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) 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).

I've attempted to fix some of the bigger issues with the wiki (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_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) 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as an effective use of charity funds and volunteer time, and has unfortunately resulted in a MediaWiki install which is outdated and insecure (see CVE-2019-12468 as just one example of an exploit against the currently installed version).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

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