Hi Andre,
On Tue, Sep 25, 2012 at 12:45 PM, Andre Koopal andre@molens.org wrote:
I think we should help DaB to make a case why toolserver is important. We should list the projects depending on toolserver and how, and all the other things that are important. What I can quickly think of:
- Wiki Loves Monuments: All the tooling around this really need toolserver.
- Commons: commons has a lot of toolserver tools more or less integrated in the interface, and there are supporttools running.
- GLAM: a lot of glam-related work is done on toolservers
- small tools for wiki support: all the bots archiving talkpages, create administrative pages automatically etc, etc ...
- steward support: There are a lot of tools (also used generally) that really make cross-wiki abuse detection and other stewardwork much easier.
With a document like that we can make a stronger case for WMDE to reserve budget, or have them apply for a separate grant to the foundation.
Thanks for this constructive approach. I believe this would be indeed the best way to go forward on this issue and would help the General Assembly of Wikimedia Deutschland make the right decision about this. As Pavel has stated before, there is no plan to abandon the toolserver, and all necessary investments will be made to make sure that it actually performs at least as well as it has until now until Labs becomes a suitable replacement. However, we can't at this stage enter in expensive improvements, because Labs is, in the short to mid-run, destined to replace the "toolserver as you know it" completely. It falls under the attributions of the Foundation, as hosting provider of the Wikimedia Projects, to provide authors, developers and contributors with the technical tools they need to make their work easier. As Pavel states, we are also looking at the idea of maybe making improvements that can then be handed over to Labs. Note that this might be complicated, as this would mean buying hardware in Europe that would then somehow have to be administrated from the US, so we are not sure what such a scenario might look like and if it is feasible at all.
I hope you can find support for writing up this document and we welcome your input of what is needed to ease the transition into the year 2013. You all might want to make sure that you reach out also to the Foundation to explain what is needed for Labs to take over smoothly.
Best regards,
Delphine