*Buffer* Strange that nobody's mentioned the [[Wikipedia:Cleanup]] page that Cimon had the good sense to start up. I dislike the layout that Cimon chose as well as the "required anonymity" but other than that it seems to be on its way to working --particularly to take a load off of VFD. And its getter far more ATTN than the clumsily titled Wikipedia:Pages needing attention ... (which Ive never seen on RC )
For those NITK, Cleanup was designed to be a buffer for everything. If youre a newbie, or just not in the mood to do deal with VFD you can throw it there, and someone else can deal with it. Its not just for VFD -- its there because the binary notion that an article needs thumbs up/thumbs down only applies to the minority. Most cases VFD is more akin to a battleground for NPOV disputes, or to get the attention of the person who didnt spend enough time on it. Usually these are anons, and rough VFD treatment is not a pleasant experience for a newbie. <strange analogy> You dont make your new hotel guests through the kitchen and by the trashbin to get to their rooms.</strange>
But the fundamental flaw of VFD --I'll point it out now: It takes a certain mentality to deal with VFD --Deletionists love VFD, and hang out there all the time. Anti-Deletionists tend to like to actually deal with articles, and as such dont have time to check VFD to make a defense for a particular article that someone wants to chop. As such, there may be a problem mentality associated with a thumbs up/down approach if its not mitigated by the use of a clearing house.
A placement on Cleanup can mean that the article gets some consensus attention *before* its submitted to the Ugnauts at VFD. <metaphor-analogy>Instead of sending something straight to the Scrapyard, you let people try to sell it at the Thrift Store first.</meta>
*Limits of Wiki* To me the fact that the Pump and VFD would get too crowded all seems quite basic, and is just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to finding out the limits of traditional post-it style wiki to keep up to speed.
Wiki may work in the general sense, but for high-use pages like the Pump and such, wiki is far too slow -- I like someone's suggestion of using a chat forum like they have on craigslist. But this may be too easy --and does not deal with the problem of making a document of the discussion --though this may not be necessary for the Pump anyway.
In short, I think that for the pages that people might scramble to beat someone else to the submit button --there needs to be something better. It may be wiki or not. If something is not done about this in the next several months, this *may negatively affect the 30% upward curve Wikipedia has on Alexa.
~S~
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