Editing Forum:Traveller Wiki is leaving Wikia

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Due to changes in licensing policy from both Wikia and Far Future Enterpises the Traveller Wiki can no longer remain at it's current host. It's a sad, but not unexpected, turn of events.

I will be contacting the Wikia staff later today to get the process of removing the wiki. You can get a backup of the Traveller Wiki from the [[Special:Statistics |Statistics Page]]. I will be keeping a copy as well.

I am hoping to put the Traveller wiki back up again on another host which allows for more compatible licensing. I've not made a final decision and part of the reason for posting this note is to ask for your assistance in recommending one. The requirements are:
* Free hosting - there isn't a real organization which can pay for hosting.
* Ability to set License compatible with FFE FUP

Also on the wishlist is the host should use the latest version of Mediawiki to make the transferring easier.

I will be posting this to a few of the Traveller fora I lurk in. If you know of any other places or people that might be interested, please feel free to send along the notice.

I thank everyone for their contributions, energy, and enthusiasm. It has been a good seven years.

[[User:Tjoneslo|Tjoneslo]] ([[User talk:Tjoneslo|talk]]) 13:07, December 3, 2012 (UTC)



Citizens of the Imperium (the T20 website, not the book) started a wiki way back when. It went dead due to the success of our wiki. Perhaps we can get them to revive it (starting with boosting it from 70 entries to 8000 ;-) )? It would require people register in order to edit, but I'm not sure that actually a downside. (I've been vexed more than once by the  indeterminancy of 'A Wikia Contributor'). [[User:Rancke|Rancke]] ([[User talk:Rancke|talk]]) 15:27, December 3, 2012 (UTC)

: I've checked into the CotI boards and wiki. The wiki is still there, but of an ancient version. There is no technical staff available to make upgrades. So, while a possibility, it presents more challenges than I'm willing (or have time) to tackle. [[User:Tjoneslo|Tjoneslo]] ([[User talk:Tjoneslo|talk]]) 13:22, December 5, 2012 (UTC)

: I missed your reply and only spotted it today. I think you should post a message on CotI to see if there are ways to solve these problems. It may not do any good, but it can't hurt to try. I'd do it myself, but I think it would be best if it came from you. [[User:Rancke|Rancke]] ([[User talk:Rancke|talk]]) 14:06, December 25, 2012 (UTC)

: I am (probably not surprisingly) the chief librarian at CotI, I will check to see if the version can be upgraded. [[User:Dcorrin|Dcorrin]] ([[User talk:Dcorrin|talk]]) 18:56, January 10, 2013 (UTC)

:: When I messaged with Aramis, he didn't think so. But that may have changed. [[User:Tjoneslo|Tjoneslo]] ([[User talk:Tjoneslo|talk]]) 00:40, January 11, 2013 (UTC)

==Moving Day==
Sorry no real ideas on where to move the Wiki too. It would be a great loss to the Traveller community, particularly with T5 about to be published in full (can't wait to get my "title", it'll probably be some backwater in the middle of nowhere, but it'll be mine!). Have you considered getting a standard hosting account and installing the MediaWiki software? It's a PHP package and shouldn't be much harder than a forum or CMS to install. Having installed lots of those over the years would be happy to asssist. 
[[User:Imperial Grand Survey|Imperial Grand Survey]] ([[User talk:Imperial Grand Survey|talk]]) 20:33, December 3, 2012 (UTC)

===Installing MediaWiki===
Just looked at MediaWiki's website. It isn't any more complicated than a forum or CMS to install. All you will need is a hosting account that has PHP (which is almost all of them) and the bandwidth that we would need. [[User:Imperial Grand Survey|Imperial Grand Survey]] ([[User talk:Imperial Grand Survey|talk]]) 20:45, December 3, 2012 (UTC)

: I do have an offer of a free host. The longer term challenge is site maintenance. I'm still working with Wikia and FFE to make a determination of what's going on. [[User:Tjoneslo|Tjoneslo]] ([[User talk:Tjoneslo|talk]]) 13:22, December 5, 2012 (UTC)

: Is there a possiblity of getting the data on a CD that would act similar to this wiki? If so I would be more than happy. [[User:Sstefan|Sstefan]] ([[User talk:Sstefan|talk]]) 03:43, December 20, 2012 (UTC)
:: You can download all of the text (but not the images) from [[Special:Statistics]] (see last section of the page). The dump is an XML file which can be imported directly into another mediawiki installation. There are two versions, current pages and all history. The All history is 14MB compressed XML. [[User:Tjoneslo|Tjoneslo]] ([[User talk:Tjoneslo|talk]]) 14:39, December 23, 2012 (UTC)

== Forking Wikia ==
An update for all those following along. I've found a new host for the Traveller wiki. I'm currently in the process of setting things up. We'll be in association with Traveller Downport (http://www.downport.com/), a whole suite of Traveller sites.

