Talk:Tech/News/Archives/2023

2023-06: Gadgets and user scripts will be changing to load on desktop and mobile sites,

• Moved to Talk:Tech/News/2023/06. — xaosflux ^Talk 23:25, 17 February 2023 (UTC)

Web feeds no longer works

The web feeds no longer seem to work. The latest items in the RSS&Atom feeds are issues 50/51/52. Newer ones are not available. Muvon53 (talk) 09:50, 16 February 2023 (UTC)

Do u have a link pls? Always be explicit, wikimedia has many similar systems that ppl might be referring to, so its best to keep guessing out of the equation. —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 19:21, 16 February 2023 (UTC)

fwiw I assumed earlier today that it was https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/api.php?action=featuredfeed&feed=technews&feedformat=rss (which shows the latest issue as Tech News issue #52, 2022 (December 26, 2022)). That's a Featured Feed which is apparently defined at MediaWiki:Ffeed-technews-page — I had no idea these were even a thing... — TheresNoTime (talk • they/them) 19:29, 16 February 2023 (UTC)

It’s probably broken because there’s no Tech/News/2023/7 (Tech/News/{{CURRENTYEAR}}/{{CURRENTWEEK}}); it should be Tech/News/{{#time:xno/xnW}} (Tech/News/2023/07). If my theory is correct, it’s been broken every year since 2015 between early January and mid-March (weeks 1 to 9)… —Tacsipacsi (talk) 01:37, 17 February 2023 (UTC)

@TheDJ Thanks for adding that reminder. +1! I write "links or examples always help!" to someone new, ~weekly!

@Tacsipacsi Thanks for diagnosing and explaining the fix!

@TheresNoTime Thanks for researching! Would you (as admin) be able to fix that for us, or should I add an edit-request on the MW string's talkpage? Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 21:17, 17 February 2023 (UTC)

@Quiddity (WMF) done, and looking at https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/api.php?action=featuredfeed&feed=technews&feedformat=rss I think it worked? Thanks for the fix Tacsipacsi! — TheresNoTime (talk • they/them) 21:33, 17 February 2023 (UTC)

But it doesn’t look particularly nice with all the navigation links, particularly the languages list… Maybe we should set up a template per mw:Extension:FeaturedFeeds#On-site configuration that transcludes just the interesting part? —Tacsipacsi (talk) 22:55, 18 February 2023 (UTC)

I just get seven new items in rss. It definitely works, thanks! IKhitron (talk) 11:59, 19 February 2023 (UTC)

Hmm. I've looked at the docs, but I don't entirely understand how limiting it works (just wrapping stuff in noinclude?), and whether the content even can be limited in a way that doesn't interfere with either MassMessages nor Translations? For now, I've added some links & notes for the relevant strings at Tech/News/Manual#Structural components of Tech/News. I might try some tests later this week, unless someone already familiar with it all jumps in to help before then! Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 02:21, 21 February 2023 (UTC)

I've stared at the docs and pages again, but still don't know how to best solve this.

I did remember the existence of enwiki's w:Template:Latest tech news, and I wonder if something along those lines could work? But I haven't used RSS in years, and I'm not sure how many people use this feed (is there any way to tell?), so I'm reluctant to experiment/disrupt. Any advice/help appreciated. -- Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 00:32, 25 February 2023 (UTC)

You can try the opposite direction. Create by script a new page Tech/News/feed/<date> with the relevant part only, by transclusion, or by automatic copy past, or even by subst:, and give it's name in that message. IKhitron (talk) 18:00, 25 February 2023 (UTC)

Community Wishlist Survey icon

I recently added a draft announcement to a Tech News and selected a nice gift icon () to signify a completed Community Wishlist Survey proposal. Is that okay, and if so, is there anywhere I can make a note to remind people to use it? — TheresNoTime (talk • they/them) 18:44, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

Sure, I've added it to the notes at Tech/News/Manual#Icons. I'll try to remember to add it, when a relevant item appears.

And thanks for adding the entry directly, and even using #special so I don't have to look it up! Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 20:11, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

I get a message "file not found" on this icon, here and in the news (and in the manual too). Want a screenshot? IKhitron (talk) 22:23, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

Looks like more T331820 :-/ — TheresNoTime (talk • they/them) 22:34, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

Maybe, don't know. Hope it will be fixed soon. IKhitron (talk) 22:38, 14 March 2023 (UTC)

Transclusion, or redirect?

Resolved.

What would be the redirect to Tech/News/Latest from sister enwiki, or even better: its transclusion?

Case in case: over at en:User talk:DePiep I transclude latest (local) Signpost all right, but a link to mw:Tech/News/Latest does not work let alone transclusion. DePiep (talk) 07:15, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

Link is [[meta:Tech/News/Latest]] Wargo (talk) 10:19, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

As Wargo notes, the current link on your talkpage is pointing to "mw" instead of "m".

However, you might prefer to transclude w:Template:Latest tech news. -- Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 22:26, 28 March 2023 (UTC)

• Thanx, w:Template:Latest tech news does the job. That is, template-transclude: locally {{w:Template:Latest tech news}}

Might advertise this option at the subscription page.-DePiep (talk) 07:17, 17 April 2023 (UTC)

Date please

Coiuld the transcluded page carry a date-of-publication in-page? Weeknumber like "2023/16" at least, but a (nominal) date would be more informative. (Nigh nobody lives by weeknumber.) DePiep (talk) 20:46, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

@DePiep If I understand correctly, you are asking about adding a date into the w:Template:Latest tech news transclusion you are now using. You'd need to ask about that at that Enwiki template's talkpage.

