VFK Wiki Information & Community Request

Hi Everyone,

As some may know me as, I have been the most recent steward of the VFK Wiki. Unfortunately late last year the wiki was temporarily taken offline due to some quality control issues. As I have become busier in my life I can no longer dedicate the time or care necessary in the upkeep, moderation, and control of this important tool to the community. 

I have privately been engaging in handover activities over the last few months but wanted to extend this publicly. Some people have reached out to me asking to be moderators of the Wiki, but I have yet to find someone who wants ownership over the codebase and hosting responsibilities with the proper knowledge. 

I have taken the time necessary to package and back up the wiki in preparation for handoff. I wish to ensure the continuation of the wiki and ensure it goes into safe hands. As this is a work of myself and the community I want the flame to continue. It is powerful to know the game is still going strong all the way since 2008; and this legacy is important to preserve! The work of many before me such as MattPHP, Miraj, IcyBlue, Tomorrow, and countless others have gotten us to this point, and this passover has happened twice before. Like the previous iterations I hope the wiki can continue to be a living document that is constantly improved and innovated. 

That being said here are some of the technical details:
  • The wiki is running Mediawiki 1.29 - the same software as Wikipedia. However, this is an out of date and out of support version and needs to be updated!  I upgraded the version when It was handed off to to me and you should do the same. You will be inheriting a codebase with some 'technical debt'; well really just a necessity that it needs to be updated or migrated to a new platform. I was looking into alternatives like Wiki.js and Dokuwiki but the conversion activities will take some time. If you're wanting to learn something new and up for a challenge this is for you :)
  • Currently codebase is in PHP. If you wanted to add new features or use MediaWiki APIs you will need knowledge of this. 
  • There is a gap between March 2020 and now in terms of items being updated. 
  • Some scripts that automated processes such as updating the homepage with the most recent newsletter and pulling in new items are broken/wont be included in the migration. These features could be improved or remade in the future. 
  • The wiki requires a caring hand and a time investment to ensure moderation and upkeep and maintenance are performed. This shouldn't be treated as a passive project; you should truly care and want to be involved!
  • Wiki is currently hosted on DO. Would suggest moving to AWS / GCP for cost savings and infrastructure automation. Implementation is up to you. FYI Codebase currently runs "on metal" and isn't containerized / virtualized. This is an older codebase that has been passed around; would be worth the time to dockerize for ease of use and installation in the future. 
Here are some fun details that may give you inspiration for where you could take this into the future:
  • Would be cool to see some OAuth integration with VFK directly or other sort of syncing.
  • Use the wiki as a data lake of items and assets for new tools for the community like a trading platform.
  • Help contribute to the success and preservation of VFK. 
If anyone in the community is up for it please respond to this thread or send me a message. I'd love to hear the communities' thoughts on this direction and any feedback you may have. 

The codebase is on GitHub now in a private repo and is ready to have some collaborators added.

I am attempting to find any burgeoning developers or programmers in the community who would like to take on this task. Please make yourself known; I know we can be a quiet kind :)

Thanks everyone!





Comments

  • Nice to see you back Maroon! Thank you for running the VFK Wiki this entire time and looking for someone to continue it. Can't wait to have it back :)
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