Talk:How to contribute

Latest comment: 3 years ago by ReLaYy in topic Night mode

Please do not post support questions here.

Instead, use one of these channels:

Further options for contacting appropriate people can be found at Communication .

Making this page the landing page for any new contributors

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This page is currently linked from Main in plenty of languages, but actually almost no secondary page links to it when it comes to point new contributors. Maybe this is good, maybe not. I will start looking at competing / complementary pages just to check if we can improve our intake of new contributors, bringing them to their preferred destinations.

For instance,

Ideas welcome! Also other ideas to improve this page. Qgil (talk) 17:44, 24 December 2012 (UTC)Reply

I agree that Get involved should be merged to this page, although this might involve some reorganisation of the content to fit different audiences (if a different audience for that proposal is chosen). Nemo 18:26, 24 December 2012 (UTC)Reply
I'm fine with redirecting Get involved, as long as we can adequately cover the goal of helping people re-use content from Wikimedia wikis somewhere (here or on Meta-Wiki). I posted about this page's purpose above, as it remains unclear to me. MZMcBride (talk) 03:14, 1 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
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All those pages with tasks for (new) contributors

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I just discovered Project:Tasks... There is also Annoying little bugs and Annoying large bugs and Mentorship programs/Possible projects. Shouldn't we harmonize all this? Keeping these lists alive takes a lot of effort.

One idea would be to split them into categories (development, documentation, design...), connect each category to the respective hub / landing page and then use transclusion if we want to show these open tasks in other pages. Qgil (talk) 17:56, 24 December 2012 (UTC)Reply

And more: Future/Potential projects Qgil (talk) 22:21, 27 December 2012 (UTC)Reply
Extension requests Qgil (talk) 22:55, 27 December 2012 (UTC)Reply
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"New opportunities" template

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Template:New_opportunities is outdated. Only editors with special permissions seem to be able to update it. I'm for removing it until we find out a way to keep that block updated with relevant information. Actually it's a tough task... See the other thread #All those pages with tasks for (new) contributors. Qgil (talk) 18:04, 24 December 2012 (UTC)Reply

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Bug triage

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Should "Help sort bugzilla reports" link some of the pages in Bug_management#For_Triagers_.2F_Bugsquad_Community? Nemo 18:56, 24 December 2012 (UTC)Reply

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Cluttered page

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Yes, this page is now a lot more cluttered than it used to be. However, I wanted to make sure we have all the relevant pages identified, put in context and linked. Before it would take a lot of experience for a newcomer to find those pages (a paradox). Now we are closer to this goal.

There next step is to work on one and only one landing page for each section. Then we can move many of the details to a visible "How to contribute" section in each of those pages" leaving here the very basic introduction for each section, a link to a main page and perhaps just an extra link to a popular / catchy destination within that topic. Qgil (talk) 22:46, 28 December 2012 (UTC)Reply

There is still one section missing: Promotion. But before we need to have a landing page for that. This will be my next task, related to Groups/Proposals/Promotion.
And there is one section we could get rid of: Donate. The link is good, but it can simply go in the first paragraph of the page, that I still want to polish a bit. Imagine a sentence like
You can edit, you can donate, and you can also contribute your technical skills in many ways. Qgil (talk) 23:19, 28 December 2012 (UTC)Reply
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Landing pages are not equal

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Looking at the current version of this page, the landing pages are not all equal. For example, compare Localisation and Design. Does this make sense? MZMcBride (talk) 03:03, 1 January 2013 (UTC)Reply

Not all linked pages are "landing pages", is this what you mean? For instance Localisation is not linked anywhere if I remember correctly, only a section of it is.
In general, different links on this page have different audiences, so it makes sense for them to be different. Nemo 18:28, 1 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
Each section offers a main link to the best next step available. Some landing pages need more improvement than others, but then again this has been always the case for most Wikimedia pages. I hope that increasing the attention on those page will help getting more edits improving them. Qgil (talk) 06:18, 2 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
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Missing pieces

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I had a list somewhere (an outline, really, I think) of what should be included in this type of page. For example, the XML database dumps available at http://dumps.wikimedia.org. There are likely other things missing. It'd be good to figure out what those things are sooner rather than later as they may impact the layout.

