The what of what, now? I thought it was an inner beauty pageant!

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on April 19, 2023, 05:04:15 PMEstimat Túischac'h, I rise to deliver a Terpelaziun to the Minister of Technology, as authorized by El Lexhatx H.2., in regards to his recent announcement re: the website talossa.com. I would have preferred this to ask this as a Supplemental to the recent TERP by my party colleague Üc Tärfa MC, but the Túischac'h has confirmed that we can't do that.

My questions:

1. Given that talossan.com has always been a privately owned and operated website, albeit using a domain name owned by the Kingdom, how is the Ministry in a position to "delegate the administration of the website and server of Talossan.com"? How can the Government delegate something it never owned?

2. What advice did the Minister of Culture, responsible for oversight of language issues, give to the Minister of Technology before making this decision?

3. The Government is aware that the information contained on talossan.com is outdated, incorrect and misleading. We know the Government is aware because the Ladintsch Naziunal / convenor of SIGN has explained this in detail on the national Discord and elsewhere, in conversations involving the Distáin.

Given this, and given the Minister's reply to point 6 of cxhn. Tärfa's recent Terpelaziun: what reason does the Minister have for continuing to allow use of this domain name by s:reu Ventrutx, a less active citizen who is not actually a Talossan-langauge speaker, rather than handing the domain name over to el Bureu del Glheþ, or SIGN, to set up an accurate website?

4. If the Government is determined to keep talossan.com in the private hands of cxhn. Ventrutx with the Distain acting as his de facto webmaster - which would be keeping with the current Government's seeming determination to have everything under the personal control of their leaders and their political allies, rather than accountable to legislative oversight - I therefore amplify the question raised by cxhn. Tafial MC:

QuoteWhat can or will the Minister do to ensure that the contents of the website are factual and useful for learners and scholars, living up to the tagline that he gave it in the Delegation of Website administration notice?

===

I thank the Minister in response for his answer. I understand that he "likes to stay away from the Ziu", but unfortunately being politically responsible for decisions is the fundamental part of a Cabinet Minister's job, and I would suggest that if he doesn't like being hassled with Terps, he could take up a purely administrative role and pass the Ministerial portfolio on.

1. Because the domain is under this Ministrà's control, we can simply point that domain to another website anytime. Because we're delegating the operation of that website, we leave it there. Again, this has been just  to bring compliance into the existing situation.

2. The discussions in cabinet, where we ministers occur, concluded that that was the best course of action for the current situation. In these same discussions, plans were laid out to do even more in a different way, BUT...

3. I have not received a proposal to hand this over to el Bureu or SIGN. BUT...

4. I can more than certainly enable it, I can make that happen, will give full support (technical support) for it. I am NOT the webmaster of it (or other sites), I make sure that those sites can operate and I will for this case too.

Now, these are not my beans to spill, (continue here from "BUT...") but Baron AD had been doing something along those lines for some weeks.

I understand that all of this is coming not in relation to the technological aspect of the site but because of the content. The buck doesn't stop here, but I can make sure that it is passed properly to the persons that can make effective changes here.

===

With thanks, I appreciate that. It's just that I don't like to dress up to come to the Ziu just to share information that could have been shared otherwise in a different format. I'm always open to talk about these things.

Quote from: Üc R. Tärfă on April 11, 2023, 05:53:02 PMEstimat Túischac'h, me alçéu à cumpientar această terpelaziun eftir Lexh.H.2.6.

tandi qe

• the Ministreu gave in his answer an acess list to talossan.com which was, by his own definition, "not comprehensive.";
• the Ministreu said that he doesn't know who's paying for the hosting of that website;
• the Ministreu said his "plan to bring that website into 100% compliance is to have an official delegation of responsibilities over it; the domain name remains a property of the Kingdom, while website administration will be delegated to the current maintainer of that site.";
• the Ministreu also said that he is "paying for the hosting on DigitalOcean.com out of my own pocket. My plan is to have services remain there at least until everything is documented properly. Data security, stability and documentation are the three objectives of this endeavor, and I'm very happy with the first two and the partial work that's been done on the third";
• Lexh D.2.9.3. says "The Talossan Web Registrant shall inform the government of any payments due or made towards domain registration and hosting of any government operated websites and domains and shall be reimbursed for any payments made as soon as is practicably possible and in accordance with all law relating to the governmental budget";

