Flow |
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(All links go to mediawiki.org) |
Flow is a project being undertaken by the Core features team at the Wikimedia Foundation. Our goal is to build a modern discussion and collaboration system for all Wikimedia projects. Flow will replace the current Wikipedia talk page system, and will provide features that are present on most modern websites but which are not possible to implement in wikitext. For example, Flow will enable automatic signing of posts, automatic threading, and per-thread notifications. However, Flow is more than an extension of the current talk page system; it is a complete re-imagining of the user interface for discussions on Wikipedia.
Rationale
User expectations don't match the reality of talk pages today.
Expectations | Current reality |
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Talk pages—as a discussion technology—are antiquated and user-hostile.
Many things about the culture that has grown up around talk pages (such as "talkback" templates or being able to edit other people's comments) are confusing.
Better methods for collaboration will improve collaboration, which will improve all of the projects.
Roadmap
Short-term (up to December 2013)
- Done Initial brainstorming and user research
- Done Defining the scope of the first release (Minimum Viable Product)
- Doing... Build interactive prototype of the MVP on WMF Labs
- Not done Community testing and feedback
- Not done Limited, opt-in release on select WikiProject discussion spaces
Long-term (2014-2015)
- Wider release to more WikiProject and community discussion spaces
- Limited user talk release
- Workflow language exploration
Announcements
Please post links or diffs to announcements made about this project to the English Wikipedia community.
- WP:Wikipedia Signpost/2013-02-11/Technology report - January engineering report published (brief mention)
- WP:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-08-06/Op-ed - The Athena Project: being bold
- WP:Wikipedia Signpost/2012-07-16/Technology report - Tech talks at Wikimania amid news of a mixed June (brief mention)
- WP:Village pump (technical)#Announcing the English Wikipedia Flow Portal (15 May 2013)
- WP:Village_pump (miscellaneous)/Archive 42#mw:Flow (7 May 2013)
- WP:Village pump (proposals)/Archive 93#Convert Village Pump to Wikia Community Forum software - August 2012 (numerous brief mentions)
- WP:Community Bulletin Board (May 2013)
- Wikipedia talk:Talk page guidelines (May 2013)
- lesser mentions listed on talkpage
Contact
If you have questions about Flow, leave us feedback on any Flow Portal talk page, or come join us on IRC at #wikimedia-corefeatures connect