Dear Ambassadors,
I'm looking for volunteer wikis to try out the new search that Chad and
I've been working on called CirrusSearch.
<sales pitch>Be a part of the second wave of wikis and influence new search
features!</sales pitch>
Reality:
* We're reasonably sure CirrusSearch's language support is better than the
current search. [1]
* CirrusSearch indexes expanded templates.
* CirrusSearch indexes articles within a few seconds of when they are
changed. Articles that contain a changed template take longer but they are
also updated.
* Most of the special search syntax is the same. You can read the syntax
here: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Search/CirrusSearchFeatures
What it means to volunteer:
If you volunteer your wiki we'll turn CirrusSearch on in "secondary" mode
where it'll keep itself up to date but all queries will still go through
the old search. You'll be able to get search results from the new search
engine for comparison by adding a url parameter to the search results
page. If you and the community that you represent aren't immediately blown
away by how much better it works we'll work with you to make it awesome.
At some point, shortly after the new search has been deemed awesome, we'll
switch CirrusSearch to "primary" mode and all queries will go through it.
You'll be able to get at the old search results with a url parameter
similar to the one that you used to test CirrusSearch. If anything goes
wrong we'll switch you back to the old search. We'll keep that option open
for a few months.
So who is ready to help make search better?
Nik Everett
[1]: Some languages (20ish) will see a huge improvement because
CirrusSearch understands their grammar and old search doesn't. Many other
languages will see an improvement because CirrusSearch is happy to search
all kinds of character sets while the current search isn't. Esperanto is
very well supported by the old search so would get worse. eo wikis should
probably wait until we've improved support.
Hi all,
This is just an advance notice that we're getting much closer to being able
to launch GettingStarted,[1] a tool for suggesting tasks to new editors
after they sign up,[2] on non-English Wikipedias.
In the next 24 hours or so, most of our major user-facing changes will be
merged and ready to localize. About 10-15 languages are 80% or better on
translatewiki already, so many are close. The more the better!
Our current plan is to launch initially on all Wikipedias where
localization is complete (or close to it, 90% or better is ideal). That
will likely happen soon after our current iteration of work ends on
February 5th, though I will keep people posted.
Please let me know if you have any questions,
1. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Extension:GettingStarted
2. https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Onboarding_new_Wikipedians
--
Steven Walling,
Product Manager
https://wikimediafoundation.org/
Hi all,
This is just a notice that we are making a small series of updates to the
button styles in MediaWiki core. These buttons appear on login, account
creation, search, and some other interfaces.
This isn't a big change, but I didn't want anyone to be taken by surprise
since there are some color changes and so on. On the positive side, those
who think our blue action buttons are too Facebook-like may be pleased with
the change. ;-)
This is added to Tech News next issue,[1] and you will be able to see it on
mediawiki.org as of Thursday, if you want to try it out before it is on
your wiki.
Thanks!
1. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Tech/News/2014/06
--
Steven Walling,
Product Manager
https://wikimediafoundation.org/
Hi all,
This is just a quick announcement that today we enabled the Guided Tours
extension on the following Wikipedias: fawiki (Persian), astwiki
(Asturian), and ruwiki (Russian). I'll also be posting to those wikis
directly but wanted to send out a note here.
--
Steven Walling,
Product Manager
https://wikimediafoundation.org/
Hello and welcome to the latest edition of the deployment and roadmap
highlights.
Full up-to-date schedule, as always, can be found online at:
<https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Deployments>
== Throughout the week ==
* The Technical Operations team will be bringing the west coast caching
center ("ULSFO") online (again, after a failed first attempt due to
connectivity limitations). This work will happen throughout the week.
* On Thursday and Friday there is the MediaWiki Architecture Summit in
San Francisco. See:
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Architecture_Summit_2014
* Due to the US public holiday on Monday (Martin Luther King Jr Day) and
the Architecture Summit, the week of the 20th will be a low/no deploy
week. As such, the only things on the calendar are placeholders for
"Lightning Deploys" on Tues, Wed, and Thurs (Pacific time).
Let me know if you have any questions,
Greg
--
| Greg Grossmeier GPG: B2FA 27B1 F7EB D327 6B8E |
| identi.ca: @greg A18D 1138 8E47 FAC8 1C7D |
