Training modules/dashboard/slides/12308-common-technical-challenges

Common technical challenges

There are a number of common technical challenges that might arise during editathons, here are the main ones that can prevent editors from contributing during events:

• Not enough editors created their accounts ahead of time, so you have to create more accounts than is allowed at your location because of the six-account limit. Consider the following:
  • Have participants sign up on other Wikimedia projects: for a full list, see wikimedia.org. These accounts can be used across wikis.
  • Have participants create accounts on their smartphones. We don't recommend they edit on their smart phone, the interface isn't really good enough, but if they have mobile data it will be on a separate IP to the venue and each smartphone will have a 6 account limit. This will not work if they are connected to WiFi from their mobile phone.
  • To work around this, there is a an on-wiki set of triage opportunities at: the request an account page on English
  • If you have a Wikipedia administrator or account creator on hand, they can create accounts via: the Special:CreateAccount page
• New editors can’t move pages from a draft to "Article" space (see instructions for moving a page on English). This is typically prevented because New User accounts have yet to receive the AutoConfirmed right (automatically issued at 10 edits and four days on English Wikipedia).
  • This is one of the important reasons for having experienced editors around: they should have an account capable of executing the move if they have made ten edits and had accounts over 4 days old.
  • Note: that English Wikipedia will be implementing ACTRIAL in September 2017, which prevents new editors from creating articles altogether in the New Article namespace. Starting new editors in another space, whether its User Sandboxes or Draft Space and then moving the content with a more experienced account is the best tactic.

Other technical challenges may arise, however they will typically not prevent individuals from contributing to Wikipedia. Having experienced editors on hand will likely allow you to avoid these challenges, or provide shortcuts or work arounds for fixing the problems. Its also helpful to have additional editing devices on hand, in case technical challenges are created by individual devices.