[Wikimedia-l] Wikimedia blog moving to WordPress.com

[Theo10011]

On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 10:26 PM, Lodewijk <lodewijk at effeietsanders.org>wrote:

> This was definitely mentioned at Wikimania. What I understood is that it
> will be hosted externally for performance and reliability reasons, but that
> the rest should remain the same.
>

So, A blog for one of the top 10 websites in the world is being hosted
externally "for performance and reliability"? - That doesn't sound right.
Maybe Mr. Roth & friends can clarify a bit here.

Blogs generally don't require a lot of resources, aside from some comment
oversight. But it's not like there is a deluge of comments or moderation
required in the current blog - they average about 1, maybe 2 comments and
from my impression, don't particularly have a high number of regular
followers.

This seems like something trivial, perhaps because of familiarity with
Wordpress, it is being preferred in this case. But then, why are we
willingly and so easily handing the visitors to a third party? especially
with so much paranoia about monitoring and privacy issues. Even for the
sake of our own impression and opinions - Is there a particular role there
that Mediawiki can't fill in? (I recall Erik once argued that wiki is the
most versatile platform, does he believe that Wordpress is a better
alternative? )

Regards
Theo


>
> Anyway, I'm not an expert here, just what I understood from Matthew Roth &
> friends
>
> Lodewijk
>
>
> 2013/9/5 Richard Symonds <richard.symonds at wikimedia.org.uk>
>
> > This is being discussed on-wiki too, at
> >
> >
> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Privacy_policy#Blog_not_hosted_by_WordPress.3F
> > .
> >
> > Richard Symonds
> > Wikimedia UK
> > 0207 065 0992
> >
> > Wikimedia UK is a Company Limited by Guarantee registered in England and
> > Wales, Registered No. 6741827. Registered Charity No.1144513. Registered
> > Office 4th Floor, Development House, 56-64 Leonard Street, London EC2A
> 4LT.
> > United Kingdom. Wikimedia UK is the UK chapter of a global Wikimedia
> > movement. The Wikimedia projects are run by the Wikimedia Foundation (who
> > operate Wikipedia, amongst other projects).
> >
> > *Wikimedia UK is an independent non-profit charity with no legal control
> > over Wikipedia nor responsibility for its contents.*
> >
> >
> > On 5 September 2013 14:00, Neil Harris <neil at tonal.clara.co.uk> wrote:
> >
> > > On 05/09/13 13:37, MZMcBride wrote:
> > >
> > >> Hi.
> > >>
> > >> The recent draft privacy policy mentions that the Wikimedia blog
> > >> (<https://blog.wikimedia.org>) will soon be hosted by WordPress.com.
> > >>
> > >> Was this discussed anywhere? If so, where?
> > >>
> > >> What is the proposed URL structure of a blog hosted by WordPress.com?
> I
> > >> think there's a reasonable expectation that when a user visits
> > >> *.wikimedia.org, we don't simply send his or her browser info to a
> > third
> > >> party without his or her consent. This has come up previously with
> > Jobvite
> > >> and iframes. It's also come up with the use of tracking tools such as
> > >> Google Analytics, which not only affect one-time visitors, but aim to
> > >> persist client-side.
> > >>
> > >> How will the blog be backed up? Relying on an external service means
> not
> > >> being in control of the data. Will there be regular backups made to
> > ensure
> > >> that if WordPress.com goes away, we won't lose all of our posts?
> > >>
> > >> MZMcBride
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > >>
> > > I agree: this does seem to be a curious decision, at odds with the
> WMF's
> > > general policy of self-hosting as much as possible in order to maintain
> > > maximum independence from outside entities, particularly in the context
> > of
> > > the recent concerns about privacy. I would have thought that
> maintaining
> > a
> > > WordPress installation would be well within the WMF's capabilities.
> > >
> > > Neil
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
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