User:Mitchsavl/SP Community Wishlist changes
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An updated plan for the Community Wishlist
[edit]For years, the Community Tech team was dedicated to managing and implementing the Community Wishlist, before the WMF decided to disband the team and turn it into a program. The Wikimedia Foundation made the desicion as the engagement with the Wishlist had sharply dropped in recent years, after the program had been restructured in 2024. As a result of the Tech team's disbandment, discoure erupted over the decision. The community raised concern over the loss of a major communication venue with Foundation staff, and its associated layoff of Tech team staff, some of whom were heavily involved in developing the Wiki Workers United union. More information on the disbandment can be found in our June technology report.
The new wihlist process is to be divided in to four stages, those being Triage, Voting, Post-vote, and Implementation. A more detailed summary of the process it available over on the page about the updated process, with more information to come on the Community Wishlist updates page.
Triage
[edit]- Submissions for wishes are already open, with the submission period to close sometime between November and mid January, depending on what works logistically.
- A working group composed of community member and Foundation staff will be established. (look out for post about how volunteer engagement will occur) The working group will aim to have a diverse representation from across different Wikipedias and its sister projects.
- The working group will be activated annually for four weeks to triage wishes prior to the vote, but does not include futher planning for how the wishes would be implemented. This year, triaging will be conducted in November.
Voting
[edit]The first voting period is currently expected to be in January (verify before publishing).
- Users will vote for individual wishes using a "Support wish" button.
- Opposition of a wish may be discussed on its respective Talk page.
- Users can vote for any amount of wishes, but cannot vote the same wish multiple times.
Post-vote
[edit]After the voting period closes, wishes will be sorted by their vote count. From here, the Foundation will decide on the wishes they plan to work on.
- There will be three "project families" that wishes will be sorted into, with those being "Large Wikipedias or covering All wikis", "Small and medium-sized Wikipedias" and "Sister projects".
- The votes will only be a guideline, and they may deviate from the this where they judge a small project wish to be able to have a large impact, where there are not enough resources to work on the wish, where multiple highly voted wishes fall under the scope of the same team, and where multiple smaller wishes can have a greater impact than fewer, larger ones.
- Where the prioritized wishes do not line up with the most voted ones, the Foundation will aim to "provide transparent reasoning prior to implementation", and the working group will be consulted.
- Prior to starting the work, the community will be asked for feedback on the final list.
Implementation
[edit]- The implementation of the wishes will be handled through the Wishlist Program and a Lead Program Manager.
- Submissions for the next vote will open once they have prioritised the current wishes.
- The Foundation may engage in research and testing for wishes targeted at those typically not engaged in the Community Wishlist discussions, such as readers and new editors, prior to further development on the wish.
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