Though this raises a broader question about this page's goal: is it to draw in people to MediaWiki development or is it to encourage re-use of content from Wikimedia wikis? Or is it some combination? The exact purpose of this page is still a little unclear to me. MZMcBride (talk) 03:10, 1 January 2013 (UTC)Reply

Wikimedia data dumps fall in the category of reuse/remix. Instead of creating a new section I would rename the API one to integrate both API and offline. "Reuse"? "Data"?
The exact purpose of this page is the same than Get involved, isn't it? We want to attract technical profiles of all kinds and we want to redirect each profile to their best next destination. Qgil (talk) 06:16, 2 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
Is there a page summarizing the different ways to reuse Wikimedia data? The more I think about your suggestion of pointing to the various ways to reuse / remix the more I like it. If such page doesn't exist we could create it. It would contain an overview to the API, the dumps, the offline projects, InstantCommons... Anything else? Qgil (talk) 01:01, 5 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
I don't know of such a page. I'd intended for Get involved to be that page, but I'm perfectly happy working on a more specific page like Re-using Wikimedia's data (or [m:Re-using Wikimedia's data m:Re-using Wikimedia's data]).
Pieces you're missing could be: Squid cache, HTML dumps, the Toolserver, and Wikimedia Labs. MZMcBride (talk) 01:17, 12 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
I don't think HTML dumps will ever be produced again. The WMF hosts ZIM dumps produced by others and probably thinks this is enough, there are no plans for more HTML dumps. It's ok to include them in a generic "dumps" or to add them again when they're updated, but currently it's a waste of people's time. I don't know if mentioning ZIM dumps would be ok either, as they exist only for a subset of wikis. Nemo 08:42, 12 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
A page about reusing Wikimedia data would be useful. If you ask me, I would prefer to have it in this wiki.
Is there anything we can say to contributors about Squid? In fact I had to remove the whole Sysadmins block after realising that, at this point, we have little to no docs explaining how someone can get involved and do a useful contribution. Qgil (talk) 16:39, 12 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
Dealing with (parsing) wikitext is almost impossible, but the XML dumps at dumps.wikimedia.org are wikitext-only. So if you need HTML instead of wikitext, you have three options:
  1. HTML dumps (but there haven't been new dumps in years inexplicably);
  2. scrape the live site (the HTML Squid cache layer); or
  3. use the API's action=parse (often quite slow for a single page, even worse for millions of requests).
I think we should be clearer about how to do option "2". For example, by specifying an appropriately useful [m:User-Agent User-Agent] and by not slamming the site with too many requests in too a short a period of time (this is how bots and spiders get blocked). And discuss iframing, hot-linking, etc. This quickly gets more into Meta-Wiki territory, though. MZMcBride (talk) 23:52, 13 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
Looks like what you need may be now at [m:Research:Data m:Research:Data]. Nemo 21:21, 21 March 2013 (UTC)Reply
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Scope of translation

(Old discussion)

Hi. I was pondering translating the page to French (with my volunteer hat), but I'm wondering if it makes sense to translate this page if all the pages it points to remain in English. Is the goal only to translate this page, or is there some more ambitious plan to translate a whole set of pages to encourage participation to development, testing, design, support etc. in multiple languages? guillom 19:01, 3 January 2013 (UTC)Reply

