[Seattle-editorial] Re: [Seattletech] URGENT: Your IMC site
Joseph Eisenschmidt
relayer at riseup.net
Tue Nov 4 11:26:18 PST 2003
Jason,
At the IMC Core meeting last night, we did consense on migrating to
MIR. We will bring this up at the general meeting as a formal
proposal, short and sweet I hope, to migrate immediately.
There are Speakeasy co-location issues and oppertunities that Chas
and catherine know more about, but we did get a Speakeasy bill
today; if you or others call or drop by, I'll share that with you.
The monthly total and terms I'll leave off list, but will send out
as an addendum to this message.
Do we have local options as per hosting Stallmans replacements, or
will we be remotely hosted, and there be questions about Sarai
email server as well.
Joseph
Quoting Jason Reep <jasonr at speakeasy.net>:
> Ok folks, it's official.
>
> I propose MIR as the new code base for the Seattle IMC website
> because I
> like the look and feel of other sites using it most and we have
> more
> possibility of local or regional support for it than for
> SFActive.
> According to Kellan, there are methods available to make our
> archives
> available as part of the new website.
>
> I'd like to try to solicit the help of the Portland IMC techies
> and
> Kellan in the migration process and in the mean time put the call
> out
> for more locals who are interested in getting involved on the
> long term.
> It seems like there is volunteer energy already waiting to be
> tasked
> with website design tasks. How do the different tasks involved
> with
> code migration need to be broken down? Can we set up the new
> website
> with default templates and change the design (look) after the
> fact or
> does it need to be a more integrated process? What are the
> hardware
> requirements? Stefani or Sheri, where do we (the Seattle IMC)
> stand in
> regards to our DSL service with Speakeasy? Hasn't the bill been
> going up?
>
> my 2 cents.
>
> -jason
>
>
> imc-tech at lists.indymedia.org wrote:
>
> > Dear $IMC tech contact,
> >
> > This message contains *URGENT* time-critical information that
> you and
> > your IMC absolutely have to act on, or the IMC-tech group will
> be
> > forced to make some decisions for you. Please read this
> message
> > completely. We regret we have not had more time to contact you
> further
> > in advance.
> >
> > Topics contained in this email:
> > o Background: Stallman is going away
> > . Whats going to be done?
> > . Whats the impact on me and my IMC?
> > . Why do we need to migrate the code also?
> > . What are our options for migration?
> > . How much time do we have to decide on a new code-base?
> > . What do I need to do?
> > o Great! We wanted to redesign the site anyways, can you help
> with that?
> > o Donations needed!
> >
> > * Background: Stallman is going away
> >
> > Stallman, the primary webserver for Indymedia is losing[1]
> its
> > colocation on DECEMEBER 1st. You are being contacted because
> your IMC
> > website is on this machine. Free hosting ends DECEMBER 1st,
> with the
> > option of keeping the box at its current location until JANUARY
> 1st
> > for $250/mo, at which point, the plug gets pulled. This does
> not come
> > as a complete surprise as we've long known that the
> centralization
> > represented in Stallman, while instrumental in some of IMC's
> rapid
> > growth and accessibility is also a vulnerability.
> >
> > We have been working over the last year and a half to
> decentralize our
> > hosting to minimize such a problem. We have done good hard
> work, at
> > one high-point stallman hosted over 82 IMC sites, now there
> are
> > currently only about 30 sites remaining on Stallman using a
> sustained
> > 160kB/sec of traffic, the largest being www.indymedia.org.
> >
> > In order to prevent something like this happening again, and
> to
> > continue to embrace our decentralized model, we strongly urge
> local
> > collectives to be looking into hosting options for themselves,
> or into
> > allying with other regional IMCs for hosting. Similarly we
> feel that
> > it is important that each local collective, to the extent of
> its
> > available resource take over maintence, up keep, and migration
> of its
> > website. IMC-Tech will try to migrate sites remaining on
> Stallman to
> > a new server, and a new codebase, but we can't guarentee there
> won't
> > be downtime, performance loss, or even, worst case, lost
> data.
> >
> >
> > * What is going to be done?
> >
> > PANIC! OH NO! WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO! AGGH CRISIS!! PANIC!@
> OMG!!!!
> > ITS THE FBI, WE ARE ALL GOING TO DIE!!! RUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN!!!!!
> CALL UP
> > AUNT MAY, TELL HER TO DUST THE BOMB SHELTER, GO BUY ALL THE
> RAMEN,
> > SALTED BEEF, AND HARDTACK FROM THE STORE!!@!#@#!@#
> >
> > Don't panic, we'll do that for you. We've got a number of
> options that
> > we are pursuing to relocate the Stallman hosted sites, we've
> secured
> > replacement hardware, and have a number of alternative
> colocation
> > options available that we are working on. We are coordinating
> things
> > on this[2] wiki page, and also on IRC.
> >
> > * Whats the impact on me and my IMC?
> >
> > Two things impact you, as a hosted site on Stallman. One is
> that we
> > have to move your site, the second is that we actually have
> to
> > *migrate* your site to a different code-base. Your site is one
> of the
> > sites that is running very old legacy IMC code, called
> "Active". In
> > order to move your site, we need to migrate it to a different,
> more
> > modern code-base.
