[Lnc-business] L-Pedia
Wes Benedict
wes.benedict at lp.org
Tue Jun 21 13:17:16 EDT 2016
I think the only reason volunteers might not have been given access is
because of the security opening that allow tons of spam. I don't recall
if this is hosted somewhere that causes it to also hurt other websites
we control.
I deliberately wanted L-Pedia to be a volunteer managed site - staff has
not had interest in trying to control the content of L-Pedia since 2009.
I believe a few times the volunteers asked Eric Dixon to help trouble
shoot some things. I think that's it.
What might be nice is for a team (not staff) to rebuild from scratch an
L-Pedia using the technology they think is needed, and don't even give
the passwords to staff. That would guarantee prevention of staff
interference. Unless you all think you can fix the current version which
is also fine with me.
We are in the middle of trying to fix some LPStore.org issues and plan
to roll out a new LP.org shortly. I promised info on the Ohio ballot
access drive to Ken Moellman last Friday and haven't gotten it to him
yet. Have been working on hiring help and need to finish the approvals
and paperwork. I have over 200 emails in my inbox and many require
follow up work, not just reading or forwarding. Sounds easy to delegate,
but it's not easy to delegate in a way that others don't violate our
Policy Manual and chair and LNC directives.
L-Pedia is near the bottom of my priorities right now. I removed links
to it from LP.org in 2010 because the content was so bad. I hear it's
improved dramatically since then which is a good sign.
If you would like staff to help with L-Pedia before updating the home
page of Lp.org, and lots of other things, that will require a directive
from the chair or LNC motion.
Caryn, please consult Eric Dixon, former staff member, copied on this
email, to see if he can dig up some emails for you on this topic.
I'm thinking we should postpone LP.org upgrade until after the election,
given all the other stuff that keeps coming up. Whether it's upgraded by
staff, or an outside company, either way it will take tons of staff time.
Wes Benedict, Executive Director
Libertarian National Committee, Inc.
1444 Duke St., Alexandria, VA 22314
(202) 333-0008 ext. 232,wes.benedict at lp.org
facebook.com/libertarians @LPNational
Join the Libertarian Party at:http://lp.org/membership
On 6/21/2016 9:32 AM, Caryn Ann Harlos wrote:
> 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
> <mailto: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 <mailto:brett at brettbittner.com>
> 404.492.6524 <tel: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 <tel:402-981-6469>
>
> Home: 402-493-0873 <tel:402-493-0873>
>
> Office: 402-222-7207 <tel: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 <mailto:Caryn.Ann.Harlos at 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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>
>
>
> --
> 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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