[Solved] Wiki Update?

[Bailey]

Hello,

 

I've been doing some research and just generally looking around and I have noticed that the wiki is wayyyyy out of date, I suspect it hasn't been updated since it was released in 2011... I know it's a lot of work but I think it would be recommended to update it, especially while it has so few articles.

 

Ref: https://m.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:Upgrading

 

And on the topic of updating, how out of date is this forum?

 

Edit: Looks like the forum hasn't been updated since 2012 😱 Ref: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Invision_Power_Board

 

Thanks,

Bailey

Edited October 14, 2017 by baileyjm

[miwilc]

Krydos said before that a wiki update was a low priority at the time.

[wolstech]

The forum actually cant be upgraded for a few reasons. First is the fact that the theme is entirely custom and would need to be rebuilt. Then theres the integrations and modifications for things like the email support forum, automatic account creation, etc. that need to be rewritten for compatibility with anything newer. Finally, I think our upgrade rights on our license may be expired (Krydos would know).

 

As for the wiki, yeah, it was asked about and is very low priority. We have tons of hosting features to work on, like RoR support that doesnt need ancient cPanel, java deployment tools, etc. The hosting service itself has to work and keep evolving so users keep signing up and donating. If it breaks, obsolesces, etc. then users go elsewhere.

 

Unlike server software (which has the entire web software industry pressuring upgrades), most users dont care if the forum and wiki are obseolete so long as theyre still serviceable. They arent broke, so at least to date, weve chosen not to fix them.

 

FWIW, the amount of work needed to upgrade the wiki may actually exceed that of just starting over and copy/pasting the articles in...

[Bailey]

Would I be able to upgrade the wiki for you because I don't mind and I understand that you Admins are busy with other more pressing matters?

[miwilc]

FWIW, the amount of work needed to upgrade the wiki may actually exceed that of just starting over and copy/pasting the articles in...

 

That's not a bad idea, actually, we could take raw backups of the pages and then create them manually.

 

 

Would I be able to upgrade the wiki for you because I don't mind and I understand that you Admins are busy with other more pressing matters?

 

Either that or we could just ask Krydos to backup the current wiki, remove it and install the latest mediawiki lts, create our accounts and then we can fill in the deleted pages.

[Bailey]

As for the wiki, yeah, it was asked about and is very low priority.

Thats why I offered to do it because it takes time away from the admins and they have other high priority things to do. Krydos probably has other things he wants to do and doesnt want to be updating the wiki.

[Bailey]

Can someone please escalate this so the root-admin can see and decide whether or not to allow me access.

 

Thanks,

Bailey

[Luigi123]

This support request is being escalated to our root admin.

[miwilc]

I don't encourage giving access to anyone, I recommend that one of the members of the existing moderation/admin team undertake this task in their free time.

 

We will need to arrange the planned downtime for the Wiki as well..

 

In any case this is my suggested plan:

 

[1] Take backup of current Wiki (incl. files) [Maybe host a copy of this elsewhere temporarily]

[2] Try to autoupgrade

[3] In the event of failure, remove the files&dB

[4] Install Mediawiki LTS

[5] Copy all existing posts

[6] Recreate user accounts

[Bailey]

@miwilc Im just trying to help make the wiki new, uptodate and clean, preferably mobile friendly and more secure but I dont want to give the job to the admins as

1) I know they are busy

2) They have more important things to do

Thats why Im willing to do it, Im just asking for permission and access.

 

There wont be a downtime, it will be uploaded (if allowed) at wiki1.helionet.com until it is complete and can be moved to wiki.helionet.com. When at wiki1 contributors will be allowed to make necessary edits before it goes live.

[wolstech]

Side by side should work just fine if Krydos says ok. No downtime needed, or risk of breaking the wiki beyond repair. If the new install gets botched, just start again.

 

@miwilc: If someone else is willing to do this major undertaking for us, it should be welcomed. I can safely say that it is unlikely that it will get done in reasonable time by any existing admins.

[Bailey]

Cheers wolstech, any ideas when krydos will see this?

[miwilc]

@Bailey that seems good, I assume we create/copy the old pages into the new wiki before pushing this to the main wiki.heliohost.org

 

User accounts and Wiki page history will be lost if you decide to do it like this, but I think it's a good way to upgrade the wiki.

 

@wolstech Noted, but we can always take our time with the copying the pages over, the person only needs to install it, do the post-inst stuff and create our user accounts.

 

That said, bailey can probably do this faster since he has more time

 

--

 

Are we to discuss possible maintainer(s?) for the wiki? since going out-of-date after we upgraded should be a security risk

 

<insert irony>

[Krydos]

How about I provide a dump of the wiki database, and one of you install/upgrade it on your account? Bailey, you want to do this? Let me know and I'll put the wiki's database dump on your account.

 

The wiki database dump was 375 MB mostly because of all the spam accounts that have been created over the years. I'm running a script to delete all of the accounts that have never made an edit to clean things up.

[miwilc]

@Krydos you should put it on bailey's account since he will be doing most of the work.