Hi Andy,
The password isn't a single point of failure in the sense that Jarry and Ed both had the password and either of them might have become available to publish hours or days later, but I felt the Signpost was already late, we had enough material to publish, and waiting another week would mean we would lose the work that had gone into the Traffic Report and we would need to reformat the Featured Content Report to add another week's worth of material. This is the first time I have felt confident enough to make a decision to publish in Ed's absence with Tony's agreement, so this is the first time I have needed the password.
Tony and I now have the password. I hope that future publications are normal even if Ed is absent.
Thanks for your interest in the Signpost. Do you have any other questions?
Pete, thanks for your comments. It is good to feel that the Signpost's all-volunteer staff is appreciated.
Pine
Hi Andy, et.al.,
There is one person in charge of making the final calls of every issue—me. I'm also responsible for publishing, which is done by a script on Wikimedia Labs and an accompanying bot, and is password-protected so that it isn't vandalized. It was an unfortunate error that I did not give the password to other trusted Signposters, but as Pine says, that is no longer the case.
My on-wiki nonavailability is a recent development and is a consequence of not having an immediate Internet connection at the moment (take a moment to imagine the difficulties). I am working on a temporary solution that will last for the upcoming months.
Regards, --Ed
On Mon, Jun 2, 2014 at 2:38 AM, ENWP Pine deyntestiss@hotmail.com wrote:
Hi Andy,
The password isn't a single point of failure in the sense that Jarry and Ed both had the password and either of them might have become available to publish hours or days later, but I felt the Signpost was already late, we had enough material to publish, and waiting another week would mean we would lose the work that had gone into the Traffic Report and we would need to reformat the Featured Content Report to add another week's worth of material. This is the first time I have felt confident enough to make a decision to publish in Ed's absence with Tony's agreement, so this is the first time I have needed the password.
Tony and I now have the password. I hope that future publications are normal even if Ed is absent.
Thanks for your interest in the Signpost. Do you have any other questions?
Pete, thanks for your comments. It is good to feel that the Signpost's all-volunteer staff is appreciated.
Pine
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On 2 June 2014 19:39, Ed Erhart the.ed17@gmail.com wrote:
There is one person in charge of making the final calls of every issue—me.
This is troubling, Wikipedia is supposed to be an open, community-driven initiative.
We've seen problems in the past with single-person gatekeepers; at TFA, for instance.
Not that I'm casting aspersions, but you may be indisposed, and a future "keyholder" may turn out to be rogue.
It was an unfortunate error that I did not give the password to other trusted Signposters, but as Pine says, that is no longer the case.
That, at least, is reassuring.
On 02/06/14 20:14, Andy Mabbett wrote:
On 2 June 2014 19:39, Ed Erhart the.ed17@gmail.com wrote:
There is one person in charge of making the final calls of every issue—me.
This is troubling, Wikipedia is supposed to be an open, community-driven initiative.
We've seen problems in the past with single-person gatekeepers; at TFA, for instance.
Not that I'm casting aspersions, but you may be indisposed, and a future "keyholder" may turn out to be rogue.
It was an unfortunate error that I did not give the password to other trusted Signposters, but as Pine says, that is no longer the case.
That, at least, is reassuring.
Wikipedia is exactly that, an open, community-driven initiative. This is why when something needs doing, in many cases any random bloke can come in and do it - the {{sofixit}} narrative. Of course, as a result, things are also often not necessarily as well-organised as they perhaps could be, and there may only be a single person involved, but why should this be a problem when such is only the beginning?
Most nothing will be well-organised at first, but as time goes on, as a project matures and others join in, problems come to light and are fixed. If an initial lack of organisation or a potentiality for issues down the road were considered a barrier to doing stuff, nothing would ever get done. We certainly wouldn't have a Wikipedia.
I'd say that what has happened here has if anything been a good example of that the process really does work, and I'd like to thank those involved for taking the initiative to keep things running smoothly. This is what keeps all the projects running, when you get right down to it.
-I
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