terpeléu el Ministreu per säpar

• fullfilling his duties according with the law, the full list of those who have access to that site and who's actually paying for its hosting;
• why S:reu Ventrux and S:reu Davinescu privately administer and have access to the backend of a website that shall be administered by his Ministrà and should have come under Kingdom contol when other domains and hostings were incorporated;
• when the Distain had access to that website while both current and former Ministreux dàl Tec'hnoloxhà weren't given access contra legem to the associated hosting of a State-funded domain;
• as the Ministrà must administer talossan.com in accordance with Lexh.D.2.9.2. if the Ministreu will ask, in compliance with Lexh.A.20, that the Government enforces the transfer of that website to the Kingdom's hosting;
• if the Ministreu will then direct members of the same Cabinet he is part of that have access to that website, in compliance with the above, to move its contents to the Kingdom's hosting;
• if the Ministreu does agree with me that, given the nature of the contents of that website devoted to our national language, its contents management should be better delegated by his Ministrà to el Büreu del Glheþ Talossán and/or SIGN that have official duties related to el glheþ, and they might delegate other people to perform the manangement of the webiste it if they see fit, and not to the current mantainer(s);
• if the Ministreu believes that the Kingdom's websites under the administration of his Ministrà should be hosted on the hosting spaces that is paid for by the Treasury;
• if I am right in assuming that as I speak all Kingdom's websites whose domains are State-funded are now hosted on privately paid webspaces;
• the exact date when talossa.com and its subdomains were redirected to digitalocean.com and the Kingdom's website hosted there;
• if the Kingdom's websites on DigitalOcean.com are hosted on an ad hoc bought hosting space or on an hosting space already bought and paid for by Ministreu before the transfer there of the Kingdom's websites;
  
• if the Ministreu has and can provide us a timetable for the transfer of all Kingdom's websites to an hosting that is or will be paid for by the Treasury.

Méirci, smestéu el tarleu.

1. This question can be asked directly to the administrator of that website.

2. I don't think they both manage that server, only S:reu Ventrutx as far as I know. The answer to this question, of course, comes from way before I was appointed Ministreu here. Maybe a former Minister of Technology could answer why that was accommodated that way, but all I know is that that's delegated to a S:reu Ventrutx now, as we mentioned a few days ago, and will be countersigned by the Seneschál now to bring it back into compliance.

3. Well, access was not denied to me, I didn't ask for access. I don't know about the past, but I know I could direct changes in that website if needed.

4. This Ministrà does indeed manage talosssan.com as per El Lexhatx D.2.9.2.

5. Nope.

6. This is a really interesting point which, might need to be developed further, but I would definitely support such an idea. In fact, if there is a formal proposal we could work on enabling it.

7. No, not exactly. I believe Talossan.com, in particular, is hosted from home, so there is no "host provider" as such, and no payment for hosting either. Then on DoRoyal we're going to pay US$0.00 for the foreseeable future, as compensation for out data loss. So, I don't think this needs to be either chiaro nor oscuro but something in between. In the end we're trying to do what's best for the Kingdom.

8. Yes.

9. 2023-03-07, around the time of the second colapse of DoRoyal.

10. DigitalOcean specializes in infastructure as a service (IaaS). In our case, they charge US$0.009 per hour with a cap of US$6.00 per month for the cheapest server they've got. This can be canceled at any time.

If I may share some more, there is another server with them (a "staging" server), where I run tests before deploying to the actual, production server, and where our documentation is validated. The advantage with IaaS is that staging/test servers can be created and destroyed just as easily.

The documentation on how to enable all of our digital presence is a work in progress, with at least the basic services fully validated. This is a step-by-step guide to make it easy for anyone after I'm run over by a bus, it's sort of Talossa-in-a-box for our online presence.

