There are a lot of domain names for all the Wikimedia projects. Some are the property of Wikimedia, some of friends of Wikimedia.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Domain_names
I have the impression that the dealing of requests regarding domains is done ad hoc by diffrent people.
To make sure that the overview is not lost, the usernames and passwords for those domains, it is not forgotten to renew domains, to be a contact person for friends of Wikimedia who are willing to transfer a domain and for requests for buying new domains, it would be good if there where one person responsible.
[[w:nl:gebruiker:walter]]
Yo. Fully agree with you on this Walter.
Well, I have been seeing you taking care of such matters for perhaps 2 years now, as well as setting portal pages for country domain name.
I would be personnally delighted that you be this person responsible of domain names.
What do you think ? Would you be interested ? What do other people think ?
Anthere
Walter Vermeir a écrit:
There are a lot of domain names for all the Wikimedia projects. Some are the property of Wikimedia, some of friends of Wikimedia.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Domain_names
I have the impression that the dealing of requests regarding domains is done ad hoc by diffrent people.
To make sure that the overview is not lost, the usernames and passwords for those domains, it is not forgotten to renew domains, to be a contact person for friends of Wikimedia who are willing to transfer a domain and for requests for buying new domains, it would be good if there where one person responsible.
[[w:nl:gebruiker:walter]]
On 13 Sep 2004, at 22:11, Anthere wrote:
Yo. Fully agree with you on this Walter.
Well, I have been seeing you taking care of such matters for perhaps 2 years now, as well as setting portal pages for country domain name.
I would be personnally delighted that you be this person responsible of domain names.
What do you think ? Would you be interested ? What do other people think ?
Anthere
Support. ~~~~
Jens Ropers wrote:
On 13 Sep 2004, at 22:11, Anthere wrote:
Yo. Fully agree with you on this Walter.
Well, I have been seeing you taking care of such matters for perhaps 2 years now, as well as setting portal pages for country domain name.
I would be personnally delighted that you be this person responsible of domain names.
What do you think ? Would you be interested ? What do other people think ?
Anthere
Support. ~~~~
Support. --elian
Having one person to contact for such matters would be really helpful, and if Walter is prepared to do that, I fully support him having that role.
Angela.
On Mon, 13 Sep 2004 22:11:47 +0200, Anthere anthere9@yahoo.com wrote:
Yo. Fully agree with you on this Walter.
Well, I have been seeing you taking care of such matters for perhaps 2 years now, as well as setting portal pages for country domain name.
I would be personnally delighted that you be this person responsible of domain names.
What do you think ? Would you be interested ? What do other people think ?
Anthere
Anthere <anthere9@...> writes:
Yo. Fully agree with you on this Walter.
Well, I have been seeing you taking care of such matters for perhaps 2 years now, as well as setting portal pages for country domain name.
I would be personnally delighted that you be this person responsible of domain names.
What do you think ? Would you be interested ? What do other people think ?
Anthere
I must say that this was not my intension. I highly appreciate that you nominated and support my for this and also the support from the others.
But am not sure of it possible for my to do this. This function would be a highly trusted function.
The full setup; The domain name administrator would be; - the key holder of Wikimedia; has access to all domain settings. Change DNS, whois info and so. Be the contact person for that domain. Has the authority to renew domain names and buy new if needed and access to Wikimedia funds . Also the person who does the transfer of domains now owned by friends of Wikipedia. Can also have a role regarding squatted domains. Maintaining a public page whit a overview of all domains whit all useful info about those domains. In direct contact and under supervision of a core Wikimedia foundation person.
Like a sysop (at least like that function exist on the dutch Wiki), he is a servant of the community and can only act for so far those actions are authorized by a list of rules defined by the Wikimedia foundation and supported by the community. Autonomous decision for so far not granted by earlier established rules are strictly forbidden.
+ The benefit of this setup is that one person can do his job without the need to ask to other persons to do things, have wait for responds. Can directly give responds to requests.
- The down side is that you put a lot of trust and potential power whit one person.
A light version; The "domain name administrator" is only a intermediary. Is the contact person for domain name related requests for all projects. Maintains a list of all domains, there expire data, there status and use, sounds alarm when the are close to there expire data, keeps other people annoying until whatever needs to be done is done. Has a direct contact whit the people of the Wikimedia who can actually do something.
+ No security risk because the "domain name administrator" has no powers except the power of e-mail. - The usefulness is doubtful. If the function only is to act like a gateway to whoever does it really you can ask why bother.
