[Squeakfoundation]Re: consolidating squeak web presence

Jochen F. Rick squeakfoundation@lists.squeakfoundation.org
Tue, 5 Jun 2001 11:57:16 -0400


Hi,

I've been busy writing a paper, so I've been ignoring e-mail a bit.
So, here's my position:

The Squeak Swiki is fine where it is. We just got in some new servers and 
we will be making the upgrade in the next few days. Stability should go 
way up after that. So, stability is not a problem. Secondly, 
administering the Squeak Swiki isn't that simple. I'm still planning to 
make some cosmetic and some code changes. This process would be much more 
difficult remotely. Third, there are many links to 
http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/squeak (both over the net and in 
publications). Though a forward swiki could be put in place, it wouldn't 
look all that great.

I only vaguelly see the point about having something that looks better in 
the URL. So, http://swiki.squeak.org/ is a decent amount better than 
http://minnow.cc.gatech.edu/swiki. Still, I don't think it is so much 
better as to incur all the other disadvantages.

That being said, I think http://wiki.squeak.org/squeak is fine. You could 
do that without moving it off minnow. This would also make the Squeak 
Wiki site to be http://wiki.squeak.org/swiki. We could also set up other 
ones, such as http://wiki.squeak.org/squeakFoundation.

Peace and Luck!

Je77


On Tue, May 29, 2001 at 10:40:10AM -0700, Simon Michael wrote:
> Dear squeak swiki & squeak.org webmasters,
> 
> the squeak wiki has done long service at minnow.cc.gatech.edu. I think
> there is some consensus that the time has now come to locate it within
> the squeak.org domain, eg as swiki.squeak.org. See my comments below
> for a little context. 
> 
> Do you agree, are you available to help, any ideas on how to make this
> happen ?  We don't know if it requires a physical move or can be done
> virtually.
> 
> Thanks,
> -Simon
> 
> PS the squeak foundation list archives are at
> http://lists.squeakfoundation.org/listinfo/squeakfoundation
> 
> 
> "Joshua 'Schwa' Gargus" <schwa@cc.gatech.edu> writes:
> > On Fri, May 25, 2001 at 07:27:15PM -0700, Simon Michael wrote:
> > > Andreas - yes. Just a little more prevarication from me: ok, where can
> > > I help plant this stake in the ground.. which leads us back to..
> > > 
> > > ..the squeak wiki. IMHO this is the optimal place for constructing
> > > these lists, because (a) they probably partially exist there already
> > > and (b) ease of linking to more detail. Two problems -
> > > 
> > > 1. <poke, prod> with no disrespect intended, the current admin(s) are
> > > not delivering uptime. 9 outages so far this month, including some of
> > > more than a day (according to
> > > http://uptime.arsdigita.com/uptime/reports.tcl?monitor_id=119512 ).  I
> > > know "there'll be a server upgrade next week". But in any case,
> > 
> > Don't worry.  There'll be a server upgrade next week ;-)
> > 
> > Them's the breaks with running a research lab within a large bureaucratic
> > organization; we can't order the machines directly to us.  This isn't 
> > something that urgently needs to be solved immediately, and it isn't 
> > something that we can speed up.  Just hang tight for a little bit.
> > 
> > > 2. the wiki is at some strange url, neither squeak.org,
> > > squeakfoundation.org, nor squeakland.org. This dilutes squeak's web
> > > presence.
> > 
> > I think that this is a very good point.  What the heck is 
> > minnow.cc.gatech.edu anyway?  However, this is a historical accident
> > as a result of the fact that the Squeak Swiki started off as an 
> > experiment back in the (relative) infancy of Swiki.  If you think 
> > that it is important enough to address immediately, the author and
> > current maintainer is Je77 Rick.  You can contact him at
> > nadja@cc.gatech.edu; I'm sure he'll be glad to talk to you about
> > the possibility of moving the Swiki out of .gatech.edu.
> > 
> > Tell him Schwa sent you ;-)
> > 
> > > True, this doesn't actually prevent me from building Andreas' lists
> > > but I only have 15 minutes and I'd like to see it solved. I'd prefer a
> > > single, stable, canonical community wiki.  I'm tempted to propose
> > > doing the simplest thing that could possibly work: mirror it on
> > > squeakfoundation.org and forget minnow.
> > > 
> > > Minnow admin(s) are you on this list ? Comments anyone ?
> > 
> > Oops, didn't read this far.  AFAIK, I'm the only GaTech Squeaker on
> > this list.  But Je77's contact information is above.
> > 
> > Joshua
> > 
> > > Best regards - Simon
> 
> 
> Simon Michael <simon@joyful.com> writes:
> > Paul Fernhout <pdfernhout@kurtz-fernhout.com> writes:
> > > With the exception of the mini-faq, one question to think about is why
> > > haven't these consolidation and organization projects happened already?
> > 
> > Excellent question. I can speak for myself:
> > 
> > > There are also several Wikis where this sort of effort could be
> > > happening
> > 
> > you've hit the nail on the head :).
> > 
> > In other words: each time I've entered the squeak community (maybe
> > three times over the last 3-4 years) I (a) came to the conclusion the
> > sorts of things you describe are where I can best help and (b) looked
> > at the web presence and fora for documentation and got scared away by
> > the feeling of shifting sands and multiplicity. No-one wants to spend
> > time on documentation that may or may found.
> > 
> > You can make a case that I allowed myself to be scared off from hard
> > work too easily.. but my point is that this has probably happened with
> > plenty of other potential contributors. We want the threshold for
> > contribution to approach zero. Hence my last post.
> > 
> > -Simon