On 6/17/06, John Pozniak <gentgeen(a)yahoo.com> wrote:
One of our current proposed policies,
http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Wikibooks:Title_pages states that title pages should,
"link to a list containing the names of all the users actively working on the project
- it can be placed in manual of style, foreword or separate 'Authors' page."
So we're already requesting that the authors of each book be identified in a prominent
place. For an active book, this group of active contributors should be able to determine
the content of the book. Any request to delete a particular module should come from this
group. One self-professed "expert" would have to convince all the other editors
of the value of any new content.
If the community finds a book's content is not in line with the overall policies,
they should join the group of active contributors of the book and work to improve it, or
delete the entire book. Outsiders sweeping in and deleting specific modules without buy-in
from the editors will cause bad feelings, and may cause good editors to leave the project.
The formating of the book will be broken, filled with red-links to no-longer existing
pages. In the longer term the content may simply be recreated at the same or another title
in the book, or be incorporated into existing pages in the book, by the old contributors.
The opposite is also true. If all the authors of a book want a module deleted, the
outside community shouldn't force them to keep it. If that were to happen, the editors
of the book would likely "virtually" delete the page, by eliminating all links
to it from the rest of the book.
I have for a long time espoused the idea that once a book reaches a certain size, it
should be given more and more autonomy. This includes creating its own policies, its own
manual of style, its own naming conventions, and even overall control on its own content.
No. The community has every right to delete a specific module if that
one module does not fall within the scope of general WB policy. That
does not mean the entire book should be deleted. And if there are
redlinks, they can be delinked. We do not decide whether to do
something or not based on the ease of work. We do not give in to
apathy. If something is deleted, and the redlinks need to be fixed...
then fix them. If the pages are recreated later, then can be
redeleted later as well.
Of course the people actually writing the book have general control
over what the content is, but if they choose to have content that
falls outside the scope of WB, the community has the responsibility to
delete the inappropriate content.
--LV