The meta-wiki page Tech/News/Latest itself is just what is used for the MassMessage, and so it inherently has the bot's signature-timestamp when it is distributed. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 22:11, 18 April 2023 (UTC)

Deploy groups

Someone mentioned that group 0, 1, 2 are often mentioned, but ppl dont really know what those are. Can we attempt to link them to https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deployments/Train#Groups whenever they are mentioned ? —TheDJ (talk • contribs) 10:13, 19 August 2023 (UTC)

Haha! See my edit a few hours before your comment! Great minds think alike! ;D (Sidenote: The entry was added after I'd frozen the issue for translations, so it's now moved into the next issue.) I do wish we had a translatable/ed page to link to instead of wikitech, but that location will do for now. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 06:12, 20 August 2023 (UTC)

Suggestion about deployment dates section

Hey Quiddity. Thanks for doing tech news every week. I have a suggestion. For the below section about the train, which is in every issue and which my eyes skip because I already know what days the train deploys...

Changes later this week - The new version of MediaWiki will be on test wikis and MediaWiki.org from 14 November. It will be on non-Wikipedia wikis and some Wikipedias from 15 November. It will be on all wikis from 16 November (calendar).

Might I suggest re-focusing it more on the upcoming weeks where the train is cancelled. Something like...

Changes later this week - Wikimedia production deploys new code weekly in a process called "the train". New code will reach your wiki on Tuesday/Wednesday/Thursday, depending on which group it is in, unless there is no train that week. Here is the MediaWiki deployment schedule for the next four weeks: ✅ Week of Nov 13 (this week). ❌ Week of Nov 20. ✅ Week of Nov 27. ❌ Week of Dec 4. –Novem Linguae (talk) 20:45, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

Hey, thanks for the thanks and for the suggestion!

Hmm, I think I understand your goal (and I deeply appreciate the clear and specific example!) -- the complexities that make me hesitant are:

1. We only skip the deployment train for ~5-8 weeks out of every year, so that level of detail wouldn't be applicable most of the time;

2. If the content has more dynamic content, it will be even harder for all of the translators, who already have to become comfortable with this density of parser functions and I know that's off-putting to some (and confusing to most newcomers to the task);

3. Any increase to the visual highlights (e.g adding ✅ and ❌) will make the line even harder to ignore, and I believe the intent is to have a mostly-ignorable line that simply reminds folks (and teaches newcomers) about the existence of the weekly deployment train.

Or in other words/angles: I suspect that you (as a dev-contributor) have more need for this information than the vast majority of Tech News readers, and perhaps there's an easier way to help out the dev-contributor demographic without those drawbacks?

E.g. Would it be sufficient to:

A. add 1 and 2 as footnote links to the current standard text? (That's what we try to do with most English-only links. And it wouldn't require any changes to the existing&reusable Tech News translations.)

B. Perhaps also, start adding a supplemental string after the standard text, but only for the weeks prior to a no-train-week, e.g "[...]" + "There is no new MediaWiki version next week." (Although that requires more effort from translators.)

Thoughts? From you or anyone! Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 22:36, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

Sure, A and B would be two small improvements, so no opposition from me :) –Novem Linguae (talk) 23:19, 16 November 2023 (UTC)

I have nothing to say about 1. But 2 should be in different translate tag, imho. And Novem Linguae, FYI, our translation has different text from the origin, the same difference for years. I don't like it, because it's much more work for me every week, but the local community decided this way, and I was in minority against it. So it's possible to change the text. IKhitron (talk) 11:53, 17 November 2023 (UTC)

The language of the text of the news message

It is not appropriate that the technology news messages are sent in English language in all wikis (for example Persian wiki) in coffee houses. Not all worlds/activists on Wikipedia and local people are fluent in English. It is better that the messages are translated and placed in the same wiki's language in that wiki's coffee house.

How to do the translations is another matter. I have a few solutions for this;

1. Perform machine translation by Google translator.

2. Leaving the translation in the hands of one of the local administrators or a group of local administrators of each wiki.

3. The creation of a huge artificial intelligence translator project for wiki projects by the Wikimedia Foundation to translate pages (Wikimedia pages, Commons, etc.) and texts into all languages ​​that have an independent Wikipedia. Mostafamirchouli (talk) 20:43, 15 December 2023 (UTC)

@Mostafamirchouli Thank you for the feedback.

Translations are very much appreciated, and every week we "freeze" the contents of Tech News on Friday, so that it can be translated over the weekend, and then sent on Monday with all the translations properly delivered.

E.g. Tech/News/2023/50 was translated into ~20 languages, and you can see the French translations were delivered to b:fr:Discussion Wikilivres:Le Bistro/2023.

We do often get Farsi translations, and everyone's contributions to the process are widely appreciated.

We do not (and would not) use machine-translation because those systems are unreliable and they can produce near-nonsense in some languages or instances. Machine translations are only useful if the person using the tool is also fluent in the target-language and experienced in the source-language, so that they can detect (and correct) any subtle or obvious errors.

I hope that information helps, and that you might consider either helping to translate in the future, or encouraging others to do so.

Best wishes, Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 21:21, 15 December 2023 (UTC)

P.s. Next week's edition is at Tech/News/2023/51, and I will be freezing it in ~2 hours. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 21:24, 15 December 2023 (UTC)