Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2022-08-31/Technology report


 * All sections of this report, except for "English Wikipedia community discussing the deployment of the Vector (2022) skin", were written with the assistance of GPT-3, OpenAI’s large-scale language-generation model. More information on Signpost GPT-3 articles can be found here. Upon generating draft language, the author reviewed the text and takes ultimate responsibility for the content of this publication.

English Wikipedia community discussing the deployment of the Vector (2022) skin
Since July, a discussion about the switch to the Vector 2022 skin on English Wikipedia has been taking place. The discussion is focused on identifying what changes need to be made to the skin prior to launching the conversation around deployment.

The Wikimedia Foundation Web team is finalizing the changes that will be needed, and preparing a Request for Comment process around the deployment. The process is expected to start in early September. If you are an English Wikipedian who has feedback or questions around the new skin, the Web team encourages you to check out the new FAQ and add your thoughts to the current conversation.

About the skin
Vector (2022) is focused on making the interface more welcoming and comfortable for readers and useful for advanced users, especially those from diverse backgrounds and geographies. The skin builds upon the current default Vector legacy (2010) skin to introduce a series of feature changes. The results of quantitative (A/B and multivariate) testing and qualitative (user research and prototype) testing show that these changes make it easier to read and learn, navigate within the page, search, switch between languages, user page and user tools, and more, without negative effects to pageviews, account creation, or edit rates.

The skin has been in development for the past three years and has gone through rigorous testing. Currently, it is the default on half of the top 20 wikis, including Japanese, French, and Portuguese Wikipedias, in addition to many other projects. The team’s current focus is on bringing it as the default across all wikis.

Throughout the process, the team has been writing about their experience and motivations for building the skin on the Diff blog. Most recently, they published an in-depth blog post that focused on equitable product development and ways in which the voices of the current communities and readers globally were central to the development of the new skin. The post is available in 7 languages.

—OV (WMF), SG (WMF)

Private Incident Reporting System
The Wikimedia Foundation is building a "Private Incident Reporting System" (PIRS) to make it easy for users to report harmful incidents safely and privately. The newly-formed Trust and Safety Tools team has been tasked with building the PIRS. The team is studying previous research and community consultations to inform their work. They are also mapping out conflict resolution flows across wikis to understand how communities are currently managing conflicts. The goal of the project is to make it easier to address harassment and harmful incidents, ensure the privacy and safety of those reporting, as well as ensure the report reaches the correct entity that needs to process it. In Phase 1 of the project, the team wants to put out some rough ideas around possible product direction, consult with the community on mockups and ideas, and gather feedback from users. They also want to identify wikis that they can pilot PIRS on, establish a baseline for what they’re going to do in Phase 2, and identify potentially helpful metrics to look at when they start building. In Phase 2 of the project, the team wants to start building software based on Phase 1 findings and feedback. You are invited to provide feedback and answer questions about your experiences with inappropriate behavior on Meta. —E

In brief

 * Russian database dumps mirror: A new mirror for database dumps in Moscow, Russia has been added (announcement). PDApps will mirror the last 4 XML dumps for each wiki plus the Wikidata entity dumps. A list of all current mirrors can be found on Meta-Wiki.
 * Commons app release: A new major version of the Commons Android app has been released on Google Play. From the announcement: "this version includes tons of new features (a map displaying nearby Commons pictures, custom SPARQL queries, user profiles, and a custom picture selector), as well as fixes for major bugs such as the "date uploaded" bug". The project lead, Josephine Lim, is stepping down after 6 years and expects a new team to apply for a grant to continue development.
 * Database drifts update: All the database schema drifts in the MediaWiki core database tables have been resolved. These drifts led to various issues when the code did not match what was actually deployed on Wikimedia servers. The announcement contains more technical details, as well as explaining that the next step is fixing database tables created by extensions.

New user scripts to customise your Wikipedia experience

 * This script displays whether or not a mainspace page is marked as reviewed, with the info placed to the right of the page title using a small icon.

Recently approved tasks

 * Approved 14:34, 30 July 2022 (UTC) (bot has flag)
 * Approved 18:26, 9 July 2022 (UTC) (bot has flag)
 * Approved 18:20, 9 July 2022 (UTC) (bot has flag)
 * Approved 18:15, 9 July 2022 (UTC) (bot has flag)

Latest tech news
Latest tech news from the Wikimedia technical community: 2022 #33, #34, & #35. Please tell other users about these changes. Not all changes will affect you. Translations are available on Meta.