On 21 May 2012 23:52, Lars Aronsson <[email protected]> wrote:
> This madness has to stop. Wikisource depends on this service.
> I understand the German toolserver is beyond repair, but
> phe's statistics scripts should be moved to proper WMF servers.
This madness has to stop. Wikis should stop depending on services that
are not hosted in multi-maintainer projects!
Okay, I can understand that wikis do not care about Toolserver
internal procedures. I think there are several improvements we can
make - I've listed my thoughts below.
The main problem: tools are disappearing and users of the tools get
annoyed by that. There are two directions of improvement on that:
a) make sure the tools do not disappear
b) make sure users know tools can disappear suddenly
How do we make sure tools do not disappear? By making multi-maintainer
projects for them. However, we see that this doesn't happen enough -
see also the thread about the expiration of soxred93's account.
Options for improvement:
- better communication with wikis - which tools are used a lot and
*thus* should be moved to mmp's?
- easier creation of mmp's? I can imaging people don't move their
tools because it takes time to organise everything.
- 'barnstars' - mmp's are awesome, because you're improving the TS
and improving the user experience by moving your tools to an mmp.
People should be praised for moving their tools!
- Actively checking for links to the toolserver from wiki's (we have
the DB - it's a trivial query!) to non-mmp-tools, and actively
communicating that non-mmp-tools that are linked to a lot should move.
- ...
How can we make sure users know tools can disappear suddenly?
Effectively, all tools /not/ in mmp's are in continuous alpha stage:
they can disappear at /any/ stage. However, we are not communicating
this to users.
Options for improvement:
- More explicit communication that all tools can disappear suddenly
/unless/ noted otherwise - combined with having a 'stable project'
note on all mmp's
- Re-introduction of the stable.toolserver.org domain - or possibly
changing the naming scheme to 'unstable.toolserver.org' for all
general tools and 'mmp-name.toolserver.org' for mmp tools.
+ bonus: a more awesome domain name might persuade more people
to move their tools
- A big fat banner "THIS TOOL IS UNSTABLE AND CAN DISAPPEAR AT ANY
TIME" above every non-mmp-tool.
- ...
In general, let's see how we can improve this situation. I think it's
certainly not 'beyond repair' or 'unproper', but I do think there is
room for improvement.
Best,
Merlijn
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