Mailing List Archive

Reference Previews will become a default feature on a first group of wikis soon
// apologies for cross-posting


Hello!


A new type of preview will soon be part of the MediaWiki software:
Reference Previews.[1] This feature shows you a reference in a small pop-up
when you hover over the reference number in square brackets. This way, you
can look up a reference without jumping down to the bottom of the page.

What’s more is that Reference Previews can offer a quicker way to evaluate
the trustworthiness of the cited source by displaying the reference type
(book, web, news, journal, note) in the pop-up’s header. Thus, they can
help increase trust in the article itself. These types can be applied by
using citation templates, or by manually entering a class into the ref tag.

Reference Previews will be combined with Page Previews[2], a feature
showing previews for linked articles. Both perform essentially the same
function: previewing content before deciding to dig deeper, and easily
providing more information while reading. Because of their similarities in
design and behavior, both Page Previews and Reference Previews will be
controlled by a single user setting. This means, all users who currently
have Page Previews activated, will also get Reference Previews. Also, all
readers, anonymous contributors and new users will see Reference Previews
per default if they haven’t disabled Page Previews.

On several wikis, the Navigation-Popups gadget and the Reference Tooltips
gadget already offer previews for references. If you want to use them
instead, you can: If you have one of these gadgets enabled, you’ll see them
instead of Reference Previews. Although these gadgets exist, this feature
was built into a MediaWiki extension in order to make it available for all
Wikipedias, just as Page Previews is.

The original request for this came from the Technical Wishes survey on
German Wikipedia in 2017, where it was the number 1 wish. The Technical
Wishes team from Wikimedia Germany has been working on it in cooperation
with the WMF’s Reading Web team. Reference Previews have been a beta
feature for several months on all Wikipedias and some other wikis, with
more than 830,000 beta testers. During the beta phase, lots of feedback was
collected, and several changes were made as a result.[3] Now, we plan to
deploy it to a first group of wikis as a default feature on March 17. We’re
still looking for wikis who want to have the default feature early, so if
you’re interested, please let us know! [4] [5]

More information about this feature, including frequently asked questions,
can be found on its project page on Meta. [1] A big thanks to everyone who
contributed to this development, by voting, testing, giving feedback or
else. Comments and questions are welcome on this talk page. [4]


Best,

Johanna

[1] Reference Previews:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews
[2] Page Previews: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Page_Previews
[3] Changes during the beta phase:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews#Beta_phase
[4] talk page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews
[5] Phab: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T271206

--
Johanna Strodt
Project manager community communications Technical Wishes

Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin

Tel. (030) 219 158 26-0

https://wikimedia.de

======

Unsere Vision ist eine Welt, in der alle Menschen am Wissen der Menschheit
teilhaben, es nutzen und mehren können. Helfen Sie uns dabei!

https://spenden.wikimedia.de

Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
sum of all knowledge. Help us to achieve our vision!

https://spenden.wikimedia.de


======

Wikimedia Deutschland – Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter
der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für
Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.
Re: Reference Previews will become a default feature on a first group of wikis soon [ In reply to ]
Hello, here is an update on the deployment of Reference Previews:

* As you may have noticed, Reference Previews [1] were not deployed in
March, as was originally planned. The deployment as a default feature is
planned for May 5 on a group of wikis [2]. More wikis will follow over the
course of the year.

* The decision to have a combined setting for Reference Previews and Page
Previews was revisited, so you will be able to toggle both types of
previews on and off independently. That change has now been implemented,
along with a few other fixes for reported issues.
* Reference Previews will become opt-out for all users, both logged in and
logged out [3]. (As before, if you're using the gadgets Reference Tootips
or Navigation Popups to see popups for references, you won't see Reference
Previews.)