*********************************
I am willing to do it. But i am not very much in favor of the light version because you can not really do anything.
Greetings, Walter Vermeir
--- Walter Vermeir walter@wikipedia.be wrote:
I am willing to do it. But i am not very much in favor of the light version because you can not really do anything.
I agree with Walter. The person who takes care of this needs to have complete power to make any technical decisions immediately. I personally manage 15+ domains and it's a PITA when something needs to be done ASAP and I have to ask for permission.
As far as who to trust, I suggest Jimbo put a name or two in a hat and have the board pull one of those out. I also suggest that this should be a paid function (as, say, $100/month) because it is such a nightmare.
===== Chris Mahan 818.943.1850 cell chris_mahan@yahoo.com chris.mahan@gmail.com http://www.christophermahan.com/
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--- Christopher Mahan chris_mahan@yahoo.com wrote:
I agree with Walter. The person who takes care of this needs to have complete power to make any technical decisions immediately. I personally manage 15+ domains and it's a PITA when something needs to be done ASAP and I have to ask for permission.
We could have a petty cash PayPal account of say $3000 that such an admin and a few other highly trusted people (esp a developer) could have access to when needed (a domain is about to expire or a server needs to be replaced fast). If I'm still around, I would help provide oversight for that.
As far as who to trust, I suggest Jimbo put a name or two in a hat and have the board pull one of those out.
I think only Walter mentioned an interest in this so I don't see a need for an extra step.
I also suggest that this should be a paid function (as, say, $100/month) because it is such a nightmare.
Managing the 8 or so Wikimedia domains wasn't a pain for me. The only issue was keeping up with yearly expirations, but Jimbo has since paid those for long time periods (that was my impression at least since I no longer have access to my GoDaddy account that holds those domains). So I don't think this is the type of thing that we would have to pay a person for. All IMO.
-- mav
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--- Daniel Mayer maveric149@yahoo.com wrote:
We could have a petty cash PayPal account of say $3000 that such an admin and a few other highly trusted people (esp a developer) could have access to when needed (a domain is about to expire or a server needs to be replaced fast). If I'm still around, I would help provide oversight for that.
That would be good.
I think only Walter mentioned an interest in this so I don't see a need for an extra step.
Except he also said he wasn't too hat on the idea. He just threw it out there as something that would be nice without saying he would want to do it.
Managing the 8 or so Wikimedia domains wasn't a pain for me. The only issue was keeping up with yearly expirations, but Jimbo has since paid those for long time periods (that was my impression at least since I no longer have access to my GoDaddy account that holds those domains).
Granted, I might have exagerated.
So I don't think this is the type of thing that we would have to pay a person for. All IMO.
Ok too. By the way, have moved to godaddy exclusively, and things have become much easier.
On a personal note, I would particularly miss your contribution to W if you decided to seek other forms of online enjoyments.
I think though that you have to do what's best for yourself.
===== Chris Mahan 818.943.1850 cell chris_mahan@yahoo.com chris.mahan@gmail.com http://www.christophermahan.com/
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On 15 Sep 2004, at 03:42, Christopher Mahan wrote:
Ok too. By the way, have moved to godaddy exclusively, and things have become much easier.
I hate GoDaddy, because of their advertising and cheapo-upselly-flashy-glitzyness. Not that it's of any relevance, I just had to vent.
-J
Christopher Mahan a écrit:
--- Walter Vermeir walter@wikipedia.be wrote:
I am willing to do it. But i am not very much in favor of the light version because you can not really do anything.
I agree with Walter. The person who takes care of this needs to have complete power to make any technical decisions immediately. I personally manage 15+ domains and it's a PITA when something needs to be done ASAP and I have to ask for permission.
Technical and financial decisions are two different things imho. Technical responsability Walter is mentionning is currently typically one some developers are trusted to do I think. However, the financial responsability mentionned is right now only limited to Jimbo and perhaps to our treasurer.
As far as who to trust, I suggest Jimbo put a name or two in a hat and have the board pull one of those out. I also suggest that this should be a paid function (as, say, $100/month) because it is such a nightmare.
Hmmmm. I disagree. It is not Jimbo's job to name people. And I am not sure he would like to do that. The proposal should come from the person himself. Not from Jimbo, nor from the board. But from people.
A few questions are
* Do we have a problem with our domain names handling ?
