[WikiEN-l] Page load problems

Tue Jul 8 01:44:20 UTC 2003

[crossposted to wikipedia-l]

Brion Vibber wrote:

> When I stare at mysql's process list to see the slowpokes, who comes up
> on top?
> 
> Search, search, search.

Some say we need to buy another server, others say the developers need 
to speed up the code. I think we need to to both.

We're growing very fast, but we could have grown even faster if we 
wouldn't have speed problems since far over a year now. It's not only 
that our editors could write more articles in fewer time, many articles 
don't get writen because people leave the project out of frustration or 
presumably more often don't even start editing. Many edits got lost 
because the server didn't respond or people didn't wait long enough.

So the Wikimedia Foundation needs money to buy new servers. Besides 
waiting for donations I suggest that we take part in as many bookshop 
affiliate programs as possible. It doesn't have the downsides of 
banners, because it's totaly unobtrusive and neutral. Many Wikipedians 
would visit their favourite online bookstore through our site if they 
knew the foundation will profit from it. I can't predict how much money 
we will make in the end, but it's worth trying.

Kurt