I've tried to point out what of the listed activities or pages are English only: it shouldn't be all of them... Nemo 22:07, 3 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
The availability of further pages and tasks in languages other than English will depend on the push of the own speakers of those languages. There is nothing planned in advanced.
I think it's worth translating this page because it links directly from the homepage and it aims to be a landing page for all kinds of users, especially if we indeed get that link in the Wikipedias' footer. It's also short and now I consider the existing texts quite stable.
I'm not sure about the need to specify "(English only)" in the English version. It feels weird and redundant. Is this something we can leave for the translations in other languages, where such detail does make sense?
Also a couple of questions:
- Can you have a look to the i18n code? I fear I broke something with the introduction of the wiki table.
- Does the multilingual nav bar need to be at the top? Can it be placed at the bottom? Qgil (talk) 06:43, 4 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
The languages bar at the bottom feels useless, and it doesn't harm anything at the top, while showing that we do support more languages. I'll check the tags later today.
The "English only" is meant to show that – even if most of the pages including this are only in English – one actually can contribute in other languages too, in the areas where English is not specified as a requirement; I'm not sure what those areas are, but where in doubt that may be something to fix. Nemo 09:04, 4 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
Development, Design and Testing are the few areas I see where being able to communicate in English is really needed.
Most areas are likely to benefit from a localized page imho:
  • Translation: obviously;
  • Support: to provide support in multiple languages;
  • Documentation, API and Sysadmin: to provide documentation in multiple languages.
So I'd be in favor of using Translate on those pages as well, and use Special:Mylanguage links on this page.
As for the (English ony) disclaimer, I do think it's valuable for translated versions of this page, but I understand Quim's point about being redundant on the English version. How about we use the qqq message for these strings to tell translators to add the disclaimer, even if it's not in the source text? It's not a perfect solution but it seems like a good compromise.
(As for the language navigation bar, I agree it's fine at the top.) guillom 09:46, 4 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
Ok to the bar at the top, then.
If you are in a page in English and you just to another page / tool in English only and no hints of translations, it is safe to assume that most users will correctly deduce that it's only only. The "English only" note in translations make sense because it warns users that whatever is behind the link will be in English, and not the language they are currently reading.
The list of areas open for L10n proposed by guillom makes total sense. Qgil (talk) 19:21, 4 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
I've added Special:MyLanguage/ links where discussed. guillom 16:01, 24 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
- Can you have a look to the i18n code? I fear I broke something with the introduction of the wiki table.
I fixed it. Previous translations have been invalidated because the page has changed a lot, but I've tried to make translations as easy and straightforward as possible by keeping the wikitext of translatable chunks clean. Let me know if you encounter other issues. guillom 15:52, 24 January 2013 (UTC)Reply

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If links with anchor makes through "Special:MyLanguage", such as Special:MyLanguage/Communication#Landing, requires that anchor was unchangeable in all languages. I've added fixed anchor in the Communication/ru, but this should be considered when migration to new translating system. Kaganer (talk) 21:27, 24 January 2013 (UTC)Reply

You're right. Usually, when the target page is translatable, we place some additional untranslatable anchors for the purpose of linking. We should probably migrate Communication to Translate, do you volunteer for the migration? ;) Nemo 00:35, 25 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
Why not? This may be useful experience. Kaganer (talk) 14:09, 25 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
Nice! Reading the tutorial should probably be enough; when you have some free time, if you prepare the page for translation I can then mark ("approve") it and then you can import the old translations where possible.
(For the following times a bureaucrat should definitely give you translation admin flag.)
Let me know, Nemo 16:43, 25 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
Please check my chsnges.
Current issues:
  1. link to template {{MediaWiki Introduction }} (how to mark subpage as optional element ?)
  2. link to template {{Irc }} (keeping as is)
  3. how to make a localized categories? (I recently saw somewhere a template for this, but I can not find now)
  4. need remove old language section at the bottom (saved until the migration)
  5. how to import the old translations in semi-automatic mode? Kaganer (talk) 18:09, 25 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
Whoops, already approved. :-)
  1. That's the correct way, translator can leave "en" if template doesn't exist in that language (better to document at /qqq for that unit). Template:Translatable navigation template attempts some magic.
  2. Ok.
  3. There's a template on translatewiki: and one on [wm2012: wm2012:], I don't remember here.
  4. Removed now.
  5. There's no way I'm afraid, for individual pages... Maybe we could figure out some semi-automated way to mark and import pages with a pattern (I proposed configuration pages). Now it's some manual work. I'm also unsure if the links to identi.ca etc. have something translatable; if translations didn't alter names, they can be removed from translation and made static I guess.
Edit: note that FuzzyBot is supposed to pass and update the subpages (i.e. override with the English version until translation are re-added) but there's currently some problem with the job queue so it didn't yet; translation works, though. Nemo 18:30, 25 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
About links to identi.ca etc. - i agree, this should be untranslatable section. How to exclude it correctly? Kaganer (talk) 14:40, 26 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
I've just removed it from translation tags. I don't know if this gives problems on right-to-left languages, maybe some directionality fix will be needed there.
Are you also importing the old translations? Nemo 15:10, 26 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
Translating status:
Maybe you also do finish one translation, e.g. /it? Kaganer (talk) 00:08, 31 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
See "Template:Langcat", transferred from translatewiki.net Kaganer (talk) 21:59, 26 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
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Icons

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Yes, nitpicking as usual: note that not all those icons are PD, so |link= is not good practice. Some in the Noun project even explicitly require attribution by name. Nemo 22:14, 28 January 2013 (UTC)Reply

