[WikiEN-l] Re: userbox : insanity ?

Sat Jan 7 00:05:47 UTC 2006

On 1/6/06, Chris Jenkinson <chris at starglade.org> wrote:
> Sam Korn wrote:
> > Then program a bot to do it.  Convenience is not a good reason to put
> > unnecessary strain on the servers.
>
> That's the entire reason we have computers, for convenience. We could be
> doing Wikipedia on paper but a computer makes it easier. Convenience is
> an *excellent* justification for extra strain on the servers. The
> solution is optimisation.

There are over two hundred thousand pages linking to template:tl. 
Have you any idea of the disruption that would be caused to the
servers by {{tl}} being edited?  It would crash the servers for ages. 
If the templates aren't going to be changed, the only reason for
leaving them is that they look prettier in the code.  When you think
of the damage that could be caused by their being changed, even in
good faith, that justification does not hold up.  I intend to create a
bot to mass-substitute all instances of these templates.

--
Sam