IRC/Group Contacts/Noticeboard
This page is a noticeboard for current information regarding IRC, generally posted to by the Contacts.
Call for new Global Operators
I just wanted to let everyone know that applications are now being accepted for Global Ops. If you would like to throw your hat in the ring, please fill out the form in the IRC Ops channel as I can't link it here. Right now there is no deadline on applications. If one does get set, I will notify below. -- Amanda (she/her) 17:23, 14 January 2023 (UTC)
Call for another Group Contact
We currently have a new GC slot open and our team could use some help from another active IRC-savvy person. Therefore, we're inviting you to apply to become a Group Contact for Wikimedia's IRC channels on Libera. Interested applicants should send their applications to irc-contacts-owner
lists.wikimedia.org by November 8th, 2022. An application should at least include:
- A brief outline of the applicant's recent IRC activities,
- A link to the applicant's userpage,
- An explanation as to why the applicant believes they would be a good asset to the team.
On behalf of the GC team, --Az1568 (talk) 19:43, 8 October 2022 (UTC)
- I'm happy to announce the appointment of three new GCs: Stwalkerster (
stwalkersteron IRC), Matthewrb (matthewrbowkeron IRC) and AmandaNP (AmandaNPon IRC). --FiliP ██ 20:23, 23 November 2022 (UTC)
IRC cloak request
Hello there, I requested for Wikimedia cloak 60 days ago. Querying with wmopbot, it says, "cloak for Tulsi requested 60 days ago is approved". When messaged one of Libera staffs (el@libera/staff/el on #Libera) to know about the request, she told to ask one of the GCs to check for you as to why it's not been done. it seems not, or we missed one and no longer have records of the request. either way the GC will need to request that we fix it. Could you please take a look on this? — Tulsi 24x7 07:20, 15 August 2022 (UTC)
- dungodung handled this. :-) --MZMcBride (talk) 17:44, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
Group contacts
I would like to propose a new call for group contacts — I absolutely appreciate and respect that this is a volunteer role (and I thank you all for your tireless commitment to it!), but it seems that there is a stagnation to our current GCs, and we would be better served by a number of contacts being active members of the Wikimedia community. There are ~30 pending cloak requests, and between four GCs this should not get to the current state of having requests over 60 days old. ~TNT (talk • she/her) 11:27, 10 May 2022 (UTC)
- I fully agree:
- Snowolf has only made 7 edits globally in the last year, last one in February
- Az1568 has made 31 edits globally in the last year, last one in January
- Dungodung and Fox have a bit more activity but it is not high.
- With these levels of activity I question how in touch the GCs are with the community in general - this is below the activity level that most wikis require for retaining adminship. --Rschen7754 18:15, 10 May 2022 (UTC)
- Having a more active group contact would be nice, but I don't understand why cloaks still require manual approval from a GC. Legoktm (talk) 18:45, 10 May 2022 (UTC)
- GCs need to manually request cloaks from Libera Chat staff so there's always going to be some manual part of this process. I do feel that 60 days is quite a long wait for something as simple as a cloak, however. Skizzerz (talk) 18:57, 10 May 2022 (UTC)
- The libera staffers are pretty quick at actioning requests once they get them fwiw :) — TNT (talk • she/her) 19:36, 10 May 2022 (UTC)
- @Skizzerz: does it need to be done manually? Can GCs delegate that responsibility to wmopbot? The bot could just nag LC staff whenever a new cloak request comes in (maybe with batching to avoid being a nuisance) or something. Legoktm (talk) 20:27, 10 May 2022 (UTC)
- @Legoktm: Something like that could possibly be arranged. Batching doesn't help all that much, there's enough staff around to handle one-off requests so I would personally say that avoiding batches would work fine for the time being. Maybe if the volume started being dozens of requests per day and it started flooding out other things, but 30 cloaks over 60 days is pretty much nothing. However, if such a system was devised, don't require Libera staff to make use of bot commands to flag a request as "done" or the like; the interaction should basically be only from the bot to staff. Also, from personal experience, some of the requests that have been sent to Libera staff in the past have contained invalid characters, so it will be important for an automated system to ensure that cannot happen moving forward. Skizzerz (talk) 22:36, 10 May 2022 (UTC)
- What Lego said. Many other networks have automated/self-service HostServ bots or similar. There should never be a queue of pending cloak requests. --MZMcBride (talk) 18:57, 10 May 2022 (UTC)
- GCs need to manually request cloaks from Libera Chat staff so there's always going to be some manual part of this process. I do feel that 60 days is quite a long wait for something as simple as a cloak, however. Skizzerz (talk) 18:57, 10 May 2022 (UTC)
- Hi folks, the current cloak requests have all been processed. We apologize for the delay experienced in granting these! --Az1568 (talk) 04:39, 11 May 2022 (UTC)
