Hi,

Here are my views on this issue...

Stubs: Agreed that there are a large number of stubs given that the total size of the project is only 4000+ articles. We will need to work around the issues and arrive at a decision on what needs to be done here. 

A few concerns have been raised and solutions suggested by various editors during  an earlier discussion on this mailing list and on aralikatte and amongst them I feel we need to do the following going ahead:

    * Tag all the stub pages for movie as Movie stubs (noticed that it is done for some pages).
    * Creation of stub sorting or Wikiproject for Movies, where users with interest in those areas can participate.
    * If there is some provision in the mediawiki software, changes can be made accordingly to not display stubs when users click on Random Articles.

More importantly, i think we need to work on having some of the really basic articles an encyclopedia should have. A page has been created for Required Articles, which are a priority to make Kannada Wikipedia more encyclopedic. As long as we don't add a large number of stubs, overtime we should be able improve the ratio of non-stub articles to stub articles to a figure comparable to other large wikis with quality articles (like english wiki).

In any case, I think among Indian languages wikis, Kannada wikipedia is qualitatively better off compared to larger indian wikis like telugu and bengali, which  have a large stub to non-stub ratio. It is something we need to keep in mind and improve the articles qualitatively, rather than focus on quantity.

Policies: This is an equally important task and needs to be done at the earliest, because as we have newer users unfamiliar with wiki policies, it would be a tough task to explain how the system at wikipedia works and point users to the correct policies and guidelines.

I request all the other editors to also come up with their views and opinions, so that we can arrive at some consensus and work towards bettering kannada wikipedia.

Thanks,
Naveen


On 11/9/06, Ashwatha Matthur <ashwatham@gmail.com> wrote:
Hi Hari, and all editors on kn wikipedia,

good email. I myself have been largely inactive on any wiki (kn or en) for a long time now, even though nowadays I am just poking around once a week or so. As a result, I am not necessarily the most qualified person here, but thought I would sound off just to get the discussion going.

1. I agree with you on the stubs issue. However, I don't think stubs can be classified as 'spam', even if they are just one line long. As long as an article is about a 'substantial topic,' I personally think it is welcome to be there, stub or not. But you are right in that would-be editors would be discouraged if they tried to read kannada wikipedia and they found only one-liners. To get around this, here's a question: is it possible in wiki software to include a link (on the mainpage) to artices that are atleast a certain size? Say, 1Kb or whatever? I am not sure if the software has the capability to do this, but it would be worthwhile to have such a link.

Other than this, the weekly collaboration seems to be a good way to get important articles to a substantial size. I am not sure if there's a list of important topics that need expansion - I know you had one when kannada wikipedia was in its initial stages (less than 500 articles). It maybe worhwhile for us to revive that idea.

2. hmmm.. I will leave this open for now, since I don't have any bright ideas at the moment.

Can everyone chip in with some feedback?

Nimma vishwasi,
  Ashwatha.



On 11/1/06, H P Nadig <hpnadig@gmail.com > wrote:
Snehitare,

   This is some time when I'm on a Wiki vacation from Kn Wiki and
concentrating more on the other responsibilities I have in the Wiki
world and outside. But before I go largely inactive on Wiki (although
I'll be available for anyone who needs help), I have couple of things to
put forward and bring into discussion. Please WAKE UP, and take part in
this discussion.

The future of Kannada counterpart of the project might very much depend
on decisions we make now.

   Lately, Kannada Wikipedia has had its share of stubs, one-liners,
spam, POV articles, vandalized articles (that still remain) and many
other issues. I would like to bring some of these to discussion and
solicit some opinions and participation so that we're headed the better
way, if not the best.

1) Stubs:
Few contributors were involved in creation of stubs in huge volume.
Although stubs are welcome, special cases like these when stubs are
being created by just one or two editors on just a single category
probably makes Wikipedia with just few thousand articles saturated.
These stubs are more likely deserve to be called "spam".

Assuming that no one would be editing these movie stubs (one-liners)
that have been created in huge numbers, the articles would be reducing
interest among would-be editors who visit Wikipedia for reading.

Also because quality of articles is more important than numbers, we
ought to concentrate more on filling up the "very much needed articles"
rather than movie stubs that probably no-one is going to edit in years
to come.

2) Policies:

Kannada Wikipedia urgently needs some policies drafted and put in place.
The project, at this point, has lost much of the focus, although the
project is intended to grow with indefinite contributions from many
volunteers.

Looking forward to some discussion on these off the Wiki.

Cheers,

  - h.p.




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"Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties." ~ Erich
Fromm

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