Tech/Ambassadors
Tech ambassadors are technically-minded volunteers who help other Wikimedians with technical issues, and act as a bridge between developers and local Wikimedia wikis.
One goal of the ambassadors network is to make sure that users are notified of technical discussions and possible changes that impact them. The other goal is for users to get involved as peers in the development process, so that they can inform and guide software development, not just provide feedback after it's done.
What do Tech ambassadors do?
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Help other users | Watch technical discussions on your home wiki, and help your fellow Wikimedians by answering their questions about the software, templates, etc.
If you're able, help them diagnose their issues, and solve the technical problems they encounter. |
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Relay tech news | Get a summary of Tech News delivered on your talk page (or a community discussion page) each week, and inform the rest of your community about what is going to impact them.
Invite other people to subscribe, and if you can, help write the newsletter. |
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Report bugs | If it's too difficult or impossible to solve the problem on your wiki, report issues and feature requests on our bug tracker ("Phabricator").
Follow the discussion on Phabricator and, if necessary, help the developers. When the problem is solved, inform your fellow Wikimedians on your home wiki. |
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Communicate with developers | If you can't use Phabricator, there are other tools at your disposal:
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Recruit other Tech ambassadors | If you know users who would be interested in becoming a tech ambassador, you can invite them to join.
You can also display this user box on your user page, and copy it to your home wiki:
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Get more involved | If you want to go beyond ambassador-type activities, there are many ways in which you can help.
You can help guide the work of our developers, or start designing, coding, translating or testing software yourself. |
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Resources for Tech ambassadors
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Tech news | Tech News are summaries of tech changes going to impact users. You can get them delivered on your talk page (or a community discussion page) each week, and inform the rest of your community. |
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Glossary | If you are unfamiliar with some technical terms or projects, the Glossary is a good starting point. Many technical terms are listed there, and they often point to more information. |
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Engineering reports | If what you're looking for is related to work done by Wikimedia engineers, it's probably mentioned in the monthly engineering report. Its summary is available in multiple languages. |
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MediaWiki documentation | A lot of documentation about MediaWiki and its extensions is available on mediawiki.org. |
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Tech blog | Major changes and new features are announced on the tech blog. You can also use the search box. |
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Technical search engine | This tool powered by Google searches across many of these resources at the same time. |
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If you can't find the information you're looking for in those places, you can try to leave a message on the Tech forum or send an e-mail to the ambassadors list.
Once you've found what you were looking for, don't forget to add it to the Glossary (if it wasn't already there) to help your fellow Wikimedians. |
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