On 21 May 2012 23:52, Lars Aronsson <lars(a)aronsson.se> wrote:
This madness has to stop. Wikisource depends on this
service.
I understand the German toolserver is beyond repair, but
phe's statistics scripts should be moved to proper WMF servers.
This madness has to stop. Wikis should stop depending on services that
are not hosted in multi-maintainer projects!
Okay, I can understand that wikis do not care about Toolserver
internal procedures. I think there are several improvements we can
make - I've listed my thoughts below.
The main problem: tools are disappearing and users of the tools get
annoyed by that. There are two directions of improvement on that:
a) make sure the tools do not disappear
b) make sure users know tools can disappear suddenly
How do we make sure tools do not disappear? By making multi-maintainer
projects for them. However, we see that this doesn't happen enough -
see also the thread about the expiration of soxred93's account.
Options for improvement:
- better communication with wikis - which tools are used a lot and
*thus* should be moved to mmp's?
- easier creation of mmp's? I can imaging people don't move their
tools because it takes time to organise everything.
- 'barnstars' - mmp's are awesome, because you're improving the TS
and improving the user experience by moving your tools to an mmp.
People should be praised for moving their tools!
- Actively checking for links to the toolserver from wiki's (we have
the DB - it's a trivial query!) to non-mmp-tools, and actively
communicating that non-mmp-tools that are linked to a lot should move.
- ...
How can we make sure users know tools can disappear suddenly?
Effectively, all tools /not/ in mmp's are in continuous alpha stage:
they can disappear at /any/ stage. However, we are not communicating
this to users.
Options for improvement:
- More explicit communication that all tools can disappear suddenly
/unless/ noted otherwise - combined with having a 'stable project'
note on all mmp's
- Re-introduction of the
stable.toolserver.org domain - or possibly
changing the naming scheme to 'unstable.toolserver.org' for all
general tools and 'mmp-name.toolserver.org' for mmp tools.
+ bonus: a more awesome domain name might persuade more people
to move their tools
- A big fat banner "THIS TOOL IS UNSTABLE AND CAN DISAPPEAR AT ANY
TIME" above every non-mmp-tool.
- ...
In general, let's see how we can improve this situation. I think it's
certainly not 'beyond repair' or 'unproper', but I do think there is
room for improvement.
Best,
Merlijn