Then why are they used? Let's replace all on PD-versions? Kaganer (talk) 22:19, 28 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
If you find better versions that are PD please propose them here. Nemo, point taken and I will remove the |link=. Qgil (talk) 16:25, 29 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
I Propose:
I believe visual consistency is more important than Public Domain license vs CC. Wikimedia Foundation Design/Agora Icon Set goes for simple black icons and I don't see a reason not to follow that trend.
See media:How to hack on Wikipedia.pdf for other icons proposed. Qgil (talk) 17:49, 29 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
Well, then you need to take out icons for "Support", "Translation", "Api" (as two gears), "Development" and "Documentation".
Now overall look is feeble. Kaganer (talk) 18:08, 29 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
I need to finish this presentation for FOSDEM before Sunday and I'm spending one day basically flying in between. I'm planning to upload the related files to Commons, and then make changes here. But all the better if someone is faster than me.  :) Qgil (talk) 23:41, 29 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
Note: big b/w hammer may impress agressive. Kaganer (talk) 18:11, 29 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
Proposals for missing icons:
Development: http://thenounproject.com/noun/source-code/#icon-No1171
Support: http://thenounproject.com/noun/first-aid/#icon-No2208
Still searching for Documentation. Qgil (talk) 11:20, 1 February 2013 (UTC)Reply
Proposal for Documentation: http://thenounproject.com/noun/book/#icon-No7656
As you have seen, I have changed the icons for API and Translation. I will wait an extra day for Development, Support and Documentation just in case. Qgil (talk) 15:42, 4 February 2013 (UTC)Reply
Not-obvious metaphor for API :( Meshed gears would be better... Kaganer (talk) 16:16, 4 February 2013 (UTC)Reply
Meshed gears are being used for Browser testing = automated testing. You hook to an API, this is where the metaphor comes from. It has been under review during several days in the context of the presentation. Before we didn't aim to identify API with a screwdriver and a wrench either, a metaphor that could also work for Development (we have a school board, not an exact metaphor either) and many other technical tasks. These icons don't aim to substitute words but to go with them. Qgil (talk) 16:35, 4 February 2013 (UTC)Reply
Okay. I do not like these icons as such, and I do not feel good idea to use them "as is" as design elements on this site. I will not longer intervene in this process - do as you know. Cheers! Kaganer (talk) 17:05, 4 February 2013 (UTC)Reply
We can use meshed gears for API and find something else for Browser / automated testing. Any ideas?
PS: our argument plus this page made me re-think.  :) Qgil (talk) 23:19, 7 February 2013 (UTC)Reply
Browser / automated testing may be identify as web-page with two checkboxes nearby and/or one gear. Kaganer (talk) 00:34, 8 February 2013 (UTC)Reply
I think the web page icon alone works perfectly for Browser testing! Deal.
I wanted to do the changes of icons today but I got dragged by other tasks. Starting my holidays - will be back on Feb 19. Thank you for your help, patience and the marking choosing the right icons.  :) Qgil (talk) 05:03, 9 February 2013 (UTC)Reply
I've uploaded all the required icons and set up Project:Visual identity to list them and the credits. There are a few other icons to find or discuss, but let's do it at Project talk:Visual identity. guillom 16:21, 15 February 2013 (UTC)Reply
The “Icons credits” link needs to be marked for translation. Mormegil (talk) 09:43, 1 March 2013 (UTC)Reply
  Done. Thank you for catching that! guillom 18:46, 1 March 2013 (UTC)Reply
Support may be associated with this icon. Kaganer (talk) 00:37, 8 February 2013 (UTC)Reply
Note: I posted a similar comment at Thread:Project talk:Calendar/About consistent icons/reply. I'm copying it below:
I hope that we'll come to a point where we have a set of reusable, consistent and recognizable icons across mediums (wiki pages, blog posts, slides, etc.).
Don't forget to add the proper credits in your slides where required. It's easy to do in a presentation, but it's a bit trickier to show credits on wiki pages, because when we use them as icons, we usually use the link= parameter to hijack the image's link (that would otherwise have led to the image credits). For events and the calendar, I've found a good enough workaround (credits are listed on Template:Event/doc and linked to from Template:Event header), but we'll need to make sure we show or link to proper credits wherever we use those icons.
Perhaps we should start listing the icons somewhere (other than the template's doc) to have a central place both to define our visual language, and also to list proper credits. Maybe Project:Visual identity? guillom 16:36, 30 January 2013 (UTC)Reply
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Redesign

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While I was adding Product development to the page, I felt the need to reorganize the contents, and I ended up completely reorganizing the layout and simplifying the content. I feel the page is now easier to read and to navigate.

