Hi all,
Me again, bear with me...
I emailed the list a while back about the IT Development pages, the issues
with the Wiki etc. - I've seen today a number of edits (e.g.
https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Special:Diff/82820) which attempt to
potentially explain the changes, but fall a bit short, as I initially
suggested here (
https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Special:Diff/82828).
I've attempted to fix some of the bigger issues with the wiki (
https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Engine_room#Recent_changes_to_MediaWiki_names…),
but a lot boils down to the fact you're using a very old, insecure version
of MediaWiki and PHP (
https://wikimedia.org.uk/wiki/Engine_room#Installed_versions_of_MediaWiki_a…
).
In regards to my comments about approaching the WMF to host the Wiki, I had
this task pointed out to me (
https://phabricator.wikimedia.org/T58938)
which I found odd, especially some of the comments by your volunteers.
I do not understand why Wikimedia UK migrated from a free, secure, managed
MediaWiki installation to a VPS which I assume is either donated or is
costing the charity money, and which isn't kept up to date?
This doesn't strike me as an effective use of charity funds and volunteer
time, and has unfortunately resulted in a MediaWiki install which is
outdated and insecure (see CVE-2019-12468
<https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2019-12468> as just one example of an
exploit against the currently installed version).
As the UK chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation, running this MediaWiki
installation is likely to "negatively impact the work or image of the
Foundation" if exploited. Could someone please help me in understanding the
decisions which led to moving away from the WMF infrastructure? Was there a
conflict of mission?
I appreciate I am "causing waves" here, and I *honestly don't want to be* -
Wikimedia UK has been a charity I've supported for quite some time, you do
great work and I thank you for your commitment to open access to knowledge!
How can we work together to resolve this? I'm fairly available this week
and would be more than happy to chat with someone about how we can fix this.
Kind regards,
*Sam*