[Wikipedia-l] Re: Database server trouble

[Tim Starling]

Erik Moeller wrote:
> Brion-
> 
>>Database server is down; it really, _really_ didn't like being asked
>>how many rows are in the old revisions table for the English Wikipedia.
> 
> 
> Who did that? And if it was a sysop query, why the hell are we still/again  
> allowing those? That's like putting a big red "DoS me" sign on our server.


It came out of an IRC conversation. Roughly reconstructed:

Pakaran: Why are SQL queries disabled
Tim: Erik turned it off because someone ran "select count(*) from old"

*time passes*

Brion: Hey, that query really is slow

Reports of Wikipedia being down, not responding by SSH etc. then followed.

-- Tim Starling