[Lnc-business] L-Pedia

Tue Jun 21 09:32:33 EDT 2016

That seems reasonable to me, but it seems to me that there is some reason
that a volunteer was not allowed this access in the past.  Perhaps it was
just because the right person didn't ask and pursue it.  Which is why I am
asking and pursuing it.  Simply giving said access seems like it would
solve this issue.  From what I understand James Gholston of Texas has the
skills and desire to do this.

On Tue, Jun 21, 2016 at 7:27 AM, Brett Bittner <brett at brettbittner.com>
wrote:

> My thoughts:
>
>    - I see the historical content as valuable
>    - I understand the constraints on staff time and budget
>    - We are in the midst of the 2016 election cycle
>    - A termed agreement (until the end of 2016, maybe?) with a volunteer
>    for short term access for critical updates this cycle (due to its high page
>    rank) could "band-aid" us through to allow for consideration of staff time
>    and $$ allocation at our December 2016 session without taking away
>    resources in the immediate term
>
>
> Brett C. Bittner
>
> brett at brettbittner.com
> 404.492.6524
>
> "I would rather be exposed to the inconveniences attending too much
> liberty than those attending too small a degree of it." -- Thomas Jefferson
>
> On Tue, Jun 21, 2016 at 9:13 AM, Caryn Ann Harlos <
> carynannharlos at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 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
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> Lnc-business mailing list
>> Lnc-business at hq.lp.org
>> http://hq.lp.org/mailman/listinfo/lnc-business_hq.lp.org
>>
>>
>
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>
>

-- 
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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