Hello Stefan
And Daniel Baur (DaB) and Daniel Kinzler (Duesentrieb) are working on a solution (WikiProxy?). They have been really helpful but they didn't tell me when it's expected to be completed earliest :-<
There are two problems: Replication of Article Text is broken, because it now uses "external storage". WikiProxy exists for quite some time now, and resolves this problem, though not very efficiently. It's good enough for fetching a couple of hundred pages, but should not be used to process *everything* - for now, we are stuck with XML dumps for that.
The second problem is that *all* replication is broken for Databases at the Seoul cluster (esp. Japanese and Chinese wikis). DaB is working on a solution, which he told me will go into a first round of testing in the next few days.
[...] I wouldn't have any problem making a system with more resources than toolserver available for public use... But my request there has also been ignored.
That's my dilemma too.
Uh, let me get that straight... you (GMaxwell) could donate a box? That would be great! Please talk to DaB about this, he's our contact to the e.V. My idea would be to have separate boxes for a) public, web-based tools, and b) another one for running massive queries on.
Why nobody - especially the superadmin - is able to drop a line here is contrasting to the sponsoring money de.Wikipedia obviously gets. It's seems to be part of the problem of claim and reality of Wikipedia.
I agree that this is frustrating, and I too have the impression that no one really feels responsible for resolving the problems that exist. I hope we can improve communication in the future.
I'm giving _one_ weeks time to the colleagues here to solve the technical problem of mirroring. To my humble point of view this is still finally an organisational problem...
Uh, what?! I'm sympathetic to your complains in general, but WTF?! You are *giving* us one week? Or what? You know, there's no *right* to be able to use the toolserver, or to have it available at all. If you don't like it, help to fix it, or go away.
Btw: both major issues I described above are based on technical problems. Yes, they can be overcome, but it's not simple. It takes time and effort, which someone will have to donate. How about you?
Regards, Daniel