<div>>It is often considered a bad<BR>>idea to reject partial solution because it does not cure all problems.<BR><BR>>You may well be right that correcting subtle vandalism is more<BR>>important, but that does not preclude improving the situation for more<BR>>obvious vandalism.<BR></div> <div> </div> <div>I certainly am not objecting to the idea of article flagging, and I certainly haven't rejected the idea because it isn't perfect. I am trying, however, to wander in the direction of article flagging as certification of truth, not certification of good-faith. </div> <div> </div> <div><B><I>Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell@gmail.com></I></B> wrote:</div> <BLOCKQUOTE class=replbq style="PADDING-LEFT: 5px; MARGIN-LEFT: 5px; BORDER-LEFT: #1010ff 2px solid">On 9/24/07, Adam Biswanger <ADAMBISWANGER1@YAHOO.COM>wrote:<BR>> I'm less concerned with blatant vandalism than sly, subtle mistakes (think<BR>> John Seigenthaler), and
even good-faith errors. I think we've misidentified<BR><BR>It's a mistake to think that flagging is only expected to help with<BR>obvious vandalism. Right now obvious vandalism is the noise that<BR>often hides more subtle vandalism.<BR><BR>Here is an example: A somewhat subtle vandalism (changing a date)<BR>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pioneer_plaque&diff=prev&oldid=14242706<BR><BR>was missed because right after it a more obvious vandalism was made<BR>which was reverted:<BR>http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pioneer_plaque&diff=next&oldid=14248233<BR><BR>The problem remained for over a year, until I stumbled across it as a<BR>casual reader: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pioneer_plaque&diff=71317234&oldid=68432539<BR><BR>(Incidentally I think this would be a good example for the trust<BR>coloring system.. it would be a good argument for it as the date would<BR>have been highlighted in the revisions near the change, and
an<BR>argument against it.. since the date would look trusted later on even<BR>though no one ever reviewed the change)<BR><BR>Flagging will give us a 'more trusted' point to diff against, which<BR>will reduce problems like this. Some people, like myself, believe that<BR>it will also reduce the total amount amount of simple vandalism thus<BR>freeing up resources to work on harder cases.<BR><BR>Certainly flagging will not stop malicious parties who are well<BR>informed and dedicated to their cause. It is often considered a bad<BR>idea to reject partial solution because it does not cure all problems.<BR><BR>You may well be right that correcting subtle vandalism is more<BR>important, but that does not preclude improving the situation for more<BR>obvious vandalism.<BR><BR>_______________________________________________<BR>Wikiquality-l mailing list<BR>Wikiquality-l@lists.wikimedia.org<BR>http://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikiquality-l<BR></BLOCKQUOTE><BR><p> 
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