I can understand of course that the ideal of credit is appealing.
David's idea of automatically generated contribution statistics under
a "Show credit" template is a good idea, its basically an editor
summary of the article. As far as actually listing editors in the text
of the article for credit - I think that it is difficult and
contentious to the point of being not worth the effort. If the process
is subjective, it will be yet another meta-distraction from the goal -
which is content, not credit.
Perhaps if simple and objective criteria were proposed, an idea
similar to "Show credits" could be workable and useful, although the
almost universal use of pseudonyms sort of takes the meaning out of
public credit (as opposed to a similar show credit box on the talk
page, perhaps).
On Jan 24, 2008 3:22 PM, Shmuel Weidberg <ezrawax(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I'm reposting my reply to Nathan and breaking up
the paragraphs to
make it easier to read.
Public credit as I mentioned would be a section at the end of the
article much like Brittanica has. I don't believe they credit the
minor editors.
I don't know that it makes a difference whether the
work is good, only that it is substantial.
I would give credit in the
order of contribution with perhaps the truly major contributors
getting top billing.
If the work of an editor is mostly deleted, then
his credit would be removed as well. If somebody decides that he
decides that he no longer agrees with what he wrote, or it has been
edited to say something that he no longer agrees with, he can remove
himself from the list.
The same people who edit the article can decide
who gets credit. When you edit an article you can decide for yourself
how much credit you deserve, and if some subsequent editor disagrees,
they can change it, or discuss it on the talk page as with the the
contents of the articles.
I am sure that there will be a number of arbcom cases as a result, but
so what. I think many editors agreed to not be credited because they
did not want to fight the system.
Walt Disney didn't used to credit
his animators either, and they technically agreed to it, because they
could have stopped working for him, but they certainly weren't happy
about it, and they ultimately prevailed.
Regards,
Ezra
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