On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 7:02 AM, Tyler Romeo tylerromeo@gmail.com wrote:
You can count me in as interested. I can't add my name on my own, though, since I'm IP blocked from editing on WMF wikis.
Please request an IP exemption.
Hi, following the process for requesting the creation of a MediaWiki group, here is a proposal for
MediaWiki Group Bug Squad http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Groups/Proposals/Bug_Squad
Your endorsements, improvements and feedback are welcome at the wiki page.
To create a bug squad is a nice idea, and, as a volunteer active on Bugzilla, of course, I'm interested.
To create a MediaWiki Group Bug Squad is something else.
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First, I would like we clarify the matter a little bit.
"MediaWiki groups organize open source community activities within the scope of specific topics and geographical areas. They are Wikimedia User Groups that agree on a level of coordination in the MediaWiki context. As such, they extend the capacity of the Wikimedia Foundation in events, training, promotion and other technical activities benefiting Wikipedia, the Wikimedia movement and the MediaWiki software."
AND
"Wikimedia User Groups are groups of Wikimedians who intend to do offline work that could range from meetups to partnerships to any new and novel way the group comes up with to further the Wikimedia vision. The requirements to set up an officially recognized user group are meant to be light-weight and easy to follow.".
A promotion group makes sense: it handles tasks offline, in conferences for example. It needs funding and to convey the Wikimedia brands.
I would like to understand how a bug resolution group enters in the Affiliations Committee scope.
More specifically, I would like elements we noted in our own MediaWiki list.
(1) You want to have an identity as a group within the MediaWiki community and the Wikimedia movement.
Why do we want that? How resolve bug is the bug squad scope would be different than for example submit code to fix a bug? What we want to achieve?
(2) You want to reach out to people interested in MediaWiki and the software powering Wikipedia in a specific area.
Please give a sample of a bug specific outreach activity.
(3) You want to have officially recognized MediaWiki channels like a mailing list, a microblogging user account...
We already have a lot of channels. Instead to create another one, to use #wikimedia-dev could work (it worked for previous bug squads meetings).
And nobody is suggesting a bug resolution team need to be a formal approved group to get a mailing list (see bureaucratif cost below)?
(4) You want to organize technical activities under the name of MediaWiki, Wikimedia or related projects like Wikipedia.
What kind of offline activites do we want to plan?
(5) You want to obtain funding from the Wikimedia Foundation or a Wikimedia chapter.
What kind of budget to we need? To what goals?
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Then, I would like we think about cost/benefits.
Bug resolution is a core function of a software. To transform the bug resolution operations into - potentially - a bureaucratic leviathan isn't something I'm comfortable with.
This is a dangerous precedents to a bureaucratization of our fundamental processes. A group should be about a vision. My vision of this proposal is I clearly see this proposal as the first step in a path who will lead to a road, where we will ask new contributors to sign request CLA with copyright transfer to the Wikimedia Fundation.
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Sure, we would have stronger possibilities with all that, but we're speaking about resolving bugs. Couldn't we instead have a meeting on #wikimedia-dev, drafts our idea on http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Project:WikiProject_Bug_Squad pages and start our bug resolution activites?