User:Rdicerb (WMF)/sandbox/CL Toolkit/Epic Newsletter

From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki

Long term and epic projects may benefit from individual, subscriber-based newsletters so that interested users can follow progress. See the many options at Newsletters. This type of newsletter is typically created every 2-3 months and tends to be more in-depth than TechNews.

What Where How
Draft Office and Meta sandboxes
  • Gather information from relevant people and documentation;
  • Typical structure for a newsletter issue:
    • Links to read newsletter in other languages and to subscribe to multilingual delivery;
    • DYK ("Did You Know?) box at the right, to highlight the most recent or interesting change;
    • Short list of recent changes;
    • List of upcoming/future changes;
    • Call to action (upcoming testing, feedback, public meetings, documentation translations, signing up for newsletter's translations);
  • Finalize draft, get feedback;
  • Post draft to Meta.
Translate Meta
  • Create Meta page for newsletter by adding previously drafted text;
  • Add <translate> tags, <languages/> tags, <tvar> tags, and other formatting (you may want to use the most recent issue as a guide);
    • Pages with <translate></translate> tags will appear in Special:PageTranslation;
    • Ensure that the page has a "marker", a <section> tag which identifies it (see the top of any issue while in Edit mode; it’s currently VE-news for VisualEditor’s newsletter.);
  • Click the "mark for translation" link at the top of the page (only visible to translation administrators);
  • Try to translate something into any language to check formatting or if you need to fix something;
  • Mark the page for translation again - dummy edits sometimes help to propagate changes;
  • Last chance to review or add items, otherwise you'll waste translators' time and efforts.
  • Request translations support by emailing volunteers at translators-l@lists.wikimedia.org (and by MassMessage, if the team has a list of community members interested in translating that specific content);
  • Check all translations for red links. Fix any you find;
  • Update the page which hosts the code necessary for sending (such as VisualEditor's): after you click Edit, update the month’s name and change the codes for the languages with those you see at the top of your translated issue, regardless of their completion percentage, then save;
  • Search (command-F or ctrl-F in your browser) for any dollar signs ("$") to check for incorrectly formatted tvars: fix any you find, and make a null edit on the Sandbox page to update its contents.
Distribute Meta
  • (optional) Notify translators' and ambassadors' lists that the newsletter has been sent out with any relevant stats and a thank you (example);
  • add the current issue to the archive;
  • check the translations' history pages for the newly delivered issue if you are tracking translators' names somewhere.