I am not one to complain frequently or quickly. I have been a software developer, and I know the anguish that often involves, and the meager thanks that are often received.
However, I am becoming quite concerned about the recent performance issues on en.wikipedia. I don't know if there are similar issues with other projects or languages.
As users, we are told (at http://www.livejournal.com/community/wikitech/) that the issues now is not hardware or the MediaWiki software, but rather load balancing. We are also told to "try again" when we receive one of many ugly errors. We are invited to help, but given no indication how we might do that.
This situation is very unsatisfactory, and is damaging to Wikipedia.
I know that the developers are very busy, and are volunteering their time. I do not "blame" them for the problems. I don't really see this as a technical issue. Obviously, the solution to load balancing will be technical, but the solution to the larger issue (reliability rapid response to problems) is an issue of the will and resources of the Wikimedia foundation.
We cannot allow en.wikipedia (and perhaps others) to languish for days with horrible response times and frequent, ugly user errors. We must quickly determine what we need to do to remedy this situation, and quickly act to implement the remedy.
With respect and concern,
Rich Holton
(en.wikipedia:user:rholton)
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