+1 for "saying 'technical parts of Wikipedia sucks' is as the same as 'Wikipedia sucks' ". +1 for "the biggest problem is the user interface design of Wikipedia" and your Winter-related thoughts (I may be also wrong).
Thanks for all the message. On 20 February 2016 at 03:02, Amir Ladsgroup <[email protected]> wrote: > Hey Milos, > You talked about things that I'm in no place to comment but I want to > emphasize on this part of your email: > "For the last 8 years, just two things have been working without > problems in WMF: Money and tech infrastructure (servers, "plain" > MediaWiki, optimizations etc.)." > We hear about technical issues of Wikipedia a lot. We hear Wikipedia is > behind in technology, that it's underperforming. etc. etc. It's not just > you. It's a lot of people in the community of editors too. I highly doubt > that I can comment on this matter, there are definitely better people but I > can't keep it anymore. Maybe my perspective as a non-WMF employee who works > in technical issues would be worth publishing. > > The process of getting something technical done is as the same as editing > in wiki. It needs a certain amount of expertise like editing most of the > articles as well. Anyone can make a patch for every part of Wikipedia and > after some code review. it's there. IMO saying "technical parts of > Wikipedia sucks" is as the same as "Wikipedia sucks". Technical space of > Wikimedia is filled with volunteers. I saw unimaginable times that people > work over the weekend, take a day off and then work again because unlike > most companies people care about their job in a good way. Helping in > technical issues just need passion and caring. Let me tell you a story. I > didn't know how to write a line of code in my first three years of editing > Wikipedia. I was just a teenage boy who was making articles about movies he > watched, songs he liked, etc. and then I cared about Wikipedia so much that > I wanted to help more and I heard about cool things called robots (and > believe me, for a very long time I thought bots are physical things that > edit Wikipedia) so I tried to read about it, there was virtually no help in > Persian and my English was so bad that I needed dictionary for everything I > read (google translate was a sci-fi idea back then) but I learned and > learned and I'm still learning just to make Wikipedia a better place, I > hate programming as a goal, it's just a mean. > > I just want to remind you people done a hell out of job in technical > aspects. It wasn't just in their working time. It was also a huge volunteer > time too, either by staff or non-WMF employees. Feeling this advantages is > not hard. Just take a look at Google's Knol. It was done by *the* Google > and it's this. We, as a movement, are competing with companies like Google, > Facebook or twitter the same way we are competing with Britannica. > Honestly, I think if someone just published a statement saying "There is a > cool project called Knowledge Engine but we don't have money for it, We can > just give you a space to put your source code and test it, and running it." > We would be knocking over google by 2020, as what we did with Britannica. > > I think, maybe I'm wrong please correct me if I am, the biggest problem is > the user interface design of Wikipedia. It looks boring. I know there were, > and there are great designers who also love Wikipedia the same way you do. > I saw what they are capable of. Look at Winter or preferences redesign [1]. > They are capable of making Wikipedia ten times more user-friendly and > beautiful. I don't know why it hasn't happened, maybe the community is too > conservative, maybe it's some kind of branding. I asked my life partner and > he said Wikipedia looks beautiful to the most of its readers, the same way > a fresh cupcake smells good, because Wikipedia is awesome. I guess people > who work in bakeries doesn't like the smell of cupcakes as much as other > people. > > My last words: If you encounter any technical issues, please report and if > you think it's important to solve technical problems you are more than > welcome to join the club. Just check out the developer hub [2] and > there are tons of manuals in the internet, also there are people in IRC > channels willing to help. > > [1]: It aches my heart every time I see it: > > https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Requests_for_comment/Redesign_user_preferences > > [2]: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Developer_hub > > I hope more people chime in and comment to fix this misconception or > correct me. > Best > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > New messages to: [email protected] > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe> -- *Szymon Grabarczuk* Free Knowledge Advocacy Group EU Head of Research & Development Group, Wikimedia Polska pl.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Tar_Lócesilion <http://pl.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Tar_L%C3%B3cesilion> _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines New messages to: [email protected] Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:[email protected]?subject=unsubscribe>
