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

[Anthony DiPierro]

On 10/25/05, GerardM <gerard.meijssen at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Hoi,
> Given that it is only a few wikipedias that can be considered to somehow
> cover subjects adequately, the plateau that may arise is still in the
> future. To suggest that we have to take the emergence of a pleateau into
> consideration, you have to identify why it is likely to arise. Personally
> I
> find it easier to find arguments why we are NOT going to reach this
> plateau
> in the near future..
>
> So the best we can do with your "sound accounting practices" is to have
> multiple scenarios available to us. Not because of accounting practices
> but
> because they impact what we do and how we do it. Given however the many
> projects that need funding and the wishes we have to have an impact in the
> languages where we are still weak, it does not seem reasonable to expect
> an
> end to the growth that we have experienced over our first few years.
>
> Thanks,
> GerardM

 I've been speaking with various people off list and the data we have isn't
nearly as bad as I first suspected. It's actually more a problem with
communication of the data to the public that's lacking.
 I have my doubts that the hardware model can hold over the long run,
whether there is a growth plateau or merely less exponential growth. I
believe there are multiple mistakes being made which are to some extent
cancelling each other out (on one end there is the fact that old hardware is
being reused and on the other end there is the fact that the system is not
scaling perfectly linearly). But as far as predicting the actual hardware
requirements on a quarter-to-quarter basis I don't think there's a problem.
 Also while looking at the data I've been quite impressed at how well the
system does seem to be scaling up. Maybe I was just plain wrong when I
looked at the system a year or two ago, or maybe the situation has improved
more than I was aware of. Probably a little of both, but either way, I think
a lot of people are doing a good job.