- Hi TNT, thanks for raising this issue. The "limit" of 4 GCs is an artificial one and we can select more GCs if that's needed. Yes, I agree that we sometimes have lackluster levels of activity, but sometimes a nice reminder on chat can fix that easily (just like this one did). It's of course the case that we sometimes have real life obligations or lower our activities (I for one am present on wiki almost every day, but I did leave IRC for ~2 weeks for my vacation), but I don't think that deserves admonishment. I believe this role requires trust first and foremost and I think we can easily find trustworthy individuals in our community that are willing to devote a fragment of their time to this. I think we'll internally talk about expanding the group a bit. As for automating cloaking, I don't really agree with that, since there is some manual labor required (checking users for local/global bans and evaluating against that; fixing some cloaks that the wmopbot doesn't do well with -- that could potentially be fixed though). --FiliP ██ 19:48, 11 May 2022 (UTC)
- I do want to make it clear that none of the above was geared towards anything close to admonishment 😊 real life should and must always come before any volunteer commitments, and I am sure I speak for every active IRC user when I say that we appreciate the time and effort you all have given, and continue to give, to the projects! — TNT (talk • she/her) 20:42, 11 May 2022 (UTC)
- We should eliminate any manual labor in order to streamline the process. I promise you we can automate checking users for local or global bans and we can automate checking that the cloak matches [A-z0-9] or any other regular expression. It would also be nice to have greater visibility into the queue and set up alerting if the queue grows too large. All of this is completely doable. --MZMcBride (talk) 21:14, 11 May 2022 (UTC)
At the moment, Snowolf and foks are offline, AlexZ has been idle for over 18 days, and dungodung has been idle for over 2 days. We need another group contact. --MZMcBride (talk) 16:28, 2 September 2022 (UTC)
New Group Contacts
We are pleased to announce that the new Group Contacts are Fox and Charitwo (foks and c or charitwo respectively on IRC). We would like to thank all other candidates for submitting their applications and to apologize for making this announcement belatedly. On behalf of the GC team, FiliP ██ 22:08, 4 April 2017 (UTC)
Update on new Group Contact selection
Thank you to all candidates for submitting their applications. There has been a bit of a delay in choosing the next group contact, for which we sincerely apologize, as I know several of you have been asking when we will make an announcement! We anticipate that a final selection should be made in February and it will be announced here as soon as the results are available.
On behalf of the GC team, --Az1568 (talk) 00:19, 27 January 2017 (UTC)
Call for another Group Contact
We currently have a new GC slot open and our team could use some help from another active IRC savvy person. Therefore, we're inviting you to apply to become a Group Contact for Wikimedia's IRC channels on freenode. Interested applicants should send their applications to irc-contacts-owner lists.wikimedia.org by January 5th, 2017. An application should at least include:
- a brief outline of applicant's recent IRC activities,
- a link to the applicant's userpage,
- explanation why the applicant believes they would be a good asset to the team.
On behalf of the GC team, --Az1568 (talk) 23:01, 22 December 2016 (UTC)
New Group Contact
We are pleased to announce that the new Group Contact is Az1568 (AlexZ and Az1568 on IRC). We would like to thank all other candidates for submitting their applications. On behalf of the GC team, FiliP ██ 22:16, 18 January 2016 (UTC)
Call for another Group Contact
Since we've currently only one active and two moderately active Group Contacts, our team could use some help from another active IRC savvy person. Therefore, we're inviting you to apply to become a Group Contact for Wikimedia's IRC channels on freenode. Interested applicants should send their applications to irc-contacts-owner lists.wikimedia.org by January 15, 2016. Application should at least include:
- a brief outline of applicant's recent IRC activities,
- a link to the applicant's userpage,
- explanation why the applicant believes they would be a good asset to the team.
On behalf of the GC team, -Barras talk 22:20, 29 December 2015 (UTC)
New Group Contact
We are pleased to announce that the new Group Contact is Snowolf (QueenOfFrance and Snowolf on IRC). After some deliberation, we have finally decided to choose Snowolf, as he is an experienced and trusted user and we think he is going to fit in the team nicely. We would also like to thank all other candidates for submitting their applications.
On behalf of the GC team, -Barras talk 18:13, 2 February 2014 (UTC)
We are looking for a new Group contact
With only one active, one moderately active and one currently inactive Group Contact, our team could use some help from another active IRC savvy person. Therefore, we're announcing a Request for a new Group Contact. Interested applicants should send their applications to irc-contacts-owner lists.wikimedia.org by the end of the month. Application should at least include:
- a brief outline of applicant's recent IRC activities,
- a link to the applicant's userpage,
- explanation why the applicant believes they would be a good asset to the team.
