Hi all,
Following from what Doug and Charles have said: this was indeed part of
the change to a dedicated tech system, from things running on my
personal VPS and on the WMF servers. In case it's not clear: there are
multiple wikis that WMUK hosts, not just the public one.
This was important for WMUK to be clearly separated from WMF, and it was
also in a background of WMUK trying to improve its technical capacity -
although this didn't quite go as I'd have liked to have see (would be
really nice if WMUK did a WMDE and hosted the technical development of a
Wikimedia project!).
It isn't too convenient, though - as well as the maintenance burden, you
have to have separate logins, and you aren't connected with Wikidata
(would have loved to connect Commons+WMUK wiki via Wikidata several
times recently, but not possible!).
It's definitely worth having a fresh thinking through of how this works
with WMUK's current situation and technical capacity!
Thanks,
Mike
On 2/11/21 02:05:16, Rex X wrote:
> Hi Sam,
>
> I think it's worth you bearing in mind that WMUK is a separate legal
> entity from WMF, and as a charity registered in the UK, is subject to
> all of the UK regulations concerning data protection.
>
> The contents of the WMUK wikis have, since at least 2013, contained some
> sensitive information that is not publicly accessible, such as the
> minutes of /in camera/ sessions of Board meetings on the Board wiki, as
> well as potentially business-sensitive content on the staff wiki.
>
> It was felt imperative in the past that the control of WMUK wikis must
> rest in the hands of the Board or delegated staff members.That would
> have to be the position in order to protect the organisation from any
> possible breaches of data protection if control did not ultimately lie
> with the Board. No setup that depended on the WMF servers could possibly
> satisfy that requirement and that was one of the principal reasons for
> WMUK using its own servers under its own control and with its own
> developers.
>
> I appreciate your concern for WMUK, but I'm afraid that IMHO, it is
> misplaced as far as breaches of data security are concerned. The
> solution to using end-of-life versions of software is going to be to
> update them to newer versions, not to move the entire system elsewhere
> under the ultimate control of a foreign organisation.
>
> Cheers
>
> --
>
> Doug
>
>
>> On 01 November 2021 at 22:38 "Sam (TheresNoTime)"
>> <sam(a)theresnotime.co.uk> wrote:
>>
>> No worries Lucy, I imagined that would be the case :)
>> As I said, I /really/ don't want to be causing problems and I hope my
>> email reflects that..
>>
>> Thank you for your attention to this, and please do reach out off-list
>>
>>
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>> *Sam*
>>
>>
>> User:TheresNoTime <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:TheresNoTime>/
>> /
>>
>> /English Wikipedia: CU/OS/
>>
>>
>>
>> On Mon, 1 Nov 2021 at 22:30, Lucy Crompton-Reid <
>> lucy.crompton-reid(a)wikimedia.org.uk
>> <mailto:lucy.crompton-reid@wikimedia.org.uk>> wrote:
>>
>> Just as a quick PS, I feel I should mention that the decisions you
>> refer to took place several years before I joined the organisation
>> (as per the phabricator thread) and so I will probably need to try
>> to piece together why certain things happened with imperfect
>> knowledge...but I will certainly do my best!
>>
>> On Mon, 1 Nov 2021 at 21:39, Sam (TheresNoTime) <
>> sam(a)theresnotime.co.uk <mailto:sam@theresnotime.co.uk>> wrote:
>>
>> Hi all,
>>
>> Me again, bear with me...
>>
>> I emailed the list a while back about the IT Development
>> pages, the issues with the Wiki etc. - I've seen today a
>> number of edits (e.g.
>>
https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Special:Diff/82820
>> <https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Special:Diff/82820>) which
>> attempt to potentially explain the changes, but fall a bit
>> short, as I initially suggested here (
>>
https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Special:Diff/82828
>> <https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Special:Diff/82828>).
>>
>> I've attempted to fix some of the bigger issues with the wiki
>> (
>>
https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Engine_room#Recent_changes_to_MediaWiki_names…
>>
<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Engine_room#Recent_changes_to_MediaWiki_namespace_files>),
>> but a lot boils down to the fact you're using a very old,
>> insecure version of MediaWiki and PHP (
>>
https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Engine_room#Installed_versions_of_MediaWiki_a…
>>
<https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Engine_room#Installed_versions_of_MediaWiki_and_PHP_are_end-of-life>).
>>
>> In regards to my comments about approaching the WMF to host
>> the Wiki, I had this task pointed out to me (
>>
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T58938
>> <https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T58938>) which I found odd,
>> especially some of the comments by your volunteers .
>>
>> I do not understand why Wikimedia UK migrated from a free,
>> secure, managed MediaWiki installation to a VPS which I assume
>> is either donated or is costing the charity money, and which
>> isn't kept up to date?
>>
>> This doesn't strike me as an effective use of charity funds
>> and volunteer time, and has unfortunately resulted in a
>> MediaWiki install which is outdated and insecure (see
>> CVE-2019-12468
>> <https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-12468> as just one
>> example of an exploit against the currently installed version).
>>
>> As the UK chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation, running this
>> MediaWiki installation is likely to "negatively impact the
>> work or image of the Foundation" if exploited. Could someone
>> please help me in understanding the decisions which led to
>> moving away from the WMF infrastructure? Was there a conflict
>> of mission?
>>
>> I appreciate I am "causing waves" here, and I _honestly
don't
>> want to be_ - Wikimedia UK has been a charity I've supported
>> for quite some time, you do great work and I thank you for
>> your commitment to open access to knowledge!
>> How can we work together to resolve this? I'm fairly available
>> this week and would be more than happy to chat with someone
>> about how we can fix this.
>>
>>
>>
>> Kind regards,
>>
>> *Sam*
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikimedia UK mailing list
>> wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org <mailto:wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org>
>>
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
>> <https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l>
>> WMUK:
https://wikimedia.org.uk <https://wikimedia.org.uk>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>>
>> Lucy Crompton-Reid
>>
>> Chief Executive
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> <https://donate.wikimedia.org.uk/>
>>
>> Wikimedia UK <https://beta.wikimedia.org.uk/>is the national
>> chapter for the global Wikimedia open knowledge movement.
>>
>> Wikimedia UK is a Registered Charity No.1144513.Company Limited by
>> Guarantee registered in England and Wales, Registered No. 6741827.
>>
>> Registered Office Ground Floor, Europoint, 5 - 11 Lavington
>> Street, London SE1 0NZ
>>
<https://maps.google.com/?q=5+-+11+Lavington+Street,+London+SE1+0NZ&entry=gmail&source=g>.
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
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>> wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org <mailto:wikimediauk-l@wikimedia.org>
>>
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
>> <https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l>
>> WMUK:
https://wikimedia.org.uk <https://wikimedia.org.uk>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Wikimedia UK mailing list
>> wikimediauk-l(a)wikimedia.org
>>
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimediauk-l
>> WMUK:
https://wikimedia.org.uk
>
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>
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