On 4/16/07, P. Birken pbirken@gmail.com wrote:
Furthermore, we need people to test this. Of course, the people on this list should be there, but that is the point where we would want to open up the test more. Personally, I'd say that we spread the word carefully.
We should be clear what the purpose of the testing is. IMHO it is to identify major issues that prevent it from being used in any real world environment. For that purpose, the current baach.de/phase3 install is probably good enough. We could put it behind HTTP authentication and spread the word carefully on wmfcc-l and internal-l (the two main confidential Wikimedia lists). If the server breaks down, I've got a couple of others we can use.
After that, I think it would be wise to set up a public site at http://quality.wikimedia.org/ (with redirect from wikipedia.org)
which would include: - a brief summary for the public what this is all about - information about this particular extension - info for developers who want to work on it - links to 2-3 example setups (possibly in subdirectories) with different configurations - information about some other quality initiatives&brainstorming pages
We need to be very careful here. When we make a public announcement, we potentially have millions of people hearing about this -- if we play our cards right, this could lead to lots of new developers & ideas. But we should only do this when the extension is stable enough to use "as is". So I agree with a slightly more systematic closed testing phase over the next couple of weeks or so, preferably in an environment that is not officially connected to the Wikimedia Foundation.