even after a disaster.

All traffic will switch on24 September. The switch will start at15:00 UTC.

Unfortunately, because of some limitations inMediaWiki, all editing must stop while the switch is made. We apologize for this disruption, and we are working to minimize it in the future.

A banner will be displayed on all wikis 30 minutes before this operation happens. This banner will remain visible until the end of the operation. You can contribute to thetranslation or proofreading of this banner text.

You will be able to read, but not edit, all wikis for a short period of time.

  • You will not be able to edit for up to an hour onWednesday 24 September 2025.
  • If you try to edit or save during these times, you will see an error message. We hope that no edits will be lost during these minutes, but we can't guarantee it. If you see the error message, then please wait until everything is back to normal. Then you should be able to save your edit. But, we recommend that you make a copy of your changes first, just in case.

Other effects:

  • Background jobs will be slower and some may be dropped. Red links might not be updated as quickly as normal. If you create an article that is already linked somewhere else, the link will stay red longer than usual. Some long-running scripts will have to be stopped.
  • We expect the code deployments to happen as any other week. However, some case-by-case code freezes could punctually happen if the operation require them afterwards.
  • GitLab will be unavailable for about 90 minutes.

This project may be postponed if necessary. You canread the schedule at wikitech.wikimedia.org. Any changes will be announced in the schedule.

Please share this information with your community.

Trizek (WMF) (Puisano)17:41, 18 Lwetse 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Have your say: vote for the 2025 Board of Trustees

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello all,

The voting period for the2025 Board of Trustees election is now open. Candidates are running for two (2) seats on the Board.

To check your voter eligibility, please visit thevoter eligibility page.

Learn more about them byreading their application statements and watch their candidacy videos.

When you are ready, go to theSecurePoll voting page to vote.

The vote is open from October 8 at 00:00 UTC to October 22 at 23:59 UTC.

Best regards,

Abhishek Suryawanshi
Chair, Elections Committee

MediaWiki message delivery (talk)06:48, 9 Phalane 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Help us decide the name of the new Abstract Wikipedia project

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello. Please help pick a name for the new Abstract Wikipedia wiki project. This project will be a wiki that will enable users to combine functions fromWikifunctions and data from Wikidata in order to generate natural language sentences in any supported languages. These sentences can then be used by any Wikipedia (or elsewhere).

There will be two rounds of voting, each followed by legal review of candidates, with votes beginning on 20 October and 17 November 2025. Our goal is to have a final project name selected on mid-December 2025. If you would like to participate, thenplease learn more and vote now at meta-wiki.Thank you!

--User:Sannita (WMF) (talk)13:43, 20 Phalane 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Seeking volunteers to join several of the movement’s committees

[Fetola Motswedi]

Each year, typically from October through December, several of the movement’s committees seek new volunteers.

Read more about the committees on their Meta-wiki pages:

Applications for the committees open on October 30, 2025. Applications for the Affiliations Committee, Ombuds commission and the Case Review Committee close on December 11, 2025. Learn how to apply byvisiting the appointment page on Meta-wiki. Post to the talk page or email cst(_AT_)wikimedia.org with any questions you may have.

For the Committee Support team,

- MKaur (WMF)16:13, 30 Phalane 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Migration to Parsoid

[Fetola Motswedi]

Read this in another language

Hello everyone! I am glad to inform you that as the next step in theParser Unification project, Parsoid will soon be turned on as the default article renderer on your wiki. We are gradually increasing the number of wikis using Parsoid, with the intention of making it the default wikitext parser for MediaWiki's next long-term support release. This will make our wikis more reliable and consistent for editors, readers, and tools to use, as well as making the development of future wikitext features easier.

If this disrupts your workflow, don’t worry! You can still opt out through a user preference or turn Parsoid off on the current page using the Tools submenu, as described in theExtension:ParserMigration documentation.

There ismore information about our roll-out strategy available, including the testing done before we turn on Parsoid for a new wiki.

To report bugs and issues, please look at ourknown issues documentation and if you found a new bug please create a phab ticket and tag theContent Transform Team in Phabricator.

Content Transform Team02:43, 20 Ngwanatsele 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Reminder: Help us decide the name of the new Abstract Wikipedia project

[Fetola Motswedi]

Hello. Reminder: Please help to choose name for the new Abstract Wikipedia wiki project. The finalist vote starts today. The finalists for the name are:Abstract Wikipedia, Multilingual Wikipedia, Wikiabstracts, Wikigenerator, Proto-Wiki. If you would like to participate, thenplease learn more and vote now at meta-wiki.Thank you!

--User:Sannita (WMF) (talk)16:22, 20 Ngwanatsele 2025 (CAT)[araba]

Thank You for Last Year – Join Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026

[Fetola Motswedi]

Dear Wikimedia communities,

We hope you are doing well, and we wish you a happy New Year.

Last year, we captured light. This year, we’ll capture legacy.

In 2025, communities around the world shared the glow of Ramadan nights and the warmth of collective iftars. In 2026,Wiki Loves Ramadan is expanding, bringing more stories, more cultures, and deeper global connections across Wikimedia projects.

We invite you to explore theWiki Loves Ramadan 2026Meta page to learn how you can participate andsign up your community.

📷Photo campaign onWikimedia Commons

If you have questions about the project, please refer to the FAQs:

Early registration for updates is now open via theEvent page

Stay connected and receive updates:

We look forward to collaborating with you and your community.