11. That translates to when the Treasury will be spending money on hosting. Well, I have no rush in making the Kingdom disburse money on that. We can always go back to DoRoyal where we'll be paying US$0.00, but trust there has been shattered -- twice. No plans for now to pay for hosting in the upcoming months. Domains will renew in June, so that'll be our only expenses for now.

Thank you.

---

Talossan.com, the website containing a trove of information regarding our National Language, has been in service for a long time, proving an invaluable resource to scholars from all around the globe.

This library, assembled for no personal gain and out of their own research and appreciation for the language, has been generously provided by a fellow citizen of the realm, Ieremiac'h Ventrutx.

The Talossan.com website has been growing and growing for a long time now, nourished by the esteemed S:reu Ventrutx, and had been in that state before my occupying this Ministrà.

Because that situation is out of order, I hereby delegate the administration of the website and server of Talossan.com to Ieremiac'h Ventrutx, entrusting them to continue making good use of the website, with the proviso that this mission will be recalled by the Ministreu at any future time, and that all other intangible assets managed by the Ministrà dal Tec'hnoloxhà, including the Talossan.com domain, remain under our control.

Are we still voting? I thought it ended like 2 weeks ago. If we are, I vote for Sir Txec dal Nordselvă.

Quote from: Sir Txec dal Nordselvă, UrB on April 04, 2023, 04:30:23 PMAzul. I'm not a member of the Ziu, so I would understand if you simply refused, but may I ask a question in regards to this terp, S:reu Túischac'h?

By all means, Sir Txec -- even if the rules don't allow it I'll be more than glad to hear your question.

Quote from: Üc R. Tärfă on March 28, 2023, 04:47:23 PMEstimat Túischac'h,
I thank the Ministreu for his replies and I'll add supplemental questions:

Tandis qe

• the Ministreu said that talossan.com will expire this term and will be likely renewed;
• indeed according to whois services that domain is registered to the former Web Registrant for the organization "Kingdom of Talossa";
• the Ministreu also said that, and I quote, «I do not have information of where that site is hosted nor who has access to it.»;
• the Distain on discord #gleþ-dev on the 7th said «i have server access» and he certainly has access to the WordPress
• according with Lexh.D.2.9.2. «The Government shall own the domain name talossa.com, and may purchase and maintain any other Talossa-related domain names as they see fit, following normal budgetary procedures. These domain names and their associated webhosting shall be administered by the Ministry of Technology.»;
• in sight of these, as the talossan.com domain is State-funded it should fall under the administration of the Ministrà;

terpeléu el Ministreu per säpar

• after a consultation with the rest of the Cabinet, where talossan.com is hosted, who has access to the webhosting, server and wordpress site;
• who's paying for the hosting of that site as, according with the answers previously given, clearly its not hosted on the national hosting space;
• what his plans will be to fully bring talossan.com administration in compliance with the law and who's going to be in charge of its contents;
• who's paying for the hosting of the other state web services on digitalocean.com and for as long he thinks they will be hosted there.

Méirci, smestéu el tarleu.

As I have learned about the subject I can share that:

1) Talossan.com is hosted by a citizen of the realm who compiled all the related linguistic resources and created a website for that purpose. This citizen, Ieremiac'h Ventrutx, has access to this website, and so does Baron Alexandreu Davinescu; this access list is certainly not comprehensive.

2) What I know is that the Royal Treasury is not paying for it. Who actually pays for that hosting, I do not know. That information can probably be obtained by asking the aforementioned citizen.

3) The law specifies that domain names and websites be administered by the MinTech, so my plan to bring that website into 100% compliance is to have an official delegation of responsibilities over it; the domain name remains a property of the Kingdom, while website administration will be delegated to the current maintainer of that site.

4) I am paying for the hosting on DigitalOcean.com out of my own pocket. My plan is to have services remain there at least until everything is documented properly. Data security, stability and documentation are the three objectives of this endeavor, and I'm very happy with the first two and the partial work that's been done on the third.

Thank you.

Quote from: Üc R. Tärfâ on March 18, 2023, 05:04:56 PMEstimat Túischac'h,
I thank the Ministreu, If I may I'd like to add that in the 5th question I made a mistake: I wanted to ask about talossan.com and not talossa.com. If the Ministreu would answer to that as well it would be helpful.

