Talk:Zürich Hackathon 2014

FAQ 1
I have no idea of programming, but I have some ideas/wishes what might be implementable for wiki. Does it make sense to come up at the meeting? Lantus (talk) 17:06, 12 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Hi, Lantus, we will issue a "call for topic", and you will have the opportunities to propose ideas, but we are also thinking to organize a "wikitech meet nonwikitech" during the hackathon, we will keep you up to date.--Chandres (talk) 11:12, 16 December 2013 (UTC)
 * Symbol thumbs up.svgs up! Lantus (talk) 10:01, 18 December 2013 (UTC)
 * - you might want to specify / describe the idea a bit better. --Manuel Schneider(bla) (+/-) 21:18, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

Wikisource workshops
We were thinking of proposing a Wikisource event during the hackathon: it would be much easier for us to organize a sime workshops within the Hackathon, and it wuld be the first international meeting of Wikisource :-) Would it be feasible? --Aubrey (talk) 15:32, 25 January 2014 (UTC)
 * If we have the space to host this, why not. What do you need, how many people you would be (approx.)? --Manuel Schneider(bla) (+/-) 21:19, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
 * If there is going to be one, and if I am able to attend the Hackathon (i.e. if I am granted the scholarship), I would like to participate in this Wikisource event. Viswaprabha (talk) 22:55, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
 * My suggestion is: Just put it on the "Topics" page, so it gets part of the program. On site we'll see how many people are interested in this topic and assign a time and a room to it. --Manuel Schneider(bla) (+/-) 06:54, 12 February 2014 (UTC)

Additional accommodation
From the page I understand that everyone (including staffers) will be able to stay at the hostel, right? Great for a better mingling! What are the failovers in case the accommodation there didn't suffice? Most hotels seem concentrated in the centre but being a bit outside offers the advantage of being closer to some "external" options: I see there is a rather cheap hotel (currently 240 € for three nights in a double) about 2.5 km far. That's only some 20-30 min far on foot, can someone with better local knowledge give an estimate for public transportation times? Does someone know the place? --Nemo 23:13, 6 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Hi Nemo, indeed, the Ibis hotel was on my list to reserve rooms at but we managed to fit everyone (at least how it looks now) into the YH. There fastest option by public transport is to take the bus 184 from the nearby bus stop "Sunnau" to "Widmerstrasse" and from there bus 66 to "Jugendherberge", which is just in front of the YH. --Manuel Schneider(bla) (+/-) 21:14, 11 February 2014 (UTC)

Contrast
Is there any particular reason for the unusual colours for the text and background? The resulting contrast (or lack thereof) makes a lot of it kind of hard to read. -— Isarra ༆ 22:42, 11 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Hi Isarra, these colors are the "corporate design" of the Hackathon pages... Amsterdam Hackathon 2013 Pune Hackathon Feb 2012 San Francisco Hackathon January 2012 etc. As I have no issues reading this I am happy to get hints how we can improve this without completely throwing away the design. --Manuel Schneider(bla) (+/-) 06:53, 12 February 2014 (UTC)
 * Basically just make the light text on the dark background lighter, and the dark text on the light background darker. White on the dark grey, black on the light grey. Even on solid white you rarely want to go any lighter than #333, as a general baseline, and it probably goes similarly in reverse as well, though you need to be more careful with font weights and stuff there because the letters are usually optimised for dark on light. (Basically light on dark can be dangerous, but this should work here.) -— Isarra ༆ 20:58, 12 February 2014 (UTC)
 * ok, I used #33333 and #cccccc now - I hope that is a good compromise in design and contrast and is easier to read now. --Manuel Schneider(bla) (+/-) 09:47, 13 February 2014 (UTC)

"Expertise" and "Skills" in the form
The registration form asks to describe "Expertise" in a page and "Skills" in another. What is the difference? whym (talk) 14:28, 2 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Expertise should list the language or system while skills is more about what you are able to do with your expertise, but it's not the most important part of the form ;-) --Chandres (talk) 09:14, 3 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Thanks, then, I'll keep them short :) whym (talk) 12:11, 3 March 2014 (UTC)

Question on train tickets
What kind of train ticket should one buy to get from Zürich Airport to Zürich Wollishofen? Are tickets available online? -- Magioladitis (talk) 09:52, 21 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Hi Marios,
 * we plan to provide you with local transport tickets for the City of Zürich. This would include the trip from / to the airport. It is a major part of the budget and we hope to find the sponsor, so it is not yet 100% fixed (otherwise I would have already told everyone) but we are quite confident that we will do this.
 * general answer: in Switzerland there is only one type of train ticket, no matter what kind of train you use. So if you book a direct ticket from Zürich Flughafen (Airport) to Zürich, Jugendherberge (Youth Hostel) valid on that day, you can use it for which ever train / bus / tram takes you there. The system asks you for the option to go via Bülach (which is therefore more expensive than direct) but you normally don't do that. The train station is just underneath the airport, just follow the signs. There is a ticket booth but also machines to buy tickets just in front of the last escalators before you reach the platform. I would recommend though to buy the ticket in advance via internet: on http://sbb.ch/en, enter start and destination, choose any connection that suits you and then click "Fare/Buy". You can buy a ticket and print it at home without having to register - if you have a credit card or similar. --Manuel Schneider(bla) (+/-) 14:46, 24 March 2014 (UTC)
 * Manuel thanks for the answer. This is great news! -- Magioladitis (talk) 19:54, 24 March 2014 (UTC)

Hi Manuel. It's been a month since I raised the questions above. Did we have any development on the matter? -- Magioladitis (talk) 23:16, 23 April 2014 (UTC)

Google hangout: Letters with public transport tickets will be sent to all participants. -- Magioladitis (talk) 17:06, 24 April 2014 (UTC)

Twitter Hastag ?
Is there a twitter hastag for wikimedia hackathons. Yug (talk) 19:24, 30 April 2014 (UTC)
 * Yes, use '#wmhack' for this. --brion (talk) 18:22, 8 May 2014 (UTC)

IRC troubles: use port 7000 for SSL
IRC for irc.freenode.net seems to be blocked on SSL port 6697 -- use port 7000 and it should work. --brion (talk) 18:23, 8 May 2014 (UTC)