On 02/21/2013 07:19 AM, Mark A. Hershberger wrote:
Is there something else the MW release manager should be doing? Let me
know.
Is there anyone in the WMF who disagrees with this assessment? Now is
the time to speak up.
Ok, just a question as humble 3rd party MediaWiki user and technical
volunteer coordinator at the WMF: is there a possibility to consider
having a regular free software release process?
master/unstable ---> (testing releases?) ---> stable releases
Having English Wikipedia using whatever version they have the muscle to
pull and maintain, but moving them out of the very middle of the release
process.
Potential benefits?
* Not so direct connection between getting +2 rights and "breaking
Wikipedia", makes it easier to non-WMF contributors to work on non-WMF
priorities.
* MediaWiki development not so dependent from (English) Wikipedia
immediate needs, 3rd parties involved earlier in the testing process.
* Reduction of the risk of a mid-term fork, or abandonment of MediaWiki
out of Wikimedia projects.
Potential disadvantages?
* Changing the process takes work: inertia, resistance and actual changes.
* Perhaps WMF maintainers having to discuss and lobby more with the rest
to push / rush features into releases.
* Perhaps English Wikipedia having to wait some more weeks for certain
features.
I think the current process is ok-ish in the short term: non-WMF
contributors are getting +2 and 3rd parties are getting tarballs.
However, I'm more concerned about the mid term future of MediaWiki out
of the Wikimedia projects. And the complexity to maintain all this
software and this community all by ourselves as opposed of doing it as
part of a wider... ecosystem (I said it) including many 3rd party
professionals earning their salaries thanks to MediaWiki.
--
Quim Gil
Technical Contributor Coordinator @ Wikimedia Foundation
http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/User:Qgil
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