Wikinews:Water cooler/miscellaneous/archives/2019/February

Former Wikinewsie with pitch
A former Wikinewsie has direct messaged the Wikinews Facebook page, claiming to have the scoop on something that will eventually be international news. Anyone want to talk with him? He's offered no details, but it is a very active former contributor, so I'm giving them benefit of the doubt. -- Zanimum (talk) 18:57, 29 January 2019 (UTC)


 * Potentially interesting... (That ping failed, incidentally; no idea why, can see no reason it would fail). BRS  (Talk)   (Contribs) 20:02, 29 January 2019 (UTC)


 * I've just messaged them with your Email this user page, and asked whether I can send you their contact information. --  Zanimum (talk) 22:27, 30 January 2019 (UTC)


 * I've got a Facebook, Twitter, but he didn't offer an email. Presumably his Email this user still works. I just sent you an email using your Email this user, with the contact info I have. --  Zanimum (talk) 22:35, 31 January 2019 (UTC)


 * In the past, I'd guesstimate every two or three years on average, we've been targeted by someone making a concerted, intelligent attempt to dupe us into publishing fake original reporting. --Pi zero (talk) 01:12, 1 February 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-06
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Changes later this week
 * It was easy to untick a box by accident in Special:Preferences. This will now be fixed.
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 5 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 6 February. It will be on all wikis from 7 February (calendar).

Meetings
 * Octicons-sync.svg Octicons-tools.svg You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 6 February at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe. --Johan (WMF) 17:11, 4 February 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-07
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * You can use the  CSS class to show page issues to mobile readers. When you use   there are classes you can use.

Changes later this week
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 12 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 13 February. It will be on all wikis from 14 February (calendar).

Meetings
 * Octicons-sync.svg Octicons-tools.svg You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 13 February at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  18:45, 11 February 2019 (UTC)

Macedonia
It would appear the Republic of Macedonia has decided to now call itself North Macedonia; are we all on board with moving the category over? If so, it's not the biggest country cat, so shouldn't be too tough. BRS (Talk)   (Contribs) 01:59, 13 February 2019 (UTC)
 * I'm okay with this. --Pi zero (talk) 02:06, 13 February 2019 (UTC)
 * I think it makes sense to move it now. The name change needed the Prespa Agreement to come into effect (happened yesterday) and the various NATO members to ratify the membership of Macedonia, Republic (basically happened last week). Green Giant (talk) 12:37, 13 February 2019 (UTC)


 * ✅ (yesterday) BRS  (Talk)   (Contribs) 07:23, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

Perils of headlines
language log. --Pi zero (talk) 19:42, 14 February 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-08
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * When you thank someone on the mobile web you will now have two seconds to cancel the thank. This is in case you clicked on the thank button by accident.

Changes later this week
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 19 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 20 February. It will be on all wikis from 21 February (calendar).

Meetings
 * Octicons-sync.svg Octicons-tools.svg You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 20 February at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes
 * There is a proposal to add a red link to mobile search results if there is no page with that name. This is how it works on desktop. You can leave feedback.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  23:13, 18 February 2019 (UTC)

Talk to us about talking
The Wikimedia Foundation is planning a global 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:
 * 4) When you want to discuss a topic with your community, what tools work for you, and what problems block you?
 * 5) What about talk pages works for newcomers, and what blocks them?
 * 6) What do others struggle with in your community about talk pages?
 * 7) What do you wish you could do on talk pages, but can't due to the technical limitations?
 * 8) What are the important aspects of a "wiki discussion"?
 * 9) Finally, please go to Talk 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 us how your group communicates.

You can read more about the overall process on mediawiki.org. If you have questions or ideas, you can leave 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 February 2019 (UTC)

Tech News: 2019-09
 Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available.

Recent changes
 * There is a new version of the iOS Wikipedia app. It has for example syntax highlighting and new toolbars to make it easier to write wikitext. It also has night mode, a find-on-page function and other things. You can give feedback and suggestions.

Changes later this week
 * When you look at your watchlist or the recent changes page you can use the new filters for edit review. There you can choose tags to filter different edits. Empty tags will no longer be shown.
 * Octicons-sync.svg The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 26 February. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 27 February. It will be on all wikis from 28 February (calendar).

Meetings
 * Octicons-sync.svg Octicons-tools.svg You can join the technical advice meeting on IRC. During the meeting, volunteer developers can ask for advice. The meeting will be on 27 February at 16:00 (UTC). See how to join.

Future changes
 * The Wikipedia app for Android will invite users to add Wikidata descriptions to Wikidata objects that have Wikipedia articles but no Wikidata descriptions. It will only invite users who have added a number of Wikidata descriptions in the app without being reverted. This is to avoid spam and bad edits. You can read more and leave feedback.

Tech news prepared by Tech News writers and posted by bot • Contribute • Translate • Get help • Give feedback • Subscribe or unsubscribe.  21:16, 25 February 2019 (UTC)

Reddit AMA with a Russian journalist
https://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/av5w4w/im_a_russian_journalist_who_hates_putin_ama/ —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 00:36, 28 February 2019 (UTC)

ProPublica developing collaborative journalism tools
https://www.propublica.org/nerds/collaborative-journalism-project-building-tools-to-help —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 17:25, 28 February 2019 (UTC)

Arizona town apologizes to child reporter
What a total boss. https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/feb/28/arizona-patagonia-hilde-lysiak-police-threat-arrest —Justin ( koavf ) ❤T☮C☺M☯ 17:28, 28 February 2019 (UTC)