On Dec 9, 2007 10:40 PM, Nick heligolandwp@googlemail.com wrote:
The problem (and solution) is there is a perception that the GFDL isn't in "compliance" with Wikipedia.
If Wikipedia can't be GFDL compliant, the GFDL will have to change around Wikipedia to make Wikipedia compliant.
Wikipedia certainly *can* be GFDL compliant. The easiest way, from the viewpoint of editors, would involve making changes to the software, but it's certainly possible.
In terms of this particular problem (merges), for instance, we could mark these merges in the database, and create a unified history listing from the information. Personally, I'd like to have some sort of editable "History" tab to list authors. This was discussed previously on the list wrt crediting image authors.
At this point it's probably not worth discussing GFDL-specific compliance, as the move to CC-BY-SA will *probably* (IMHO) be forthcoming. But there are still software features helpful for compliance with even that license. At the same time as we debate the move to CC-BY-SA we should think about how to make Wikipedia truly compliant with whatever is chosen. A semi-editable "Authors" page (separate from the detailed history page) would probably still be useful. Then copy-paste merges can remain compliant simply by merging the authors lists. Mediawiki's history pages are pretty obviously designed for reasons other than license compliance and/or attribution of authors.