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

Thu Sep 5 18:46:01 UTC 2013

On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 10:33 AM, Bence Damokos <bdamokos at gmail.com> wrote:

> As I understand  the blog is currently a self-hosted instance of Wordpress
> and the idea is to move the hosting to somewhere else.
> (So this is not MediaWiki vs. Wordpress, but self-hosting vs. not
> self-hosting)
>
>
Exactly!

> Best regards,
> Bence
>
>
> On Thu, Sep 5, 2013 at 7:29 PM, Theo10011 <de10011 at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > 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.
> >
>

I can chime in as a tech operations person (in my official capacity).
 Currently the blog is in a partially maintained by Operations state.  In
ops, we have a few concerns - #1 is security (exemplified by our recent
security incident) of having a wordpress instance in our production
environment.  #2 is support of the blog from a technical standpoint.  We
are currently all oversubscribed with trying to keep the production sites
up and speedy.  The blog is low priority for us compared to the wiki's, and
therefore is often neglected.  When we hire about 5 more ops people, it may
be more sustainable, but right now, it's not - so it would actually be a
net positive for the Operations team to move the blog onto a dedicated
third party, and will also hopefully prevent any future security incidents.

Leslie

> > 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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-- 
Leslie Carr
Wikimedia Foundation
AS 14907, 43821
http://as14907.peeringdb.com/