[Labs-l] We're coming out of beta - this means some changes are coming too (Labs-l Digest, Vol 9, Issue 2)

[Sumana Harihareswara]

On 09/05/2012 05:02 PM, Ryan Lane wrote:
> I plan on opening registration very soon, which means we'll be out of
> beta. This will happen within the next week.

\o/  This is great!

> In anticipation of this,
> we'll be making some changes:
> 
> 1. We're protecting some pages, like the Main Page
> 
> 2. We're changing the rights management so that we can give out wiki
> admin rights without giving away cloud admin rights
> 
> 3. We're adding an extra step to getting shell access. For a user to
> be added to any Labs project (which grants shell access in that
> project), the user will need to be a member of the "shell" group in
> the wiki. Only cloud admins can grant this privilege. We have a
> SemanticMediaWiki enabled process for handling shell access requests.
> It's possible to request shell access here:
> <https://labsconsole.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:FormEdit/Shell_Access_Request>.
> That form can also be found from the help contents. Note that everyone
> that currently has an account on labsconsole has already been granted
> this right.
> 
> - Ryan

I am one of the people who can create Labs accounts right now via
https://labsconsole.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:CreateAccount (which
redirects to
https://labsconsole.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:UserLogin/signup ).  It
will be very nice to not have to do that anymore. :)

Just want to double-check: Everyone still needs to give an "Instance
shell account name" when registering, right?  If so, it would probably
be good to mark it as required.  (The signup page ought to be consistent
in indicating what's required and/or what's optional, to avoid UX
confusion.)

This is a great step to make it easier for people to use Labs and to
comment on and submit patchsets in Gerrit!  Thanks, Ryan.

-- 
Sumana Harihareswara
Engineering Community Manager
Wikimedia Foundation