Forum:New wiki farm
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OK so this isn't necessarily Orain-related but I thought I would start a new, secondary wiki farm called CentralWiki. It's to gather extra space if Orain doesn't work, then some users can move their wikis to this farm; of course you could still use Orain expanded but CW might help with a large number of wikis. So I was just wanting to see if any current Orain users would like to help with this. Tau Ceti (talk) 00:23, 14 January 2015 (GMT)
- I'm not sure why you're under the impression Orain won't "work". Our funding campaign is going great, and I've already made a personal pledge to keep Orain alive indefinitely. How about you made a donation instead of creating a new farm to help us stay alive, and online? :) Dusti*Let's talk!* 01:52, 14 January 2015 (GMT)
- Not that Orain is not working, I just thought that as we have limited staff and limited wiki resources, that CW could help as a sort of fork; besides this is a good project and I want to see if anyone wanted to help. Tau Ceti (talk) 06:13, 14 January 2015 (GMT)
- Limited staff? Ish. We're always looking for more help. Limited resources? Not at all, that's why we're actually expanding our servers. The best way to help isn't to fork off, but to offer your help and services here. Why not offer to be a global sysop or make a donation to help out our resource costs. Running a farm is labour intensive and very few realize that. My suggestion is to try and help us, not compete with us. Dusti*Let's talk!* 06:18, 14 January 2015 (GMT)
- Limited staff? Sometimes help comes when you least expect it. :) Kudu ~I/O~ 22:57, 15 January 2015 (GMT)
- Not that Orain is not working, I just thought that as we have limited staff and limited wiki resources, that CW could help as a sort of fork; besides this is a good project and I want to see if anyone wanted to help. Tau Ceti (talk) 06:13, 14 January 2015 (GMT)
- Then it's surely possible that I could offer to help here. It's not competition, but I think I might offer to be as global sysop. How does it work? Tau Ceti (talk) 09:47, 14 January 2015 (GMT)
- You'd join the other global sysop's in fighting spam. Here's where you apply and the community voices their opinion. Dusti*Let's talk!* 14:50, 14 January 2015 (GMT)
I can set up wikis for you at the Krasnaya Security wiki farm. Inquisitor S., Großmeister des Ordo Malleus 04:39, 15 January 2015 (GMT)
User:Dusti. It is not clear to many people about the status of Orain. Anybody paying any attention at all to wiki farms the last few years knows they come and go. I think the donations page should also discuss donations of time. I think there needs to be one central donation/volunteer page where everything branches off from. Link to the technical page from the donation/volunteer page. Consolidate the description of your server setup and its nature on the technical page. Is it possible to put the donation/volunteer link in the sidebar of all pages on all wikis? I see such wiki-farm-wide sidebar link sections on another wiki farm that shall remain nameless. :) --Timeshifter (talk) 16:41, 15 January 2015 (GMT)
- Our status is secure, and always has been. The urgency of the messages were reflecting how much time we had left if everyone stopped donating right away. I made a pledge (and I'll have to find it) where I would use my own funds to keep Orain alive. It's around here somewhere, signed, sealed, and for public scrutiny. @Timeshifter: you're more than welcome to help improve things. We're community based. Everyone here is just as important as the next person. You own Orain. Inquisitor S. Kamenev owns Orain. This talk about going somewhere else or starting up your own farm sounds easy and simple, but it's hard. We're the only farm on the internet that's owned by the community, runs for the community, that's free, offers SSL, and is ad-free. I think that's pretty amazing, don't you? If you see something that you'd like changed, do it! If you think that doing this on page A would make it look better - do it! This is your home. Be bold - take a chance and help make Orain a little bit better for the next person :) Dusti*Let's talk!* 16:48, 15 January 2015 (GMT)
- User:Dusti. (I did not know of this ping function on wikis until recently). I do help out when I can. I helped create the forum templates, categories, etc. here and on another wiki farm. Actually, I helped hacked them together better from looking at how they were used elsewhere. I did not create the extension. I don't understand higher end programming, etc..
- But I can not do some things such as site-wide sidebar links and banners that cross all the wikis. If you create the central donation/volunteer link in the sidebar on all wikis, I and others can help populate that page with links in the "see also" section to all the relevant pages explaining how people can help on the funding side, the tech/server side, sysops, admins, bureaucrats, stewards, etc., etc.. Most importantly people can get status reports on that one page explaining (or pointing to the relevant pages) concerning the health of the wiki farm. It looks like Orain is good for at least one year with the latest recent donations. I now feel confident for the first time that my pages (if I create any) will stay up. That is a wonderful feeling. :) I had only been experimenting and setting up framework categories, etc. on my wiki until now due to my lack of knowledge on the status of Orain. Now it looks good.
- Please see also: tech:Category talk:Servers. --Timeshifter (talk) 17:20, 15 January 2015 (GMT)
- The fear of Orain going offline in the future and resulting in hundreds, if not thousands, of contributors losing their work is completely understandable. While Orain itself is far from shutting down, the greater MediaWiki community has suffered through the loss of a large farm and multiple technical failures at others, resulting in the irreversible loss of content. Looking at the reasons past farms have shut down, the biggest cause seems to be the lack of funds and technical expertise, with funds playing the bigger role. In terms of funding, Orain is doing fairly well, despite being one of the few farms that don't display ads (thanks to our awesome community). There's also no lack of technical expertise at Orain, although I must admit having more volunteers is always helpful. Overall, I'm happy to report that Orain is fully capable of running itself and is in no danger of shutting down. If anyone has any questions or comments, feel free to post them and I'll be happy to provide clarification. Timtalk 18:05, 15 January 2015 (GMT)
- Wiki members can use various backup methods for their content. There's a Python program that dumps wiki pages; I don't know if it works with the API disabled. For virtually all small wikis, probably easily up to 1,000 pages, one can use a method I created at Wikkii where all pages are part of a category that can be exported, just the most current revision. If we show people how to make backups, that should reduce any apprehension. Inquisitor S., Großmeister des Ordo Malleus 19:14, 15 January 2015 (GMT)
- The fear of Orain going offline in the future and resulting in hundreds, if not thousands, of contributors losing their work is completely understandable. While Orain itself is far from shutting down, the greater MediaWiki community has suffered through the loss of a large farm and multiple technical failures at others, resulting in the irreversible loss of content. Looking at the reasons past farms have shut down, the biggest cause seems to be the lack of funds and technical expertise, with funds playing the bigger role. In terms of funding, Orain is doing fairly well, despite being one of the few farms that don't display ads (thanks to our awesome community). There's also no lack of technical expertise at Orain, although I must admit having more volunteers is always helpful. Overall, I'm happy to report that Orain is fully capable of running itself and is in no danger of shutting down. If anyone has any questions or comments, feel free to post them and I'll be happy to provide clarification. Timtalk 18:05, 15 January 2015 (GMT)
- Please see also: tech:Category talk:Servers. --Timeshifter (talk) 17:20, 15 January 2015 (GMT)