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Migrate Wikimedia away from OTRS software and branding
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Description

OTRS 6, the emailed handling software used by volunteers to process queries to projects, is end-of-life as FOSS software. We've migrated to a FOSS fork, Znuny LTS, and now there is a lot of cleanup work to do.

The official English name of the team is Volunteer Response Team (VRT), using the Volunteer Response Team Software (VRTS). This naming convention is meant to prevent future renames in case of other software or structural changes. There will be Naming Convention Guidelines written and published to provide direction for language communities. Please do not rename any pages independently.

This is the parent tracking task for the work involved in migration. This work is being done in coordination with the Volunteer Response Team leaders over the course of the next several months.

Phase 1 (1 March - 13 April)

  • Decide on a course of action
  • Migrate to Znuny LTS

Phase 2 (15 April - 15 May)

  • Communicate staged plans with agents and community
  • Rename pages on Meta
  • Design a new icon for Commons permissions
  • Replace the old Commons template
  • Request renaming/aliasing for OTRS wiki

Phase 3 (timeframe TBD)

  • Rename mailing lists
  • Rename Phabricator project
  • Write and publish naming convention guidelines for language teams
  • Design a new icon for user boxes
  • Design a new favicon for Znuny LTS
  • Replace userbox icons with new icon

No set timeframe so far

  • Rename IRC channels
  • Replace text references on Meta

...more will be added to this list as work progresses.

Related Objects

Event Timeline

There are a very large number of changes, so older changes are hidden. Show Older Changes

The bot on Commons is working to complete its template replacement task, it should take a few weeks. While this is going on, the migration organizing group will be slowing things down for a few weeks as we organize for the next steps needed to replace text on wikis and rename pages/have pages renamed. I'll update the task further at the end of the month.

I’ve just noticed that the group name in Commons’ {{TemplateBox}} is broken, because the group name message was renamed almost three years ago from group-OTRS-member to group-otrs-member. I could fix it now, but I’d like to avoid editing a template used on tens of thousands of pages twice within a short time. Do you know when—or whether—the MediaWiki message will be renamed?

I’ve just noticed that the group name in Commons’ {{TemplateBox}} is broken, because the group name message was renamed almost three years ago from group-OTRS-member to group-otrs-member. I could fix it now, but I’d like to avoid editing a template used on tens of thousands of pages twice within a short time. Do you know when—or whether—the MediaWiki message will be renamed?

It is being renamed, T280615: Rename OTRS member global group. I'm not sure the exact date, but it should be within the next week or two.

As IRC migrates to Libera.chat, this might be a good opportunity to do the channel renames, and potentially add renames to the list of "channels who are taking this opportunity to rename".

In T280392#7108009, @EpicPupper wrote:

As IRC migrates to Libera.chat, this might be a good opportunity to do the channel renames, and potentially add renames to the list of "channels who are taking this opportunity to rename".

see T283400: Rename OTRS IRC channels

I’ve just noticed that the group name in Commons’ {{TemplateBox}} is broken, because the group name message was renamed almost three years ago from group-OTRS-member to group-otrs-member. I could fix it now, but I’d like to avoid editing a template used on tens of thousands of pages twice within a short time. Do you know when—or whether—the MediaWiki message will be renamed?

It is being renamed, T280615: Rename OTRS member global group. I'm not sure the exact date, but it should be within the next week or two.

Thanks, I forgot to check the subtasks. A few weeks is totally okay, I just wanted to avoid waiting for months (as the process is ongoing for months now, and there’s no set end date yet).

Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations) [2021-06-02T09:14:38Z] <urbanecm> [urbanecm@mwmaint1002 ~]$ mwscript extensions/Translate/scripts/moveTranslatablePage.php --wiki=metawiki --reason='OTRS -> VRTS renaming process; see [[Phab:T280392]] and [[Phab:T280396]] ([[:phab:T284118|request]])' 'OTRS' 'VRT' 'Quiddity (WMF)' # T284118

I’ve created Commons:VRT permissions agents so that the new message added in T280615 doesn’t cause a red link, but Commons:Global OTRS group should probably moved there, or to some other new name. I’ll let someone else do that.

Update (21 June 2021)

The initial big tasks are just about completed. The wiki is moved, pages and templates on the "big wikis" are moved/replaced or in the process of being so, Commons is just about sorted out as well as Meta. New logos are in the works but if they don't happen soon we'll use the Community logo or something like that as a placeholder.

