I thought I did.  It must have slipped my mind.  I apologize.

 

From: xtools-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:xtools-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Sarah (SV)
Sent: Monday, September 07, 2015 4:58 PM
To: Discussion list for xTools <xtools@lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [xTools] Dropping xTools as a developer

 

Thank you for doing that. As a matter of interest, why didn't you tell me it was working for articles, even when I asked you (here and here) a few days ago?  Given that it was me who originally asked for it and contacted the developer, it's odd that you didn't mention it.

Sarah

 

On Mon, Sep 7, 2015 at 1:53 PM, Maximilian Doerr <maximilian.doerr@gmail.com> wrote:

Yes, I was the one who ported Wikihistory over and I am working on it as we speak.  I think I’m almost there.

 

From: xtools-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:xtools-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of Sarah (SV)
Sent: Monday, September 07, 2015 4:52 PM


To: Discussion list for xTools <xtools@lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [xTools] Dropping xTools as a developer

 

Eugene said he would get WikiHistory running for the English Wikipedia. Cyberpower, was it you who set it up for articles, or was that Eugene?

Sarah

 

On Mon, Sep 7, 2015 at 8:29 AM, Maximilian Doerr <maximilian.doerr@gmail.com> wrote:

YES, YES, YES.  Exactly.  I took xTools over 3 years ago because it was fun, and I had the time and resources to do it.  Kudpung, you fail to realize that when I took it over I had the resources to commit to it.  I singlehandedly moved the tools from toolserver to labs, which was no small task.  I single handedly have been keeping them running as best as I can until Hedonil came along.  In which case he rewrote everything, and made things impossible for me.  When I asked about the code, he disappeared leaving me in an impossible situation, I attempted to recruit more people, but that failed too.  Then you came along and kept pushing for an immediate where non-existed.  I no longer have any enthusiasm to maintain these tools.  I can try and get Wikihistory fully operational, but after that, I will no longer be maintaining the code for xTools.

 

From: xtools-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org [mailto:xtools-bounces@lists.wikimedia.org] On Behalf Of MusikAnimal
Sent: Monday, September 07, 2015 10:10 AM
To: Discussion list for xTools <xtools@lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [xTools] Dropping xTools as a developer

 

As far as I know the Germin WikIHistory tool only works on mainspace articles. Cyber ported this over to enwiki a while back, it's at http://tools.wmflabs.org/xtools/wikihistory/

 

We've been using SIgma's tool as an alternative, as it supports all namespaces, but it appears all of sigma's tools are down at the moment.

Frankly, other than the article info (revision history) tool, xtools is not in terrible shape. The service goes down every so often, but a simple restart does the trick. I've talked to the labs folks about getting our nifty bash scripts back up to do that job for us, and I can try to focus on that in the near future. Sometimes I doubt we should bother with a rewrite. It's a lot of work and I get the hunch none of us really want to do it.

That being said, I'm actively having fun developing my own suite of tools, beginning with a non-automated edit counter. From there I look forward to creating similar tools to what we already enjoy with other tools, but I'm just doing it again both for fun and to offer an additional line of services in the event the others go down. Working on xtools should be no different, in that you should be having fun doing it. Any added pressure to get things done compromises this important aspect. If you are unable to fulfill a deadline you made, oh well. The only situation where unfulfilled volunteer work should truly matter is where it was court-ordered.

 

On 7 September 2015 at 02:07, Sarah (SV) <slimvirgin@gmail.com> wrote:

Sorry, I wrote that we need article histories, but I meant page histories.

 

On Sun, Sep 6, 2015 at 11:06 PM, Sarah (SV) <slimvirgin@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi everyone,

I joined this list not long ago in the hope of finding out what progress has been made. My problem is that I have no technical skills, so I can't help with this, don't know how much time is involved, and can't find out why the tools suddenly stopped working. Or why Wikimedia Labs is so often unreachable.

As Chris says, we really need some of these tools, in particular article histories. Is there anyone on this list who is willing to make WikiHistory work? It currently works for articles only. Eugene said he would carry it over from the German Wikipedia, but I don't know what happened.

WikiHistory looks good and is very stable on the German WP, so that seems like something worth working on.

Sarah

 

On Sun, Sep 6, 2015 at 10:22 PM, Chris <cs@edubkk.org> wrote:

As we appear to be throwing around with accusaions here - or trying to feel accused, I want out that part of the dilemma is directly attributed to users who in their enthusiasm to be helpful took on more than they had time and/or knowledge to fulfil. In any volunteer community this always ends badly. The moral of the story is: Don’t say you will if there’s a likelyhood you can’t, and if later you can’t, tell us so and don’t string us along with excuses however valid they may be.

