On Nov 6, 2007 4:41 PM, Peter Ansell ansell.peter@gmail.com wrote:
I always liked the stable version concept. Where new editors must wait a few minutes to get their edits verified by editors with a longer history, and hence a better understanding of the policies hopefully. I have no idea whether it is in place already.... It would also make a typical RC patroller who only cares about the encyclopedia more inclined to think about the users too as they are not directly damaging their wikipedia anymore.
I too have been a fan of this stable versions concept for three related reasons: * Removing urgency * Protecting readers who we can't expect to understand the operation of Wikipedia * Reducing the incentive for people to make intentionally malicious edits
Wikimedia has instead decided to go the 'flagged version' route.
The flagged versions software, which is not quite complete, can be used in a way similar to what you have described, and I believe the German Wikipedia plans to use it this way. But the software is more flexible and can be used in many other ways.
One of the other ways is purely advisory way, where a record of good versions is kept in the history but users still see whatever is most recent.
Recent commentary from Florence, Erik, and Sue Gardiner have indicated to me that they hope and expect English Wikipedia will only implement flagging, and only make the stable version the default for pages which are currently protected.
I'm concerned that this weak form of stable versions has little advantage over the old 'mark as patrolled' feature, and that because setting the flag will not accomplish anything people will not change their vandal fighting efforts to flagging efforts. The failure of the system would then be self-fulfilling.
I'm also concerned that whatever decisions are made, be they by consensus or fiat, will be made based only on speculation on the impact of the changes, and not based on any concrete evidence of measurement.
You can learn more about the English Wikipedia's community discussion of this subject at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:Flagged_revisions/Sighted_versio...
If this subject interests you, please take the time to look through the look through the archives there.