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Editing News #1—July 2019

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Did you know?

Did you know that you can use the visual editor on a mobile device?

Every article has a pencil icon at the top. Tap on the pencil icon to start editing.

Edit Cards

This is what the new Edit Cards for editing links in the mobile visual editor look like. You can try the prototype here: 📲 Try Edit Cards.

Welcome back to the Editing newsletter.

Since the last newsletter, the team has released two new features for the mobile visual editor and has started developing three more. All of this work is part of the team's goal to make editing on mobile web simpler.

Before talking about the team's recent releases, we have a question for you:

Are you willing to try a new way to add and change links?

If you are interested, we would value your input! You can try this new link tool in the mobile visual editor on a separate wiki.

Follow these instructions and share your experience:

📲 Try Edit Cards.

Recent releases

The mobile visual editor is a simpler editing tool, for smartphones and tablets using the mobile site. The Editing team recently launched two new features to improve the mobile visual editor:

1. Section editing
   • The purpose is to help contributors focus on their edits.
   • The team studied this with an A/B test. This test showed that contributors who could use section editing were 1% more likely to publish the edits they started than people with only full-page editing.
2. Loading overlay
   • The purpose is to smooth the transition between reading and editing.

Section editing and the new loading overlay are now available to everyone using the mobile visual editor.

New and active projects

This is a list of our most active projects. Watch these pages to learn about project updates and to share your input on new designs, prototypes and research findings.

• Edit cards: This is a clearer way to add and edit links, citations, images, templates, etc. in articles. You can try this feature now. Go here to see how: 📲 Try Edit Cards.
• Mobile toolbar refresh: This project will learn if contributors are more successful when the editing tools are easier to recognize.
• Mobile visual editor availability: This A/B test asks: Are newer contributors more successful if they use the mobile visual editor? We are collaborating with 20 Wikipedias to answer this question.
• Usability improvements: This project will make the mobile visual editor easier to use. The goal is to let contributors stay focused on editing and to feel more confident in the editing tools.

Looking ahead

• Wikimania: Several members of the Editing Team will be attending Wikimania in August 2019. They will lead a session about mobile editing in the Community Growth space. Talk to the team about how editing can be improved.
• Talk Pages: In the coming months, the Editing Team will begin improving talk pages and communication on the wikis.

Learning more

The VisualEditor on mobile is a good place to learn more about the projects we are working on. The team wants to talk with you about anything related to editing. If you have something to say or ask, please leave a message at Talk:VisualEditor on mobile.

PPelberg (WMF) (talk) & Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk)

18:32, 23 July 2019 (UTC)

Replies

Thanks. Although I have a phone that cannot perform such actions (it is only a Nokia phone, I don’t think that I will get my phone until I am 16 or so). Znotch190711 (talk) 13:28, 28 July 2019 (UTC)

The visual editor requires Javascript and a smartphone or tablet. It doesn't work on a feature phone. Whatamidoing (WMF) (talk) 15:49, 16 August 2019 (UTC)

Hidden number

Hi! How to hide a Q/R number after Q/R name in {{Q}}? Please, help add parameter {{Q|Q1|1=hidden}}, anyhow? Thanks! — Niklitov (talk) 14:08, 29 July 2019 (UTC)

If we can do this, why would you want to? If you're really using {{Q}}, then having the Q number visible is useful. If you don't want to show it, why not link directly to a page on a different project? StevenJ81 (talk) 14:26, 29 July 2019 (UTC)

Articles on for-profit companies

I've started doing some work on pages like Google, Amazon, and Facebook to document some stuff on Wikimedia's (occasionally problematic) relationships with these companies. There should probably be a standard format for these, and maybe a navbox. Anyone know if there has been any previous work on documenting these? Also, are there any problems with documenting if a Wikimedia official has been employed by a company, during their term or not? --Yair rand (talk) 23:29, 31 July 2019 (UTC)

I'm not really sure this is within meta's scope? It might be worth having an essay in your userspace here or on another project, but I wouldn't want it in meta mainspace personally. TonyBallioni (talk) 23:35, 31 July 2019 (UTC)

Hm, I hadn't even considered whether it might be out of scope. The page Google was started in 2015 by User:PiRSquared17. It seems to me like this largely falls within "Documentation and discussion concerning the Wikimedia Foundation and its projects", per the inclusion policy. --Yair rand (talk) 23:49, 31 July 2019 (UTC)

It seems to fit the parameters of Meta-Wiki's purpose (see also the inclusion policy). Killiondude (talk) 05:13, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

I think that's debatable, but I'd agree it's borderline. If it is within scope though, I think it should be marked as an essay or even moved to userspace, where I wouldn't really have any objections to it. TonyBallioni (talk) 05:32, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

These articles are fine and I don't see them in any way similar to essays, they don't contain opinions but merely serve as index for a few facts. For similar articles see Machine translation and FLOSS-Exchange for instance. Nemo 06:52, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

That's fine. Personally, I think documenting occasionally problematic relationships is more essay stuff than articles, but it's not something I feel like pressing if I'm the only one who feels that way. TonyBallioni (talk) 16:16, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

Thank you for expanding these! I don't think we need a strict format on these pages and a navbox would cement a selection of topics which are not necessarily the ones. Categories are doing the job pretty fine, in my opinion, see e.g. Category:Google. Nemo 06:52, 1 August 2019 (UTC)

Maybe a navbox of major donors? Or a specific subcategory for "For-profit organizations"? --Yair rand (talk) 01:15, 5 August 2019 (UTC)

New template for diff links (cross-project)

Providing diff links to substantiate certain claims (or simply to point to some specific change) is common practice in the WMF projects. Typically, these are diffs from the same project. However, on projects like Meta, where other projects are coordinated, or in Commons or Wikidata, that serve many other projects, it may be necessary to also provide diffs from another project. The standard {{diff}} template, while otherwise a venerable tool, doesn't provide such functionality.

Enter {{xdiff}}. Besides using very slightly simplified syntax (which I personally find more convenient), it supports cross-project (that is, from a different project, not between projects, of course) diff links.

Here's an example from enwiki: {{xdiff|188929697|188927826|Don't delete the main page|w:en}} => Don't delete the main page

And another from Commons (which also uses the default “diff” label): {{xdiff|343980000|343611222||c}} => diff

Check the documentation in {{xdiff}} for instructions on its usage and for more examples.

Cheers,
— Luchesar • T/C 12:05, 2 August 2019 (UTC)

Wikipedia African Month

Hello,

For the second French Wikipedia African Month (fr:Mois africain Wikipédia/2020), I want this edit-a-thon will become in other languages. Actually, a portuguese edition was created in 2019, as the French version. Is possible ? Because this event is here to create articles about Africa, because there are minor that other continent.

Sincerely & Thanks, AirSThib (talk), le 13:09, 12 August 2019 (UTC).

PS : I didn't translate this message, so the English is not very good !

Current state of "General requests"

Currently, the "General requests" looks all but abandoned or overlooked. The page is getting huger and longer to browse, so archiving may be needed. Threads within the past year have receiver very little to no reply. If it can't be marked as "inactive", what else can be done about the venue? George Ho (talk) 06:55, 17 August 2019 (UTC)