> >
> > * Why do we need to migrate the code also?
> >
> > The reasons why you need to switch are the following:
> >
> > . we cannot support Active code, nobody knows how to, and
> nobody
> > wants to
> >
> > . the active code is not being developed any more
> >
> > . we consider active to be a waste of resources (human,
> database,
> > disk) in comparision with the newer alternatives
> >
> > . the currently hosted sites on stallman all are various
> different
> > revisions of the Active code, unknown versions, half
> upgraded,
> > half patched in some places, completely hacked in others,
> this
> > makes dealing with these sites a major pain
> >
> > . the more modern code is easier to manage, is nicer on our
> hardware
> > and bandwidth (it makes much more effective use of our
> resources)
> >
> > . most people think the other more modern code options are
> more
> > visually appealing from the outset
> >
> > . the more modern code options make administrative and
> technical tasks
> > far more easier and obvious: customizing the look and
feel,
> dealing
> > with newswire spam, etc.
> >
> > . the newer code has many more delightful features, such as
> categories,
> > templating, multilingual support, calendaring,
> searching,
> > syndication, most importat, they are being currently
worked
> on
> > and supported!
> >
> > * What are our options for migration?
> >
> > There are three alternatives to Active that we will be
> migrating sites
> > to, Mir, SF-Active, or Dada. There are some other options
> available,
> > but we have chosen these because we feel they are the most
> supported
> > and we have the knowledge and resources at our disposal to
> migrate to
> > these. These are the only alternatives that we will be
> migrating to
> > from Stallman.
> >
> > You are welcome to pick something else and set up your own
> server and
> > migrate your site, but it has to be done before our deadline.
> If you
> > want to do something different, please have a look at various
> > options[3] available, also you can see people's opinions and
> > experiences with the different code bases here[4].
> >
> > * How much time do we have to decide on a new code-base?
> >
> > Unfortunately, not much time. Due to the time critical nature
> of this
> > issue, we have to make the deadline of two weeks from the date
> of this
> > email. We are in the process of setting up servers to migrate
> your
> > site to, and if you have not chosen a replacement code-base at
> the end
> > of this deadline, we will be forced to migrate your site to
> whichever
> > we chose among Dada, Sf-active and Mir according to the
> resources
> > available at our discretion.
> >
> > * What do I need to do?
> >
> > You need to talk to your IMC collective and make a decision
> about
> > which code-base you want to migrate to. We will work with you
> to
> > transfer your existing content to the new code, and help you
> get
> > everything up trying to limit any significant down-time in
> the
> > process. Once you have decided, please send an email to
> > imc-tech at lists.indymedia.org.
> >
> > We *will* move all IMCs hosted on stallman off of old Active,
> so if
> > nobody from your IMC ever responds, at some point we will make
> a
> > choice for you.
> >
> > * Great! We wanted to redesign the site anyways, can you help
> with that?
> >
> > Unfortunately, we don't even have enough time to migrate sites
> to the
> > new servers, much less do a redesign of them all. This is a
> big
> > project, and we are already swamped with work. A lot of people
> are
> > dissatisfied with the layout of their current IMC site and want
> to
> > change that, we understand that. The good news is part of the
> > migration to a new code-base means your look-and-feel of your
> IMC site
> > will change to the default layout of the particular code-base
> that you
> > choose, all of these are incredible improvements over Active's
> default
> > design. In addition, Active was very difficult to customize,
> the newer
> > code-bases have the advantage that they are much simpler to
> make
> > design changes to them. So we ask that you hold off on any
> cosmetic
> > design changes until the site has been migrated.
> >
> > * DONATIONS NEEDED!
> >
> > The IMC-Tech working group needs your immediate donations in
> order to
> > purchase new servers and locate new hosting spaces by the 01
> Dec 2003
> > deadline. Donations of hardware or hosting are also very
> welcome!
> >
> > We are asking anyone who can to make a donation of $5. With a
> positive
> > response from the large numbers of Indymedia contributors and
> > sympathizers, we hope to raise the funds necessary. If you have
> more
> > resources, we encourage you to donate whatever you can: $25,
> $50,
> > $100, $500.
> >
> > Please email imc-tech at lists.indymedia.org. Let people know that
> they
> > can donate via Paypal. Or if you know anyone who might have
> the
> > following to donate, please contact us:
> >
> > Server class hardware:
> >
> > * Pre-built rackmount or tower servers
> > * Server components for custom-built servers
> > * PC Weasel's (please email imc-tech at lists.indymedia.org
> > for info first)
> > * Additional hard drives
> > * Additional memory
> >
> > Server hosting:
> >
> > * Colocation or bandwidth
> >
> >
> > 1.
> http://lists.indymedia.org/pipermail/imc-sysadmin/2003-
October/002450.html
> > 2. http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Sysadmin/ServerCoordination
> > 3. http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Devel/WebHome, also you can
> see
> > 4. http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Devel/OpinonsExperiences.
> > _______________________________________________
> > Seattletech mailing list
> > Seattletech at lists.indymedia.org
> > http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/seattletech
> _______________________________________________
> Seattle-editorial mailing list
> Seattle-editorial at lists.indymedia.org
> http://lists.indymedia.org/mailman/listinfo/seattle-editorial
>
Joseph Eisenschmidt
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