On Tue, Sep 25, 2012 at 11:10:13AM +0200, Platonides wrote:
> On 25/09/12 00:51, DaB. wrote:
> > Hello all,
> > 
> > in these days WMDE (the chapter that finance the toolserver) is discussing 
> > the 
> > budget for the next year (2013); you can find it at [1]. At the moment 
> > there is 
> > no money for new toolserver-hardware in this budget and the CEO Pavel 
> > Richter 
> > is unwilling to change this ([2] in german) – because he fears that there 
> > will 
> > be a Wikilabs in 2014. It is not possible for me to run the toolserver for 
> > another year with the current hardware – you all know why. For this reason 
> > I 
> > will request a change of the budget at the general meeting at November, so 
> > there will be a vote about. If this vote should fail (and we get no money 
> > for 
> > new hardware), I am going to retire from my job as root at 30. December 
> > 2012.
> > I'm not longer able to tolerant the behavior of the german chapter and the 
> > WMF 
> > in matter of the toolserver; I do this for free and for fun, and it is not 
> > longer fun.
> > 
> > Sincerely,
> > DaB.
> 
> 
> So, out of fear that there may be a better alternative in two years
> time, he decides to stop supporting it now?
> 
> I know labs, and I'm not sure it will really be a better alternative.
> Currently, it isn't. The toolserver is much more reliable and flexible.
> I don't think labs will "win" in the near future, either. Although it
> might change in two years. Specially if no attention is payed to the
> toolserver for that time.
> 
> I see two big problems:
> 1) If labs really becomes the "perfect tool hosting" in 2014, What
> happens before we reach that? "Yes, your tool doesn't work, migrate to
> labs next year"
> 
> 2) We risk ending up with no good alternative at that time. labs is
> still not good enough, toolserver has degraded so much it's unusable.
> 
> 
> 
> Not to mention the migration cost that would need to be payed by tool
> authors if forced to move. Although perhaps he doesn't care.

I think we should help DaB to make a case why toolserver is important. We
should list the projects depending on toolserver and how, and all the other
things that are important. What I can quickly think of:

- Wiki Loves Monuments: All the tooling around this really need toolserver.
- Commons: commons has a lot of toolserver tools more or less integrated
  in the interface, and there are supporttools running.
- GLAM: a lot of glam-related work is done on toolservers
- small tools for wiki support: all the bots archiving talkpages, create
  administrative pages automatically etc, etc ...
- steward support: There are a lot of tools (also used generally) that really
  make cross-wiki abuse detection and other stewardwork much easier.

With a document like that we can make a stronger case for WMDE to reserve
budget, or have them apply for a separate grant to the foundation.

Regards,

Andre

> > P.S: If you are in a board of a chapter that gives money to WMDE for the 
> > toolserver: Make sure that it will be spend for hardware. 
> > 
> > [1] 
> > http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Deutschland/2013_annual_plan_draft/en
> > [2] 
> > meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Wikimedia_Deutschland/2013_annual_plan_draft/de#Toolserver
> > 
> > 
> > 
> > 
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