According to Wikia policy, there is no way to move the a wiki away from Wikia. You are allowed under the terms of the license to "fork" the wiki, that is make a copy. So the Traveller wiki on Wikia will remain, but I'm hoping we can get all the traffic to the new site. Also according to Wikia policy, we're not allowed to publish the forked site on the main page, or create any set of links to the new site. So keep an eye on the various other Traveller forums for an announcement.

The one thing I could use a hand with is the images. I have all of the ludography covers and the PDF trade maps, but am missing the hand generated subsector maps by [[User:Rindis]] and [[User:Imperial Grand Survey|Imperial Grand Survey]]. I'm quite sure there are a few others. [[User:Tjoneslo|Tjoneslo]] ([[User talk:Tjoneslo|talk]]) 23:21, January 12, 2013 (UTC)

:I have all the ones I have done, can we not download the Rindis ones from the remaining version at Wikia? [[User:Imperial Grand Survey|Imperial Grand Survey]] ([[User talk:Imperial Grand Survey|talk]]) 01:57, February 2, 2013 (UTC)
:: Just tested, a download of the Rindis images is possible. Leave it to me, I will get all of the maps, both mine and those by [[User:Rindis|Rindis]] and when things are ready at Traveller Downport they can be re-installed. Plenty of free time at the moment thanks to a change in business and we are yet to ramp things up fully. [[User:Imperial Grand Survey|Imperial Grand Survey]] ([[User talk:Imperial Grand Survey|talk]]) 02:02, February 2, 2013 (UTC)

: An update. I have captured a recent backup of the Traveller Wiki pages, plus all of the images. I've been having an interesting technical challenge getting the information back into the new site. I think I've worked around the problems and am slowly managing to get everything back into shape. I'm hoping that by next weekend I'll have all the pieces done and start making announcements. Thanks for your patience. [[User:Tjoneslo|Tjoneslo]] ([[User talk:Tjoneslo|talk]]) 23:49, February 3, 2013 (UTC)
: Where is the new site exactly? I went to downport, but could not find it. [[User:Dcorrin|Dcorrin]] ([[User talk:Dcorrin|talk]]) 15:30, February 4, 2013 (UTC)
@@ Line 55: / Line 55: @@
 : An update. I have captured a recent backup of the Traveller Wiki pages, plus all of the images. I've been having an interesting technical challenge getting the information back into the new site. I think I've worked around the problems and am slowly managing to get everything back into shape. I'm hoping that by next weekend I'll have all the pieces done and start making announcements. Thanks for your patience. [[User:Tjoneslo|Tjoneslo]] ([[User talk:Tjoneslo|talk]]) 23:49, February 3, 2013 (UTC)
 : Where is the new site exactly? I went to downport, but could not find it. [[User:Dcorrin|Dcorrin]] ([[User talk:Dcorrin|talk]]) 15:30, February 4, 2013 (UTC)
-Hello, everyone. While we at Wikia are certainly sad to see this community fork, we wish all the best for those of you who do intend to move. I just wanted to chime and clarify/expand on a few points in regards to our fork policy:
-*<span style="line-height:20px;">Please do not link to your new wiki on the main page of the Wikia version. It's OK to link to a blog post or other discussion, but that can't be a permanent notice</span>
-*Please make sure that any messaging in blogs or other discussions clearly says that people have a choice to move with you or to stay
-*Please do not post to users' talk pages with messages about the fork. We look on this just as you would have if someone came here in the past, and started leaving mass messages about their site on talk pages.
-*Please do not try to delete pages, change fundamental elements of the site, or otherwise damage the content. The wiki should be left intact and available for any future editors to use.
-*Please do not use the wiki to promote your new fork. This includes templates, notices or URLs on pages other than the announcement.
-Thanks, --[[User:Semanticdrifter|semanticdrifter]]  <staff/> <small>([[w:c:community:Forum:Community_Central_Forum|help forum]] | [[w:c:community:Blog:Wikia_Staff_Blog |blog]])</small> 18:35, February 6, 2013 (UTC)