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

[Andrew Gray]

Mediawiki is indeed the most versatile platform, but that just means
it's okay at most things. It doesn't mean it's better than other
platforms explicitly designed for a particular job ;-)

I'd prefer self-hosting on general principle, but if our operations
people say it's better and more stable hosted elsewhere - and
presumably they have - then fair enough.

Andrew.

On 5 September 2013 18:29, 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.
>
> 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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-- 
- Andrew Gray
  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk