Wikisource:News/2024-10

Something awry with PDFs

Some kind of server error seems to be causing problems with PDFs. If you're proofreading a PDF, and the images on each page aren't loading (example), then consider reading the discussion here at Wikimedia Commons. A Phabricator ticket should be filed soon.

Collaboration report: Popular Science Monthly

Popular Science Monthly is a gargantuan work. As this list of categories shows, it covers everything from academic administration to zoology. Of 106 available volumes spanning over fifty years, more than 85 have been proofread, transcripted and transcluded – and remember, each volume is a collection of half a dozen or so individual issues. The first volume index was uploaded in 2009.

The project is coordinated by WikiProject Popular Science Monthly, which was founded by Mattwj2002 (talk • contribs), who hasn't edited since 2013. The project page has guidance on proofreading, maintenance categories, and an active discussion page. Ineuw (talk • contribs) is a highly active user at the project.

In other languages

There is a surprisingly large number of requests for Wikisources in new languages. Many have been verified as eligible – they can be started once an active community of volunteers. Next, the new project will have to develop an active test project and have the Mediawiki interface translated into their language, as explained in the global policy on language proposals. Just over a dozen language proposals are still open for discussion.

Many new Wikisources have been approved for creation in the past few years, most recently the Burmese, Georgian, and Malay projects. The Malay Wikisource is already underway with its own website – it has more than 600 texts available already.

Meanwhile, at the other end of projects' lives', no Wikisources have been closed lately. In fact, the last discussion proposing the closing of a Wikisource project seems to have been in 2012. (The proposal was rejected.)

Major discussion on fr.wikisource

French Wikisource is discussing whether texts which are not scan-backed should still be accepted. The discussion was launched by Le ciel est par dessus le toit (talk • contribs) and appears to be still semi-active. You can read it here.

Listen to Wikisource

Listen to Jabberwocky

I recently discovered that, similar to the Spoken Wikipedia project, there exists a number of texts here at Wikisource for which users have helpfully provided recordings. They're listed at Category:Spoken works (2,112). Thanks to any user who has contributed recordings, or helped upload files from LibreVox.

This month's administrator confirmations

Two administrators are to be confirmed this month – EncycloPetey (talk • contribs) and Hrishikes (talk • contribs). Anyone can participate in the confirmation discussions.

Miscellaneous

• There is a proposal at the Scriptorium regarding the use of the {{old style}} template.
• In a similar vein, there is a small discussion regarding a new annotation template.
• Why not go help decide which text to feature for November?

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As of writing, there are 124 works with the featured article badge and 6532 texts have been validated.