On behalf of the GC team, -Barras talk 19:57, 7 January 2014 (UTC)
Wikivoyage and Wikidata
Today we got the ownership of #wikidata and also #wikivoyage namespaces on IRC. That means we are also able to give cloaks for those projects (wikidata/ and wikivoyage/). The request page has already been updated.
On behalf of the group contacts, -Barras talk 16:39, 22 October 2012 (UTC)
Resignation of User:Cbrown1023 as chair
Hello everyone. Today Casey resigned as group contact and chair of our group on freenode. He gave over the chair to Filip. So we are currently three group contacts.
On behalf of the group contacts, -Barras talk 16:39, 22 October 2012 (UTC)
Another Group contact
Hello all! We are very happy to announce that we just filled the last position for a group contact and this new volunteer is PeterSymonds (PeterSymonds on IRC). He is a very experienced user and IRC operator. We think he will fit great in our group.
On behalf of the group contacts, -Barras 19:03, 25 January 2012 (UTC)
New Group Contact
We are pleased to announce that the new Group Contact is Barras (Barras on IRC). After much deliberation, we have finally decided to choose Barras, as he is an experienced and trusted user and we think he is going to fit in the team nicely. We would also like to thank all other candidates for submitting their applications and we would like to apologize for not making this announcement sooner.
On behalf of the GC team, FiliP ██ 22:13, 1 November 2011 (UTC)
New Group Contact needed
With only 2 moderately active Group Contacts on board, our team could use some help from another active IRC savvy person. Therefore, we're announcing a Request for a new Group Contact. Interested applicants should send their applications to irc-contacts-owner lists.wikimedia.org by Sunday, October 16, 2011. Application should include:
- a brief outline of applicant's recent IRC activities
- explanation why the applicant believes they would be a good asset to the team.
On behalf of the GC team, FiliP ██ 20:36, 6 October 2011 (UTC)
- Any updates on what the results was? -- OlEnglish (Talk) 07:33, 30 October 2011 (UTC)
IRC Group Contacts Chairship handover
| “ |
I’m not a very active Wikimedian at the moment (though hopefully someday I shall return) and so the time has come to handover my chairship of the IRC Group Contacts. I am ceding it to Casey Brown, but this is just a formality, and really it is both Filip and Casey who I leave in charge of Wikimedia’s IRC presence. I imagine that they may well want to make some changes to how things are done on IRC and they have my blessing in this, even if I might disagree with the specifics. It has been a great pleasure to work with them both for the past few years, and with James F. before that, in running our IRC channels. IRC is not important, and it should remain unimportant, so I don’t expect most people to appreciate this, but it has been good to solve problems together and I think we all learnt a lot from the experience, and, hopefully, kept IRC useful for everyone else. |
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original post on foundation-l --FiliP ██ 10:53, 20 May 2011 (UTC)
Developer needed
We're looking for a developer to create and maintain a new cloak request system. For details, please see IRC/Cloaks/System or get in touch with a group contact. - Rjd0060 13:33, 3 December 2009 (UTC)
3 month review
It has been just over 3 months since the new group contact team was announced. Since then, we've been busy working on a number of projects; most of which are “behind the scenes”. It is important to keep a certain level of transparency to show that we are actually accomplishing things.
The role of the group contacts is to liaise with freenode's staff to ensure a good relationship with those that provide out IRC services, to help with the smooth running of IRC by encouraging good practices on the part of channel operators, to deal with channels left without operators, and to assign cloaks. They try to avoid getting involved in the running of individual channels.
We are available on IRC in the channel #wikimedia-ops and via e-mail: irc-contacts lists.wikimedia.org for most issues, irc-contacts-owner lists.wikimedia.org for matters in which you would prefer channel contacts not to see your posting, as this goes to only the GCs.
Our nicks are dungodung, kibble, Rjd0060 and seanw.
Our commitments
- Regular setting of cloaks
- Increased level of activity
- Communicate regularly with channel contacts
What we've done
- Created an internal mailing list to facilitate discussion amongst the group and channel contacts
- Surveyed all channels in our namespaces and recorded basic information
- Personally contacted all owners of primary channels in order to open a line of communication
- Manually set cloaks (since the end of July) while we wait for a new cloak request system to be developed
- Established requirements for and began setting mediawiki cloaks
- Held a meeting to gain community feedback (see log / minutes)
- Appointed a channel contact for the central Wikimedia channel operator channel (#wikimedia-opsconnect)
- Lots of housekeeping with access lists (see log of public actions)
What you can do
- Please tell us if you find users abusing the Wikimedia name by causing trouble in other channels while wearing our cloaks. We are willing and able to deal with these users but can't hope to watch every channel on freenode.
