[Lnc-business] L-Pedia

Caryn Ann Harlos carynannharlos at gmail.com
Tue Jun 21 09:13:27 EDT 2016


Thank you David.  I am hoping for some discussion, particularly from those
who have been here a while, on the best route.  It seems this an asset that
the Party started and let lie fallow.  From this update it seems it is
inevitable that it will be be undone through a hack exploit or needed
software update if something isn't done, which requires certain server
access which the Party does not want to give to an outside volunteer.  This
presents at least these options (and I would like to hear more).

1.  Remove it and kill it (this is going to happen if nothing is done, I am
very opposed to this option and am trying to prevent it)

2. Allot staff time and budget to re-open the site for registrations and
administer it (this has been an option all along and not done, I presume
due to lack of budget and need for staff time elsewhere---- if this is
possible, this seems to be the best solution)

3.  Appoint and allow a volunteer to have the necessary server access to do
number 2 (this seems to me to be the next best option, but I presume there
are security concerns - not sure why these could not alleviated with
vetting and agreements - a properly vetted volunteer is no less secure than
a staff member)

4. Allow LPedia to be transferred to an outside server (paid for by the
Party at a cost not to exceed X dollars), retain access, ownership, and
ultimate control of site, and appoint a volunteer to run

5. "Give" LPedia and all the rights to it away to a volunteer or perhaps
see if the LSLA were interested in taking over.

These are options that seem to present themselves.  I do not know which is
the best of these or other that may be added to the list.  Number 1 is
unacceptable for such a valuable resource.  I have used LPedia quite a bit,
and am one of the few that has editing permissions.

In Liberty,
Caryn Ann Harlos
Region 1 Representative
(Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming,
Washington)

On Mon, Jun 20, 2016 at 8:01 PM, David Demarest <dpdemarest at centurylink.net>
wrote:

