The Signpost

Technology report

Technology report needs editor; Media Viewer offers a new look

A few weeks ago, I decided to jump in and take on a responsibility that, as I now know, I am not quite up to. Gathering information and picking up the signals of any notable technology news requires some editorial talent that I don't have. So after a brief stint, I will step down as editor for the Technology report and demote myself to incidental contributor.

There are now sources like Tech News that basically supersede the Technology Report, and I feel copying another periodical publication in whole or part, does not add any value to the Signpost. I invite anyone to step up, as this will be my last issue as editor.

Media Viewer launches next week on the English Wikipedia

The Wikimedia Foundation's Fabrice Florin, a product manager, posted this announcement at the English Wikipedia's Village Pump. The views expressed are those of the author only; responses and critical commentary are invited in the comments section. The Signpost welcomes proposals for opinion pieces.'
Media Viewer lets you see images in larger size
The majority of users find Media Viewer useful.

As discussed in earlier posts, Media Viewer is scheduled to launch on the English Wikipedia next week, to provide a better viewing experience for our users.

Media Viewer has been tested extensively on many large wikis around the world, and the feedback collected from thousands of users suggests that this tool is generally useful to them, as outlined in these survey results. More importantly, the rate of favorable feedback keeps increasing across all languages over time: for example, the French approval rate started out at about 64% a few weeks ago, and is now up to 70%, which is very encouraging.

Here on the English Wikipedia, over 13,874 beta users have been testing it, since the tool was first deployed as a beta feature in November 2013. Thanks to all their helpful feedback, Media Viewer has been greatly improved in recent months, and we are now getting ready to roll it out on all wikis worldwide.

Media Viewer will be enabled by default on the English Wikipedia on Thursday, May 22 at about 20:00 UTC. We will deploy this tool very carefully and keep a close eye on this release, to make sure it all goes smoothly. The tool will then be released to all wikis the following week, as described in this release plan.

Please let us know if you have any questions or comments about Media Viewer, which you can test here in beta -- or learn more about on this Help page (which includes tips for bypassing this tool, or turning it off in your preferences). You are invited to share your feedback in this discussion, to help improve this feature. You're also welcome to take this quick survey -- or join this in-depth discussion on MediaWiki.org, as you prefer.

Many thanks to all the community members who helped make Media Viewer possible! This tool was created with active community participation from its early planning phase -- all the way to its final release. This has been an exceptionally productive partnership, which we hope to build on for future projects.

In brief

Highlights from this week's Tech report

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