(06-15-2023, 08:48 PM)robkelk Wrote: Well, we have no option but to migrate the wiki now. We can still choose which wiki host to use, though.
Things to do:
- Pick a new host.
- Delete unused categories. Preferably before taking a wiki dump. The less we have to backup, even if it's only a few kb, the less we have to get restored on the new host.
- Get a dump of the wiki. Considering how large it is, this is a non-trivial task.
- Make sure everybody knows that they're going to need to re-create their user IDs.
- Clean up the lists of users with enhanced rights. How many users with admin rights do we have who haven't logged in for over a year, for example? (I have no way of knowing.) Make doubly-sure that anybody with admin rights of any sort knows that we're moving, and ask whether they want to keep their responsibilities and rights.
- Clean up the selection of gadgets and extensions that we're using. Beyond the plain-vanilla wiki, we don't actually need anything we're running. We appear to want Moderation, as long as Looney Toons is willing to be the moderator. In the past, we wanted a forum, but we can't have the one we had installed... and we appear to be running just fine with discussions on talk pages, so do we actually still want a forum? Somebody thought it was a good idea to install VisualEditor and Babel and Flow and Math and RandomGameUnit and Tabs and TabberNeue and WikiHiero and ImageRating and MediaWikiChat and BlogPage and a bunch of other things that either don't appear to have much if anything to do with our core brand of "discussing tropes", don't play well with other extensions, or both -- maybe we should forego those until the new wiki is actually running. ("BlogPage" is especially puzzling since we specifically say "We are not a personal blog, web host, memorial site, or social network service") We appear to have a lot of stuff that belongs on social media sites instead of wikis -- if nobody actually uses them, don't activate them on the new host.
- More, because I'm sure that this isn't everything.
Rob, the BlogPage extension was added specifically for site-relevant blogging, such as essays on tropes, discussions about the site in an essay or some other explanatory format, and so on.
As for the other extensions you complained about, Let's run down the list that you mentioned, as I installed nigh all of them when it was believed they m,iught be relevant, and I'll give my own, on technical and practical reasons, suggestions for what to drop or keep.
VisualEditor: At one point it was considered universally useful and still can be good for talk pages only use, but for it's use in content pages there is a vote to kill it for, which I entirely support.
Babel: The basic backbone of any localization attempts, userboxes for showing language proficiency, and practically most other extensions and templates for displaying foreign language media/characters with multi-lingual functions. We need it.
Flow: I know it has a few shortcomings that bother you, but it's not actually broken, just not doing exactly as you want it to. As I said, file a Phabricator request with the WMF to address the features it needs to cover/improve on first before you decide it's useless and needs to die for the high crime of not doing everything you expect.
Math: If we are going to show any technical stuff regarding math (like on a page for physics-related tropes, use certain imported templates, or ensure no formatted weirdness in some template pages that are required for other templates, we need this. Currently, the latter two definitely apply in some fashion.
Tabs/Tabber Neue: Both are used for different reasons on various pages. Removing them breaks key site pages like the Community Portal and various other content pages.
RandomGameUnit: Yeah, this can die. Was initially enabled to hook into SocialProfile as it has features enhanced by it, but we never saw fit to use them.
WikiHiero: Safe to remove. It was enabled in the unforsee event we wanted to use hieroglyphic characters for a Just For Fun page or if needed for an imported Egypt related page. Neither has proven to be likely anytime soon.
ImageRating: Has received no use, can be removed, it's functions are not currently applicable to our project scope so far.
MediaWikiChat: Safe to Remove. Despite offering it as an on-wiki chat option, it's proven a very ignored feature, so yeah, we need to yeet it.