254:: It is now possible to download Wikimedia dumps from more than one location; whereas before no list of download sites was offered, now users can select between downloading the dumps from WMF servers or from C3SL, an organisation supporting free software based in Brazil. Many no doubt hope that the arrangement will be the first of many such partnerships, enabling Wikimedia dumps – which include virtually all non-deleted revisions from Wikimedia wikis – to become sufficiently accessible and geographically diverse to survive natural and artificial disasters (
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Saying that the
Toolserver "saw its direct funding cut entirely" is a bit misleading. Wikimedia Germany continues to fund the Toolserver, and several chapters have agreed to chip in on hardware and maintenance cost. It is however true that the Foundation has made clear that it will no longer support
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Technology commentator MZMcBride welcomed the development, adding that
Kinzler's words were "much appreciated. I think we all look forward to a more stable Toolserver in the future". Nonetheless, some may be concerned that the development of an integrated "Wikimedia Labs", whilst undoubtedly able to
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Knowledge (XXG) really did need a backup created in a region that isn't a nearly annual hurricane target. This is a good move. We should continue in this direction by hosting a copy in Boston somewhere. I'm sure a
University would take us up on the offer, and having it in Boston is useful since so
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I've removed that phrase; it clearly doesn't summarize what has happened and is happening. Removal of the phrase doesn't affect the core of the discussion, which is that the toolserver depends on the German chapter for its existence, and that
Foundation is now putting its efforts elsewhere. --
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benefits the deployment has given to users of right-to-left (RTL) languages when it came to the central media repository
Wikimedia Commons. In unrelated news, User:Risker thanked developers, system administrators and other helpers for delivering 1.18 relatively smoothly
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because I'd called dibs on the 100000th commit months and months ago, but I ran out of time before having to catch my flight (see a flurry of commits in the 99970-99990 range from me). When I saw the 100000th commit was something so mundane and uninteresting, I called
244:, Vice President of the WMF Erik Möller appealed for more people to contribute to the MediaWiki.org resource pool. "If you have a little bit of time to spare, a nice community-building thing would be to feature events more prominently on MediaWiki.org", he wrote.
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Addressing the relatively high number of problems that have affected the
Wikimedia Deutschland–run Toolserver over the past month, WMDE software developer Daniel Kinzler has said that the chapter is now "getting a grip on the problem"
279:: A bug triage was held to help fix bugs with the current system for accepting donations; nine bugs were looked at, with comments taken on each. The next bug triage is going to be on October 19 and will focus on mobile-related bugs.
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Foundation is supporting the Toolserver project by providing rack space, bandwidth and some admin time for hardware setup, etc. I expect that this will continue to be the case for at least another year or two. --
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In the process, we'll create and improve documentation of the cluster, so it becomes easier for people with access but little knowledge (like myself) to fix things when they break.
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offer a richer set of features for tool developers, will crowd out the semi-independently run
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the
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how the WMF was backing its Wikimedia Labs project with some $ 1.5 million, far in excess of the operating costs of the Toolserver.
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I wonder how long it would take to transfer a copy to a laptop by firewire. Probably faster than downloading it over the internet.
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We will run a proper job offer for a paid toolserver admin. The idea is to eventually have two paid (part time) system admins.
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I didn't actually know that the Foundation was providing (or did provide, or whatever) benefits in kind - but now I do :) -
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Not all fixes may have gone live to WMF sites at the time of writing; some may not be scheduled to go live for many weeks.
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All good! Thumbs up. Knowledge (XXG) is far too valuable to ever be lost. We should have near "perfect" restore ability.
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Sebastian Sooth has taken charge of IT management at WMDE. He's way better at this stuff than me, so that will help.
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We will buy and install more storage. ... Expect this to take at least 8 weeks before we have everything installed.
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Meanwhile, we'll try to assess and fix any other issues that have piled up over the last couple of months.
285:: On the English Knowledge (XXG), seven bot tasks were approved for action this week, including a bot to
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Thank you John. I meant there that the Toolserver is no longer going to receive monetary support
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I really should've put a pre-commit hook in place to keep anyone from stealing it from me ;-)
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in SVG files now work much better than before. In other news, a brief post-1.18 bug (#
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WMDE renew investment in Toolserver, first offsite backup programme of Wikimedia begun
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on 16 October. It was promptly declared "lame". Still an impressive number though.
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many academic institutions doing research on Knowledge (XXG) are located there.
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18:Knowledge (XXG):Knowledge (XXG) Signpost
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