- Come to our IRC meetings and bring up issues so we are aware and have more minds working on problems.
- Check the noticeboard for happenings.
- If you help manage IRC, join #wikimedia-ops and contribute to discussions there.
- Do not hesitate to get in touch with us by e-mail or IRC if you ever have feedback, suggestions or concerns. We will, at the very least least, point you to the correct person.
Moving forward
- We plan to continue our higher level of activity.
- Cloaks will also continue to be set on a regular basis and in a timely fashion.
- A new cloak request system is in the process of being developed.
- We plan to hold IRC community meetings on a regular basis, with the next one scheduled for sometime in November (watch IRC/Group Contacts/Meetings for further updates).
- We will continue to communicate with and rely on the channel contacts to inform us if there are any issues within their channels.
- We're here for support if needed at any time.
For the group contacts, Rjd0060 17:05, 20 September 2009 (UTC)
All Group Contacts are now recognized by freenode
As an update to the note below, Casey, Filip and myself (Ryan) are now recognized by freenode. For the Wikimedia IRC Group Contacts, Rjd0060 21:35, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
Group Contacts Rearrangements
| “ | Wikimedia IRC community,
I am pleased to announce that the IRC Group Contacts team has been changed over to a new group with a strong manifesto. James Forrester, previously chair of the group, has stepped down due to real life commitments inhibiting him from being as active as he once was. On behalf of everyone who uses IRC I'd like to thank him for all the work he has put into the role, and personally I thank him for his guidance while I was deputy IRC Group Contact in fulfilling the role as best as possible; it was invaluable advice. With James leaving the post of chair, I have taken on this role and I now have three new deputies:
James and I, with the involvement of these three and a small team of other IRC representatives and functionaries, chose these three as people we know and trust enough to be able to work with, and as users who we feel suit the Group Contact role well, and of course who have the time and motivation to carry out the job. What is the role of the Group Contact, then, that I have just mentioned? We have set this down for ourselves far more rigorously than before. Over late 2008 to early 2009 the levels of service from James and I have been very poor compared to what is rightly expected by the community - we appreciate that things have been poor. So the new group has come up with ways of trying to engage with everyone involved in IRC more. We intend to try to touch base with our Channel Contacts significantly more often, first by encouraging them to join us in #wikimedia-opsconnect (#wikimedia-ircconnect has been closed and redirected to -ops to try and centralise discussion). They already do a great job but we feel they could benefit from greater support from the Group Contacts. We intend to be around more to be involved in discussions, but we are going to try and remain laid back in terms of using authority directly: the fact that power is delegated to channel contacts and their operator teams, we feel, is an important part of IRC running smoothly. On a technical note, you may see the nick wmfgc around freenode - this is an account used to hold GC priviledges, since there are now many of us who may need access to it. We intend to hold a Group Contact Surgery, per IRC Group Contacts/Surgeries, soon in order that issues from the community can be discussed with other IRC users and contacts around. All of the major IRC channel contacts and the IRC Group Contacts can now be reached on irc-contacts If you just need to contact a GC there is also irc-contacts-owner Sean Whitton User:Sean Whitton seanw on IRC for the Wikimedia IRC Group Contacts |
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The above is in the process of being posted to the usual mailing lists. Please circulate. —Sean Whitton / 20:03, 11 June 2009 (UTC)
Access restored
The group contacts now have control over these channel and cloak namespaces:
#wikimedia, #wikimedia-* namespace & wikimedia/* #wikipedia, #wikipedia-* namespace & wikipedia/* #wikiversity, #wikiversity-* namespace & wikiversity/* #wikispecies, #wikispecies-* namespace & wikispecies/* #wikinews, #wikinews-* namespace & wikinews/* #wikisource, #wikisource-* namespace & wikisource/* #wikibooks, #wikibooks-* namespace & wikibooks/* #wikiquote, #wikiquote-* namespace & wikiquote/* #wiktionary, #wiktionary-* namespace & wiktionary/* #mediawiki, #mediawiki-* namespace wikimedia-commons/*
Cloaks are now being processed as normal at last. —Sean Whitton / 17:18, 4 August 2008 (UTC)
Present level of access
At present (since January 2008), only the #wikimedia-* and #wikipedia-* channel namespaces are under contact control, and only wikimedia/ and wikipedia/ cloaks can be set. We are waiting on freenode to redo our paperwork with us so that we can fully control all project namespaces. —Sean Whitton / 20:41, 27 July 2008 (UTC)