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