Purpose matters
I oppose the proposed closing of WN for many reasons, but consider the real
world purpose on the news capacity. Sure, WN is not robust as many would
desire. However, light use also means lighter strain on resources too. That
disqualifies one third of the justification to close WN, as it is not a
resource hog. As the marketplace provides decent news sources, then WN is
but a sidebar or safety net. Frankly, society should have the luxury of a
news safety net and its use should be sporadic. But do not remove the WN as
one would not wish to remove the net to high flying acrobats. Finally, a
single WN journalist, or a few WN reporters can change the face of history.
The right person at the right time with the right story can prevent a war,
take down a President, turn the tide of suffering in epic ways. Volume and
magnitude and NPOV are necessary in the Wikipedia project and fully
unrequired in WN. Greatness in WN can come from a lone voice. To judge news
with the same scales (pun) as Wikipedia goes counter to the real world
purpose of news. Long live WN, even as a thin but watchful cousin to the
others. Rauterkus <http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/User:Rauterkus>
(talk<http://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=User_talk:Rauterkus&action=edit…>)
13:47, 31 March 2013 (UTC)
--
--
Ta.
Mark Rauterkus Mark.Rauterkus(a)gmail.com
PPS Summer Dreamers' Swim and Water Polo Camp Head Coach
Pittsburgh Combined Water Polo Team
http://Rauterkus.blogspot.comhttp://FixPA.wikia.comhttp://CLOH.wikia.com
412 298 3432 = cell
Request for help by Wikimedia Deutschland also posted on
<https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Future_of_Toolserver#Request_for_help_to_al…>:
of relevance for all Wikimedia projects users.
-------- Messaggio originale --------
Oggetto: Information on Tool Labs/ Your help needed
Data: Thu, 7 Mar 2013 10:26:51 +0000 (UTC)
Mittente: Silke Meyer
Hello!
You are getting this e-mail because you have an active or expired
account on the toolserver.
As you might know, Wikimedia Foundation is building a cloud-based
infrastructure (Labs/Tool Labs) that - in the long run - will be a
replacement for the toolserver. Don't worry! The toolserver will be not
just be switched off. WMF and WMDE would like to support you as good as
possible when it comes to migrating tools. There will be enough time for
this process. We will offer different forms of support which you will
hear of soon.
Right now, Tool Labs is not ready. WMF staff, mainly Marc Pelletier is
building it. You might have seen the general list of needed and wanted
features [1]. For many of you crucial features are database replication
and user databases. Both are upcoming features in the nearer future.
Your tools and their dependencies are taken into account to build the
new infrastructure. This is why I am asking you for help:
Please provide information about your tools! I started an incomplete
list at [2] (http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Toolserver/List_of_Tools,
based on the wiki and jira).
Personally I was really impressed about its length and diversity - how
cool! Several people said there was so much missing in this list - so
please help me to complete it!
Here is what I'm asking you to do:
* Please check if your tools are on the list (correctly).
* Please fill in your software dependencies, data dependencies, use
patterns (are they running continously? or webservices? Batch runs?
etc.), the license.
* If you have not given your software an explicit license, please note
that only free software can migrate to Labs. Consider putting your stuff
under a free license.
* If you have already migrated your bot or tool to Labs and it is in the
list, please say so in the last column "status".
* If your toolserver account has expired and/or your tool is not active
on the toolserver right now, please add it to the second table at the
bottom of the page. In the last column write that it is not running
currently and if you want to revive it. If you are considering to revive
it, please fill in all the details, too, so that your needs will be
taken into account.
* Please follow the toolserver-announce list for more information to come.
Thanks for your help! If you have any questions, please don't hesitate
to ask me, to ask on toolserver-l and/or on labs-l.
Cheers, Silke
[1]
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Labs/Toolserver_features_needed_in_…
[2] List of Tools:
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Silke_WMDE/Documentation/List_of_Tools
--
Silke Meyer
Systemadministratorin und Projektassistenz Wikidata
Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. | Obentrautstr. 72 | 10963 Berlin
Tel. (030) 219 158 260
http://wikimedia.de