Re: [Wikitech-l] Fwd: New newsletter: Tech Showcase

[Jérémie Roquet]

Hi Brian, Hi Quim,

Thank a lot for your detailed answers!

I understand the trade-offs there, and I want to thank you again for
the notifications which, whatever their form, are definitely a
valuable improvement over… well… no notification :)

Best regards,

-- 
Jérémie

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Re: [Wikitech-l] Fwd: New newsletter: Tech Showcase

[Quim Gil]

Hi Jérémie!

On Fri, Oct 13, 2017 at 7:22 PM, Jérémie Roquet 
wrote:

> Do you think it would be possible somehow to receive the actual
> content, either by RSS (preferred) or by email (fine as well)?
>

At least for this Tech Showcase, "the actual content" is one title and one
link, by design. We don't want to write articles, just point to the action
where it is happening.

Here, I'm getting an email with only a link to a newsletter with only
> a link to the actual content. That's two levels of indirection


Yes, but the double step in this case (where the destination was a page out
of MediaWiki.org) is due to a missing feature:

Support interwiki links for new Newsletter issues
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T174664

When that task is solved (contributors welcome!), you will click the link
in the email or web notification, and you will land directly in the
corresponding non-MediaWiki.org page.

For now, we are trying to bypass this problem creating a topic in the Tech
Showcase Talk page, only to have a MediaWiki.org page to link to... A cheap
solution that I hope embarrasses someone enough to write a patch.  :)

We had a discussion about the ambassadors' announce format a few
> months ago (was it with Benoît or Johan? I think Benoît, but I'm not
> sure) and I already underlined how the mailing-list and RSS formats
> currently in use were great for people who have to deal with hundreds
> of notifications per week.
>
> I understand that this would mean more work for whoever writes the
> newsletter and that the mediawiki newsletter extension may not yet
> provide a way to send more content than just a title, so I'd be
> perfectly fine with a negative answer. I just want to draw attention
> to the the added cost to access the information.
>

It's a trade-off, right? Posting a newsletter issue reusing a title and a
URL that already exist takes literally one minute (in this case
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/Edit_Conflicts/Feedback_Round_Test_Page
and the title of the email sent by Birgit to the wikitech-ambassadors
list). Writing a short informative article about the same takes more time,
enough to maybe send the notification tomorrow instead of today, or after
the weekend, or... maybe never because we are all so busy anyway. Besides,
why to write an article when the own creators already are reporting the
news in their own words so well?

The Newsletter extension allows for the distribution of traditional
newsletters (you write everything in a wiki page, you announce it when you
are done). However, the same software allows to create newsletters
consisting in... basically collections of title+link pointing to a wiki or
(some day) to any page that can be expressed with an interwiki link. Tech
Showcase bets on this new paradigm and I personally believe it is going to
be a success and a source of inspiration to others.

PS: and Brian was quicker commenting on the RSS feature request.

-- 
Quim Gil
Engineering Community Manager @ Wikimedia Foundation
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil
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Re: [Wikitech-l] Fwd: New newsletter: Tech Showcase

[bawolff]

On Fri, Oct 13, 2017 at 5:22 PM, Jérémie Roquet  wrote:
> Dear Quim,
>
> 2017-10-13 12:40 GMT+02:00 Quim Gil :
>> TLDR: Please give this a try, subscribe, and forward the link to other
>> mailing lists or projects: https://www.mediawiki.org/
>> wiki/Newsletter:Tech_Showcase.
>>
>> The simplest and easiest way to know
>> about interesting software being developed by staff or volunteers for our
>> readers and our contributors.
>>
>> No tech knowledge needed and no time commitment required either. You will
>> just receive one sentence notifications linking to the fresh software
>> showcased.
>
> Thank you!
>
> Do you think it would be possible somehow to receive the actual
> content, either by RSS (preferred) or by email (fine as well)?
>
> Here, I'm getting an email with only a link to a newsletter with only
> a link to the actual content. That's two levels of indirection with
> little information on what the notification is about, nor any way to
> easily keep the content at hand for reading later.
>
> We had a discussion about the ambassadors' announce format a few
> months ago (was it with Benoît or Johan? I think Benoît, but I'm not
> sure) and I already underlined how the mailing-list and RSS formats
> currently in use were great for people who have to deal with hundreds
> of notifications per week.
>
> I understand that this would mean more work for whoever writes the
> newsletter and that the mediawiki newsletter extension may not yet
> provide a way to send more content than just a title, so I'd be
> perfectly fine with a negative answer. I just want to draw attention
> to the the added cost to access the information.
>
> Thanks again and best regards,
>