I'll add a follow-up question after that.

Méirci, smestéu el tarleu.

I do not have information of where that site is hosted nor who has access to it.

1a) The following domains will expire during this term:
* kingdomoftalossa.com
* kingdomoftalossa.net
* kingdomoftalossa.org
* talossan.com
* talossa.net

1b) The assestment date for their renewal is 2023-05-04, but it's very likely that all of them will be rewewed, including talossa.com.

1c) US$64.22

2) While the report will echo pretty much what Lüc has already said, I'm deferring this report until after all systems are validated to be fully backed-up and restorable.

3) No.

4) DigitalOcean.com

5a) DigitalOcean.com

5b) Lüc and myself to the backend; whoever the Wittmeister/Webmaster allows on the frontend; the public in general.

Quote from: Üc R. Tärfâ on March 14, 2023, 01:01:17 PMI rebuilt them completely from scratch. I will update the Lesser State Arms on the wiki soon.

I tried to make the original squirrel slightly less scary, and I used the one suggested with few fixes. I still believe it is too comic-ish.

(Should may interruption be forgiven, I want to say that...)

That banner looks much improved! Even when scaled down it is readable.

If my opinion is to be heard, the first set of squirrels looks overall nicer but it's also true that they look menacing. It's the eyes and the mouth that make them look so. I'm not in love with those ears either -- they remind me of a sea monster's ears.

I concur the squirrels in the new set look a little cartoonish.

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on March 10, 2023, 10:47:01 AM@Danihel Txechescu One thing I've noticed is I am not able to log out. Normally I would use the display box which appears when hovering over your name in the top-left. But that option is not available.

Does it work now? I may have fixed it yesterday.

Quote from: Breneir Tzaracomprada on March 11, 2023, 08:06:19 PM[...] Articles 7.4 to 7.11 are amended as follows:

Quote[...]7.6. VUODE PROVINCE. Talossan citizens living in the following areas shall be assigned to Vuode Province: The City of Milwaukee (WI) and the U.S. states of Connecticut, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan,  Missouri, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, and Pennsylvania; And the Mexican States of Aguascalientes,  Baja California, Baja California Sur, Chihuahua, Coahuila, Durango, Guanajuato, Jalisco, Nayarit, Nuevo Leon, Sinaloa, San Luis Potosi, Sonora, Tamaulipas, Queretero, and Zacatecas. Internationally, the nations of Algeria, Chad, Libya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Tunisia, and Western Sahara.

7.7. MARICOPA PROVINCE. Talossan citizens living in the following areas shall be assigned to Maricopa Province: the Wisconsin counties of Adams, Barron, Buffalo, Chippewa, Clark, Crawford, Dunn, Eau Claire, Grant, Green, Iowa, Jackson, Juneau, La Crosse, Lafayette, Monroe, Pepin, Pierce, Polk, Richland, St. Croix, Sauk, Trempeleau, and Vernon; the U.S. states of Arizona, Arkansas, California, Louisiana, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Texas; the Mexican States of Campeche, Chiapas, Colima, Distrito Federal (Mexico City), Guerrero, Hidalgo, Michoacan, Mexico, Morelos, Oaxaca, Puebla, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Tlaxcala, Veracruz, Yucatan. Internationally, the nations of Argentina, Belize, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Guyana, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Suriname, uruguay, and Venezuela.
[...]

[...]

Hmm, my state went to Vuode, with which we have no connection. I'm in Maricopa and Bråneu is in Fiova, even though we're both from the same city. If anything, the Northern states should go to Maricopa and the Southern states to Vuode.

Also, the Distrito Federal does not exist anymore, it's Ciudad de México (Mexico City).

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on March 10, 2023, 02:53:29 PMEstimat Túischac'h, I rise to deliver a Terpelaziun to the Minister of Technology, as authorised by El Lexhatx H.2.

Given the Minister's comments elsewhere on Wittenberg that he does not see his role as a political one, can I ask for:

a) an explanation of who in Cabinet sets the political priorities for the Ministry of Technology, i.e. who decides what is to be done, rather than how it will be done?

b) a description of the working relationship between the Minister and the Permanent Secretary of Backend Admin? I am aware that the Minister and the PermSec get on well and there's no friction: what I am asking for is how responsibility for 'doing the work' is shared between the two, or whether there is a duplication of roles.

