Talk:Tech/News

Hello and thanks for your work, Could you add class=skin-invert-image to icons in future News so that their colors be inverted in dark mode? (See mw:Recommendations for night mode compatibility on Wikimedia wikis#Apply filters to dark images with transparent background) Thanks, Escargot bleu (talk) 07:15, 25 June 2024 (UTC)Reply

I updated the manual. Escargot bleu (talk) 07:20, 25 June 2024 (UTC)Reply

Thank you! Your edit covers most of it. I've updated the other two spots (generic, and next week's draft). I appreciate your note, your edit, and the details. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 21:30, 25 June 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Quiddity (WMF), please also take note of my edit there. I think it wasn’t the intention that these images should be ignored by users using screen reader software, if it was, then my edit can be reverted. stjn^[ru] 23:17, 27 June 2024 (UTC)Reply

If you read the MediaWiki page carefully, for these icons this can be simplified to |class=skin-invert since they don’t have a caption. stjn^[ru] 23:20, 27 June 2024 (UTC)Reply

The reason I prefer skin-invert-image is that it always works, so people doing copy-pastes without understanding how it works won't have any issue. Escargot bleu (talk) 14:04, 28 June 2024 (UTC)Reply

Page Tech/News/2024/29 is translated into 14 languages. Czech translation is completed, but the survey does not offer the creation of a Czech translation at all. Why? Or better: Where we can do it? -- Want (talk) 15:43, 15 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

@Want Hi, sorry about that. I requested translation assistance via the translators-l@ mailing list 10 days before the survey was first launched. Then everything that was translated at Tech/News/Reader survey 2024, I copy & pasted into LimeSurvey just before sending Tech News that week. In hindsight, I also should've mentioned it here.

Unfortunately the survey is only officially open for 3 more days (though I'll likely leave it till the end of the week), but if you wish to add translations there, I can still copy them across, then ping you once that's ready, and you could possibly help encourage more Czech responses with the updated link? Up to you. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 02:51, 16 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

Unfortunately, I don't have time to translate now. I have a dentist appointment coming up. Those who want to, must fill in the questionnaire in a language they understand. Thanks for the your effort. -- Want (talk) 05:12, 16 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

I’ve set Tech/News/Reader survey 2024 to discouraged in the translation system to make it clear that new translations won’t be included anymore. —Tacsipacsi (talk) 17:15, 16 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

Noting that we're going to be testing out some new section-headers for Tech News this week (and in the following weeks), that are intended to help readers to better navigate the content in each week's newsletter. We'll move the new section-headers into the {{Tech news text}} system after a couple of weeks, if all goes well.

We're also planning some updates for the Manual, with this and related info, such as an expanded Style Guide. Thanks. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 19:18, 18 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

Hi. I just saw the news issue in wikitech-l. It was sent on Tuesday. So, I have a suggestion: let's move the RSS feed jump date from Monday to Tuesday too? Because now it is sent about 12 hours before the wikipages delivery, and there were some cases over the years when these versions were different after last minute change. IKhitron (talk) 19:23, 19 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

That sounds good to me. Are you familiar with what exactly needs to be changed? If so, please go ahead and edit it, or point me towards where and what needs to be changed. (I've tried reading the docs, but they are unclear to me). If not, I will ask around for help. Thanks. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 23:35, 22 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

No, I don't. IKhitron (talk) 00:43, 23 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

Request filed at phab:T370811. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 19:42, 23 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

Hi. I really hope the new format will not continue, otherwise I think I'm going to leave the translation, and there will be one language less every week. It's the second week I spent about 90 minutes to translate the issue, instead of 5 minutes before, or 15 minutes until a couple of months ago. I just don't have so much time. Today it was even harder, because I needed to rephrase from scratch half of the entries, and I still don't know how to translate the new section headers, because straight translations make no sense in the target language. IKhitron (talk) 23:27, 20 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

I also have the same feeling. I doubt if Tech News is still tech news. I really liked the very concise format of "this is changing; if you're affected (usually not), go there". Now it's more of tech outreach bulletin to non-technical people. I believe that target groups of these are mainly disjoint. I don't know what were the survey results, but I strongly believe, there should be a newsletter like Tech News used to be - short action items for community technicians to act upon, without the bloat of "have you known that...?" (which I don't say is useless but do we really have so many of these every week?). Msz2001 (talk) 13:43, 21 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

@IKhitron & @Msz2001: Thank you for this detailed and helpful feedback. Yes, the survey responses (a summary is coming soon™) and other related discussions did indicate that some readers do really want more details or context in each entry, and also more entries overall (so that they can learn about other Tech-related work that is ongoing within the movement, or tools they weren't already aware of). However, that definitely needs to be balanced with all of your weekly translation-efforts.

Re: Now it's more of tech outreach bulletin to non-technical people. I believe that target groups of these are mainly disjoint -- I believe I understand your point about the intended-audience for Tech News, but I'd suggest that technical skill-levels and technical interest-levels are both a huge spectrum in the movement! We're aiming to be more helpful to all editors who are interested in news about the varied technical infrastructures we all use to contribute, but that is inherently a difficult balance.

In the short-term (the next few weeks), we (my teammates) will continue to experiment with adjusting various aspects, including sub-section-titles and entry-structures, but we will try to find a better balance for the length of each entry. One partial-solution might be for us to settle on some more "standardized" entry-structures, that are thus more easily translatable by you all each week. My teammates and I have been discussing that, but haven't settled on anything precise yet; I'll write some notes here over the next few weeks.

In the longer-term, we may need to think of other new ideas, such as perhaps a special (longer) monthly edition of Tech News for these less time-specific but still informative entries.

If anyone else has related thoughts (both pros and cons of recent experiments, or other suggestions for ways to improve), please do share them. Thanks again. Quiddity (WMF) (talk) 23:00, 22 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

I agree with the goal of keeping it simple, but I disagree that the recent increase in volume is a way of reaching this goal. By introducing long-winded sentences with rhetorical questions and vague expressions, we are increasing the complexity of the messages. Le Loy (talk) 06:12, 23 July 2024 (UTC)Reply

Same. It is quite unfortunate to see the tone shifting to marketing and promotion ("This decision will safeguard the productivity of our developers" ??? "This group will bring technical contributors and Wikimedia Foundation together to co-define a more resilient, future-proof technological platform" ??????)
I don't like it.
We should keep Tech News fact-focussed, otherwise it is not enjoyable to read / translate. I read enough marketing materials at work. Le Loy (talk) 02:58, 23 July 2024 (UTC)Reply