* Is there a need to have one person in charge of this ?
* What could the job recover ?
Walter gave us his opinion on these three questions. Are there other opinions ?
If the first ones are fixed, next questions become
* What will the job recover ?
* Who else is interested in doing this ?
--- Anthere anthere9@yahoo.com wrote:
Christopher Mahan a �crit:
--- Walter Vermeir walter@wikipedia.be wrote:
I am willing to do it. But i am not very much in favor of the
light
version because you can not really do anything.
I agree with Walter. The person who takes care of this needs to
have
complete power to make any technical decisions immediately. I personally manage 15+ domains and it's a PITA when something
needs to
be done ASAP and I have to ask for permission.
Technical and financial decisions are two different things imho. Technical responsability Walter is mentionning is currently typically one some developers are trusted to do I think. However, the financial responsability mentionned is right now only limited to Jimbo and perhaps to our treasurer.
As far as who to trust, I suggest Jimbo put a name or two in a
hat
and have the board pull one of those out. I also suggest that
this
should be a paid function (as, say, $100/month) because it is
such a nightmare.
Hmmmm. I disagree. It is not Jimbo's job to name people. And I am not sure he would like to do that. The proposal should come from the person himself. Not from
Jimbo, nor from the board. But from people.
A few questions are
Do we have a problem with our domain names handling ?
Is there a need to have one person in charge of this ?
What could the job recover ?
Walter gave us his opinion on these three questions. Are there other opinions ?
If the first ones are fixed, next questions become
What will the job recover ?
Who else is interested in doing this ?
I peronally think that the job is highly critical, and should not be left to a volunteer. You should either hire someone who does this already for a living, as a professional, or jimbo should handpick someone he trusts explicitely. I think Jimbo does the DNS stuff now, and probably will in the future. So the point is probably moot.
===== Chris Mahan 818.943.1850 cell chris_mahan@yahoo.com chris.mahan@gmail.com http://www.christophermahan.com/
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Christopher Mahan a écrit:
I peronally think that the job is highly critical, and should not be left to a volunteer. You should either hire someone who does this already for a living, as a professional, or jimbo should handpick someone he trusts explicitely. I think Jimbo does the DNS stuff now, and probably will in the future. So the point is probably moot.
Okay. Well, let's wait for Jimbo's opinion on the matter then. I do not have any strong opinion on the matter either way :-)
Anthere wrote:
Christopher Mahan a écrit:
I peronally think that the job is highly critical, and should not be left to a volunteer. You should either hire someone who does this already for a living, as a professional, or jimbo should handpick someone he trusts explicitely. I think Jimbo does the DNS stuff now, and probably will in the future. So the point is probably moot.
Okay. Well, let's wait for Jimbo's opinion on the matter then. I do not have any strong opinion on the matter either way :-)
Right now, Jason handles it, but not in any organized fashion. I can easily assign him a project to make a report on all the domains, expiry dates, current ownership, etc. so that at least as a first pass we have a firm understanding of the current situation.
--Jimbo
On Tue, 14 Sep 19:02 -0700 (PDT), chris_mahan@yahoo.com wrote:
--- Anthere anthere9@yahoo.com wrote:
Technical and financial decisions are two different things imho. Technical responsability Walter is mentionning is currently typically one some developers are trusted to do I think. However, the financial responsability mentionned is right now only limited to Jimbo and perhaps to our treasurer.
The bulk of financial decisions (regular renewals) could be planned far in advance and cleared, en masse, with a financial officer. A small emergency fund as mav mentioned should suffice for unexpected needs.
A few questions are
- Do we have a problem with our domain names handling ?
yes.
- Is there a need to have one person in charge of this ?
no; let every eager person you can find help; but one point-person at any given moment. See my stock reply below. :-)
Chris Mahan:
I peronally think that the job is highly critical, and should not be left to a volunteer. You should either hire someone who does this already for a living, as a professional, or jimbo should handpick
Motivated volunteers can do an excellent job with highly critical tasks. It is nevertheless important to avoid single points of failure. While I support Walter wholeheartedly as someone to manage domain issues, the primary work of such a manager would be to make sure the relevant information was organized and available to others, so that they could take up slack as needed.
A small group of interested people, one of whom at any given time is the point person for any sudden decisions, is definitely needed. A one-person group is better than none; larger would be better still.