I believe I've explained all the changes in the edit summaries, but I'm available to discuss my changes if some are controversial. guillom 20:18, 18 March 2013 (UTC)Reply

Mmm ok. Yes, it is an improvement. I like it because it's closer to be mobile friendly, although it is not yet. Having one column instead of 2 things will be easier to fix.
We need to pay more attention to the sorting of areas though. In the previous layout I tried to keep an order of relevance starting with API. Now we have Product development and Design at the top, which are precisely two areas where we are not really ready to get contributors and make them happy. Qgil (talk) 20:32, 18 March 2013 (UTC)Reply
Right; "Readiness to get contributors" wasn't a criterion in the reordering; Instead, I focused on the kinda chronological order in which stuff usually happens (i.e. we start with Product Development, then Design, then Development, etc.).
If you think that that criterion comes first, feel free to reorder. If the order is the only major thing that bothers you, I'm happy :) guillom 21:20, 18 March 2013 (UTC)Reply
Done.
I believe Sysadmin are the last ones missing. With Wikitech + Labs + Puppet they start having something nice in place. And I still like the icon used in the slides. :) Qgil (talk) 06:49, 20 March 2013 (UTC)Reply
Looks good to me! guillom 13:25, 20 March 2013 (UTC)Reply
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Space

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Dropping a link here: http://browsersize.googlelabs.com/ Nemo 23:37, 19 March 2013 (UTC)Reply

The URL should be https://m.mediawiki.org/wiki/How_to_contribute (mobile view) but I'm not sure the interpretation in that site corresponds to what you actually see in mobile devices... Qgil (talk) 00:38, 20 March 2013 (UTC)Reply
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:How_to_Contribute_-Mobile_1.png
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:How_to_Contribute_-Mobile_2.png
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:How_to_Contribute_-Mobile_3.png
Screenshots from my phone.
The layout is too wide for my screen, the header especially. Valeriej (talk) 01:17, 20 March 2013 (UTC)Reply
Valeriej (talk) 01:17, 20 March 2013 (UTC)Reply
That site won't reflect it, but now the mobile view is more decent - without significant changes in the desktop view. The list of topics could welcome some mobile love but it's late and I got tired of fighting the combinations between CSS + HTML tables + wikitext tables + MobileFrontend. Qgil (talk) 06:20, 20 March 2013 (UTC)Reply
Thank you. I must confess my complete ignorance of mobile-friendly code. Thanks for cleaning it up! guillom 13:23, 20 March 2013 (UTC)Reply
Only using max-width instead of width gets you quite far in terms of <buzz>responsiveness</buzz>, I learned yesterday.  :) Qgil (talk) 13:34, 20 March 2013 (UTC)Reply
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Translation

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Once again… This page contains changes which are not marked for translation. Mormegil (talk) 11:00, 25 March 2013 (UTC)Reply

Fixed; thanks. guillom 16:25, 25 March 2013 (UTC)Reply
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Removal of video

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Hi. I've removed the video (File:How to hack on Wikipedia.webm) from this page for now as I think it's problematic. In my experience, developers have short attention spans. They've come to this page to hopefully find a way to contribute ("How to contribute"). The first minute of this video is spent polling the audience. The second minute is spent explaining Wikipedia and MediaWiki and Wikimedia, using the wrong MediaWiki logo, over-emphasizing Wikipedia, and confusingly showing Wikia and other non-Wikimedia projects in relation to MediaWiki and its sister projects.

