So, let me just get this straight. Someone here bemoaned the fact that a full history dump of the English Wikipedia has been sought for 3 years, but is still forthcoming. That person mentioned, factually, that $1.7 million of budgeted money for "technology" was left unspent, with the suggestion that perhaps a portion of this money could have been directed to a contractor who would have been charged with crafting a successful full history dump. This budgetary fact was disdainfully questioned and the "troll" insult was whipped out with haste. The financial fact was then supported with a report from this very Foundation's Executive Director. The response then was that one "could care less" about what Sue Gardner has to say about budget. Then, the initial person offered that minimum wage plus $80 daily child care would buy his solution to a full history dump.
Now, assuming this might mean 8 working weeks of labor for this guy, that would be ($400 child-care + $280 wage) x 8 weeks = $5,440. This sum is approximately three-tenths of ONE PERCENT of the budgeted money that was instead stored in the bank and set aside for some future staffing and technology needs. But the person(s) making the factual statements, backing them up with referenced sources, and offering a potential eight-week solution to a three-year-old problem, at a cost of 3/10th of 1% of the allocated budget to problems exactly like this... IS REWARDED WITH THE "TROLL" epithet? Do I have that correct? Because if I do, then I am beginning to see why so many people suggest that there is a serious freakin' PROBLEM with the tone of discourse on this mailing list. Let me recommend something. Pay Anthony Dipierro the sum of $5,500, give him server access, give him eight weeks, and if he doesn't produce a full history dump of the English Wikipedia, then perhaps his penance could be a one-year ban from Wikimedia mailing lists? That would make a lot of "troll spotters" here quite happy, I'm sure. What do you have to lose? (Other than three-tenths of one percent of the 2007 technology budget, that is.) -- Gregory Kohs _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
