Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-10-17/Technology report

Saying that the Toolserver "saw its direct funding cut entirely" is a bit misleading. Wikimedia Germany continues to fund the Toolserver, and several chapters have agreed to chip in on hardware and maintenance cost. It is however true that the Foundation has made clear that it will no longer support the Toolserver financially. To put this in perspective, it should be considered that the Foundation only gave money for the Toolserver once, a single (but sizable and much appreciated) one-time grant.

The Foundation is supporting the Toolserver project by providing rack space, bandwidth and some admin time for hardware setup, etc. I expect that this will continue to be the case for at least another year or two. -- Daniel Kinzler (WMDE) (talk) 10:14, 18 October 2011 (UTC)


 * I've removed that phrase; it clearly doesn't summarize what has happened and is happening. Removal of the phrase doesn't affect the core of the discussion, which is that the toolserver depends on the German chapter for its existence, and that Foundation is now putting its efforts elsewhere. -- John Broughton (♫♫) 13:42, 18 October 2011 (UTC)
 * Thank you John. I meant there that the Toolserver is no longer going to receive monetary support from the Foundation (that obviously wasn't as clear as I intended: apologies).
 * I didn't actually know that the Foundation was providing (or did provide, or whatever) benefits in kind - but now I do :) - Jarry1250 [Weasel? Discuss.] 14:12, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

Wikipedia really did need a backup created in a region that isn't a nearly annual hurricane target. This is a good move. We should continue in this direction by hosting a copy in Boston somewhere. I'm sure a University would take us up on the offer, and having it in Boston is useful since so many academic institutions doing research on Wikipedia are located there. I wonder how long it would take to transfer a copy to a laptop by firewire. Probably faster than downloading it over the internet.  S ven M anguard  Wha?  11:48, 18 October 2011 (UTC)

The MediaWiki repository received its 100000th commit on 16 October. It was promptly declared "lame". Still an impressive number though. Reach Out to the Truth 18:03, 18 October 2011 (UTC)
 * It was lame because I'd called dibs on the 100000th commit months and months ago, but I ran out of time before having to catch my flight (see a flurry of commits in the 99970-99990 range from me). When I saw the 100000th commit was something so mundane and uninteresting, I called lame. I really should've put a pre-commit hook in place to keep anyone from stealing it from me ;-) ^demon[omg plz] 12:08, 22 October 2011 (UTC)
 * All good! Thumbs up. Wikipedia is far too valuable to ever be lost. We should have near "perfect" restore ability. Jason Quinn (talk) 13:54, 19 October 2011 (UTC)