I'm not sure what's in the rest of the video as I got bored and stopped watching. This is part of the issue with this video. A video about "How to hack on Wikipedia" should explain how to hack on Wikipedia. Quickly. Efficiently. Logically. Perhaps we can link to the slideshow presentation used in the video or something similar? The video as-is is doing more harm than good. MZMcBride (talk) 02:06, 16 August 2013 (UTC)Reply

It's your opinion and you are not part of the target audience (newcomers). The video has its issues but imho is better than nothing. Anyway, we have more important & urgent problems. Qgil (talk) 22:17, 19 August 2013 (UTC)Reply
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Request - Allowing Marathi language translation for this page (mr)

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It is requested to open/allow this page for marathi(mr) translation please,if it is not a policy to withhold this page for translation. Thanks. V.narsikar 04:41, 26 August 2013 (UTC)

You translated it fully (thank you), so I guess this is resolved. Nemo 12:53, 26 August 2013 (UTC)Reply
There is some problem in the language bar. In the first stroke, when one opens the page, Marathi(mr) language does not appear. we have to try twice or thrice. then it appears. maybe some problem with my comp. or what. anyway,Thanks. V.narsikar 13:55, 26 August 2013 (UTC)
Yes, on WMF wikis it may take up to a week or two; it's normal. Redirects with Special:MyLanguage always work. Nemo 13:59, 26 August 2013 (UTC)Reply
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Mobile view

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The current mobile view isn't great. Discussion about it here: <http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikitech-l/2013-August/071526.html>. MZMcBride (talk) 00:41, 28 August 2013 (UTC)Reply
I'm not a div expert. Is the content of the current table supposed to be in a div containing others like this?
 <div (table)>
   <div (row)>
    <div (left content)>Web API</div>
    <div (right content)>The content of all Wikimedia projects...</div>
  </div>
  <div (another row)>
  ...
</div>
Qgil (talk) 16:02, 28 August 2013 (UTC)Reply
The page is now using Template:Contribution, which basically implements the div structure you're describing, I think. The code still doesn't collapse well, though. MZMcBride (talk) 19:43, 28 August 2013 (UTC)Reply
MZ thanks for doing this. I just made some tweaks and it's looking a lot better on mobile now :D Jdlrobson (talk) 17:59, 5 September 2013 (UTC)Reply
It looks great on mobile now. Also thank you for the nanotutorial on how to go from wikitable to divs.  :) Qgil (talk) 20:11, 5 September 2013 (UTC)Reply
I made some further tweaks on this so that the tabs render in a more mobile friendly way. Jdlrobson (talk) 18:22, 21 July 2015 (UTC)Reply
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RTL - how to flip the floats?

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The alignment of the "table" in Hebrew (and Arabic, etc.) is wrong because the "float:left" rule is not flipped. Any ideas what we can do to resolve this? Thanks! FreedomFighterSparrow (talk) 10:28, 9 January 2014 (UTC)Reply

I just want to say that I saw this and I agree we should fix it but I don't know how to fix it because I have no experience dealing with RTL/LTR compatibility. Maybe Aaharoni can shed some light? Qgil (talk) 00:47, 11 January 2014 (UTC)Reply
I looked through (all?) the CSS rules, and couldn't find one that I could use for this. It can be easily done with a css rule that utilizes the class .mw-content-rtl to flip the directionality. I could also do this with a template, but then it won't be automatic.
Indeed, maybe Amir will have an idea. FreedomFighterSparrow (talk) 13:22, 14 January 2014 (UTC)Reply
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I moved the language tag to the bottom of the page as I believe this is where it should be but given Nemo reverted it let's discuss this :)

On a mobile device on this page, I have to scroll halfway through the page to get to the content. Given I probably followed a link this is not the primary action of the page - it should be to read.

For example if I landed on https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/How_to_contribute/es it is probably likely I want to read in Spanish.

I would put money down that if we did some EventLogging on this page, we would see that the language button doesn't need to be as prominent as we think. Jdlrobson (talk) 18:21, 21 July 2015 (UTC)Reply