 

The problem we are faced with right now is that time has run out and there is no time left for people to learn php or Python while they address these 2-year-old problems; what we need from among our 22 million registered accounts are two or three people who speak php and Python as fluently as I speak English, French, and German.

 

I am not a code writer. Belive me when I say that if I were, I’d be doing it all myself. I am one of the regular users of these tools and I can assure you all that they are not some little gimmicks for the curiosity of newbies.  They are essential for example, for providing statistics to back up proposals for implementing serious measures to combat some of the worst things that happen on Wikipedia. Or perhaps none of you are aware of Orangemoody, for example.

 

We Thank you all for the effort you have put into these issues.

 

I rest my case.

 

 

Kudpung

 

 

On 7Sep, 2015, at 10:18, L235 Wikipedia <l235@l235.net> wrote:

 

Respectfully, Kudpung, I agree with Cyberpower678 that your messages to this list have been less productive than they could have been. They have essentially been "the beatings will continue until morale improves"-style messages, and we all know how well those work out.

For the record, I have met all of my commitments to this project. I have continued to make one hour a week of my time available to this project, to do anything I see that I can do within the capabilities I specified by email to the list (sysadminning, making an effort to wrangle bugs, but not primary development). I have continued to study PHP a little. I made my limitations very, very clear before I was added as a maintainer of this project.

Wikipedia is not, should not be, and has never been our top priority. Each of us have our own career, our own boss (or instructor/professor/etc.), and our own social lives separate from Wikipedia. We are all volunteers. Although we should honor our commitments (to emphasize again, I did, and beyond – IRC/etc.), it is unreasonable to blame us for factors outside of our own control.

I recognize that xTools is vital to the project, and I have been making efforts (even studying PHP, basically from scratch) to try to fix it. Please feel free to send us messages describing the usage of this tool by the community, and you are more than welcome to start contributing directly (i.e. hack, code, sysadmin, etc.), but until you do, please don't try to supervise us. (Again, suggestions, reminders, etc., are appreciated regardless.)

I am trying to get in contact with Eugene to see if he can come back on the project.

Respectfully,
L235, in my role as a maintainer and sysadmin of xTools

Kudpung, I honestly felt like your badgering was more like pushing me around and demanding I do work on xTools in all off my free time.  I never said I had a bountiful amount of free time.  I've always asserted that I was missing the time needed to fully dedicate to the project, but I was also the only one doing something code related.  Now no one is.  I was never being dishonest about my lack of time.  If you really need someone who can truly dedicate the time, talk to Sigma.  From what I gather, he's more capable anyways.  Anyways, I'm now focusing my time clearing out the backlog over at bot requests, and maybe some RfC closures.

 

Cyberpower678

English Wikipedia Account Creation Team

Mailing List Moderator


On Sep 6, 2015, at 08:52, Chris <cs@edubkk.org> wrote:

" The first reason is that xTools requires a great deal of person's time which is something I'm lacking. “

 

This is really the only reason. I’ve been encouraging, then badgering, then badgering some more - but not bullying. And if we had had a clear and honest answer like this months ago perhaps we would have found the people we need.

 

Now, because of recent events, Wikipedia is in the shit, and we’re all up shit creek without a paddle and can’t do anything about it.

 

Kudpung

 

On 6Sep, 2015, at 19:45, Maximilian Doerr <maximilian.doerr@gmail.com> wrote:

 

 The first reason is that xTools requires a great deal of person's time which is something I'm lacking. 

 

_______________________________________________
Maintainers: Cyberpower678, Technical 13, MusikAnimal, Elee, Nakon, L235
xTools mailing list
xTools@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/xtools


_______________________________________________
Maintainers: Cyberpower678, Technical 13, MusikAnimal, Elee, Nakon, L235
xTools mailing list
xTools@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/xtools

_______________________________________________
Maintainers: Cyberpower678, Technical 13, MusikAnimal, Elee, Nakon, L235
xTools mailing list
xTools@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/xtools

 


_______________________________________________
Maintainers: Cyberpower678, Technical 13, MusikAnimal, Elee, Nakon, L235
xTools mailing list
xTools@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/xtools

 

 


_______________________________________________
Maintainers: Cyberpower678, Technical 13, MusikAnimal, Elee, Nakon, L235
xTools mailing list
xTools@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/xtools

 


_______________________________________________
Maintainers: Cyberpower678, Technical 13, MusikAnimal, Elee, Nakon, L235
xTools mailing list
xTools@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/xtools

 


_______________________________________________
Maintainers: Cyberpower678, Technical 13, MusikAnimal, Elee, Nakon, L235
xTools mailing list
xTools@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/xtools