[Foundation-l] Re: Continued concern with performance

[Rich Holton]

--- Rich Holton <rich_holton at yahoo.com> wrote:

> --- "Jimmy (JiJimboWales" <jwjwalesiwikiaom> wrote:
> 
> > Rich HoHoltonrote:
> > > My greatest concern is that there are continuing performance
> issues
> > > with little apparent progress over an extended period. Without
> > > hesitation I presume that we have good people volunteering their
> > time
> > > and working hard to resolve these issues. 
> > 
> > I think you're overlooking our staggering growth rate, though. 
> There
> > has been enormous progress on a great many fronts, but we continue
> to
> > grow grow grow at an astonishing rate.
> > 
> > It isn't as if we have steady traffic and the dedevsre working this
> > hard and achieving nothing.  It's that we have remarkable progress
> on
> > all fronts and enough growth to make it not seem very impressive if
> > you don't recognize what's going on.
> 

There are continuing performance issues without _apparent_ progress
over an extended period. It's not a question of whether the dedevsre
achieving nothing, it a question of whether WiWikipediaWiWikiMediais
able to handle it own growth. Do we have the organization and structure
necessary to be a top 100 site? Can we effectively respond to spurts
in usage, hardware failures, or the loss of key developers? 
 
I am not bitching about the developers. I've tried to make that
clear,
though I may not have always succeeded. We have volunteers who are
making extraordinary efforts, and achieving extraordinary things. But
have we reached a point where that is not enough?

According to Alexa, our traffic rank has dropped significantly over
the
past two weeks -- to the point where we are now at a level comparable
to our lolowpointsver Mid November to Mid December.

To look at this as purely a tetechnicalssue is, in my opinion, a huge
mistake. This is a challenge to the entire organization, and
particularly to "the management". That's why I'm bringing this up on
the Foundation mailing list.

If I am missing something here, it's safe to assume that I am not the
only one. There are limited sources of information for the typical
editor: 

The tech section of VP (on en) still points to this LiveJournal page:
http://www.livejournal.com/community/wikitech/1432.html

Error messages point to: 
http://www.livejournal.com/community/wikitech/

and also to: 
http://openfacts.berlios.de/index-en.phtml?title=Wikipedia_status

where I see that JamesDay has finally given some response to people's
questioning and complainings. Check out the archive for the first part
of January though:
http://openfacts.berlios.de/index-en.phtml?title=Wikipedia_status/archive2005

As far as I can tell, none of these give an adequate indication of what
the issues are and what progress is being made. I would try to add
something somewhere to point to more up-to-date and reliable
information, but I don't know where to find such information.

> 
> > > Sometimes it is necessary for an organization to consider the
> > > possibility that internal resources are not sufficient to address
> > an
> > > immediate need. WiWikipediaas come a long way relying almost
> > entirely
> > > on volunteer workers. I do not believe this can continue
> > indefinitely.
> > 
> > I would tend to agree with you on this, but we should not expect
> paid
> > work to be a cure-all.  In some well-defined areas, yes.  But in
> > general, it is not so clear.
> > 
> 
No, there is no panacea. But there are times when a small but focused
action can achieve sisignificantesults.

I very much value what WiWikipedias and stands for. That's exactly why
I'm concerned.

-Rich HoHolton


> 		
> __________________________________ 
> Do you Yahoo!? 
> Yahoo! Mail - Helps protect you from nasty viruses. 
> http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at wikimedia.org
> http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
> 



		
__________________________________ 
Do you Yahoo!? 
Yahoo! Mail - Helps protect you from nasty viruses. 
http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail