Better merging would be welcome. But also less aggressive editing/policing.
When
I edit openstreetmap I have a better overall experience: the edits may
or may not go live immediately, but I don't have the impression that
there is someone aggressively vetting/refining my edits while I am still
doing them. I feel welcome there.
To make Wikipedia more welcoming, we could do a few things.
We
could allow users to save drafts. In this way, people could work for a
while at their own pace, and then publish the changes. Currently,
saving is the only way to avoid risking losing changes, but it has the
very undesired effect of inviting editors/vetters to the page before one
is really done.
We could also allow a time
window (even 30 minutes) before edits went live after one is done
editing (using above Ajax mechanism to track when editor open),
experienced editors would not need to swoop in quite so fast on the work
of new users, and the whole editing atmosphere would be more relaxed
and welcoming.
The fact is that the Wikipedia
editor, with its lack of ability to save drafts, poor merging, and
swooping editors, feels incredibly outdated and unwelcoming - downright
aggressive - to anyone used to WordPress / Google Docs / Blogger / ...
Luca