Wikinews:Water cooler/technical/archives/2019/October

Download a large file over http

I need to download a large backup file (32GB) over http, but my connection keeps dropping out. What software can I use to overcome this? --Gryllida (talk) 10:43, 4 October 2019 (UTC)

Found this chrome add-on, works OK so far. Gryllida (talk) 20:49, 4 October 2019 (UTC)

Publishing mechanism is broken on ruWN

Do you have such bug: phab:T234715 (correct description)? --sasha (krassotkin) 08:39, 6 October 2019 (UTC)

I don't think so: drafts that are awaiting review do not show up at categories with DPL. E.g. see Category:California, where my unreviewed draft is not displaying. —Justin (koavf)❤T☮C☺M☯ 12:34, 6 October 2019 (UTC)

@Krassotkin: Though I wouldn't care to try a general experiment with this (in case it worked, and sent a false positive out to external feeds), I'll try to remember to try something with an article that's about to be published, when one is available.

We do have a different problem with flagged revisions, that has existed for about two and a half months but we never reported because (tbh) I was concerned that somebody tinkering in that code could mess things up even worse. Two of the DPLs on our newsroom were discovered, in late July, to be listing large numbers of pages that should not be there. It looks as if these DPLs were supposed to exclude pages that had been sighted, but instead listed sighted pages meeting the other criteria of the DPL. You can see the results at the following revision, under the headings "In Category:Published without formal review" and "Articles weirdly flagged": revision. --Pi zero (talk) 13:21, 6 October 2019 (UTC)

CC @Bawolff. --Pi zero (talk) 13:24, 6 October 2019 (UTC)

Looks like there was some refactoring to FlaggedRevs, which resulted in DynamicPageList no longer recognizing that FlaggedRevs was installed, which meant it was ignoring the stablepages parameter. I submitted a fix. Depending on when its reviewed it will probably go live either this wednesday or next wednesday Patch will go live on wednesday this week. I'm unclear on if this is or is not the issue ruwn is having. Bawolff ☺☻ 05:44, 7 October 2019 (UTC)

Deployed now. Looks like the revision that User:Pi zero linked to works properly now, so Done. Bawolff ☺☻ 06:39, 10 October 2019 (UTC)

Editing News #2 – Mobile editing and talk pages

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Inside this newsletter, the Editing team talks about their work on the mobile visual editor, on the new talk pages project, and at Wikimania 2019.

Help

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 the talk 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

The Talk 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. The Phase 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

The Editing team is trying to make it simpler to edit on mobile devices. The team is changing the visual editor on mobile. If you have something to say about editing on a mobile device, please leave a message at Talk:VisualEditor on mobile.

Edit Cards

What happens when you click on a link. The new Edit Card is bigger and has more options for editing links.

• On 3 September, the Editing team released version 3 of Edit Cards. Anyone could use the new version in the mobile visual editor.
• There is an updated design on the Edit Card for adding and modifying links. There is also a new, combined workflow for editing a link's display text and target.
• Feedback: You can try the new Edit Cards by opening the mobile visual editor on a smartphone. Please post your feedback on the Edit cards talk page.

Toolbar

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: an improved 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 the Toolbar feedback talk page.

Wikimania

The Editing Team attended Wikimania 2019 in Sweden. They led a session on the mobile visual editor and a session on the new talk pages project. They tested two new features in the mobile visual editor with contributors. You can read more about what the team did and learned in the team's report on Wikimania 2019.

Looking ahead

• 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)

11:13, 29 October 2019 (UTC)