Proposal for a Wikipedia Article "Approval" Process
Assuming there is support for a stable version of wikipedia, some
mechanism for stability is required.
Allow logged in users to approve any version of an article. Logged in
users could also disapprove any or every version of an article.
Articles would be scored based on number of users who approved
(weighted?) - number of users who disapproved (weighted?). The article
with the highest approval rating would be the released (approved)
article. This would be displayed somewhere distinct from the working
wikipedia (e.g.
sifter.wikipedia.org, or something similar).
New users would be presented with Wikipedia Release edition. They
could still edit the article, but it would not be released until the
approvals on the new article exceed the approvals on the previously
released article. The under-edit version from which users are working
may differ from the release version if approvals have not yet been
found. The differences would be highlighted on the edit screen.
Edits would of course appear in Recent Changes. In addition, there
would be Recent Approvals tracking articles which recently were voted
on for approval.
An edit would of course count as a vote for approval (if preferences so
set).
Under the article (in view mode) (for logged in users) would be "vote
to approve" and "vote to disapprove" buttons. A vote to approve would
transfer a users vote to this version for approval and remove it from
previous versions. A vote to disapprove would remain even if another
version was disapproved.
Possible weight = 1 if under 100 edits, 2 if under 200 edits, 3 if
under 300 edits, 4 otherwise. Alternative weighting schemes are
possible as well, including weight=1 for all logged in users.
Comments?
-- DavidLevinson