Re: [Toolserver-l] Toolserver user phe account expired

On 21 May 2012 23:52, Lars Aronsson <lars(a)aronsson.se> wrote: This madness has to stop. Wikis should stop depending on services that are not hosted in multi-maintainer projects! Okay, I can understand that wikis do not care about Toolserver internal procedures. I think there are several improvements we can make - I've listed my thoughts below. The main problem: tools are disappearing and users of the tools get annoyed by that. There are two directions of improvement on that: a) make sure the tools do not disappear b) make sure users know tools can disappear suddenly How do we make sure tools do not disappear? By making multi-maintainer projects for them. However, we see that this doesn't happen enough - see also the thread about the expiration of soxred93's account. Options for improvement: - better communication with wikis - which tools are used a lot and *thus* should be moved to mmp's? - easier creation of mmp's? I can imaging people don't move their tools because it takes time to organise everything. - 'barnstars' - mmp's are awesome, because you're improving the TS and improving the user experience by moving your tools to an mmp. People should be praised for moving their tools! - Actively checking for links to the toolserver from wiki's (we have the DB - it's a trivial query!) to non-mmp-tools, and actively communicating that non-mmp-tools that are linked to a lot should move. - ... How can we make sure users know tools can disappear suddenly? Effectively, all tools /not/ in mmp's are in continuous alpha stage: they can disappear at /any/ stage. However, we are not communicating this to users. Options for improvement: - More explicit communication that all tools can disappear suddenly /unless/ noted otherwise - combined with having a 'stable project' note on all mmp's - Re-introduction of the stable.toolserver.org domain - or possibly changing the naming scheme to 'unstable.toolserver.org' for all general tools and 'mmp-name.toolserver.org' for mmp tools. + bonus: a more awesome domain name might persuade more people to move their tools - A big fat banner "THIS TOOL IS UNSTABLE AND CAN DISAPPEAR AT ANY TIME" above every non-mmp-tool. - ... In general, let's see how we can improve this situation. I think it's certainly not 'beyond repair' or 'unproper', but I do think there is room for improvement. Best, Merlijn