Actual replies from rt at ubuntu.com?

[Brian Burger]

So, last night I stayed on IRC a bit later than usual - until past
0100 my time - to catch an actual person active in
#canonical-sysadmins, as recommended.

I managed to talk to "Ng", pointed him (her?) at my four-month-old RT
ticket, and we got the following squared away:
1. Planet install is no problem, once it "moves up in the queue" - so,
possibly sometime before 2015 at the current rate.
2. Shell accounts for static content and such, no problem, likewise in
that queue.
3. Theming Drupal - which was really the whole point of my request,
because Ubuntu Canada's site is so broken right now - is a problem.

No theme editing inside Canonical's provided Drupal install.

LIkewise, no SFTP/shell access to install our own theme on our own.

Canonical wants to vet all themes, and install them themselves. Given
that Drupal themes usually/always contain chunks of PHP, that's a
somewhat understandable security precaution - but a damned nuisance as
well.

It means I'm going to have to set up an *entire* second Drupal install
somewhere, on public but non-Canonical webspace, and add accounts for
the various Ubuntu Canada members who've agreed to help. THEN that
theme will have to be extracted from our second Drupal install, vetted
by Canonical, and installed by them.

And it better be perfect, because any tweaks we want to do will have
to go thru the same clumsy process.

At this point, I'm wondering if I shouldn't just use a chunk of my own
webspace for Ubuntu Canada - we're going to have to set up a new
Drupal install somewhere anyway... Gah.

Oh, the two peices of decent news out of my visit to -sysadmins: New
sysadmins are being trained by Canonical, and some of these new bodies
are not in London, so staying up until past midnight might not be
needed in the future to get something hosting-related actually dealt
with.

Irritated, frustrated, and in need of both a drink and a chat with
other ubuntu.ca people,

Brian
ubuntu-ca.org