Our exponentially increasing costs (was Re: [Foundation-l] Re: Answers.com and Wikimedia Foundation to Form New Partnership)

[Ray Saintonge]

Daniel Mayer wrote:

>--- Anthony DiPierro <wikilegal at inbox.org> wrote:
>  
>
>>You know, those figures would make a lot more sense if they were done on an
>>accrual basis rather than a cash basis. As is the figures completely ignore
>>the fact that the expected life of the servers is more than a single
>>quarter. 
>>    
>>
>The figures I gave assume that all the hardware we have already bought is still
>in operation (which surprisingly is more or less the case). 
>  
>
>>If you're using those cash-basis figures that's another problem with the
>>model as well :).
>>    
>>
>Yet the model has closely predicted increased costs for the last year (yeah, to
>an extent this is self-fulfilling, but only so much so)... 
>  
>
Anthony makes a good point.  Hardware does break down over time, and has 
to be replaced.  Even more likely is that it will become obsolete before 
it breaks down. 

The projections of increased costs that you talk about are fine as far 
as they go, but this has all been in a period of rapid growth.  Sound 
accounting practice requires that we be prepared for the evebtual plateay.

Ec