User:Cloudii/Proposals/Improving Update Tracking

Resolved. Ish. (At least temporarily). I ended up getting admin access to the Baka-Tsuki Facebook Page, so I'm maintaining the updates there manually. This isn't a permanent solution though...

Background

We all know that it's very difficult for readers and users to track legitimate updates on Baka-Tsuki. By "legitimate updates", I mean when a chapter is fully translated.

The Special:RecentChanges page isn't bad for watching activity, but they're a lot of junk that most users aren't very interested in, even after you hide the minor edits. It also only stores somewhere around 500 recent changes. Also, as sad as it goes to say, our twitter account and facebook page aren't as a great at tracking internal updates on Baka-Tsuki. It's just unfortunate. :c

What We've Done in the Past

1. One or two people on facebook/twitter try to tweet whenever they see something. Unfortunately, a lot of updates are missed.
2. Manually keep a list of updates on the Forums. Unfortunately, this takes a lot of manpower, and it's slow.
3. Refer people to mangaupdates. They usually get our updates within 24 hours, and are the most timely. However, they don't list who was the translator.

How Can We Be Better? (Proposals)

Option A: Rely on MangaUpdates

Make an RSS reader for MangaUpdates, and just use that. It's not easy to link their updates with the Wiki Pages (or find the translator) though, because they're external. This is how cloud's Proposed Project Page works.

Option B: Install Extension:WikiArticleFeeds

See this post on the Forums.

This allows translators to post their updates to an RSS feed as soon as they finish their translation

Option C: Utilize Transclusions from the Updates Page to the Main Page

I was inspired by CubexCursedxCurious's Project Page layout some while ago, particularly with their Updates Section. This is their code:

==Updates==
{{:CubexCursedxCurious:Updates}}
Updates [[CubexCursedxCurious:Updates|Archive]].

Basically, part of the C^3 Updates page is covered in < noincludes > so that only part of the updates page will show up on the main page.

What Does This Imply?

FACT: Project Pages get a lot of random edits, so watching these pages is not a good measure of project activity.

SOLUTION: Updates Pages don't get a lot of random edits, so watching these pages is a better measure of project activity. If translators only have one place to update their updates (eg: not on the main page), an edit to the Updates Page equates to a new chapter completed, essentially as soon as the translator completes the chapter.

Why is this Good?

• Readers can watch the Updates Pages of the series they are interested in. If they set their account to send email notifications, they will receive an email notifying them of the new chapter as soon as it is completed. Readers can also select to ignore minor edits on their watchlist, so they don't get mini-changes on the Updates Pages.
• A bot can easily be made to look for edits in Special:RecentChanges that contains the word "Update" in the title. All Updates Pages have that key word. This bot would be able to read the additions to Updates Page by "diff", store the updates in a database, AND/OR post to twitter/facebook. In other words, this would be a way of automatic update tracking without relying on mangaupdates or installing any extra extensions.
• A bot could also track these Updates Pages to monitor project activity. If the Updates Page does not receive an update in 12 months (or 6 months), it will add the Stalled Tag immediately to the project page.