Wikimedia Deutschland contracted River Tarnell to look after the Toolserver, starting February 1. As you probably know, River has been an integral part of the Toolserver team from the very beginning, and has done a great job as a volunteer. However, when doing system administration in your spare time, the more annoying jobs tend to be left – which may lead to unpleasantness or even downtime every now and then. A fixed number of hours dedicated to the toolserver and a protocol for emergency situations will now help us to get the Toolserver’s availability to at least 99%.
Contracting a payed admin should also benefit the other Toolserver administrators, as they can now rely on River to look after the every day operations and to coordinate further administration work. Volunteer work will of course remain an essential component in the operation of the Toolserver, as is the case with all Wikimedia projects.
Wikimedia Deutschland wants to thank everyone who works on the toolserver, all admins and users, for their great contributions. We look forward to a future of even greater success of the Tooserver project!
-- daniel