The Wiki Loves Ramadan 2026 Organizing Team 21:45, 16 Firikgong 2026 (CAT)

Feminism and Folklore 2026 starts soon

[Fetola Motswedi]
Please help translate to your language
Invitation to Organize Feminism and Folklore 2026

Dear Wiki Community,

We are pleased to invite Wikimedia communities, affiliates, and independent contributors to organize theFeminism and Folklore 2026 writing competition on your local Wikipedia.

The international campaign will run from1 February to 31 March 2026 and aims to improve coverage of feminism, women’s histories, gender-related topics, and folk culture across Wikipedia projects.

About the Campaign

Feminism and Folklore is a global writing initiative that complements theWiki Loves Folklore photography competition. While Wiki Loves Folklore focuses on visual documentation, this writing campaign addresses thegender gap on Wikipedia by improving encyclopedic content related to folk culture and marginalized voices.

What Can Participants Write About?

Communities can contribute by creating, expanding, or translating articles related to:

  • Folk festivals, rituals, and celebrations
  • Folk dances, music, and traditional performances
  • Women and queer figures in folklore
  • Women in mythology and oral traditions
  • Women warriors, witches, and witch-hunting narratives
  • Fairy tales, folk stories, and legends
  • Folk games, sports, and cultural practices

Participants may work from curated article lists or generate new article suggestions using campaign tools.

How to Sign Up as an Organizer

Organizers are requested to complete the following steps to register their community:

  1. Create a local project page on your wiki(see sample)
  2. Set up the campaign using theCampWiz tool
  3. Prepare a local article list and clearly mention:
    • Campaign timeline
    • Local and international prizes
  4. Request a site notice from local administrators(see sample)
  5. Add your local project page and CampWiz link to theMeta project page
Campaign Tools

The Wiki Loves Folklore Tech Team has introduced tools to support organizers and participants:

  • Article List Generator by Topic – Helps identify articles available on English Wikipedia but missing in your local language Wikipedia. The tool allows customized filters and provides downloadable article lists in CSV and wikitable formats.
  • CampWiz – Enables communities to manage writing campaigns effectively, including jury-based evaluation. This will be the third year CampWiz is officially used for Feminism and Folklore.

Both tools are now available for use in the campaign.Click here to access the tools

Learn More & Get Support

For detailed information about rules, timelines, and prizes, please visit theFeminism and Folklore 2026 project page.

If you have any questions or need assistance, feel free to reach out via:

Join Us

We look forward to your collaboration and coordination in making Feminism and Folklore 2026 a meaningful and impactful campaign for closing gender gaps and enriching folk culture content on Wikipedia.

Thank you and best wishes,

Feminism and Folklore 2026 International Team

Stay connected: 

Invitation to Host Wiki Loves Folklore 2026 in Your Country

[Fetola Motswedi]
Please help translate to your language

Hello everyone,

We are delighted to invite Wikimedia affiliates, user groups, and community organizations worldwide to participate inWiki Loves Folklore 2026, an international initiative dedicated to documenting and celebrating folk culture across the globe.

About Wiki Loves Folklore

Wiki Loves Folklore is an annual international photography competition hosted on Wikimedia Commons. The campaign runs from1 February to 31 March 2026 and encourages photographers, cultural enthusiasts, and community members to contribute photographs that highlight:

  • Folk traditions and rituals
  • Cultural festivals and celebrations
  • Traditional attire and crafts
  • Performing arts, music, and dance
  • Everyday practices rooted in folk heritage

Through this campaign, we aim to preserve and promote diverse folk cultures and make them freely accessible to the world.

Project page on Wikimedia Commons

Host a Local Edition

As we celebrate theeight edition of Wiki Loves Folklore, we warmly invite communities to organize a local edition in their country or region. Hosting a local campaign is a great opportunity to:

  • Increase visibility of your region’s folk culture
  • Engage new contributors in your community
  • Enrich Wikimedia Commons with high-quality cultural content

Sign up to organize:

If your team prefers to organize the competition ineither February or March only, please feel free to let us know.

If you are unable to organize, we encourage you to share this opportunity with other interested groups or organizations in your region.

Get in Touch

If you have any questions, need support, or would like to explore collaboration opportunities, please feel free to contact us via:

  • The project Talk pages
  • Email:support@wikilovesfolklore.org

We are also happy to connect via an online meeting if your team would like to discuss planning or coordination in more detail.

Warm regards,

The Wiki Loves Folklore International Team

MediaWiki message delivery (talk)15:21, 18 Firikgong 2026 (CAT)[araba]

Annual review of the Universal Code of Conduct and Enforcement Guidelines

[Fetola Motswedi]

I am writing to you to let you know the annual review period for the Universal Code of Conduct and Enforcement Guidelines is open now. You can make suggestions for changes through 9 February 2026. This is the first step of several to be taken for the annual review.Read more information and find a conversation to join on the UCoC page on Meta.

TheUniversal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) is a global group dedicated to providing an equitable and consistent implementation of the UCoC. This annual review was planned and implemented by the U4C. For more information and the responsibilities of the U4C,you may review the U4C Charter.

Please share this information with other members in your community wherever else might be appropriate.

-- In cooperation with the U4C,Keegan (WMF) (talk)

23:02, 19 Firikgong 2026 (CAT)

Retrieved from "https://tn.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Patlelo_ya_setšhaba&oldid=47126"
[8]ページ先頭
©2009-2026 Movatter.jp