> Caryn, I would be happy to co-sponsor the motion you suggest below.
>
>
>
> *Celebrate Life, Set the Bar High and LIVE FREE!*
>
>
>
> *The War on Cronyism Begins Now!*
>
>
>
> ~David Pratt Demarest
>
> Region 6 Representative, Libertarian National Committee
>
> Secretary, Nebraska Libertarian State Central Committee
>
> David.Demarest at LP.org
>
> Secretary at LPNE.org
>
> DPDemarest at centurylink.net
>
> David.Demarest at firstdata.com
>
> http://www.LP.org
>
> http://www.LPNE.org
>
> Cell:       402-981-6469
>
> Home: 402-493-0873
>
> Office: 402-222-7207
>
>
>
> *From:* Lnc-business [mailto:lnc-business-bounces at hq.lp.org] *On Behalf
> Of *Caryn Ann Harlos
> *Sent:* Monday, June 20, 2016 8:09 PM
> *To:* lnc-business at hq.lp.org
> *Cc:* James Gholston <jamesg at dimensionality.com>
> *Subject:* [Lnc-business] L-Pedia
>
>
>
> I do not recall this being brought up, and this seems like an issue who's
> time for addressing is far overdue.  I inquired with James Gholston who has
> been an administrator of accounts there, and he provided me with this
> information and request.   I'd like to get this discussion going, and
> perhaps if there is interest, speak with some of you about co-sponsoring a
> motion to get this going.
>
>
>
> ====
>
> As probably everyone I'm sending this email to knows, our party has a
> history-centric wiki (since 2005) that has very high PageRank and shows up
> heavily in searches. It is likely the biggest online repository that lists
> names of people who have participated in the Libertarian Party (with access
> to some party data, we could crank out a lot of biographical articles).
>
>
>
> Situation: MediaWiki is not designed to be maintained without shell and
> ftp access, but only paid contractors and staff have this level of access.
> Meanwhile, the LNC Staff does not have time to maintain react-text: 196
> LPedia.org /react-text
> <http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2FLPedia.org%2F&h=IAQGLgKMN>,
> and the party doesn't have the resources to pay someone to maintain it.
>
>
>
> What problems do we have that result? Two big ones are visible on the
> front page. Three years ago account creation was temporarily locked down
> when we were getting more than 100 garbage articles and accounts added per
> minute and it's still temporarily down. Also, a needed image permission is
> broken on the server preventing image uploads while the wiki settings
> prohibit linking to external images. The really pixellated image of John
> Hospers isn't really an image. It's a table. ...And it's roughly a third of
> a megabyte. A PNG or JPEG would be a tiny fraction of the size and would
> look far nicer, but it hasn't been possible to add one of those for a few
> years.
>
>
>
> Additional problems: The version of MediaWiki we're using is eight years
> out of date -- and that update seven years ago was done by the LNC staff
> spending money. Extensions are needed -- both to add features to handle the
> data on react-text: 205 LPedia.org /react-text
> <http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2FLPedia.org%2F&h=wAQH_h6KR>and
> to control attacks (our PageRank makes us a high value target).
>
>
>
> Our main tool for controlling attacks is a bot that runs on my personal
> desktop (written four and a half years ago when successful attacks were
> exceeding what could be humanly controlled in a reasonable amount of time
> as a workaround for lack of server access) -- and stops running whenever my
> machine or Internet connectivity are down, allowing garbage to accumulate.
> We have no meaningful extensions to stop things (a decade-old CAPTCHA
> that's easily bypassed -- especially with the version of MediaWiki we're
> running). With the bot ( react-text: 211 http://lpedia.org/User:WHUMP
> /react-text
> <http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2Flpedia.org%2FUser%3AWHUMP&h=mAQEXDhYU>)
> it's possible to continue to allow anonymous contributions (most of our
> contributions have always been anonymous -- many very substantial) and I
> can bug people for usernames and email addresses and add the manually when
> I know about them or personally recruit them, but reliance on these steps
> is not optimal.
>
>
>
> Also, what do we do when a PHP or SQL update breaks MediaWiki 1.12
> altogether?
>
>
>
> My suggested fix: Move react-text: 220 LPedia.org /react-text
> <http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2FLPedia.org%2F&h=KAQGIW0iR>to
> a server where trusted volunteers are allowed under-the-hood access. It
> doesn't need to be anything even remotely fancy or expensive: A shared
> hosting DreamHost account would be more than sufficient. Additional
> volunteer-maintainable party domains -- presently existing or merely
> potential -- could be hosted on the same server and also be maintained by
> volunteers (and/or staff and contractors, time permitting). The LNC staff
> can retain control when they see a need or find time to exercise it, yet
> not be a bottleneck when there's simply too many things to do, not enough
> staff, and not enough time for even just the essentials.
>
>
>
> There are other historical concerns and things that might be relatively
> easy to do to help the volunteers who participate with react-text: 226
> LPedia.org /react-text
> <http://l.facebook.com/l.php?u=http%3A%2F%2FLPedia.org%2F&h=QAQES3Arj>(I'd
> like to change the default licence to public domain and I'm concerned about
> the mold/mildew risk to our unscanned surviving archival documents after
> the basement flood), but let me focus on just this one thing right now.
>
>
>
> =======
>
>
>
> I have cc'd James on this message so he can keep track and feed me
> relevant information.
>
>
>
>
>
> --
>
> In Liberty,
>
> Caryn Ann Harlos
>
> Region 1 Representative
>
> (Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming,
> Washington)
>
> Caryn.Ann.Harlos at LP.org
>
> _______________________________________________
> Lnc-business mailing list
> Lnc-business at hq.lp.org
> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
>
>


-- 
In Liberty,
Caryn Ann Harlos
Region 1 Representative
(Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Hawaii, Kansas, Montana, Utah, Wyoming,
Washington)
Caryn.Ann.Harlos at LP.org
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