[WikiEN-l] Searchability of non-mainspace pages

[Delirium]

Risker wrote:
> 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.

That is precisely the intended result, so Google is functioning properly 
here---Wikipedia's page on "verifiability" is one of the most prominent 
uses of the term online. It's been quoted in multiple news articles, has 
been remarked upon by university professors concerned or interested in 
the use of Wikipedia, etc. The use of "verifiability" to refer to 
something capable of undergoing formal verification, by comparison, is 
comparatively uncommon (even in computer science, which field I'm in).

In any case, the discussion here was about *harm to specific 
individuals*, not about micromanaging Google's search results. Surely we 
aren't harming specific individuals by letting people search for 
verifiability find our policy on such?

-Mark