These are definitely features that would be possible to implement in
Newsletter extension. Of course someone would have to do them, and I
don't think very many people are working on the extension right now.

The RSS part already has a bug
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T173041 . I'd suggest filing a bug
for the better email notice part.

--
Brian

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Re: [Wikitech-l] Fwd: New newsletter: Tech Showcase

[Jérémie Roquet]

Dear Quim,

2017-10-13 12:40 GMT+02:00 Quim Gil :
> TLDR: Please give this a try, subscribe, and forward the link to other
> mailing lists or projects: https://www.mediawiki.org/
> wiki/Newsletter:Tech_Showcase.
>
> The simplest and easiest way to know
> about interesting software being developed by staff or volunteers for our
> readers and our contributors.
>
> No tech knowledge needed and no time commitment required either. You will
> just receive one sentence notifications linking to the fresh software
> showcased.

Thank you!

Do you think it would be possible somehow to receive the actual
content, either by RSS (preferred) or by email (fine as well)?

Here, I'm getting an email with only a link to a newsletter with only
a link to the actual content. That's two levels of indirection with
little information on what the notification is about, nor any way to
easily keep the content at hand for reading later.

We had a discussion about the ambassadors' announce format a few
months ago (was it with Benoît or Johan? I think Benoît, but I'm not
sure) and I already underlined how the mailing-list and RSS formats
currently in use were great for people who have to deal with hundreds
of notifications per week.

I understand that this would mean more work for whoever writes the
newsletter and that the mediawiki newsletter extension may not yet
provide a way to send more content than just a title, so I'd be
perfectly fine with a negative answer. I just want to draw attention
to the the added cost to access the information.

Thanks again and best regards,

-- 
Jérémie

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[Wikitech-l] Fwd: New newsletter: Tech Showcase

[Quim Gil]

Dear Wikimedia developers,

TLDR: Please give this a try, subscribe, and forward the link to other
mailing lists or projects: https://www.mediawiki.org/
wiki/Newsletter:Tech_Showcase.

I am of course biased, but I do believe that this newsletter is interesting
basically for any active contributors. The simplest and easiest way to know
about interesting software being developed by staff or volunteers for our
readers and our contributors.

No tech knowledge needed and no time commitment required either. You will
just receive one sentence notifications linking to the fresh software
showcased.

PS: This is a new concept of newsletter for experienced Wikimedians as
well. The Technical Collaboration team hopes that these types of
newsletters will reach new audiences and new voices beyond the power users
following Village Pumps, mailing lists or Phabricator.


-- Forwarded message --
From: Quim Gil 
Date: Fri, Oct 13, 2017 at 12:18 PM
Subject: New newsletter: Tech Showcase
To: Wikimedia Mailing List 


Tech curious? This is for you:

Tech Showcase 

A newsletter (*) about fresh software for Wikimedia caught on the spot.
Plans, prototypes, releases... Do you have a scoop? Tell us in the Talk
page!

Just click "Subscribe" and you will be notified in your preferred Wikimedia
wiki.
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Newsletter:Tech_Showcase

(*) This is a newsletter powered by the Newsletter extension
. Expect one
sentence notifications linking to the tech showcased, not lengthy articles
and prose.

-- 
Quim Gil
Engineering Community Manager @ Wikimedia Foundation
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil
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