Hi All,
The wiki is dead. It’s a mess with spam, and the software is a very old version. And I can’t get it to run again.
The data is still good however. I’ll figure out a way to give access to it all, but in the meantime if someone really wants a page, please write here and I’ll upload it.
Moving forward, do we still want a wiki? (If so, I’ll get a new install of it working).
I might be throwing petrol on what isn’t really even a fire yet, but from chatting with some people about our server it was suggested that keeping everything modular may be a good idea, I know we’ve already jumped from VM’s to containerisation, but I think the braver newer world is moving to appliances on VPS’s, so something going wrong somewhere won’t pull the whole system down.
While I’m not advocating we start migrating services now, I would suggest, perhaps as a wiki page, a breakdown of the services that we do have running.
So main webpage locations and anything that’ll build it from the github repo, forum location, database location, and wiki location.
I’d suggest throwing a file on the server somewhere with all the database passwords, but that may be pushing my luck.
I’m oblivious - Has the wiki been used for anything in the last few years?
it would be nice to keep the content, but if it is unused it seems silly to spend energy on an unnecessary system.
Might be worth just converting to a static archive then.
No …if we can update the software if we can. Because the archive will not be easliy accessed by the masses.
If the wiki is just a series of pre-compiled HTML pages, not pages generated on-the-fly, then all that’s needed is removing the backend and leaving the pages in place. A little cleanup so it’s not all full of “Edit” links would help, but that’s not important.
I’m not just talking about a zip file full of the pages or database somewhere. You can convert a dynamic website to a static one and still host it.
I’ve still got an imageboard floating around somewhere on the web from when I was a kid, it’s totally inactive but it’s still there. All I needed to do was delete the service and database behind it, all the pages were generated HTML and could be accessed just fine.
I personally have no interest in changing the way MHV server infrastructure works at the moment. It’s already all dockerised, and so ‘modular’.
Plus, Rackspace still sponsor the VPS that the dockers are running on so it is costing us nothing except the occasional maintenance time.
I’m happy so long as it continues in perpetuity, however I am considering contingencies in the even that the arrangement ever changes.
It has been suggested to me that Rackspace may not be aware of our presence, and I have been told that should they realise we’re there, they may wish to renegotiate our agreement, to put things politely.
I have no desire to actively change anything so long as it still works and the VPS has the resources we need, which it looks like it does.
I may have an inaccurate understanding of the situation as I believe I’m operating on third or fourth hand information at best.
I’ve set up a new wiki (using the latest version of the software we used before (Dokuwiki), in a new updated docker container).
I’ve restored as many of the old pages as I could identify. I still have the backups of the old wiki, so if there are any missing you’d like me to look for let me know.
Any bugs or issues with the set up, please let me know too. (I haven’t installed all the plugins we used to have, but I have installed the missing ones I noticed were causing broken pages.
The main page of the wiki is just listing all the categories at the moment.
Eventually we’ll have a consistent theme across the forum, main site, and the wiki; but for now, I’ve put a fairly generic theme on there.
I’ve installed the CAPTCHA and preregister plugins; you shouldn’t see CAPTCHA though as it’s doing it’s thing in the background. the preregister plugin does make you click a link in an email it sends you; so it’s a little annoying, but hopefully it means the wiki doesn’t get owned again.
(ping @sjdavies)