Jimmy Wales jwales@wikia.com wrote:
In response to the EssJay scandal, I want to bring back an old proposal
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2005-May/022085.html
http://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/wikipedia-l/2005-May/thread.html
to read the entire thread of "An idea".
For anyone who is reading but not online, I will sum it up. I made a proposal that we have a system whereby people who are willing to verify their real name and credentials are allowed a special notification. "Verified Credentials". This could be a rather open ended system, and optional.
The point is to make sure that people are being honest with us and with the general public. If you don't care to tell us that you are a PhD (or that you are not), then that's fine: your editing stands or falls on its own merit. But if you do care to represent yourself as something, you have to be able to prove it.
For someone reading and online, but blocked for nearly a year and unable to comment elsewhere, I like it in general. It seems to go even a step further than requiring only admins to verify significant credentials they claim and apply it to everyone.
My primary concern is in practical elements: 1. Who's verifying (e.g., admins verifying themselves, buddy admins verifying one another)? 2. Are they allowed to post credentials while waiting on verification, potentially taking advantage of practical limits in how much can be verified via an extended waiting period? As a rough example, there are citation requests that are essentially infinite, circumventing the point of requesting verfication. 3. Do the credentials override any of the basic policies? E.g., does a verified PhD get to post OR? I foresee latitude problems as it is, much like admins and article creators seem to get months, if not years, to provide sources.
~~Pro-Lick http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/User:Halliburton_Shill http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Pro-Lick http://www.wikiality.com/User:Pro-Lick (now a Wikia supported site)
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