WikiMedia Migration Plan

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WikiMedia Migration Plan


Description

This page describes a plan to recreate the-Moon Wiki on a completely different website powered by MediaWiki technology (the same as that behind Wikipedia), and possibly (if successful) to replace the present site with the new one.

Plan

  • Arb Driver and son have obtained space on a web account owned by an acquaintance of theirs, and are developing there a MediaWiki powered site called: www.themoonwiki.org
  • Content of the present WikiSpaces pages (probably minus the discussions (edit histories can be transferred - ArbusDriver Feb 18, 2008)) would be transferred in some fashion to the new site.
  • If successful, the present site would be replaced by links to new site and future edits and contributions would be made to the new site


Motivations

  • The MediaWiki format offers a technological flexibility that is not possible on WikiSpaces pages, although understanding how to maintain the advanced features would be understood by at best a very few members.
  • Actual utilization of the features should be straightforward and available to all - ArbusDriver Feb 18, 2008.
  • See the-Moon Wiki -- Planning Pages for earlier discussion of these ideas.


Concerns

  • My number one concern is that although there is no guarantee that WikiSpaces will continue to host the present pages, at least they are part of a larger community. The existence of the new site seems to be entirely at the whim of a single computer-owner with no particular interest in its content. If that unidentified individual decides to cease hosting "www.themoonwiki.org" its content would apparently vanish. - JimMosher
  • This is not so Jim. Our proposal is and always has been to transfer ownership of the domain name to Chuck and move the wiki itself to the hosting company of his choice. The current hosting company is http://www.wiserhosting.com and the individual who has loaned us the space in the short term is as reliable as you, me or else anyone involved here. - ArbusDriver Feb 18, 2008
  • My second concern is that the new site will come to rely on complex scripts or programming understood only by the individual who developed them. If problems are encountered, or changes needed, after that individual has lost interest in the site, making the corrections necessary may be impossible for those still involved. - JimMosher
  • The likely incidence of problems is very low. As explained elsewhere, MediaWiki software is very stable (it has been tested to death and back at Wikipedia - millions of articles, hundreds of thousands of users). - ArbusDriver Feb 18, 2008
  • The process of adding functions for a particular MediaWiki wiki is very controlled. The majority of these are in a form called an extension (written in php). There is a public repository of extensions into which all but one of ours has been put.and from where they can be used by others. At least one is already in use at another site. 14yo is committed to supporting these extensions independent of themoonwiki for all the usual reasons associated with open source development. - ArbusDriver Feb 18, 2008
  • The locator map feature is written using MediaWiki's very powerful template language and (as you have seen and remarked on elsewhere) pushes it beyond the limits of readability in terms of deeply nested statements. 14yo has noted your comments and is investigating ways to improve the readability. - ArbusDriver Feb 18, 2008
  • In summary, your concerns are completely understandable but (we believe) misplaced. - ArbusDriver Feb 18, 2008


Suggestions

  • The MediaWiki site promises that code can be developed for automatically transferring the content of the present pages to the new site. Rather than immediately committing to a move, I suggest that the code be tested by creating a shadow MediaWiki version of the entire present WikiSpaces site with the understanding that the shadow version is for test purposes only, and edits to those pages will eventually be lost when the pages are later replaced by a "real" transfer. This would first demonstrate whether such an automated transfer is actually possible (it seems inconceivable that a number of unforeseen problems will not appear (you are right Jim, we anticipate some of those but not any insurmountable ones - ArbusDriver Feb 18, 2008)), and second it would give members an extended time to explore the look and feel of the MediaWiki site without shutting down or otherwise affecting the existing WikiSpaces site. It would also provide an opportunity to test whether significant updates and mass-modifications of pages on the new site can actually be performed by "robots". Since such things are supposed to be easy to do, I would further suggest that each page on the shadow site include a disclaimer at the top indicating that it is a MediaWiki test version and giving a link to the current version on the present site. - JimMosher
  • This sounds like a very good way forward Jim. If Chuck concurs we will go with that - ArbusDriver Feb 18, 2008


Discussion

  • Since the new site is supposed to be as community-oriented and member-modifiable as the present one, it makes sense to carry on most discussion of the migration plan there. I believe Arb has established a page for this purpose at: http://www.themoonwiki.org/wiki/Migration_plan. As on the present site, there is both a main page and a Discussion tab. Members who register on the new site can post their thoughts and suggestions there. Those who do not, can post them here. - JimMosher


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