--- "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 LiLiveJournalage: hthttp/wwwwwilivejournalom/community/wiwikitech432.hthtml* Error messages point to: hthttp/wwwwwilivejournalom/community/wiwikitechand also to: hthttp/opopenfactseberliosedendex-en.phphtmlitle=WiWikipediatatus, where I see that JaJamesDayas finally given some response to people's questioning and complaining. Check out the archive for the first part of January though: hthttp/opopenfactseberliosedendex-en.phphtmlitle=WiWikipediatatus/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
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