The mysql can be converted to postgres and vice versa directly, so the xml isn't necessary for this, see: http://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Manual:PostgreSQL The xml can be exported from the sql database I am sure, and I bet this tool works well as wikimedia uses it to create the xml dumps right?  So if people want to filter they can use this well maintained tool first.  Also if there is a DB schema upgrade, then the XML is only useful if the tool to convert from xml to sql has been updated, which in REALITY apparently the tools are not so good right now.  This leads me to believe that the sql would be a more useful format to share.. also does wikimedia foundation actually use the xml dumps internally for anything? Ok, the simple question: how many people prefer XML or sql dumps? cheers, Jamie