Dear all, Again and again, I see the saying that Wikipedia does only work in practice, but not in theory. Well, that depends on the theory. If one describes Wikipedia as an anarchy or "wisdom of the masses" or "swarm intelligence", that theoretical approach will certainly fail. Wikipedia is community-based, and it is a myth that "anyone can edit". In reality, unregistered and new users meet a lot of "resistance", as Ed Chi has called it. Quick reverts, often accompanied by a rude comment, are the result and lead to frustrations. Therefore I would like to suggest to reconsider the idea of "everyone can edit". My concept will make it possible to people have an influence on Wikipedia in two ways: * Report: Many people are not interested in becoming a Wikipedian, they just want to correct a typo or add a link or an information. They are mostly interested only in one peticular subject. Would'nt it be better not to let them edit, but to let them report? Their reports could be treated by a system similar to the current OTRS (support) team we already have. * Become a serious editor: For those who would like to edit, to become a Wikipedian, we must build an easy and secure path. Someone who candidates as a Wikipedian should be required to leave an e-mail-address (to facilitate communication) and present himself a little bit (why he wants to become a Wikipedian, what he is interested in). This can be in perfect anonimity. Then it would be great to link him with a mentor, someone who is following his steps and helps him to fit into the community. Edits by this newbie has to be reconfirmed by his mentor or other people we know of that they treat a newbie politely. With such a two-way-system, we would prevent spam and vandalism and help reducing frustrations. We would still make it possible for "instant collaborators" (IP users) to contribute (by "reporting"). Some could say that this system would highly modify the Wiki principle. But in fact reality has already modified it. Our openess exists only in theory, in practice we scare a lot of good willing people away. Kind regards Ziko -- Ziko van Dijk NL-Silvolde _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l