In this discussion we are hitting several inconsistencies in MediaWiki i18n:
  • The list of languages can be placed anywhere manually. Some pages have it at the top, some at the bottom. The homepage has it at the bottom. The homepage has it at the bottom and I would not oppose to have it at the bottom here as well, although I can see the problems that @Nemo bis might have in mind. Still, in the case of Wikimedia Tech, contributing implies some command of English in 99% of cases, so I think for this page the box at the bottom is justified.
  • However, this problem would be simpler to solve if the content would be displayed by default in the language of the user's browser (is there a Phabricator task for this?). If a non-English speaker finds this page, will they scroll to the bottom to check whether there are other languages available? Probably not, since there are basically no precedents about this behavior in the Internet.
  • The desktop version offers an "English" link at the top that can be set to a different language, and that will provide the user with content in their language when available, also for anonymous users. However, such link is not visible in MobileFrontend, and as far as I'm aware mobile users have no way to access to content in not-English other than the huge bok with language links or typing URLs manually. Is there a task for this?
  • Still, the list of languages is not collapsible, and it can take a lot of surface, even more in mobile. There was some UX work and even code fixing this problem, but it is in a limbo (phab:T53533#585597, I also proposed an even simpler solution at phab:T64702). Qgil-WMF (talk) 11:06, 28 July 2015 (UTC)Reply
"However, this problem would be simpler to solve if the content would be displayed by default in the language of the user's browser"
This is problematic. Google is a good example of this. If I go to google.com I get redirected to the language of the country I'm in. If I go to google.fr I get the French site.
From my perspective, if a user finds this page there are two ways they have done so:
1) From a search engine
2) Following a link
In both cases it is implied they have got the right language (a search would be performed in their language e.g. https://www.google.fr/#q=Comment+contribuer+mediawiki and if I am following a link I probably can read English.
So I actually think this is a problem we shouldn't solve. This is why there are no precedents about this behaviour in the internet.. we should never make assumptions.
I also think bottom is more justified.. if only Flow had a polling tool... :)
"The desktop version offers an "English" link at the top.."
I don't remember such a task. I'm not sure which link is being referred to. My concern about loading it at the top however is that implies JavaScript and a slower page load time for all users and as I state above I don't think this problem is as important as @Nemo bis makes out.
"Still, the list of languages is not collapsible"
If it was more closely coupled to the interwiki links in the left side bar then we would not have a problem. Mobile would just package it under the white 'read in another language' button. I'd prefer to do that then waste time with other workarounds.
I really think as a first step you should prove these assumptions via some kind of EventLogging user test. Jdlrobson (talk) 23:43, 29 July 2015 (UTC)Reply
I give you the point that users land to that page from somewhere, and if they land in English is probably for a not-too-bad reason. So yes, I agree that the table of languages at the bottom is better for this page.
On the other points not core to this discussion:
If my browser is set to French, it would make sense to offer me texts in French by default when available. I agree that language based on geolocation can be problematic, but the language used by the browser should be a safer bet.
The "English" link can be found at the very top of any desktop page. Just scroll up. :) It is provided by Universal Language Selector.
About emulating the interwiki links, I didn't push phab:T64702 because there was some movement in another direction at phab:T53533, but that task has been stalled for a year now. I'll go and ask.
And as much as I like the argument of "you should prove these assumptions with data", it is not realistic to expect that a user/editor without the technical capacity to do so (like it is my case) will be able to do anything about it. Still, if the point of this discussion is to move the language box to the bottom, I said that I agree because of the arguments, even without the data. Qgil-WMF (talk) 09:33, 30 July 2015 (UTC)Reply
So.. how does one get consensus in a wiki page...? Jdlrobson (talk) 17:49, 7 August 2015 (UTC)Reply
Let's leave a couple more days, and let's do the changes if there are no new opinions. Qgil-WMF (talk) 14:41, 8 August 2015 (UTC)Reply
I moved the language box to the bottom, and I created Phab:T110489 (Multilingual wikis should show content in the language of the user's browser when available). Qgil-WMF (talk) 07:21, 27 August 2015 (UTC)Reply
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Starter kit (created by a Google Code-in student) has served as main introduction for GSoC and Outreachy candidates for more than a year now. I'm also using it in conjunction with this How to contribute page and Annoying little bugs whenever someone sends me an email asking for places to start contributing. I think linking to it here would be useful. What about this:

Grab your starter kit and learn how you can contribute to MediaWiki and the free culture community. Qgil-WMF (talk) 07:30, 27 August 2015 (UTC)Reply

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then i will be able to contribute Bayarean99 (talk) 20:24, 10 September 2015 (UTC)Reply

The Wikimedia Foundation Legal team can be found here, but why do you need them? Maybe we can help. Qgil-WMF (talk) 22:00, 10 September 2015 (UTC)Reply
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Sindhi language (sd) translation of MediaWiki

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Kindly translate this MediaWiki to Sindhi language, or include Sindhi language in media wiki. JogiAsad (talk) 07:41, 14 October 2015 (UTC)Reply

@Jogi don, translations are provided by volunteers. If you are fluent in Sindhi, you can join the effort by translating this website and the MediaWiki software. Qgil-WMF (talk) 08:41, 14 October 2015 (UTC)Reply
@User:Qgil-WMF, I have reviewed the Translation of MediaWiki in Sindhi. and Kindly guide me where can I translate mor in Sindhi Language for MediaWiki. JogiAsad (talk) 07:33, 3 November 2015 (UTC)Reply
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Where to place feature requests?

