[Foundation-l] Re: [WikiFR-l] How could information flow ?

Fri Jul 16 07:45:06 UTC 2004

Bonjour Anthere,

Some further thoughts after a good sleep:
> This was not planned so we could not really discuss it in length beforehand. 

[-A-]nnouncements

There needs to be a way to notify active community members about a sudden 
change, before random visitors (the bulk of our Audience, and
/potential/ community
members) are exposed to the fallout.

Some sort of read-only mailing list for announcements (like
announcement-l) could be
an important part of this communication setup; for instance, if I were
on a wikibreak, I
would only hear about things via mailing lists or personal email. 
Likewise, I could filter
mail from an important low-traffic announcements list to my PDA or phone.

[-B-]roadcasting sudden change

There should be a checklist for discussing/preparing for/announcing
sudden changes:
 * message-box on all affected wm projects (Ant's proposal)
 * one-line comment in #wp, #wm, #mw as appropriate
 * quick email to wikipedia-l, an announcement-l, other lists (as appropriate)
 * quick note on [[meta:Goings-on]] (perhaps just the contents of the
above email)

These could be implemented after the change, if urgency demands, but
soon after, and with relevant details (who, when, why, for how long).  In 
addition to helping clarify to the community what is going on, this
would provide
a feedback loop for the various people involved in deciding what to do, to help 
reduce the ''telephone'' effect.

< I was also nicely explained I should have made a page [about] why
the banner was
< on, how long it would stay... Of course that page should have been
in 50 languages.

[-C-]oordinated Translation

This is very much on my mind right now. (see [-F-] Crude CMS below)

I created a "translate this into every language" section of
[[meta:Translation]], & seeded
it with the text for the image-upload forms (currently only in de:)
... please tell me
(everyone!) what you think of that template.  

> This is only possible if more people are automatically made aware of the issue, 
> and can come and help.

[-A*-] 
Being able to make an announcement to those interested in helping, before 
affecting first-time visitors (and those not interested in helping),
would be useful here.

> 7. The message appears on every page (not enough discretion)

[-D-]iscretion

As for this -- I think many other compromises might have been reached.  Without
greatly reducing the number of visitors who see the message, we could decide to
limit its appearance in various ways
* Not on User pages.
* Only on article/Talk pages, and not on the Main Page.  
* Only on every tenth page-load, for logged-in users.
&c, &c.

> 5. The message appeared everywhere in english, and people did not know how to 
> have it translated
< ...
> Once edited, it would appear on all projects, in english by default, 
> but will be editable easily for translation (just as a mediawiki page, 

[-E-]diting and translating.

Note that, while [edit] links were there for most wp's, only Admins
were able to edit
the protected message yesterday.  Some middle-ground of protection,
allowing anyone
to edit/translate but requiring an admin to approve it, might improve
this process.

> Each time the meta message page is updated, a warning of the type ''you have a 
> message'' would appear to all users on all projects.  Once the page is read, the 
> warning message would disappear, but the information still be available from the
> menu in the "global news" page.

[-F-]low  ( crude workflow : Discussion --> Translation --> Notice -->
Publication )

We need to take ourselves seriously as publishers.  I would like to
see a tiny bit
of coordinated workflow introduced into major all-projects all-pages
publication
decisions.  For instance:

1) An initial announcement is posted to [[Meta:Announcements]] (perhaps also to 
#wp or #wm) in a single language, along with a brief notice/explanation.  
2) A standard message is sent to all translators, ambassadors, &
admins notifying
them that an announcement is being prepared.  Anyone who catches this post or 
message can suggest rewording, timing for the two delays below, or translations
(in a specified place/format)
     --- delay 1 ---
3) The notices are sent out in translated langs, with links to the
announcement... via
a "New Announcement" banner for logged-in users, or just a combination
of mailing lists, IRC, and goings-on.  This would give the broader
community notice,
and a chance to comment on the translations, even a chance to comment on the
placement (and discretion) of the proposed message on their project pages.
     --- delay 2 ---
4) Announcements are published -- banners for all users saying "New
Announcement",
or a direct banner message.

We're a big enough project that even with two delays of only an hour
each, this could
have respectable results.

+sj+