Wikipedia talk:WikiProject Spoken Wikipedia

Anybody Home?

Howdy Hello! I just stumbled across this project, and I'm interested in joining. Is anybody still around? The project seems rather lonely. Captain Eek ^{Edits Ho Cap'n!} 06:08, 6 October 2018 (UTC)

@CaptainEek: I am still around but I am a nobody. I record every now and again though not as much as I did many years ago. I think that as long as you follow the rules to record (maybe listen to a few examples first) you will be fine. I will help in any way I can. I am not an expert. PopularOutcast ^talk2me 20:59, 6 October 2018 (UTC)

@CaptainEek: @PopularOutcast:I also just came across this project and I'm interested in contributing. I'm pretty new to editing Wikipedia pages so I don't really want to work in a vacuum. Maybe we could revive this project a bit and help each other? --Theayeaye (talk) 05:07, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

@Theayeaye: What kind of help are you looking for? A lot of Wikipedia editing/contributing is done in a bit of a vacuum. I don't like it but it's the nature of the beast. I will help in any way I can but since you are new, I want you to understand that most of the time you do stuff with very little input from others. At least that has been my experience. I am around if you need help (today I won't be back until later in my day). Also, do you know you can record stuff for wikisource? Tends to be less encyclopaedic if you prefer reading stories or things that require a different inflection. PopularOutcast^talk2me! 12:48, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

@PopularOutcast: Thanks for the info. It's good to know it's mostly working in a vacuum. I was feeling weird about diving in and creating a spoken version of an article without having done much on Wikipedia in general. But I suppose that is the nature of Wikipedia - just do it and then other people will edit it if they see fit. I think I'll probably try one out soon and post it here to hopefully get some feedback. --Theayeaye (talk) 15:12, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

@Theayeaye: I would be happy to give some feedback. I follow the guidelines in the project. Intro, read article with pauses, outtro. I used to read the infobox but decided that was useless. Image captions are read as you pass them and there's also a structure for that. Not everyone does it this way. I've heard ones that only read the lead of the article and ones that have music or sounds. I don't know what the consensus is on that. I don't like the sounds and when I press play I intend to listen to the whole article. Anyhow, I'm not sure why this project died down. It could be that computerized readers have gotten much better at reading. I don't have Siri or Alexa to try. Maybe they do a good job of reading back a page. Dunno. Good luck! PopularOutcast^talk2me! 20:26, 23 October 2018 (UTC)

The template for articles is broken!

It's messing up the formatting of articles in which it appears, someone with the power to do so, please fix it. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 129.2.180.110 (talk) 00:04, 18 October 2018 (UTC)

129.2.180.110You need to provide a bit more information than this. I went to Voynich manuscript which seems to be the only edit you have made and I don't see a problem. What problem are you having?

New spoken article for the Bone Wars article

Hiya, I just uploaded a spoken article for the Wikipedia page the Bone Wars - would love to get some feedback :) --Theayeaye (talk) 01:06, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

Theayeaye, You have a wonderful speaking voice. Thank you so much for contributing to the project! These are a few points of feedback.

• I noticed that you either changed words or left them out while reading. I don't have a problem with this as long as the meaning is not changed; however, I have been told in the past that this is a no, no. If the reason you changed things is because the article was not written well, then you should go back and edit the article. Aside: I remember an editor who heard my recording of his/her article and remarked that s/he then understood why parentheticals were bad. I believe that editor ended up editing the article to read more smoothly. In any case, we always have the option to edit the article to make it better.
• It sounds like you are reading. That's fine because you are reading but it seems you are concentrating on the reading more so than the content. What that results in is awkward pausing or inflection. It doesn't happen all the time and that's great (I believe it took me 10 articles before I stopped doing that).
• My understanding is that you need to read the captions of images in the sections. "An image accompanies this section of the article with the caption ..."
• I was confused about the section number and maybe it shows up different for different people? For instance you said Section 4 for what I would consider Section 1.4.
• Great job on pronouncing dinosaur names!
• The ending of the article should discuss the license and the references. This is what I usually read at the end: "There are references available in the written form of this article - please be sure to verify information found on Wikipedia using the references provided or cross-referencing the information yourself. This sound file and all text in the article are licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License, available at www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html."

I think you did awesome. My notes are "shoulds" because this is how I learned to do it from the guidelines (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:WikiProject_Spoken_Wikipedia/Reading_Guidelines). They are guidelines and this is Wikipedia so in the end it's up to you.

Again, thank you!

PopularOutcast^talk2me! 02:24, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

Thank you for the great feedback!

I didn't find the Guidelines page when I was looking through the Project Wiki earlier - it would have been really helpful to look at before I started. doh... I will probably have some time this weekend to go back in and fix up the Bone Wars recording as per the guidelines and with the licensing info.

My feeling is that I don't really like the idea of reading the photo captions unless the photo is integral to understanding the text, so I might forgo that particular suggestion.

Thanks for taking the time to listen! I am going to work on another one soon. Is this the best spot to post it for feedback, etc.?

--Theayeaye (talk) 14:55, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

Theayeaye, There is a section on the page that this talk page goes to that is for reviews. You can post there. I will see it and hopefully some others. If there's anything you have a question about during your recording, just post a message on my talk page. I check in often. PopularOutcast^talk2me! 18:51, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

PopularOutcast, thanks for all your patience and guidance.

Theayeaye No problem. When I can help I will. There's a page for guidelines on reviewing Wikipedia:WikiProject Spoken Wikipedia/Review but it says to put the template on the talk page. I am not sure that they meant the Commons talk page when they wrote that. When I first started recording, we uploaded the files to Wikipedia and not Commons. The template will maybe not work correctly on Commons. I don't know. PopularOutcast^talk2me! 22:38, 1 November 2018 (UTC)

How to upload a spoken article recorded on a ipad

If you record from a iPad how to upload the recording to use for a article if you have a account 71.161.214.1 (talk) 15:08, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

I don't use an iPad so I am not sure if I can help. Are you asking because you don't get an upload link on Commons? Or is it because you don't know how to save to ogg format? PopularOutcast^talk2me! 15:46, 19 November 2018 (UTC)

I do not know how to save to ogg format on a iPad is there a app that can convert file to ogg or do I need to upload file to a computer to change to ogg in order to upload to Wikipedia for a article