Talk:Wikimedia Engineering/2014-15 Goals

Successful Wikimedia Hackathon USA
How comes? Is there a proposal for one from someone? I don't see any in Hackathons. --Nemo 08:00, 10 June 2014 (UTC)

Core Features i18n
I have no idea what the bullet "translatewiki.net" could mean in the second quarter. If it means i18n, that's absurd: i18n can't come after the "Deployment" planned for the previous quarter. --Nemo 08:04, 10 June 2014 (UTC)

new mobile active editor
Definition please. --Nemo 08:29, 10 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Is a "new active editor" one that we previously didn't get (i.e. which produces an increase in totals for Wikipedia et al.)?
 * Is a "mobile editor" one who did their first edit on mobile? Registration and all edits on mobile? A majority of edits on mobile? Registration on mobile and edits wherever?

Auto-archiving existing talk pages when Flow is turned on
What does this mean? Does it mean what it literally says, that existing talk pages will be archived when Flow is turned on, leaving a talk page with only headers? Dougweller (talk) 17:55, 10 June 2014 (UTC)


 * See for example Talk:Beta Features/Nearby Pages which has this done. Jdforrester (WMF) (talk) 18:07, 10 June 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks but I don't see how that answers my question. At the time Flow is turned on, will all talk pages be blanked due to archiving? What I do see is another problem in that the history of Talk:Beta Features/Nearby Pages doesn't include the archive. I don't think that would be acceptable. Dougweller (talk) 08:10, 11 June 2014 (UTC)


 * Sorry, that bullet point is unclear -- I'll edit and explain that better. What we need to do is just build the ability for the team to auto-archive a talk page when we turn Flow on, still on a page-by-page basis. We're not at the stage where we're ready to archive a whole namespace yet. :) Let me know if you have any other questions. DannyH (WMF) (talk) 18:02, 11 June 2014 (UTC)

Mathematics rendering and editing
I am concerned about the current state of, and planning for, mathematics rendering and editing. When I say "planning" what concerns me is that there are no explicit plans for the future, and no mechanisms for forming them. I am told that these areas are currently dependent on one current volunteer working on rendering and one former volunteer project on a formula editor for VE. This seems entirely inadequate for a form of editing that is required in about 3% of Wikipedia articles (perhaps some 100,000 on en.wp).

I would suggest


 * General
 * WMF planning address the issue of development of mathematics and other complex rendering markup and editing components.
 * WMF liaise actively and effectively with existing editor and reader communities in (1).
 * WMF draw up roadmap for development of complex rendering and editing.
 * WMF liaise actively and effectively with volunteer developer communities to determine required frameworks and work packages.
 * WMF allocate funds and resources to support work packages.


 * Specific
 * Retention of current modes of editing and rendering mathematics an indispensable part of product development.
 * Mathematics rendering to be based on MathJax as principal vehicle, with efficiency and resources issues resolved on a wide variety of platforms.
 * LaTeX markup retained as principal mode of editing mathematics text with concomitant option to directly edit at the wikitext markup level.
 * Appropriate resourcing for specific targets.

Further background for the interested reader at en:Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Mathematics and at en:User talk:Mdennis (WMF). Deltahedron (talk) 18:29, 10 June 2014 (UTC)