If you have any feedback or questions, please let me know on the project’s
talk page. [4]

For WMDE’s Technical Wishes team

Johanna

[1] project page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews

[2] wikis for first round of default deployment:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews#Status_and_next_steps


[3] opt-out feature:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews#Opt-out_feature

[4] talk page:
https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews

Am Mi., 3. März 2021 um 10:43 Uhr schrieb Johanna Strodt <
johanna.strodt@wikimedia.de>:

> // apologies for cross-posting
>
>
> Hello!
>
>
> A new type of preview will soon be part of the MediaWiki software:
> Reference Previews.[1] This feature shows you a reference in a small pop-up
> when you hover over the reference number in square brackets. This way, you
> can look up a reference without jumping down to the bottom of the page.
>
> What’s more is that Reference Previews can offer a quicker way to evaluate
> the trustworthiness of the cited source by displaying the reference type
> (book, web, news, journal, note) in the pop-up’s header. Thus, they can
> help increase trust in the article itself. These types can be applied by
> using citation templates, or by manually entering a class into the ref tag.
>
> Reference Previews will be combined with Page Previews[2], a feature
> showing previews for linked articles. Both perform essentially the same
> function: previewing content before deciding to dig deeper, and easily
> providing more information while reading. Because of their similarities in
> design and behavior, both Page Previews and Reference Previews will be
> controlled by a single user setting. This means, all users who currently
> have Page Previews activated, will also get Reference Previews. Also, all
> readers, anonymous contributors and new users will see Reference Previews
> per default if they haven’t disabled Page Previews.
>
> On several wikis, the Navigation-Popups gadget and the Reference Tooltips
> gadget already offer previews for references. If you want to use them
> instead, you can: If you have one of these gadgets enabled, you’ll see them
> instead of Reference Previews. Although these gadgets exist, this feature
> was built into a MediaWiki extension in order to make it available for all
> Wikipedias, just as Page Previews is.
>
> The original request for this came from the Technical Wishes survey on
> German Wikipedia in 2017, where it was the number 1 wish. The Technical
> Wishes team from Wikimedia Germany has been working on it in cooperation
> with the WMF’s Reading Web team. Reference Previews have been a beta
> feature for several months on all Wikipedias and some other wikis, with
> more than 830,000 beta testers. During the beta phase, lots of feedback was
> collected, and several changes were made as a result.[3] Now, we plan to
> deploy it to a first group of wikis as a default feature on March 17. We’re
> still looking for wikis who want to have the default feature early, so if
> you’re interested, please let us know! [4] [5]
>
> More information about this feature, including frequently asked questions,
> can be found on its project page on Meta. [1] A big thanks to everyone who
> contributed to this development, by voting, testing, giving feedback or
> else. Comments and questions are welcome on this talk page. [4]
>
>
> Best,
>
> Johanna
>
> [1] Reference Previews:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews
> [2] Page Previews: https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Page_Previews
> [3] Changes during the beta phase:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews#Beta_phase
> [4] talk page:
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:WMDE_Technical_Wishes/ReferencePreviews
> [5] Phab: https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T271206
>
> --
> Johanna Strodt
> Project manager community communications Technical Wishes
>
> Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
>
> Tel. (030) 219 158 26-0
>
> https://wikimedia.de
>
> ======
>
> Unsere Vision ist eine Welt, in der alle Menschen am Wissen der Menschheit
> teilhaben, es nutzen und mehren können. Helfen Sie uns dabei!
>
> https://spenden.wikimedia.de
>
> Imagine a world in which every single human being can freely share in the
> sum of all knowledge. Help us to achieve our vision!
>
> https://spenden.wikimedia.de
>
>
> ======
>
> Wikimedia Deutschland – Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
> Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter
> der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für
> Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.
>


--
Johanna Strodt
Projektmanagerin Kommunikation Communitys Technische Wunschliste

Wikimedia Deutschland e. V. | Tempelhofer Ufer 23-24 | 10963 Berlin
Tel. (030) 219 158 26-0
https://wikimedia.de

Unsere Vision ist eine Welt, in der alle Menschen am Wissens der Menschheit
teilhaben, es nutzen und mehren können. Helfen Sie uns dabei!
https://spenden.wikimedia.de

Wikimedia Deutschland - Gesellschaft zur Förderung Freien Wissens e. V.
Eingetragen im Vereinsregister des Amtsgerichts Berlin-Charlottenburg unter
der Nummer 23855 B. Als gemeinnützig anerkannt durch das Finanzamt für
Körperschaften I Berlin, Steuernummer 27/029/42207.