Grült méirci.

So, I say that I'd like to stay away from the Ziu and, bam, my first invitation. Thank you, again, for the air time, but I'm not that thankful for backdating the terp -- Looks like I should have replied last week.

In the cabinet my boss is the Seneschal. In conference, the technological needs of the realm are discussed and decisions are then made. It may surprise no-one that the web hosting fiasco has taken a lot of our attention, and it still has lots of work pending, so the highest priorities for the Ministry is to address everything that pertains to the web presence of our Kingdom for the upcoming weeks and months.

As for the work with the PermSec, my job so far has been 1) getting our Internet services back to stable, 2) back-up data and document procedures so that the services remain operational, 3) enable the Government and the Civil Service to fulfill their duties. I'll pivot on this last point. As I've been learning about our hosting situation, there's been some overlap with what Lüc may have done before. (I don't know how it was before, but I know for sure that I'm learning where things are and who should handle what.) This overlap has been in the form of knowledge transfer of all of our hosting needs and solutions, of which Lüc seems to have all the answers and a lot of lore.

As for specifics, I know next to nothing about the administration of the forums or our webpage or the Wiki (I didn't even have an account there). My responsibility is to ensure that the infrastructure is solid and that it runs smoothly for others to operate.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on March 09, 2023, 09:03:34 PM

QuoteI think it's also worth nothing that I'm not part of the TNC. I was invited to join (like I've been approached by other parties in the past) but I am certain that politics is not for me

That's... odd, given that you're a Cabinet Minister. The role of a Cabinet Minister is essentially a political one. Surely if you want to be non-political, you should be a Permanent Secretary of the same status as Lüc, answering to a political Cabinet Minister.

Well, you might be wearing your political glasses, I'm not surprised it may look like so. But my job here is to take care of the ministry's portfolio and dictate _policies_, not politics. In the end, what I want to say is that if I can avoid a visit to the Ziu, I'll continue doing technological things.

I thank you for this sideline discussion -- I rarely get the air time.

Quote from: Miestră Schivă, UrN on March 08, 2023, 06:48:31 PM

Quote from: Danihel Txechescu on March 08, 2023, 04:33:25 PMNow, I understand the Web Registrant can be a multi-year role. I'm really not concerned about the future, I'm here for the long term, and not only am I willing to serve for such long term, but the renewal or dealing with technical details will be at the entire disposal of whoever a future government (or SoS, or His Maj, or the aliens) decide to appoint in the future as Web Registrant. As stated, I have a mission here and my plan is to improve things and to leave them in better shape on my departure.

You see, this is a bit of a worry to us, because you seem to be one of several people who "went on strike" during the years of centre-Left government, but came back into action as soon as the conservative-monarchist party regained office. If reformists or Republicans won the next election, that makes us worry that you'd just disappear again.

My attitude is that the senior figures in the Royal Civil Service and non-political appointments should be - not necessarily politically neutral Talossans - but those with a track record of working well with all shades of political opinion. Come to think of it, that's my preference for Head of State as well.

That's fair and a valid concern. But believe it or not, nobody invited me to do anything technological for the realm before [1], and that's what I do for a living. Well, dealing with disastrous web hosting is not part of my job description, but I do work on tech stuff.

I think it's also worth nothing that I'm not part of the TNC. I was invited to join (like I've been approached by other parties in the past) but I am certain that politics is not for me, as I have a ton of other things to spend my time on, and the farthest away I can be from politics, the better.

It seems that this whole thing has been written with some political inks too -- I won't be part of that. I'll leave that to those who want to engage on partisan things, but I'll just do the needful to get these things done.

Also, please, don't get me wrong: I'm not dismissing your concerns. I hear them and take them into account. I just don't see a *technical* or *practical* problem happening any time soon. (It is risk #1 on my list, however.)

[1] I did help GV with name translation, from a tech angle, by automating that process in large texts. Still, I wasn't asked, I offered the help.