I just extended my personal account until 5. January of 2014 – it is the last time I do this. At this day I will also remove my access as root of the Toolserver. Beginning of 1. July I will start my fade out, doing less and less work for the Toolserver until I am not longer visible. I announce that this early because I think it is fair for you to know that will happen and I like not just to vanish like some roots before.

[...]

> > less and less work for the Toolserver until I am not longer visible. I > > announce that this early because I think it is fair for you to know that > > will happen and I like not just to vanish like some roots before. > > > > [...] > > JFC, what a bunch of self-pitying bullshit. >

And I’m thankful for the patience.

so many wonderful things were created at Toolserver, so many nice cooperation’s with other users happen here and so many things I learn on Toolserver. I don't want look back in anger.

I know that all of these was only possible with your work Dab. So thank you very much.

A modification/restart of Toolserver seems for me after the years so or so necessary and perhaps we can find in the next 6 months a concept for a leaner, powerful Toolserver that gives the WMDE flexibility and independence back to develop ideas and support free projects. Hardware support is for me still a very good way of spending money if we want to support free knowledge, but it makes in my eyes no sense to fight against the majority of WMDE.

Reason 4 are you, the tool-authors. The participation in my survey [2] was pitiful low and the majority of these few who voted, voted to leave the Toolserver as soon as possible or this year – a trend that was already visible on the mailing-list before. So I conclude that the most of you don’t care and whose care will leave this year.

These of you who are able to move to ToolLabs I wish luck. Let’s hope that the WMF does not decide to "re-focus" again too soon. Let’s hope that the WMF does not disable tools just because there are a little slow. Let’s hope that the WMF does not restrict the database-tables even more. Let’s hope that the WMF does not kick the volunteers out completely some days like they did with the WMF-wiki-admins some weeks ago. And hoping is all we can do, because the WMF is a undemocratic construct and ToolLabs is lead by paid roots, so whatever the WMF staff decides will happen.

Hello guys, I just extended my personal account until 5. January of 2014 – it is the last time I do this. At this day I will also remove my access as root of the Toolserver. Beginning of 1. July I will start my fade out, doing less and less work for the Toolserver until I am not longer visible. I announce that this early because I think it is fair for you to know that will happen and I like not just to vanish like some roots before. There are 4 main factors why I decided to not continue my work until the end of the Toolserver in December 2014. Reason 1 is that the Toolserver now has a second paid root and 6 months will be enough to teach amette and nosy what I know about the Toolserver. Reason 2 is that there was no real investment in the Toolserver in the first 6 months of 2013 and I very doubt that there will ever be any in the second half or beyond. Reason 3 is that I learned during the last weekend that the support of the Toolserver in the board of WMDE reached its minimum. One board-member announced publicly during the general meeting of WMDE that it is good that there is a timetable for the Toolserver now – I know only 1 timetable for the Toolserver and that’s Silke’s <s>plan of destruction</s> roadmap for migration [1]. Another board-member told me during a chatting in the halls that ToolLabs (or the move to) is "klasse" (~great). It is impossible to improve the Toolserver against the CEO *and* the board of WMDE. Reason 4 are you, the tool-authors. The participation in my survey [2] was pitiful low and the majority of these few who voted, voted to leave the Toolserver as soon as possible or this year – a trend that was already visible on the mailing-list before. So I conclude that the most of you don’t care and whose care will leave this year. While I asked for documentation (or at least correction) in the toolserver- wikis for years, nearly nothing ever happened. But now that ToolLabs is on the horizon you write documentation for THAT – freely. And it is really a joke to compare the empty new database-servers of ToolLabs with our old and heavy loaded servers for performance. Let’s see how fast they are if 10 slow queries, which had run for hours, run in parallel. With very few exceptions none of you helped to protect the Toolserver against ToolLabs; all you were interested in was that ToolLabs provides the same environment so your tools can continue to run there. When I read such phrases like "we have to stabilize the Toolserver until Labs is ready" or now "we need the Toolserver for redirects to ToolLabs" I could vomit! I promised in November 2012 that I will stay for another year and I will fulfill that promise – but not a day longer. There is no point in fighting for something if the something has already surrendered and no support is there (not from you, the toolusers, the board of WMDE, the CEO of WMDE or the general meeting of WMDE). These of you who are able to move to ToolLabs I wish luck. Let’s hope that the WMF does not decide to "re-focus" again too soon. Let’s hope that the WMF does not disable tools just because there are a little slow. Let’s hope that the WMF does not restrict the database-tables even more. Let’s hope that the WMF does not kick the volunteers out completely some days like they did with the WMF-wiki-admins some weeks ago. And hoping is all we can do, because the WMF is a undemocratic construct and ToolLabs is lead by paid roots, so whatever the WMF staff decides will happen. Maybe if one of these things happen you will remember the tiny, slow, unstable, but free Toolserver — but it will not be there anymore. Sincerely, DaB. [1] http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Tool_Labs/Roadmap_en [2] https://wiki.toolserver.org/view/Labs-Moving-Survey -- Userpage: [[:w:de:User:DaB.]] — PGP: 0x2d3ee2d42b255885 _______________________________________________ Toolserver-announce mailing list Toolserver-announce(a)lists.wikimedia.org https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/toolserver-announce

Reason 4 are you, the tool-authors.

