[WikiEN-l] Re: Article size consistency 32k

[Fred Bauder]

This is the typical type of problem you run into with folks using old
equipment and obsolete software. Like, for example, folks in Mexico who use
castoff US equipment. Given our geek editor base, most of whom have
reasonably good equipment, it is hard to put ourselves in the position of
those who are are trying to access the internet under less than optimal
conditions, but is is good if we could to the extent we are able and
accomodate them to the extent we can.

Fred

> From: Geoff Burling <llywrch at agora.rdrop.com>
> Reply-To: Geoff Burling <llywrch at agora.rdrop.com>, English Wikipedia
> <wikien-l at Wikipedia.org>
> Date: Sun, 22 May 2005 11:48:25 -0700 (PDT)
> To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at Wikipedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Re: Article size consistency 32k
> 
> On Sun, 22 May 2005, Timwi wrote:
> 
>> Geoff Burling wrote:
>>> 
>>> And the primary problem I have with accessing information from Wikipedia
>>> is not the article length (although a concise well-organized article is
>>> always better than a long discursive one, no matter the amount of detail
>>> contained), but the size & number of images.
>> 
>> What browser are you using?? Firefox (and IIRC Opera) doesn't wait for
>> all the images to load before it displays the text.
>> 
> It's an ancient version of Mozilla that I probably compiled
> incorrectly  when I installed in years ago -- but text/image display
> was my point. (And note: because I know it is ancient, I haven't
> mentioned any of the problems I have using it with Wikipedia, which have
> been many; I wouldn't be surprised if I'm the only one experiencing
> them.)
> 
> Download times are a very off-putting experience whenever one deals with
> the Web, & very few web developers bother to optimize for speed -- or
> even consider it a problem. Google is an amazing -- & very rare exception.
> (I've had this discussion with a web designer friend several times, who
> at least understands this issue -- although he's still a bit hobbled
> with the "I want them to see the site how I choose, not how they may want
> to choose" attitude.)
> 
> And turning images off is not the solution. Much of the time, I want to
> see some of the images in an article, such as  a map, or specific
> photographs of a person or a place; I'm not interested seeing in every
> known image with the proper license that could be related to the
> subject.  Which is why I mentioned commons: not only does it support a
> competition for the best images in a given category by allowing a
> practically unlimited number of images to be uploaded, it does not
> require the losers to be deleted because they are unused -- & allows
> them to be available to compete in other categories.
> 
> Geoff
> 
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