[Mageia-sysadm] [forums-discuss] Re: updating sysadmin privileges in forum config

[Wolfgang Bornath]

2012/3/22 Marja van Waes <marja11 at xs4all.nl>:
> On 21/03/12 23:34, Wolfgang Bornath wrote:
>>
>> 2012/3/21 Florian Hubold<doktor5000 at arcor.de>:
>>>
>>> Am 21.03.2012 20:39, schrieb Maât:
>>>>
>>>> On 21/03/2012 17:18, Romain d'Alverny wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> On Wed, Mar 21, 2012 at 14:57, Romain d'Alverny<rdalverny at gmail.com>
>>>>>  wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>> [...]
>>>>>
>>>>> Steps taken so far (removing one level of indirection):
>>>>>   * Sysadmins group:
>>>>>     - removed;
>>>>>   * Administrators group:
>>>>>     - added sysadmin members who have not bee inactive for too long; I
>>>>> still didn't look up full sysadmins list for that, but this can now be
>>>>> managed by them directly;
>>>>>     - added boklm as leader;
>>>>>     - removed ash who has not been active in the forum and the project
>>>>> for several months;
>>>>>     - don't know what to do with forumadmin user (neither what it's
>>>>> for);
>>>>
>>>> It's the first user created at install: it was used to create the other
>>>> admins with forum-founder bit set up (included yours)
>>>>
>>>> This account should not be used except for crash recovery or things like
>>>> that
>>>> (login impossible until ldap connexion is disengaged or an matching user
>>>> is
>>>> created in LDAP directory)
>>>>
>>>>>   * Moderators group:
>>>>>     - demoted ash from leadership for the same reason.
>>>>>
>>>>> (as a reminder, this is not going to change at all how forum
>>>>> moderators already operate).
>>>>>
>>>>> So now:
>>>>>   - sysadmin members can organize to manage, update and answer forum
>>>>> admin&    moderators, from code to deployment to online config;
>>>>>   - it's up to a volunteer to get the forum admin role and coordinate
>>>>> with moderators and sysadmins; s/he will have to be promoted in
>>>>> Administrators and Moderators groups;
>>>>>   - all groups, you decide then how you operate for the best.
>>>>>
>>>>> r.
>>>>
>>>> There are 2 things that were not adressed :
>>>>
>>>>  * Separation of forum administration on several "roles" which... oh
>>>>    well forget about it... saying it once more will only demoralize
>>>>    me... so let's do as if i did say nothing :-/
>>>>  * Lack of PHP/PHPBB coding skills... Once that solved i'd fear to see
>>>>    mongers and python experts reviewing PHPBB hacks... by the way
>>>>    testing them in a testbed without a copy of the real database...
>>>>    pushing them blindly with git and asking if a sysadmin could find 2
>>>>    minutes to push them on the actives forums... waiting for the
>>>>    mail/whatever notification to click on the interfaces (of each... a
>>>>    chance we have only 2 of them) and run the update process (praying
>>>>    god that everything will go as expected because the rollback given
>>>>    this way of doing things is just something that you don't want to
>>>>    get into)
>>>>
>>>> That's what i already pointed... half an admin... bound and
>>>> distrusted... as
>>>> useful as the ties allow to be (iow not very much).
>>>
>>> Sorry, just can't resist. You wrote in the other mail:
>>>
>>>> I already explained that separating these roles would bring no good... a
>>>> pure
>>>> "interface forum admin" is an emasculated admin... nearly useless.
>>>> Without
>>>> the ability of administrating the database at a low level adding indexes
>>>> for
>>>> tuning, optimizing cache and that sort of things, getting data from
>>>> apache
>>>> logs and various things to lock spammers without loading the system,
>>>> without
>>>> all these tasks a forum admin is, in facts, not a forum admin but just a
>>>> figurine... beautiful in a glass case if in line with adornment ^^
>>>
>>> On the other hand, what's an admin who does nothing except
>>> being absent, not even doing forum software security updates?
>
>
> TBH, Florian, I would have left completely if I had been him, but he is
> still around.
>
> Can you please give a link to the updates you just mentioned?

He is talking about the update of the forum software phpBB3. The
version used at Mageia is outdated since summer 2011. New versions of
phpBB3 almost always are caused by security issues. This has been
mentioned several times in the forum threads. The point is that the
implementation of the forum software at Mageia (involving puppet,
etc.) was done this way to "ease forum software maintenance" (quoting
maât). :)

And yes, TBH as well, Marja, after the forums were installed last year
it would not have made much difference if maât had left completely a
year ago.

-- 
wobo