Updates from MediaWiki design team, re technical updates, and improvements

recently here at the MS Forums, there has been some discussion, every so often about whether WikiMedia can improve the current features of talk pages on-wiki, rather than relying on off-wiki platforms.

I wanted to let you know that Media Wiki has a page to display its prototype for the format and features for the ubiquitous talk pages for all wiki sites. (Initially, I thought this was a whole new page and a whole new effort; however it appears that this page has been active for some period of time.)

personally, I am a huge supporter of off-wiki platforms; and my absolute favorite by far is the platform that you are reading right now, our beloved MS Forums.

I have barely explored the details of this myself. however, I wanted to post the link here forthwith, for your perusal. please feel free to view the new details at the page below, and to post any comments here. thanks!

[Mediawiki major notice about new talk page prototype](Talk pages project/Usability/Prototype - MediaWiki)

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Thank you, @Sm8900. The link contains an invitation to try this prototype and provide feedback. Users can follow some basic steps and then respond to basic questions. This helps the development team fine tuning the new features, which will deployed to wikis when they are ready.

Just curious, where did you learn about this new prototype?

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thanks for your reply! happy to reply. I am subscribed to updates from the Developmnent team, i think, on the website for Media Wiki. so this came up as a notification for me. I’m not exactly sure where I saw it, but I think it was simnply in my notifications menu. I hope that is helpful.

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a new update has been posted at the page below, regarding updates to various technical features.

September 2022: Plans and conversations about the deployment across the Wikimedia wikis

  • Visual refinements. We have completed the list of visual refinements. We planned to complete these before the deployments across more wikis. These changes included work on link colors, icons, and overall look and feel of Vector 2022. We welcome feedback and questions on any of these changes. Write to us on the project talk page.
  • Decision of the English Wikipedia community through the Request for Comment. For the past two months, we have been discussing with the English Wikipedia community. English Wikipedians have identified issues blocking the deployment of Vector 2022 on their home wiki. They have also requested that the decision on the deployment be made through the Request for Comment process. Our draft is now available. We’re planning to launch the RfC on Wednesday, September 21. If you edit English Wikipedia, we encourage you to take part!
  • Deployment plans across other projects. We are planning deployment conversations across all of the other Wikimedia projects. We will first begin with the smallest wikis. By the smallest, we mean smaller than top 30 largest active communities. We hope to complete this during the first week of October, 2022. Then, we will begin conversations on medium to large-size wikis. Dates will depend on the consensus across individual communities.
  • More community-facing activities
    • We have posted a new essay on the Diff blog. It has a title Prioritizing equity within Wikipedia’s new desktop. The essay is about why and how different groups of users were represented throughout the process of building Vector 2022.
    • We have published the expanded Frequently asked questions page. Take a look and tell us if it’s useful. Soon, we will make it possible to translate it.
    • We also display banners encouraging to try out Vector 2022. The banners are only visible for logged-in users having Vector legacy (2010), the current default skin.