Hello, Thanks to Lukasz & the SRE team for the date change and softening the plan for what will happen at the target date.
I would suggest that the applicable engineering team(s) consult the Movement Communications Team <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Foundation/Communications/Movement_Communications> regarding the communications plan. In the bigger picture, I'm concerned that detailed thought about communications may have been missed before making an announcement that amounts to a "breaking change" in the sense of potentially impacting other teams' and volunteers' plans. I would suggest that, if WMF doesn't already have a documented guideline or standard of practice for when to develop a formal communications plan & when to consult the Movement Comms team, that such documentation be created. Optionally, the document could be written as a learning pattern <https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Learning_patterns>. Thanks, Pine🌲 On Wed, Feb 11, 2026 at 7:37 AM Travis Briggs via Wikitech-l < [email protected]> wrote: > Thanks Lukasz! An April 30th deadline sounds much more reasonable. I would > also suggest being flexible to extend it further based on needs expressed > by the community in response to posting notices wider. > > As mentioned, I posted on the Phabricator task ( > https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T415237) with a suggested notice to > send to non-technical editors: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Etherpad#Etherpad_wipe/deletion/clean_slate_proposal > > At this point, anyone who is interested in helping work on the wording of > that notice should feel free. I would also welcome suggestions on where the > "canonical" version of the notice should live, though I think the current > talk page for the Etherpad instance itself isn't too awful. > > Additionally, ideas, on specific email lists and wiki pages to notify and > link to the notice, are very welcome! > > Thanks, > -Travis > > On Wed, Feb 11, 2026 at 5:00 AM Lukasz Sobanski via Wikitech-l < > [email protected]> wrote: > >> Hi, >> >> Speaking on behalf of the SRE team that owns Etherpad I wanted to chime >> in here. >> >> The arguments for extending the deadline and broader communication are >> reasonable. >> - We can extend the deadline to April 30th, if there are still migration >> projects in progress at that point then we can revisit the date on a case >> by case basis. >> - I will follow up internally to identify the right groups to notify, if >> you have suggestions please send them directly to me (I already saw a >> proposed posting on a Village Pump in the related Phabricator task). >> >> I also agree that any planned future clean up should be communicated in >> advance. >> >> As for backing up information, after identifying the pads they can be >> exported in txt or html using appropriate public endpoints: >> - http://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/<pad_title>/export/txt >> - http://etherpad.wikimedia.org/p/<pad_title>/export/html >> >> On Wed, Feb 11, 2026 at 10:57 AM Strainu via Wikitech-l < >> [email protected]> wrote: >> >>> Hello Jetlo, >>> >>> I want to support the idea expressed by my fellow volunteers that this >>> decision does not adequately support the community's use-cases. I fully >>> understand that Etherpad was designed as a temporary collaboration tool, >>> but: >>> * it is not only used by the tech community, so such an announcement >>> *must* go out as widely as possible, especially on the lists dedicated >>> to conference organizers and wikimedia-l >>> * *17 days is not enough* heads up for the community to organize and >>> sort/backup decades of meeting minutes. I believe that for the first >>> cleanup, *3 months* would a more realistic timeline >>> * future purges should also have a *predictable schedule and be >>> announced* at least a month in advance, to allow people to save their >>> work >>> >>> I hope your team will reconsider their decision to cater for the needs >>> of the wider community. >>> >>> Best, >>> Strainu >>> >>> În mar., 10 feb. 2026 la 14:57, Jelto Wodstrcil via Wikitech-l < >>> [email protected]> a scris: >>> >>>> Hello everyone >>>> >>>> If you don't use etherpad, you can ignore this message. >>>> >>>> We will *delete all pads after 1st March 2026*! If you need any of >>>> your pads, please make a local backup. We will not be able to recover the >>>> data after 1st March. >>>> >>>> The pad cleanup helps to reduce the size of the database and the >>>> footprint on our infrastructure. After the cleanup, etherpad can still be >>>> used for real-time collaboration but please do not expect long term >>>> storage. Additional cleanups might happen after that unannounced. >>>> >>>> See also https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T415237 for >>>> more information. >>>> >>>> Greetings and thank you >>>> >>>> Jelto >>>> >>>> _______________________________________________ >>>> Wikitech-l mailing list -- [email protected] >>>> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] >>>> >>>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/wikitech-l.lists.wikimedia.org/ >>> >>> _______________________________________________ >>> Wikitech-l mailing list -- [email protected] >>> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] >>> >>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/wikitech-l.lists.wikimedia.org/ >> >> >> >> -- >> Lukasz >> _______________________________________________ >> Wikitech-l mailing list -- [email protected] >> To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] >> >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/wikitech-l.lists.wikimedia.org/ > > _______________________________________________ > Wikitech-l mailing list -- [email protected] > To unsubscribe send an email to [email protected] > https://lists.wikimedia.org/postorius/lists/wikitech-l.lists.wikimedia.org/
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