After the migration team's next meeting on 1 July, we'll be sending out information to all agents about the remaining work and how people can help out finish cleaning the "long tail" of wiki pages and templates to sort through beyond what's been done already.

@Keegan
Logo following the Wikimedia visual identity guidelines:

If we need a colored version (which was the visual identity until 2018 I believe), like https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_OTRS_logo.svg, it can be done.

The all-black logo represents the Wikimedia Foundation. The Wikimedia VRT is not the foundation, so I feel using the all-black logo would be inappropriate here. The Wikimedia OTRS logo was based on the Wikimedia Movement logo (the red greed and blue), and that is more appropriate.

@Keegan @AntiCompositeNumber
Here's the new version:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Wikimedia_VRT_RGB_logo.svg

Side note: If you feel that the black logo is misleading and that it will never be used, it can be speedy deleted.

After the migration team's next meeting on 1 July, we'll be sending out information to all agents about the remaining work and how people can help out finish cleaning the "long tail" of wiki pages and templates to sort through beyond what's been done already.

When we should expect the information coming?

After the migration team's next meeting on 1 July, we'll be sending out information to all agents about the remaining work and how people can help out finish cleaning the "long tail" of wiki pages and templates to sort through beyond what's been done already.

When we should expect the information coming?

I'm starting a draft tomorrow on the VRT wiki, it should be ready to send to everyone by late next week.

Just found out about this name change. It seems really daft: OTRS was a bad acronym to use, but at least people got used to it. Now, VRTS is equally confusing, and no-one knows what it means (something about virtual reality?) - but I guess they'll get used to it again...

Couldn't you have picked something more simple and obvious, without using an acronym? Something like 'Wikimedia Permissions' would have been really nice...

@Mike_Peel: Did you read previous comments like T280392#7031818 before?

No, but looking back they don't help much. Yes, "Volunteer Response Team" has been around for a long time, but not "VRT" as an acrynom. And the opportunity to make this public-facing service more easy to understand by not having it as an acronym, has been missed.

@Mike_Peel: Did you read previous comments like T280392#7031818 before?

No, but looking back they don't help much. Yes, "Volunteer Response Team" has been around for a long time, but not "VRT" as an acrynom. And the opportunity to make this public-facing service more easy to understand by not having it as an acronym, has been missed.

I don't think we're using the acronym in our public-facing email footers or templates, and our email "From:" fields use descriptive names: "Wikipedia Volunteer Response Team" for info-en, "Permissions - Wikimedia Commons" for permissions-commons, etc.

The Meta page is currently at the title [[VRT]], which I think we did because it was previously at [[OTRS]]. I wouldn't be automatically opposed to moving it to [[Volunteer Response Team]] like it is on Wikipedia instead.

Ultimately, Wikimedians like acronyms, so we designated one for internal/internalish use.

I don't think we're using the acronym in our public-facing email footers or templates, and our email "From:" fields use descriptive names: "Wikipedia Volunteer Response Team" for info-en, "Permissions - Wikimedia Commons" for permissions-commons, etc.

The Meta page is currently at the title [[VRT]], which I think we did because it was previously at [[OTRS]]. I wouldn't be automatically opposed to moving it to [[Volunteer Response Team]] like it is on Wikipedia instead.

Ultimately, Wikimedians like acronyms, so we designated one for internal/internalish use.

OK, that helps a lot. It would be good to rename the Meta page, and generally avoid using the acronym if possible. In general, Wikimedians use acronyms ([[:en:WP:TMA]]), but for page names etc. it's secondary/just a shortcut.

I don't think we're using the acronym in our public-facing email footers or templates, and our email "From:" fields use descriptive names: "Wikipedia Volunteer Response Team" for info-en, "Permissions - Wikimedia Commons" for permissions-commons, etc.

The Meta page is currently at the title [[VRT]], which I think we did because it was previously at [[OTRS]]. I wouldn't be automatically opposed to moving it to [[Volunteer Response Team]] like it is on Wikipedia instead.

Ultimately, Wikimedians like acronyms, so we designated one for internal/internalish use.

OK, that helps a lot. It would be good to rename the Meta page, and generally avoid using the acronym if possible. In general, Wikimedians use acronyms ([[:en:WP:TMA]]), but for page names etc. it's secondary/just a shortcut.

