User talk:Makyen

A barnstar for you!

	The Original Barnstar
	Thanks, I'm restoring the bottom level right now and have just left you a message on your comments page. Thanks. Jim Motherco (talk) 03:57, 3 November 2014 (UTC)

Happy Holidays!

Merry Christmas and a Prosperous 2015!!!

Hello Makyen, may you be surrounded by peace, success and happiness on this seasonal occasion. Spread the WikiLove by wishing another user a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, whether it be someone you have had disagreements with in the past, a good friend, or just some random person. Sending you a heartfelt and warm greetings for Christmas and New Year 2015. Happy editing, MediaWiki message delivery (talk) 04:01, 25 December 2014 (UTC) Spread the love by adding {{subst:Seasonal Greetings}} to other user talk pages.

Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) on behalf of {{U|Technical 13}} to all registered users whom have commented on his talk page. To prevent receiving future messages, please follow the opt-out instructions on User:Technical 13/Holiday list

Developing features

There was some discussion recently on Jimbo's Talk page of using the WMF grant process to fund the development and maintenance of on-wiki features. For example, on several occasions editors have asked if WMF will support the citation tools. The New York Times reference generator has been broken for ages. The Wikiblame tool seems to either not work, or not work very well (or I'm just missing something). I'm shocked there isn't a way to search a user's contribs for keywords, which would help in SPIs and other things.

The most recent discussion was about creating more advanced COI/sock detection. For example, if we had natural language processing software that rated the likelihood that two accounts were the same person, based on their language patterns.

I'd be happy to formalize a grant submission but would need a technical person to do the work developing the features (and take all the money), and Anthonyhcole mentioned you had done something in the past for $1,000 that came out well. Something you might be interested in? CorporateM (Talk) 02:17, 8 April 2015 (UTC)

CorporateM, Yes, I am interested in developing additional features, or working on upkeep of current ones. It appears that there are multiple possible projects in both development and maintenance. What project(s) to focus on is something that would need to be determined. The scope of those you have mentioned ranges in time requirements from relatively small to quite significant. I'm working my way through reading the complete discussion on Jimbo's Talk page, but I will probably not complete doing so prior to going to sleep (I've been up for about 24 hours).

As to WMF grants: My expectation is that this sort of thing probably fits well in Individual Engagement Grants (IEG). Unfortunately, the deadline for the current round of those was the end of last month. Project and Event Grants (PEG) might also be appropriate. I have a bit of experience with the beginning of the IEG process as I attempted to get a couple of projects approved last September. However, some family stuff came up (I'm willing to provide more information, but not on-wiki) during that period which resulted in my not being able to put the effort into the proposals which would have been needed to have them be successfully approved. — Makyen (talk) 18:42, 8 April 2015 (UTC)

Yup, I was going to go the IEG route waiting for the next roundup. There have been several related discussions in different areas - a lot of times folks are asking WMF to maintain stuff like the citation tools, but there hasn't been any indication that they will provide developer resources for this kind of thing directly. CorporateM (Talk) 20:03, 9 April 2015 (UTC)

I've gotten a draft started with my own little wish-list of sorts. I'll ping @Anthonyhcole:, in case they have time to take a look as well. CorporateM (Talk) 21:23, 9 April 2015 (UTC)

Personally, I'd just pick one defined task (not ongoing maintenance), ask for quotes (i.e. "put it out to tender") on WP:VPT and choose the best quote from a person or group who looks like they have understood the brief and can do it, and only then submit it for a grant. --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 00:50, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

@Anthonyhcole:What do you think would be the best thing to focus on first? I would prefer to go with someone that has provided you with timely, quality products in the past, than go with the lowest bidder, who may or may not be reliable. Can either of you confirm whether this Firefox add-on works? I've installed it on my mac, but the options the documentation states appear when you right-click are not actually there. CorporateM (Talk) 16:00, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

Ok, it works on my pc, but not on mac. CorporateM (Talk) 16:51, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

CorporateM and Anthonyhcole, If you are interested in a Wikipedia citation Firefox add-on, I significantly updated Wikipedia:Cite4Wiki and called it Cite4Wiki Phoenix. It creates a citation for a currently viewed webpage. Unfortunately, it is not currently on Mozilla add-ons (I need to do a bit more work before putting it back up there). However, you can download it from: Cite4Wiki Phoenix. I am interested in feedback as to basically anything (e.g. problems/issues, desires for additional functionality, user interface, etc.). I do not currently have a Mac environment, so have not yet tested it there.