Sj a écrit:
On Tue, 14 Sep 19:02 -0700 (PDT), chris_mahan@yahoo.com wrote:
--- Anthere anthere9@yahoo.com wrote:
Technical and financial decisions are two different things imho. Technical responsability Walter is mentionning is currently typically one some developers are trusted to do I think. However, the financial responsability mentionned is right now only limited to Jimbo and perhaps to our treasurer.
The bulk of financial decisions (regular renewals) could be planned far in advance and cleared, en masse, with a financial officer. A small emergency fund as mav mentioned should suffice for unexpected needs.
A few questions are
- Do we have a problem with our domain names handling ?
yes.
- Is there a need to have one person in charge of this ?
no; let every eager person you can find help; but one point-person at any given moment. See my stock reply below. :-)
Chris Mahan:
I peronally think that the job is highly critical, and should not be left to a volunteer. You should either hire someone who does this already for a living, as a professional, or jimbo should handpick
Motivated volunteers can do an excellent job with highly critical tasks. It is nevertheless important to avoid single points of failure. While I support Walter wholeheartedly as someone to manage domain issues, the primary work of such a manager would be to make sure the relevant information was organized and available to others, so that they could take up slack as needed.
A small group of interested people, one of whom at any given time is the point person for any sudden decisions, is definitely needed. A one-person group is better than none; larger would be better still.
Nod, I agree with all this and Mav proposal for an amount to be set aside in advance strike me as being the solution.
Other opinions ?
ant
Christopher Mahan wrote:
I peronally think that the job is highly critical, and should not be left to a volunteer. You should either hire someone who does this already for a living, as a professional, or jimbo should handpick someone he trusts explicitely. I think Jimbo does the DNS stuff now, and probably will in the future. So the point is probably moot.
If it's already taken care of, it is indeed moot, but I think all that's really needed is a responsible volunteer who can be trusted to be contactable and keep the information in order. What we really need is to make sure we have all the information when it's needed, so if a developer were redoing our DNS setup, and needed some stuff changed, they would be able to get the information and access they needed. It's mostly having a dozen different people registering different domains at different registrars that would really be a mess.
-Mark
On Mon, 13 Sep 2004 22:11:47 +0200, Anthere anthere9@yahoo.com wrote:
Yo. Fully agree with you on this Walter.
Well, I have been seeing you taking care of such matters for perhaps 2 years now, as well as setting portal pages for country domain name.
I would be personnally delighted that you be this person responsible of domain names.
< What do other people think ?
Support.
This is not at all an easy job; work will need to be done to scale the paperwork and synchronize regular deadlines. I am glad that Walter is even considering doing this.
Sj <2.718281828@...> writes:
Support.
This is not at all an easy job; work will need to be done to scale the paperwork and synchronize regular deadlines. I am glad that Walter is even considering doing this.
I have been owner of several domains. I did not have the impression it is very complicated or difficult. The most important thing is to not forget witch registrator you have used, the password of it. And to renew it on time.
The domains wikipedia.ca and wikipedia.us are squatted long after the where listed on http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Domain_names for a long time. This is because of the absence of a domain name administrator.
I know Branko Collin is now attempting to transfer wikipedia.nl to Wikimedia. I have also a domain to transfer. And I hope that it is not forgotten to renew wikipedia.be, a domain I earlier have hand over to Wikimedia.
I am pesimistic about the current way of dealing whit this. There is need of more internal organisation about who does what and clear contact persons. Most Wiki's or even the Wikimedia Foundation does not have a clear way of contact like for example the Dutch and German wiki.
I will be offline for 2 weeks. It is time for my annual internet- disintoxication.
Greetings, Walter Vermeir
--- Walter Vermeir walter@wikipedia.be wrote:
There are a lot of domain names for all the Wikimedia projects. Some are the property of Wikimedia, some of friends of Wikimedia.
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Domain_names
I have the impression that the dealing of requests regarding domains is done ad hoc by diffrent people.
To make sure that the overview is not lost, the usernames and passwords for those domains, it is not forgotten to renew domains, to be a contact person for friends of Wikimedia who are willing to transfer a domain and for requests for buying new domains, it would be good if there where one person responsible.
I was doing this for the 8 or so domain names I bought for the foundation but one day my password didn't work anymore. My request to Jimbo asking for the password to my GoDaddy account was never acted upon (there are several domain names controlled by that account that are not yet owned by the foundation - such as Wikiveristy.org and WikiGIS.org). I'm sure this was just an oversight since my password was near impossible to remember.
-- mav
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