[Foundation-l] [Wikitech-l] We need to make it easy to fork and leave

[emijrp]

2011/8/14 Krinkle <krinklemail at gmail.com>

> Hi all,
>
> 've read most of the previous mails so far. I'd like to clear some
> confusion
> (just in case). Please do correct me if I'm wrong and got caught
> by the confusion myself:
>
> The thread is about one of the following:
> * .. the ability to clone a MediaWiki install and upload it to your own
> domain
> to continue making edits, writing articles etc.
>

Installing MediaWiki for you is easy for geeks. The only solution for
newbies is using wikifarms.


> * .. getting better dumps of Wikimedia wikis in particular (ie. Wikipedia)
>

A ten years old on-going task.


> * .. being able to install MediaWiki easier or even online (like new wikis
> on
> Wikia.com)
>

MediaWiki developers issue.


> * .. making it easy for developers to fork the MediaWiki source code
> repository.
>
>
Trivial. Any developer can set up a repository with a source code snapshot.


Gerard in the first post was speaking about 1) forks, 2) digital preserving

Forking single articles is easy, you just copy/paste (with histories you
have to use import/export). Forking a set of articles is just a bit more
difficult. Forking the whole Wikipedia is _hard_, you need a good
infrastructure and skills.

Digital preserving is a big problem in computer science. It is not solved
yet, but if you make backups frequently and in several places, you have a
high security to save the data.

To fork you need first the data being preserved, and this links with the
dumps generation problem above.

I think people is getting nervous with Wikipedia (and me too), in the same
way people is getting worried with Google having control of all your online
life (Gmail, Google Reader, Google Calendar, Google+, etc). If Google closes
your account, your online life vanishes. If Google dies, your online life
too. Of course you can export all your e-mail, contacts, etc, but you lose
the @gmail.com address, all links in search engines to your data is broken,
etc. Google has a good policy about exporting data, most Internet services
don't.

The mankind is compiling all human knowledge in an encyclopedia, which is
hosted in faulty metal plates spinning thousand times per minute, managed by
faulty humans and located only in one or two locations in the world
(Florida, the land of hurricanes and San Francisco, the land of
earthquakes).

Making fun of Wikipedia is so 2007. Playing with Wikipedia is so 2001.
Losing knowledge is so 48 BC. This is the most important mission human race
has ever achieve.

Regards,
emijrp

--
> Krinkle
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