[WikiEN-l] Please remove user data and talk pages from database dumps!

Thu Dec 29 17:51:00 UTC 2005

On 12/29/05, Bryan Derksen <bryan.derksen at shaw.ca> wrote:

> But then there'd have to be a new separate database dump that _did_
> include the user/talk pages. The purpose of the database dumps is not
> just to allow someone to toss up a mirror of the current article
> versions and make a few bucks from banner ads, it's to allow Wikipedia
> as a whole to be researched or recreated or otherwise manipulated in
> ways that can't be done just from the existing website. The user and
> talk pages are important parts of how Wikipedia functions, they should
> be available for historical reasons if nothing else.
>

I think that is very true: someone who wished to study the whole project
(community and encyclopedia) as a whole would need those user, talk, and
Wikipedia namespaces. However, having two seperate dumps would defeat the
attempt to conceal some of the personal information of Wikipedia editors.
Joe.Wikipedian could simply download the second dump including the
userspace, and then stick some ads with the content on his own server.

The only way I could see a scheme like this working is if the Foundation
somehow controlled who had access to the second dump. I believe that this
would be too unwieldy, and probably defeat the spirit of the GFDL, if not
the acutal letter of the law.

--
Ben Emmel
Wikipedia - User:Bratsche
bratsche1 at gmail.com
"A fool sees not the same tree that a wise man sees."
-- William Blake