On 05/30/2013 05:31 PM, DaB. wrote: The WMF has not "won" anything, because there was never a contest or battle, nor was there an adversarial position to begin with.

My concern - and that of the Foundation - align exactly with yours: provide a good and stable environment for community developers to do their work with the least possible fuss.

You sincerely believe that the Toolserver was and is the best solution towards that objective. I disagree, and think that the Foundation has more resources to set up and upkeep that environment and to insure its future. Either way, it's the developer community that "wins", regardless of where the actual environment ends up being. This does not, in any way, diminish the value of what you have done, or of the effort you have expended in doing it. The Toolserver served its purpose very well for a number of years! We have simply reached a point where the continued maintenance of such a critical service living outside the infrastructure remains rational. That we are in a position to support the developer community with more resources

-- Marc

Hello guys, I just extended my personal account until 5. January of 2014 – it is the last time I do this. At this day I will also remove my access as root of the Toolserver. Beginning of 1. July I will start my fade out, doing less and less work for the Toolserver until I am not longer visible. I announce that this early because I think it is fair for you to know that will happen and I like not just to vanish like some roots before. There are 4 main factors why I decided to not continue my work until the end of the Toolserver in December 2014. Reason 1 is that the Toolserver now has a second paid root and 6 months will be enough to teach amette and nosy what I know about the Toolserver. Reason 2 is that there was no real investment in the Toolserver in the first 6 months of 2013 and I very doubt that there will ever be any in the second half or beyond. Reason 3 is that I learned during the last weekend that the support of the Toolserver in the board of WMDE reached its minimum. One board-member announced publicly during the general meeting of WMDE that it is good that there is a timetable for the Toolserver now – I know only 1 timetable for the Toolserver and that’s Silke’s <s>plan of destruction</s> roadmap for migration [1]. Another board-member told me during a chatting in the halls that ToolLabs (or the move to) is "klasse" (~great). It is impossible to improve the Toolserver against the CEO *and* the board of WMDE. Reason 4 are you, the tool-authors. The participation in my survey [2] was pitiful low and the majority of these few who voted, voted to leave the Toolserver as soon as possible or this year – a trend that was already visible on the mailing-list before. So I conclude that the most of you don’t care and whose care will leave this year. While I asked for documentation (or at least correction) in the toolserver- wikis for years, nearly nothing ever happened. But now that ToolLabs is on the horizon you write documentation for THAT – freely. And it is really a joke to compare the empty new database-servers of ToolLabs with our old and heavy loaded servers for performance. Let’s see how fast they are if 10 slow queries, which had run for hours, run in parallel. With very few exceptions none of you helped to protect the Toolserver against ToolLabs; all you were interested in was that ToolLabs provides the same environment so your tools can continue to run there. When I read such phrases like "we have to stabilize the Toolserver until Labs is ready" or now "we need the Toolserver for redirects to ToolLabs" I could vomit! I promised in November 2012 that I will stay for another year and I will fulfill that promise – but not a day longer. There is no point in fighting for something if the something has already surrendered and no support is there (not from you, the toolusers, the board of WMDE, the CEO of WMDE or the general meeting of WMDE). These of you who are able to move to ToolLabs I wish luck. Let’s hope that the WMF does not decide to "re-focus" again too soon. Let’s hope that the WMF does not disable tools just because there are a little slow. Let’s hope that the WMF does not restrict the database-tables even more. Let’s hope that the WMF does not kick the volunteers out completely some days like they did with the WMF-wiki-admins some weeks ago. And hoping is all we can do, because the WMF is a undemocratic construct and ToolLabs is lead by paid roots, so whatever the WMF staff decides will happen. Maybe if one of these things happen you will remember the tiny, slow, unstable, but free Toolserver — but it will not be there anymore. Sincerely, DaB. [1] http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Tool_Labs/Roadmap_en [2] https://wiki.toolserver.org/view/Labs-Moving-Survey -- Userpage: [[:w:de:User:DaB.]] — PGP: 0x2d3ee2d42b255885 _______________________________________________ Toolserver-l mailing list (Toolserver-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org) https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/toolserver-l Posting guidelines for this list: https://wiki.toolserver.org/view/Mailing_list_etiquette

Hello all, At Thursday 30 May 2013 21:59:00 DaB. wrote: [...] Like I said: It was naive. I can not resent you that you like to move to a place that has a future, may be faster and maybe better administrated. I can not resent WMDE that they don’t see that loosing the Toolserver is another step to become more dependent of the WMF. But it hurts nevertheless, because it makes me think that I did something wrong.