Help:IRC

IRC is the preferred discussion platform for Wikimedia Cloud Services.

The main channel is called #wikimedia-cloud ^connect and it's hosted on the libera.chat network (all discussions are publicly logged).

For general information about IRC usage in other Wikimedia projects, see m:IRC.

Code of Conduct

By participating in the IRC channel you agree to adhere to the Code of Conduct for Wikimedia technical spaces.

We also encourage everyone to follow the Technical Engagement Social Norms.

What to do there

#wikimedia-cloud ^connect is a help channel for anything related to services provided by Wikimedia Cloud Services.

Things you can do there:

1. Ask for help about the provided services (Toolforge, Cloud VPS, Data Services, etc.)
2. Request attention for a bug filed in Phabricator
3. Ask for access to a specific project
4. Record Server Admin Log messages by sending !log project message messages

The occasional off-topic discussion about real life and events at Wikimedia is permitted in moderate quantities.

Forbidden behavior

Additionally, there are certain rules we strictly enforce to create a healthy discussion environment:

1. No spamming/advertising
2. No shouting (i.e. using all capital letters for every word)
3. No pasting code snippets longer than 2-3 lines (use a pastebin for that)

People who are persistently disruptive may be temporarily or permanently banned from the channel.

You should also avoid publishing any kind of potentially personal information on the channel as it is publicly logged and viewable by all. If absolutely needed, feel free to send a private message to your recipient.

Accessing the channel

The channel is open to anyone so first make sure you can connect using an IRC client.

Once connected just type /join #wikimedia-cloud and that should be it!

Conversations in the #wikimedia-cloud channel are publicly logged at https://wm-bot.wmcloud.org/logs/%23wikimedia-cloud/

Status updates

You can access the #wikimedia-cloud-feed ^connect channel if you want to know about:

• Updates to Phabricator tasks
• Updates to change requests in Gerrit
• Infrastructure alerts

In this channel, you will find various bots relaying that type of information (wikibugs, icinga-wm, shinken-wm, and stashbot).

Additional information

• Public logs of the channel
• Wikimedia Cloud Services
• Toolforge documentation
• Cloud VPS documentation
• Data Services documentation
• List of all documentation pages

Communication and support

Support and administration of the WMCS resources is provided by the Wikimedia Foundation Cloud Services team and Wikimedia movement volunteers. Please reach out with questions and join the conversation:

Discuss and receive general support

• Chat in real time in the IRC channel #wikimedia-cloud ^connect or the bridged Telegram group
• Discuss via email after you have subscribed to the cloud@ mailing list

Stay aware of critical changes and plans

• Subscribe to the cloud-announce@ mailing list (all messages are also mirrored to the cloud@ list)
• Read the News wiki page

Track work tasks and report bugs

Use a subproject of the #Cloud-Services Phabricator project to track confirmed bug reports and feature requests about the Cloud Services infrastructure itself

Read stories and WMCS blog posts

Read the Cloud Services Blog (for the broader Wikimedia movement, see the Wikimedia Technical Blog)