Your points are completely understandable, @Mike_Peel . This is one of those choices where either way may cause some concern. The transition team discussed this point (among your others) during a meeting, and while generally speaking your point is true, OTRS is an exception to the rule–the acronym was widely regarded as the name for the entirety of the team and its processes in our international community. In the end I made the decision to preserve the acronym for the page name on Meta, my reason for doing so being that renaming the page from OTRS to VRTS is the path that most resembles the previous status quo while simultaneously pushing people towards understanding, accepting, and using the change in names. If the Meta page name hadn't already been called "OTRS," and if the community didn't use the acronym so casually as longstanding international tradition, we'd likely have come to a different conclusion and result.

OK, I've proposed moving https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/VRT on that page, I hope that's OK / a good place to raise this on-wiki.

Mentioned in SAL (#wikimedia-operations) [2021-07-24T11:04:15Z] <urbanecm> [urbanecm@mwmaint2002 ~]$ mwscript extensions/Translate/scripts/moveTranslatablePage.php --wiki=commonswiki --reason='OTRS -> VRTS renaming process; see [[Phab:T280392]] and [[Phab:T280397]]' --move-subpages 'Commons:OTRS' 'Commons:Volunteer Response Team' 'Martin Urbanec' # T287321

@whym : It has been mentioned in one of our meeting, if I remember correctly. The answer is no, this 'otrs' in the url doesn't need to be changed.

Per @Mike_Peel request on meta to move VRT to Volunteer Request Team, I had closed the RM discussion as successful per onwiki consensus. I know there are some other opinions here. The move also need system admin attention. Attached the link below. https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:VRT

For advice please, thanks much

@Cohaf @Mike_Peel Please go ahead. Mind that you'll need to

As a reminder, moving translatable pages does not automatically create redirects (T41023). You'll have to create any appropriate redirects yourself and fix any broken redirects.

Under phase 3, an unchecked task is "Replace userbox icons with new icon". If I'm not mistaken, this seems to be already done? https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Permission_logo_2021.svg is used in all the userboxes I've seen so far, e.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Template:User_VRT and https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:User_VRT.

There are were a few that still need replacing from a glance at https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q7800756#sitelinks-wikipedia
I've fixed them now. (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)

@Quiddity overall status here? Are we stuck with this kind of tasks on our board forever?

@Elitre It's just blocked on the (complicated) single open sub-task, T289065: rename VRT mailing lists. But we can remove this task from our workboard.

Change 932316 had a related patch set uploaded (by Dzahn; author: Dzahn):

[operations/puppet@production] vrts: rename otrs_aliases to vrts_aliases

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/932316

Change 932319 had a related patch set uploaded (by Dzahn; author: Dzahn):

[operations/puppet@production] vrts::web: replace OTRS with VRTS in comments

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/932319

Change 932320 had a related patch set uploaded (by Dzahn; author: Dzahn):

[operations/puppet@production] vrts: replace OTRS in Wikitech monitoring notes URLs

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/932320

Change 932322 had a related patch set uploaded (by Dzahn; author: Dzahn):

[operations/puppet@production] vrts: replace OTRS string in exim4 config tempate

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/932322

Change 932317 had a related patch set uploaded (by Dzahn; author: Dzahn):

[operations/puppet@production] vrts: rename exim config snippet

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/932317

Change 932319 merged by Dzahn:

[operations/puppet@production] vrts::web: replace OTRS with VRTS in comments

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/932319

Change 932320 merged by Dzahn:

[operations/puppet@production] vrts: replace OTRS in Wikitech monitoring notes URLs

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/932320

Change 932316 merged by Dzahn:

[operations/puppet@production] vrts: rename otrs_aliases to vrts_aliases

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/932316

Change 932317 abandoned by Dzahn:

[operations/puppet@production] vrts: rename exim config snippet

Reason:

decided to not do this one since I am not sure enough if I have to change /etc/exim4/exim4.conf in the same change and small improvement not worth a risk right now.

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/932317

Change 932322 abandoned by Dzahn:

[operations/puppet@production] vrts: replace OTRS string in exim4 config tempate

Reason:

a bit risky for my taste right now but not invalid! if you ever want to, feel free to click "restore" and go ahead with this, carefully

https://gerrit.wikimedia.org/r/932322