I first realized that something was awry when I started getting comments on posts that have long been quiet stating that the links to various extensions were not working. Checking out the links, I found that the common element in these broken links were Elgg’s Google Groups. I logged into Developers’ group and began looking for the files finding this:
That’s it. Where there used to be scores of files, there are now a few. Checking the Users’ group. I found the same only there just one file.
Why this has happened, I have no idea. I do know one thing—there are files that can no longer be found either in the groups or the Elgg community site. It is puzzling because the oldest file in each group still exists. It appears that they were deleted. Perhaps I am missing something. If so, please set me straight!
My fear is that we are going to lose several extensions that may have been left in the groups by people who haven’t moved over to the community. Perhaps they have developed these projects and moved on to something else.
We need to find out which extensions are missing and search through our collective hard drives and repost them to the Elgg community so this body of work is not lost. Beyond that, I think we should consider a second repository just in case something goes wrong in the future. It appears that nothing can be taken for granted. I would like to hear others’ take on this issue. Also, please post the names of any extensions that you believe are missing so we can recover them.
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Tags: Elgg, extensions
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Steve, I’m new to elgg so I don’t know what plugins are missing, but I’ve noticed a lot of mentions of plugins that don’t seem to exist anywhere. I believe only the owners of a google group can delete files.
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I suppose it is mostly pre-1.0 stuff that is missing, in which case I don’t have anything (at least I don’t remember downloading anything from the google groups site).
Personally, I always archive my plugins, extensions, etc. on my own website as well as on relevant community sites for any open source projects I am involved in. That way, you know that the stuff will always be available, or at least that it is your own responsibility if it disappears. I’d recommend this as good practice to anyone else who is writing extensions. It’s quite common for people to do this sort of thing, so perhaps it would be worth googling the authors of the missing extensions.
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No it is not Pre-1.0 unfortunately. The group was formed right after the 1.0 release. This isn’t mission critical for me personally. I have many redundant copies of anything I have written or modified myself. I just think it would be a shame to lose what has been done.
Lesson learned though. If I review something, I better make sure that I have copies on my server. In fact, I won’t link downloads to other servers in the future.
What puzzles me is why the Elgg developers just deleted these files. I’ll try to figure out what is gone and store them safely for the sake of the community–not so much myself!
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I’m also new too elgg, and I LOVE IT! I cannot understand why more people are using it? But, I do appreciate resources like yours — it’s been extremely helpful.
Hopefully the missing plug-ins will turn up.
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Indeed Steve, we do need a second repository. Too many are people and companies start to depend on this. For example since last week, I see the core dev’s being sort of mute -probably just busy on other stuff- but I get a little paranoid;)
Would Sourceforge be a good one? .. seeing your energy and enthusiasm, I suggest you just become the owner? Or even this Openedweb of you? Actually one ZIP file, would I suppose do the trick, as long as there are no videos in it, the size will be ok I guess. Alternatively, my company would be happy to volunteer and set up a file-uploader if you like. Teh community uploads new versions of code and documentation; we combine it weekly into one downloadable ZIP so we ALL have a copy on our drives;)
Although as a forum and resource platform the Community is still quite cumbersome, being powered by Elgg, we will use that one for daily work of course….
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The muteness concerns me and many others as well. Let me think about the best way to do this.
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I’ve also noticed that the google groups developers list has stopped posting comments. I assume that is because no one is available to approve comments because the core team is at the elgg conference. Photos from the conference here: http://twitpic.com/pg3p
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Sounds logical, Cash. Still, this is a critical phase. Before Elgg1.x obtains an undisputed position, we all have to be alive and kicking. It is not Joomla, Wordpress or Drupal yet. Giving new users confidence is essential. The users are very active but we are missing a top-down overview of all efforts. Now I see many people get stranded…and stranded people never return in this Web 2.0 world…
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@Cash The Google groups were not moderated in the past. Are they now?