As to an IEG grant, keep in mind that we have nearly 6 months until the next deadline for submitting proposals. That gives a lot of time to figure out exactly what is desired. Given that there are multiple things that are desired, I would suggest that multiple proposals be submitted with things separated out, at least, into related groups. Having multiple proposals potentially permits getting one or more proposals with smaller dollar amounts approved rather than one big one (which is less likely to be approved). — Makyen (talk) 17:56, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

Thanks. I'm taking a look at that now and also playing with visual editor, which appears to already fix the problem with having to code-in citation templates. I'm also starting to cleanup the citation tools list of broken tools, etc. I'll spend a few months using various features and see where I end up. CorporateM (Talk) 19:13, 10 April 2015 (UTC)

Makyen, I've downloaded Phoenix but when I double-click it Windows (I think) asks "How do you want to open this type of file (.xpi)?" What should I use? --Anthonyhcole (talk · contribs · email) 00:38, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

Anthonyhcole, The easiest way to install it is to drag and drop the file you downloaded onto an open Firefox window of the profile in which you want it installed. Mozilla (Firefox) does not set up an actual mapping to the .xpi file extension. I assume this is because Mozilla uses it for the add-ons for multiple different applications (e.g. Firefox, Thunderbird, SeaMonkey). — Makyen (talk) 05:59, 11 April 2015 (UTC)

Update

I've been using the Visual Editor and I think it makes the issue of having to manually fill citation templates virtually obsolete. The only thing I'm wondering is if it would be possible to have a Gadget that a user has the option of activating that would attempt to auto-fill the citation parameters in the visual editor interface once a URL is added. Is that possible? CorporateM (Talk) 21:32, 14 April 2015 (UTC)

Hey, one other question, is it feasible to create a feature that would allow a user to opt-in to pending changes (for example, as an alternative to Request Edit)? I would probably be willing to pay for such a feature out of my own pocket, but I figured it's not possible without access to the core software (only WMF could do it). CorporateM (Talk) 17:37, 15 April 2015 (UTC)

CorporateM, I'm going to have to play around with the Visual Editor to see exactly what it is that you want the new code to affect. It is very likely that what you desire is possible.

I am not sure if we can really say that the Visual Editor (VE) makes the effort people put into filling out citation templates obsolete. When the VE comes out of beta and is the default interface, then that may be the case. While there is an increasing rate of adopting VE (currently 61,566 users) it is not the default method of editing pages.

For an IEG grant we should not explicitly state that it is a gadget that is the goal. We can say that a user script will be developed to the level of quality appropriate for it to become a gadget if it is decided by the community that it should be made one. We can also say that the proposal includes any modifications needed to make it qualify as a gadget, and that it will be proposed as a gadget. The reason for this is that gadgets are effectively user scripts that have been promoted through a process of proposal and approval by the community. Actually stating that the goal is a gadget puts a process (community approval) that is not controlled by the people involved with the grant as a gating item for the grant. In addition, most developed scripts take considerably longer than the 6 month IEG period to gain the level of community approval and adoption to qualify as a gadget.

As to pending changes, I am not sure what you are asking. To set up pending changes on a specific page is something that can be requested at Requests for page protection. For a user to be granted the right to review pending changes, they need the "reviewer" permission which can be obtained by requesting the permission at: Wikipedia:Requests for permissions/Pending changes reviewer. If you are asking if a specific user can have all of their edits on all pages be pending changes, or if a user can have all of their edits on selected pages be pending changes, then the answer is that there is no support for such in the MediaWiki software. While it might be possible to develop a MediaWiki extension which enables such a feature, doing so is not something that can be the subject of an IEG grant. IEG grants specifically exclude: "MediaWiki Extensions or software features requiring code review and integration cannot be funded." — Makyen (talk) 00:18, 17 April 2015 (UTC)

TWL HighBeam check-in

Hello Wikipedia Library Users,

You are receiving this message because the Wikipedia Library has record of you receiving a one-year subscription to HighBeam. This is a brief update to remind you about that access:

• Make sure that you can still log in to your HighBeam account; if you are having trouble feel free to contact me for more information. When your access expires you can reapply at WP:HighBeam.
• Remember, if you find this source useful for your Wikipedia work, make sure to include citations with links on Wikipedia: links to partner resources are one of the few ways we can demonstrate usage and demand for accounts to our partners. The greater the linkage, the greater the likelihood a useful partnership will be renewed. For more information about citing this source, see Wikipedia:HighBeam/Citations
• Write unusual articles using this partner's sources? Did access to this source create new opportunities for you in the Wikipedia community? If you have a unique story to share about your contributions, let us know and we can set up an opportunity for you to write a blog post about your work with one of our partner's resources.

Finally, we would greatly appreciate if you filled out this short survey. The survey helps us not only better serve you with facilitating this particular partnership, but also helps us discover what other partnerships and services the Wikipedia Library can offer.

Thank you. Sent by MediaWiki message delivery (talk) at 16:45, 13 April 2015 (UTC)