[WikiEN-l] Searchability of non-mainspace pages

[Risker]

2008/4/28 Judson Dunn <cohesion at sleepyhead.org>:

> On Sun, Apr 27, 2008 at 8:41 PM, Risker <risker.wp at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Why is it overkill?  What is there on non-encyclopedia pages that should
> be
> >  searchable?
> >
> >  Risker
>
>
> Policy pages, guidelines, essays.
>
> Judson
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Cohesion
>
>
Well, here's the problem. When I google-search "Verifiability", the first
hit is the Wikipedia policy - it isn't even our article on formal
verification (redirected from "Verifiability), or any other link on
Wikipedia or elsewhere that describes what verifiability is in the real
world.  "Naming convention" shows our article first, our policy second, and
then all the other real-world information about naming conventions after
that.  "Arbitration policy" again shows a #1 google-hit direct to our
policy. "Copyright violations" takes us first to the Wikipedia article, and
second to our Category of possible copyright violations.  "Basic dignity" -
a fairly common term - first hit is our essay.  (And this was just a random
sample.)

Our rankings for policies, guidelines and essays are all out of proportion
to their importance in the real world, and frankly should not be the first
hit for someone looking for general information on the subject.  They should
definitely be available for searching within Wikipedia, but they do not need
to be in the top-10 google hits - ever. They pertain only to the process of
editing Wikipedia and have no bearing on any other aspect of the world.

Risker