A partial archive of https://discourse-mediawiki.wmflabs.org as of Saturday May 21, 2022.

Am I a “developer”?

Alex_brollo

I’m not a programmer, I just use an haphazards set of notions about templates, Lua, js and python, and I use them at my best.

Am I a “developer” in your opinion?

qgil

Quick answer: YES, OF COURSE!

But good point. I will clarify this question that others will likely have in the approriate places and I wlll report back.

qgil

I added “and other technical contributors” to Welcome to Wikimedia Developer Support and mw:Discourse.

@Alex_brollo your question also brought other types of users that might be wondering the same. A new section clarifies this question even more at mw:Discourse/Help: Is Wikimedia Developer Support for you?

Thank you!

Alex_brollo

Happy to see that my one wasn’t a silly question!

samwilson

Not a silly question at all, and I’d not only echo what qgil said with of course you are, but also just add that I’ve found your code to be thoughtful and logical and good, and has helped me learn lots about djvu! :slight_smile:

bd808

There is a related discussion at https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T179461 where we are wondering if “developer account” is an inclusive term for the accounts that are used in Cloud Services, Gerrit, Phabricator, and elsewhere.

@Alex_brollo would you self-identify as a “technical contributor”? Is there another word or short phrase that you feel better describes all the folks who pitch in to use and improve the templates, lua modules, gadgets, tools, user interfaces, non-article documentation, and other bits of the Wikimedia movement?

Alex_brollo

The post you linked is precisely the kind of talk that discourages me … :flushed:

I see wiki as a mixture of “contents” and “containers”, there are purebred “content contributors” and purebred “container contributors” (the developers), then there are “half-bred”, “mongrel” contributors… as I feel myself.

Perhaps I’m simply a “lazy contributor”, so being very interested to any possible trick to lower contribution’s fatigue…

qgil

Aren’t we overcomplicating things a bit with definitions? :slight_smile:

Meanwhile, the term “editors” works for people capable of writing featured articles from scratch, those who only care about typos, those who focus on categories, those who upload or find images to illustrate articles, those who actually spend most time in project meta work, and a long etc. Just like many “developers” will feel incapable of (or not interested about) writing a useful gadget from scratch, many “editors” will feel the same about writing a useful article from scratch. Yet for this movement to work we need the many many volunteers that will focus in specific areas of work that are related to development or editing.

qgil