Tech:SRE Import guideline

SRE Draft Policy

Imports are a vital process as not only do they allow users to migrate their wikis from other platforms to Miraheze, but they also allow users to easily use content from other wikis without having to copy/paste and with easier copyright attribution. While imports are very important to Miraheze, the process of importing must not be abused, and excessive requests for imports (especially which are simply copying articles from Wikipedia or a single user trying to 'fork' wikis will be scrutinized before being authorized)

This policy is an SRE policy and due to its complexity, it is not necessary to have regular users read it before making a request. Instead, it will be used by SRE members when determining whether an import will be approved.

Types of import
The key metric in all the cases below will be how many active users there are on the Miraheze wiki and how many will be expected to join. That is because the key idea behind this policy is not to have a single user or very few users take up a lot of of our space without actually using the content that they have imported, and us just ending up hosting content from other wikis.

Type I: Migrating from another platform
When a wiki is migrating from another platform (and all or most users are coming to Miraheze), it will usually be fine to import large XML and image dumps to Miraheze and no further questions will need to be asked.

Exception: if the XML and image dumps being requested are very large (~>10GB for XMLs, >15GB for images) some further questions should be asked (regarding active users).

Type II: Forking from another wiki
When a wiki is 'forking' another wiki (and most users from that wiki are not coming to Miraheze), we should enquire about how many active users there are (or are expected) to be if the import is larger than 2GB for XMLs and 5GB for images.

Type III: Importing from Wikipedia or other large projects
When importing from Wikipedia (or other encyclopedia-like wikis), we will ask how the import requested is actually necessary for the wiki, especially if articles from the Main space are being imported.

Exceptions: templates, JS/CSS scripts, Gadgets, etc. will be given more allowance, as long as they are not excessive and will actually be used on the wiki.

Questions to be asked (if necessary)

 * How many active users are there on your wiki and how many do you expect there will be in the near future (realistically)? (All Types (for I only if large))
 * Why is this content necessary for your wiki? Will you actually use the content after importing it, how? (Type III)

Indicative table
This table indicates the approximate sizes of XMLs/images that will be taken account for forked wikis and Wikipedia imports. This table is only indicative and requests can be refused or approved even if they do not fit into these categories. This table DOES NOT apply to Type I imports.

All suggestions below can be exceeded if it's approved by a MWE if they are satisfied that a reasonable use case exists after asking questions. The numbers are not fixed and should not be taken literally (i.e. if there's a 1.1 XML that won't necessarily require additional questions). If the limit is not exceeded, no additional questions need to be asked and the import can be approved.