On 30/08/06, Andrew Lih <andrew.lih(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Does this make the 5 minute cut? :)
I sent it to a couple of places just now, including Bill Thompson
(BBC) who sent a very nice reply. So not quite ;-)
I've put it on Meta. Please hack away at will, and move somewhere
better if sensible:
http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/2006_proposed_approval_for_anonymous_edits
(that's a terrible article name. You can tell I've been writing on the
work wiki too much. Even if it is MoinMoin.)
I think the premise of the FAQ is off in its current
form. I am
worried by the "we" part, meaning the mythical monolithic Wikipedia
community. (ie. Why not make this an opportunity to show that
Wikipedias have their distinct culture and are at different stages of
development?)
In this case because it was an immediate response to the Bill Thompson
and Platinax articles. I was trying very hard to keep it *really
simple* and clear because journalists don't have time to read press
releases closely - they have to be able to get your message by
skimming.
There's huge piles of detail I left out ...
I think the announcement should make clear:
- There has always been a desire for a better reader experience
- The larger Wikipedia communities have turned their attention from
growth to quality
yep, these are important.
- The German Wikipedia has initiated an experiment
with a
"nonvandalized" and "checked" versions (nb: terminology may need to
be
tweaked)
Yeah. I didn't give them names, but I hope I got this idea across.
- This "potentially" may allow for a
mechanism other than blunt
protection for preventing vandalism
Jimbo wanted to emphasise "this is to make things wide-open" because
the press coverage had been "OH NOEZ WIKI IS CLOSED", so this probably
isn't as neutral as it might ideally be.
- The greater Wikipedia community hopes to learn from
this pilot project
I think I've got that in. Platinax emailed me to clarify and I said
that it's quite possible it might go badly and we cancel the idea -
but we're giving it a go.
- The English and other Wikipedias, with their own
norms and cultures,
may or may not adopt the German initiatives
I left out that bit, but I think I have in that we are trying.
PS: Would be nice to have a pointer to a meta page (if
it exists)
describing the German initiative. If I had not attended the Wikimania
2006 summit on the top floor of Pound Hall with Danny, Kurt, G.
Maxwell, Jimmy, Raul654, Kelly Martin, et al, I would not have known
these things. And I'm a bit concerned we're neglecting to use the wiki
to share this knowledge.
It wasn't a matter of fuss until the press grabbed it and ran with it,
conclusively describing the Wikipedia elephant to the public as a rope
holding together walls in a fan shape at the top of several trees with
a spear and thirty snakes sticking out the side [*]. The feature is
probably still way too premature to warrant this attention ... but
it's got it anyway.
- d.
[*]
http://www.wordinfo.info/words/index/info/view_unit/1/?letter=B&spage=3