I'm not techy - so why hasn't it been possible to have a non-corrupt dump in a long time (that includes history?). A professor of mine asked if the problem could be man(person)-power and if it would be interesting/useful to have the university help with a programmer to help the dump happen.
I've been wondering why we've been having such trouble with dumps myself... anyone?
Also - now I've got a file from 2006 but I still wonder if there is no place where one can access old dumps - these will/could be very important research wise.
Only the most recent full dump is worth keeping, since it includes everything that would be in an older dump. The other benefit of removing old dumps is that is makes oversight (the ability to remove revisions from the history) more effective.
And last but not least - If the dumps don't work, then it is very important to be able to dump some articles with their full histories in other fashions. I ask my pledge again - do you know who made the block so that export would only allow for 100 revisions? any way to hack that? Would it be possible to open an exception to get the data for a research study?
I'm sure something can be arranged. This mailing list is probably the best way to contact someone able to arrange it.