Toolserver finance remains uncertain
On November 24, a general assembly of Wikimedia Germany (WMDE) voted on the fate of the Wikimedia Toolserver, a central external piece of technical infrastructure supporting the editing communities with volunteer-developed scripts and webpages of various kinds that are assisting in performing mostly menial tasks.
The chapter set up the Toolserver in the Netherlands in 2005, and has funded its general budget, which has grown to €100k (US$130k), with some financial and technical assistance from the WMF and some financial assistance from European chapters ever since. However, in 2011 the foundation decided to create WikiLabs (also known as Wikimedia Labs) to perform various tasks, including an approximation of the Toolserver's functionality by mid-2013; as part of the plan, the foundation will wind down financial support for what would become at least partially redundant infrastructure.
After WMDE published its annual plan for the upcoming financial year, saying it will not continue to fund the Toolserver after a transitional period, a debate on the potential of WikiLabs to replace the older structure got traction. DaB, the long-serving "root" volunteer of the Toolserver, said he would resign by the end of the year unless sufficient funding is provided to handle the growing demands on the system. The chapter's management delivered what he saw as insufficient assurances and responded by publishing a proposal to the WMDE general assembly to guarantee future funding.
While the German Wikipedia community set up a survey to make its reliance on the Toolserver transparent to voters at the general assembly, the WMDE board, led by DerHexer, responded by outlining a significant amendment to DaB's proposal.
On November 24, the assembly voted and decided to go along with the changes to DaB's proposal. By this decision, it replaced the assurance to fund the Toolserver until a later general assembly can make a final decision based on the facts concerning what will by then be the established WikiLabs project during a six-month transitional period. During this time-window, WMDE seeks a binding statement by WMF until when and how the foundation's project is going to replace Toolserver functions. If the demand is not met, the chapter will work out a big-picture governance model to run its infrastructure beyond 2013. The text sponsored by DerHexer also replaced a concrete commitment—to both invest in five new servers and guarantee one full-time staffer—with relatively vague wording, saying that the chapter aims to ensure a "(nearly) trouble-free functionality for the Toolserver", but without specific financial or personnel commitments. Out of the chapter's 2400 members, who are largely not active on WMF projects, 24 supported the amended proposal and six voted against the changes (informal protocol).
Merlissimo, who administers several bots on the Toolserver, told the Signpost that his list of significant reasons why WikiLabs cannot replace the functionality of WMDE's infrastructure remains unaffected by the vote. Summing up his views the day after, DaB stated on the mailing list that he was "disappointed", emphazising that DerHexer's changes to his proposal are leaving open significant risks of ambiguity. He said he will announce next Sunday whether he will step down by year's end.