(Catching up)
Erik Moeller wrote:
- Protected pages have a link called "Editable copy" or something
similar. This is simply a copy of the page, perhaps with some flag in the database or a modifier in the page title like "(COPY)".
- This page can be edited freely. After every edit, a timer is reset. The
timer counts down to, say, 2 hours (we may want to define this on a per- site or per-page basis). Once the time has elapsed, the original version of the page is replaced with the COPY.
Because the timer is reset any time someone edits the page, regular users can prevent the page from being substituted with vandalism if no sysop is near. Similarly, edit wars are given time to "cool" before the page in question changes.
- Sysops have the additional privileges of being able to directly replace
the original page with the COPY (so as to say, "this version is good, gimme this NOW"), and of course, of being able to edit the original page directly.
This is cute and all, but it seems like a lot of new complexity for no really important purpose.
The Main Page of all language wikis would benefit greatly from this, as it could now be updated by everyone without the risk of the goat-man suddenly appearing on our frontpage.
Well, this would be nice, I admit. But sysop status is handed out freely for the asking, for the most part, so I'm not sure if the benefit is really all that great.
--Jimbo