On Monday 02 September 2002 07:30 am, Magnus wrote:
- As a result, these articles (or parts of them) can be integrated into
the "free encyclopedia sources" from #1
How would this integration occur? Would it be automatic and thus overwrite any modifications made the the Wikipedia version that have occurred since the text was copied to start the Nupedia one? Or would this have to be done manually for each article? I don't like either scenario. Under the first scenario potentially valid edits to the Wikipedia version are lost and under the second scenario somebody has to perform version control (I HATE version control).
Who really would want to continue editing Wikipedia articles if their perfectly valid edits are overwritten by a computer without notice or if they have to perform version control after each release of Nupedia?
What I'm trying to say is Wikipedia and Nupedia won't be a fork, because...
If version control isn't done by those taking the material to begin with there is little chance this reintegration work will be done for most articles Nupedia uses. Thus we have a fork -- pure and simple. The Nupedia experts will work on their version and Wikipedia editors will work on their own version (I do hate duplication of effort).
they're not really competition; they could both benefit from a symbiosis.
Magnus
But it is also true that the roundworm Trichuris trichiura is not in competition with its human host -- it is in symbiosis (albeit a special case of symbiosis called parasitism). So through an initial case of parasitism by Nupedia the two projects would be competition in cases where reintegration doesn't occur (for whatever reasons) and two different article versions are being worked on at the same.
What I would like to see is some mutualistic symbiosis whereby edits to the Wikipedia article are in effect suspended by placing a simple note at the top of the article saying something to the effect that "This article is being checked and possibly expanded for inclusion in the next version of Nupedia. When that process is complete that version will replace this one. To see the current progress of this process please visit {URL of where the Nupedia version under development is}."
And at that location there would be some type of explanation on how the Nupedia process works (probably by proposing suggestions to the expert validation editor).
When Nupedia has done its thing with the article then that version would replace the Wikipedia one by someone/computer from Nupedia (the entire process should be short though -- no more than a week or so for any particular article).
This is already being done to a large extent with the /Temp fad I helped start (whereby an article that is being completely redone is copied to a /Temp page title and worked on there). Although the /Temp page is being replaced here by a Nupedia page where a different development methodology prevails.
In this way Nupedia benefits from getting raw material and Wikipedia benefits from periodically getting many of its articles reviewed, edited and expanded by experts. I say that is a win-win scenario.
-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)