@Tom–you are right, this is a critical stage. We need to help people from being stranded for the good of the project.
I really think a wiki may work best for filling out the documentation and even as a means of housing extensions (which also could use more documentation).
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Absolutely… and I guess MediaWiki should be the one? Elgg uses it, it is big enough and there even seem to be connections written so that might one day become useful as well…
Let’s sleep a night on this
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@Tom In fact I have already set up a mediawiki on this site in anticipation of this. I haven’t been able to give it quite as much time as I was working on some presentations for and Educational technology conference (on my favorite subject: open source server side apps for Web 2.0).
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@Steve:
Brainstorm 1: you know what would be best is: one Wiki, for Community Documentation as well as plugin repository with an easy way for each user to simply take a zipped copy of the database. In that sense we all know we can reanimate if it comes to it.
Brainstorm 2: we do have open data on Elgg…right? So it should be possible to replicate the whole community content on another install? If that takes place on a regular basis, it also solves the issue…
I am curious if the core-dev’s would be willing to listen to the idea and understand our concerns…
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@Steve
At least for the developers group, new members have their comments moderated. I’m still waiting for a comment to be posted from Saturday. I don’t know if this has changed, but only managers can post files for that group too.
I share the same concern as all of you do – that Curverider could decide to shut down elgg.org without notice and we lose all of those efforts.
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I’m able to post to the developer’s group without moderation. I’m certainly not aware that I have any special permissions. Anyone else?
These guys have been around for awhile. We don’t have to worry about Elgg 1 disappearing. I think that it would be beneficial if they maintain a presence in their communities along with addressing some concerns.
I know that it isn’t easy. I have made a few simple extensions and have occasionally gotten frustrated with supporting these alone.
Clearly there is documentation, from the user level and up, that need to be fleshed out for this project to become more widely implemented.
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Is there no other major “unofficial” resource for elgg developers and users?
It seems to me that the developers at elgg need a little bit of help in public and community relations.
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*new members* have their comments moderated on the developers forum. I don’t know the definition of new members for google. For yahoo groups, I believe the owner of the group has to actually change the person’s status. I’m hoping that google is using a counter because right now my comments are going into a black-hole.
Anyway, I think the development of resources outside of the google groups and elgg.org is a good thing.
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@David: yes, I guess they can use some help. I just checked. The 3 core dev’s have been silent since 2 weeks and that should not happen on this…
@Steve: we are meeting this week with our dev team to discuss…forking. This really is a (very) bad scenario, but it is quite serious: we jeopardize our project if we stand still for 2 weeks and counting
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@Tom: Have you brought up your concerns to the Curverider team?
A little bit of good news is that Marcus has committed (at least) two bug fixes today.
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I know they have continued to work on things behind the scenes. For example, on their community site, The Wire now works properly.
@Tom. I certainly hope it won’t come to that, but their disappearance is not confidence inspiring.
I can contact them I guess, but they are not real happy with me. I don’t know if they are reading this blog currently.
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@Cash- good point, I will try and get in touch with them. What we really need is some kind signal of confidence… Sure, it is all volunteer work, but some of us are using the software for serious matters and we like to understand their ideas for the future, their role and what they expect from the community…
@Steve- indeed, it should not come to that. I am a strong believer of open communication – live and let live. So, I think the Curveriders deserve all credit and rewards, virtual and real.
@all- jumping ahead, but have you looked recently at the new Sourceforge? I could envision moving the Google forum to their new environment. We could simply organize around plugins /themes and let the forum and revisions flow under that. It’s clear, simple, free and proven 50.000++ times;) Besides, it could operate in full harmony next to Curverider’s Community and core…
Well, let’s first hear what they have to say… We share the same goals afterall
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I notice that Dave Tosh has his profile set to: “testing various platforms”. Maybe they’re just too busy?
Hopefully they’ll indicate some sort of approval to a parallel development group. Could take some of the pressure off curverider?
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