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Hello, I really think that this page (How to contribute) should make it very clear how to submit a feature request, because at this moment it's not clear at all how to do it. Thanks. —  Ark25  (talk) 20:28, 25 December 2015 (UTC)Reply

Hi @Ark25, we want to keep this page simple at a high level. Starter kit (the first link in this page) mentions that "Phabricator is where all the [:en:Software_bug bugs] of MediaWiki Software are reported and suggestions for new features and enhancements are given." Searching for "how to submit a feature request" provides a first result to Manual:FAQ#I.27ve_found_a_bug_or_have_a_feature_request._Where_do_I_post_it.3F. Qgil-WMF (talk) 14:51, 29 December 2015 (UTC)Reply
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Search feature in the wiki is broken

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Hey there, I don't know if Im in the right area to post this but here goes. So our community called MineZ - which is a Minecraft gamemode on a Minecraft server - is getting an error whenever anyone tries to search anything in the search bar that isn't the exact name of an article.

It says Internet Error followed by:

Set $wgShowExceptionDetails = true; at the bottom of LocalSettings.php to show detailed debugging information.

I don't know if there is any way to fix this, but the wiki is basically useless without being able to search or go back into old edits of each page. Thanks for the help :)

www.minezwiki.net is the link to the wiki Fridge2177 (talk) 03:51, 28 June 2016 (UTC)Reply

Hi @Fridge2177, the location for reporting problems with MediaWiki software is Project:Support desk. Qgil-WMF (talk) 06:58, 29 June 2016 (UTC)Reply
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how to enable the new page., RSS feed and Embeded HTML in 1.27

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we are migrating the mediawiki from 1.13 to 1.27.

as part of this we are trying to add below new enhancements as well

1) Open new page functionality 2) Rss feed support 3) Embedded html for media inclusion

kindly provide me the instructions to enable them PrathapM13 (talk) 16:26, 7 December 2016 (UTC)Reply

Hello @PrathapM13. This page is about contributing to MediaWiki. You may want to ask at Project:Support desk. Qgil-WMF (talk) 08:17, 8 December 2016 (UTC)Reply
Sure, i will remove the comments here thanks for providing the right directions PrathapM13 (talk) 20:00, 8 December 2016 (UTC)Reply
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Web APIs

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It feels weird to me that it would be the first item in the list, honestly. Just my 2c anyway. Elitre (WMF) (talk) 11:05, 28 November 2017 (UTC)Reply

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Night mode

I read a lot by night time, four screens makes too much glare

I wish wikipedia had the same some other web pages have, a night mode.

something to make less white on the screen when we don't want it there 190.166.28.152 (talk) 02:20, 12 October 2019 (UTC)Reply

See https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/project/profile/4006/ for a project related to this off-topic question. BDavis (WMF) (talk) 02:16, 14 October 2019 (UTC)Reply
My eyes get damaged by the light mode in Wiki ReLaYy (talk) 19:46, 5 May 2021 (UTC)Reply

how to contribute guys

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Hi im new here so i dont really know that how does this wiki media functions so any help/ tips that i can get from u guys plz Sthembiso2004makae (talk) 21:48, 14 October 2020 (UTC)Reply

I am replying on your discussion page, see User talk:Sthembiso2004makae Julien Tremblay McLellan | Library & Information Science (talk) 20:42, 18 October 2020 (UTC)Reply
Bonsoir les gars je ne comprends pas comment utiliser ce média wiki aidé moi svp Sady Coly (talk) 20:47, 28 December 2020 (UTC)Reply
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liquiditty

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would like some insights on certain aispects and other information pertaining to whom i may go to for help. Uniqueantique (talk) 18:03, 17 January 2021 (UTC)Reply

Hi @Uniqueantique, what information are you looking for? APaskulin (WMF) (talk) 18:10, 19 January 2021 (UTC)Reply
honestly I do not truly know exactly what I am looking for. I have too many things going on and trust nobody. Uniqueantique (talk) 21:40, 27 January 2021 (UTC)Reply
No problem. I'll resolve this for now. APaskulin (WMF) (talk) 23:26, 27 January 2021 (UTC)Reply
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Return to "How to contribute" page.