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were instantly increased by a factor of ten, or a hundred: 50,000, or 500,000. A significant minority of new contributors need quite a bit of mentoring, as it were; if new contributors increase their numbers suddenly, the numbers of contributors needing mentoring will also increase--but the availability of mentors would be the same. Unless we commit ourselves to being available in such times of need!
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Though there have been various types of publicity leading to surges in the number of new contributors, Knowledge (XXG) has never actually been the focus of a sustained and enormous barrage of media coverage. Of course, Knowledge (XXG) isn't about the publicity, the fame, and the recognition; it is a
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By 2004, the nature of
Knowledge (XXG) had changed. The number of active editors had grown, and Knowledge (XXG) culture had become more well defined. In dealing with slow but inexorable growth over the prior years, Knowledge (XXG) developed more and better tools — both cultural and technical — for
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of the people working on
Knowledge (XXG), at that stage, would be new contributors. Suppose there were, say, 5000 people on average working on Knowledge (XXG). (Currently, there are more signed up users but around this many contributors.) Then suppose that, over a period of two weeks, that number
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happen all at once, too, that many different well-trafficked news websites send us large amounts of traffic, which we might well be concerned about. If it happened relatively gradually, the new recruits could be quickly trained to break in the even newer recruits. But what if it happens suddenly?
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The list of
Volunteer Fire Department members had become stale by 2004, and unlike the early times, many Wikipedians have a habit of daily editing and daily review of Recent Changes. Thus, the idea of contacting a subset of Wikipedians by e-mail in the event of a "fire" lost much of its relevance.
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was weathered: the servers became significantly slower, but did not crash, and while there was some increase in vandalism, particularly on articles related to
Slashdot, it was not significant.
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analysts mentioning it as the next big thing--the works. It would probably be a mistake to dismiss this possibility. If
Knowledge (XXG) becomes as large and useful as we want it to be, this
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The fire department was called out in response to the second
Slashdotting of Knowledge (XXG), on January 22. As well as calling out the fire department on the
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As early as
December 2001, Wikipedians predicted: "A media barrage: if we stay the course, it's not whether, but when. If we stay the course, however, this
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Either the page is no longer relevant or consensus on its purpose has become unclear. To revive discussion, seek broader input via a forum such as the
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work of passion and love. But we might indeed get a lot of publicity and that could have some ill effects we might want to be prepared for.
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gear was divided up among the senior members. A banquet was held at the fire hall, after which all members retired to a nearby, trendy
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Now, if that happened, of course it would be mainly wonderful and fantastic. What is worrisome is that, overnight,
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In the near future, for example, we might break 1,000,000 articles, and be going gangbusters.
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happen probably a few times within the next year or two." Knowledge (XXG) has already been
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four times (once in 2001, twice in 2003 and once in 2004), and been the subject of much
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A wonderful problem we haven't yet had to deal with: lots of media coverage.
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for refreshments and stories of riding the rig in the glory days.
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and the proceeds used to purchase a new server, and the
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This page is currently inactive and is retained for
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