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.
John (gentgeen)
----- Original Message ---- From: Lord Voldemort lordbishopvoldemort@gmail.com To: John Pozniak gentgeen@yahoo.com; Wikimedia textbook discussion textbook-l@wikimedia.org Sent: Friday, June 16, 2006 6:40:04 PM Subject: Re: [Textbook-l] Rewrite of Wikibooks:What is Wikibooks
On 6/16/06, John Pozniak gentgeen@yahoo.com wrote:
I take this to mean that VFD should be for book deletion only. Individual modules within a book should be deleted or included in the book as decided by the editors _of that book_. I think right now we tend to micro-manage our books, with editing decisions made by the entire community, not the contributors with the most knowldge.
I am not sure I agree. Books are not written by just the few who actually type the letters. It should be seen (not in a legal sense) that the entire community writes every book. For example, if a book was being written that the authors wanted certain elements included, but the rest of the community disagreed with, you feel it should be included because the authors have the most knowledge?
I can't see this as ideal. We would be inundated with crap and people claiming "Hey, I wrote this. You can't tell me what I can and can't have! I know more about it than you." Sometimes individual modules/chapters/pages do not fit in the community's goal, and it would be reasonable to take them to VfD, no? --LV