On 10/2/05, Anthony DiPierro wikispam@inbox.org wrote:
The question is: What is The Bit of Wikipedia Formerly Known as AfD designed to do? Is it to get articles that you don't like deleted? Or is it to seperate the chaff from the grain?
It's to give an air of legitimacy to the deletion of articles which a large portion of Wikipedia don't feel should be deleted. Don't like that X was deleted? You should have voted to keep it. Don't have time to vote keep on hundreds of articles a month even though you think they should be kept? Tough luck. You do have time to vote on hundreds of articles a month? Then expect to be banned from voting just like I was. Don't even bother asking for a reconsideration. No, a mighty quorum of 7 out of the 450,000 Wikipedians have spoken, and 5 out of those 7 wanted it deleted. That's right, 5 out of 450,000 - a consensus!
This is exactly why I'd like Wikipedia's deletion and featured article functions to act less as a shredder and a limelight, and more like a fractional distillation tower.
If we have three "levels" of Wikipedia, we can have a whole lot more middle ground for the deletionists and inclusionists to meet on.
Top level is featured articles and any articles rated to be best in class; on par with or better than commercial encyclopedias. Fully referenced, cited, and illustrated as appropriate for the topic; these articles take a keen eye to find room for improvement. These also would be ready-made for any published edition of Wikipedia on CD, DVD, or paper.
Middle level is Wikipedia's general section; this is where our main body of work resides. A decent paragraph or two sized article, or a bit of notabilty is needed to rise to this level.
Bottom level is stubs, works in process, and all other articles that aren't "approved" by consensus to rise to middle or top level, but aren't speedy-deletable either. Requirements to be kept here do not include notability, but must be verifiable and NPOV.
Users browsing the encyclopedia can set a default level of viewing on arrival, but bottom level articles are, by default, not included.
If necessary, there could be additional levels, especially at the top, but I think three would be enough. -- Michael Turley User:Unfocused