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English Wikipedia is 20 gigs which takes a few mins to download on a fiber connection. How is this product compelling without Wikipedia actively throttling down

English Wikipedia is 20 gigs which takes a few mins to download on a fiber connection. How is this product compelling without Wikipedia actively throttling downloads and access to unpaid users?

Zhyl 5y ago
From the article: >In most cases, commercial entities that reuse Wikimedia content at a high volume have product, service, and system requirements that go beyond what Wikimedia freely provides through publicly available APIs and data dumps.
shock-value 5y ago
I don't know if this initiative includes Wikimedia Commons but I'm sure they've got substantially more data than that, and higher typical bandwidth usage. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)
- mgdlbp 5y ago
  Files hosted on Commons currently total just under 320 TB (excluding old versions, which are retained). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MediaStatistics https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MediaStatistics This MediaWiki special page is also available for other wikis; the English Wikipedia itself hosts 152 GB of files that were uploaded there instead of to Commons for one reason or another (e.g. non-free material under fair use).
IAmNotAFix 5y ago
Wikipedia averages 598 new articles per day et 2 edits per second. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Statistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Statistics
- boublepop 5y ago
  Sure but you only get access to 10 of them unless you pay for Wikipedia premium. /comment from slightly in the future
  - xmprt 5y ago
    Slippery slope only applies if there's actually a slippery slope to slide down. Nothing about this change indicates that Wikipedia will start charging the general public for access.
wnkrshm 5y ago
They probably want data of site visitors - who looks at what, visits which link, edits what etc. That's not contained in the pure content. If someone shops around for some product, then visits a Wikipedia article related to it and then buys something, you can maybe infer which qualities of the article or what information made them choose. That again, you could try and sell to advertisers as a service.
- bawolff 5y ago
  That sort of thing isn't being sold. There would be mass riots on wikipedia if wmf tried to pull that type of shit
- 20after4 5y ago
  Disclaimer: I work for the Wikimedia foundation but this is just my personal opinion. I'm pretty sure that Wikimedia would never sell such a service. This is about access to content and network resources. Definitely not about access to user's browsing histories. In my experience, user privacy is taken very seriously by Wikimedia's staff and leadership. The privacy policies/practices[1] are top-notch and not just a gesture or PR/appearance management. [1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2018/05/21/wikimedia-foundation-privacy-approach/ https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2018/05/21/wikimedia-fo...
_delirium 5y ago
One use-case could be if you want faster updates for articles on current events. The full database dump for the English Wikipedia runs only twice a month. I don't think that will go away, but you can now pay to get streaming real-time updates.
- bawolff 5y ago
  There is a real time streaming api that is available for free (and has existed for a long time) https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event_Platform/EventStreams https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event_Platform/EventStre...

English Wikipedia is 20 gigs which takes a few mins to download on a fiber connection. How is this product compelling without Wikipedia actively throttling downloads and access to unpaid users?

Zhyl 5y ago

From the article: >In most cases, commercial entities that reuse Wikimedia content at a high volume have product, service, and system requirements that go beyond what Wikimedia freely provides through publicly available APIs and data dumps.

shock-value 5y ago

I don't know if this initiative includes Wikimedia Commons but I'm sure they've got substantially more data than that, and higher typical bandwidth usage. (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page)

mgdlbp 5y ago
Files hosted on Commons currently total just under 320 TB (excluding old versions, which are retained). https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MediaStatistics https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Special:MediaStatistics This MediaWiki special page is also available for other wikis; the English Wikipedia itself hosts 152 GB of files that were uploaded there instead of to Commons for one reason or another (e.g. non-free material under fair use).

IAmNotAFix 5y ago

Wikipedia averages 598 new articles per day et 2 edits per second. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Statistics https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Statistics

boublepop 5y ago
Sure but you only get access to 10 of them unless you pay for Wikipedia premium. /comment from slightly in the future
- xmprt 5y ago
  Slippery slope only applies if there's actually a slippery slope to slide down. Nothing about this change indicates that Wikipedia will start charging the general public for access.

wnkrshm 5y ago

They probably want data of site visitors - who looks at what, visits which link, edits what etc. That's not contained in the pure content. If someone shops around for some product, then visits a Wikipedia article related to it and then buys something, you can maybe infer which qualities of the article or what information made them choose. That again, you could try and sell to advertisers as a service.

bawolff 5y ago
That sort of thing isn't being sold. There would be mass riots on wikipedia if wmf tried to pull that type of shit
20after4 5y ago
Disclaimer: I work for the Wikimedia foundation but this is just my personal opinion. I'm pretty sure that Wikimedia would never sell such a service. This is about access to content and network resources. Definitely not about access to user's browsing histories. In my experience, user privacy is taken very seriously by Wikimedia's staff and leadership. The privacy policies/practices[1] are top-notch and not just a gesture or PR/appearance management. [1] https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2018/05/21/wikimedia-foundation-privacy-approach/ https://wikimediafoundation.org/news/2018/05/21/wikimedia-fo...

_delirium 5y ago

One use-case could be if you want faster updates for articles on current events. The full database dump for the English Wikipedia runs only twice a month. I don't think that will go away, but you can now pay to get streaming real-time updates.

bawolff 5y ago
There is a real time streaming api that is available for free (and has existed for a long time) https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event_Platform/EventStreams https://wikitech.wikimedia.org/wiki/Event_Platform/EventStre...