Wikinews:Water cooler/miscellaneous/archives/2013/September

Absence
I'm about to go absent for two-three days. Blood Red Sandman (Talk)   (Contribs) 12:32, 4 September 2013 (UTC)

HTTPS for users with an account

 * Copied from the Wikibooks general reading room, where it was posted by EdwardsBot. --Pi zero (talk) 20:00, 20 August 2013 (UTC)

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

If HTTPS causes problems for you, tell us on bugzilla, on IRC (in the  channel) or on meta. If you can't use the other methods, you can also send an e-mail to.

Greg Grossmeier (via the Global message delivery system). 18:58, 20 August 2013 (UTC) (wrong page? You can fix it.)


 * I've observed the wiki software has been acting somewhat flaky for much of the past day or so. Since this is the technical tinkering that's going on, I suspect it of contributing to the flakiness.  --Pi zero (talk) 20:03, 20 August 2013 (UTC)
 * No problems for me, but I've always opted for HTTPS. I often use the EFF's HTTPS Everywhere, and if the devs want to gamble on putting English Wikinews to HTTPS by-default, I'd want to take a chance on that working out. More-than-a-few times I've been caught out with people pasting plain HTTP links into emails, or IRC, and exposed my IP, through carelessness on my part and missing the "not logged in" problem.
 * If you want to start a new thread over on the tech section of the Water Cooler, Greg, I'd be happy to offer some input on that as-and-when I can. My new employer is GENBAND, I've found myself as the only permanent, UK-based, employee &mdash; who qualifies as a Technical Product Specialist &mdash; on their GENView Provisioning Portals. Pretty-much averaging 50 hours, minimum, since about March this year; but, if I say that 80-90% of my new colleagues used to work for, I think you'll join-the-dots on what that may-well mean. Technically? It means I have access to two lab CS2000/DMS-100 telephone switches, paired with A2 Session Servers, and capable of supporting 300K phone lines each. I have a similar access-level into a number of our clients; that's a veritable "Who's Who in Telecoms".

My guess is: That, for Telefonica's free mobile Wikipedia access in Spain, they paid GENBAND to make it happen. --Brian McNeil / talk 23:47, 20 August 2013 (UTC)


 * I always use https too. But something like three out of four times I've used the review tool in the past day or so, it refused to create the talk page and I had to instead place and fill in the review template by hand (which is quite messy to do by hand).   Ordinarily I wouldn't think there was any connection with https, but since https is what they're tinkering with, the timing is quite suggestive.  --Pi zero (talk) 23:58, 20 August 2013 (UTC)
 * As I just updated on the meta page, we've delayed this rollout by one week. The change will now take place on August 28 at 1pm Pacific Time. Please take a look at gadgets or bots you maintain to make sure they'll continue to work; more information at meta. Also, Pi zero, I think the trouble you've been having is something we'd like to know more about -- could I ask you to file a bug in Bugzilla giving a description, and a link to the review tool?  Thanks, all. Sharihareswara (WMF) (talk) 01:05, 22 August 2013 (UTC)


 * I'm now in the habit of simply installing the 's HTTPS Everywhere. And, I'm going to start a new thread here related to encryption. --Brian McNeil / talk 20:07, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

Wikinews original reporting value as a measure of news events
Wikinews original reporting value as a measure of news events is the first step in developing full length reports on Wikinews’s news reach, writing a cost-benefit analysis and ultimately in working with the wider Wikinews community to write a project based strategic plan going forward. Results indicate that while going after lower event stories at less cost, higher point stories at greater expense should still be sought to provide a diverse global news perspective on these topics that may not otherwise be presented. Feedback would be appreciated as this will likely play a role in any attempts related to original reporting funding in the future. --LauraHale (talk) 16:04, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

Encryption, or Keys Please
Would those Wikinewsies who have or  keys please list them below (I'm just going to generate one after I recover some data). Please include which keyserver(s) you expect your key to be found on (if any).

If you've never generated a key before, or you don't know how to do it from a command-line, hold-off on creating a key (don't want you picking any "dodgy" front-end that makes weak keys). You will need - either a reliable DVD-burner, or a (minimum 4GB) USB stick that you can wipe. Those not on scoop, please email me with the subject "Help with creating a GPG key". (If your PC has an SD card slot; that might-well do instead of USB.)

GPG downloads: for Windows, MAC, others. However, do not use these to generate an @wikinewsie.org key. If you have an existing key, that is in a web of trust, we'll sort key-signings at meetups/events.


 * Passwords for accessing Wikinews etc.
 * First, if you're not on https, get in that habit - or install the EFF's HTTPS Everywhere.
 * Accredited reporters &mdash; especially those who're not-so technical &mdash; please list your machine(s) - and any 3G-capable devices (mobile, tablets).
 * If you've got Windows 8, on a machine with EFI and Secure Boot? It is important I know about that!
 * The general main points I need to know are:


 * 1) Machine make
 * 2) CPU
 * 3) Video Card (ATI can be problematic)
 * 4) Memory
 * 5) Disk space (especially the amount free)

If the WiFi on my train tomorrow is working, I'll be culling scoop of overflowing mailboxes, changing passwords on those accounts, and listing them over on wikinewsie.org. --Brian McNeil / talk 20:35, 7 September 2013 (UTC)

TWG graphics/logo
You will find a high-resolution version of the wikinewsie.org logo here.

I would really welcome any attempts to provide a subtly different version of this for The Wikinewsie Group; sadly, I don't have the original GiMP file(s) readily to-hand for this.

Please translate/duplicate this to other active Wikinews languages. --Brian McNeil / talk 13:42, 9 September 2013 (UTC)

It's time to reclaim the community logo
Hello community,

this is to inform you about the (re)start of a discussion in which you might be interested. In short, myself and a few other Wikimedia editors decided to oppose the registration of the community logo as a trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation.

The history of the logo, the intents behind our action and our hopes for the future are described in detail on this page; to keep the discussion in one place, please leave your comments the talk page. (And if you speak a language other than English, perhaps you can translate the page and bring it to the attention of your local Wikimedia community?) I’m looking forward to hearing from you! odder (talk) 10:00, 21 September 2013 (UTC) P.s.: You can check whether the WMF protects the logo of your project by seeing if it's listed as "registered trademark" on Wikimedia trademarks. —The preceding unsigned comment was added by Nemo bis (talk • contribs) 10:20, 21 September 2013‎

100 FAs
Pride in London 2013: in pictures‎ marks our 100th FA. Yay congrats have a gold star everyone ;). Blood Red Sandman  (Talk)   (Contribs) 23:25, 21 September 2013 (UTC)

Wikinewstime.com
Stumbled on the above yesterday, and associated Facebook page. No action required; WMF legal counsel have been contacted. Merely a heads-up that this is being dealt with. Blood Red Sandman (Talk)   (Contribs) 19:18, 25 September 2013 (UTC)