Tech:Wiki recreations

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On 16 November, 2022, the cloud server hosting a database, db141, went offline due to disk issues. Unfortunately, the only up-to-date backups of all wikis were located on a different server hosted by the same cloud server which went offline. As a result, we had no up-to-date inhouse backups. The last backups Miraheze took and had on hand of public wikis were backups made in October 2021. Many (but not all) public wikis have more up to date backup available on archive.org from August 2022.

We are still evaluating the disks and the possibility of data recovery but there is a 50% chance that data cannot be recovered. As a result, we are asking wiki bureaucrats to choose whether they want to wait or recreate their wiki right now with any backups on hand (either from October 2021 or August 2022 if they exist).

Images are entirely unaffected and have never been affected. When your wiki is restored, we will run a script to make all images reappear in MediaWiki.

Public wikis
Public wikis have two options available to them:
 * 1) Wait - You can choose to wait to see if we can recover the data on the disks. We have no ETA for this.
 * 2) Recreate the wiki right now - You can choose to have us recreate the wiki right now rather than wait. If you choose this, we will recreate the wiki from scratch. If available, we can try to restore any wiki backups from October 2021 or August 2022 (the latter only if available). If you have a backup, you can request we import that one instead via Special:RequestImportDump once the wiki is recreated.
 * To request this, please join our Discord (#general, thread "db141 wiki recreation requests") and request it there or comment on this task on Phabricator and fill out the form. Please make only one request, do not make one on both Discord and Phabricator.
 * Note that only the original wiki requestor may make the request, this being because we have no way to verify wiki bureaucratship apart from being able to see who originally requested the wiki. In very, very limited circumstances, we may be able to verify that you are a local bureaucrat but we recommend getting the original wiki requestor to make the request.
 * Please note that wiki configurations cannot be restored. You will need to restore any ManageWiki modifications yourself along with other things such as re-requesting interwiki prefixes.

For further support on pulling what backups may exist, please see the "Resurrecting Content" section of this essay. Note that restoring backups is a process that must start after the wiki is recreated. You can do this through Phabricator if you're there already, or upload an archive through Special:RequestImportDump. If that page complains of the file being too large you'll need to go through Phabricator. Note that trying to import large dumps locally on the remade wiki will likely result in errors; these paths will take time but should prove more reliable. In any case, any ManageWiki configuration must be redone.

Note that this process does not import backups automatically. Any backups must be uploaded/submitted separately after the recreation has been processed.

Private wikis
Unfortunately, private wikis were never backed up in our public archive.org backups or by any other medium due to their restricted nature. As a result, the following options are available to you:
 * 1) Wait - You can choose to wait to see if we can recover the data on the disks. We have no ETA for this.
 * 2) Recreate the wiki right now - You can choose to have us recreate the wiki right now rather than wait. If you choose this, we will recreate the wiki from scratch. Unless you have a database dump you yourself made, we are unable to recover anything (except images). You will need to wait until we hopefully recover the databases.
 * To request this, please join our Discord and request it there or comment on this task on Phabricator and fill out the form. Please make only one request, do not make one on both Discord and Phabricator. Note that only the original wiki requestor may make the request, this being because we have no way to verify wiki bureaucratship apart from being able to see who originally requested the wiki. In very, very limited circumstances, we may be able to verify that you are a local bureaucrat but we recommend getting the original wiki requestor to make the request.