Magnus Manske wrote:
One could argue that if there are current events that lead to drastic changes to an article,
- the stable version can be "unset", thus displaying the current version
again. Reason: The old stable version is obviuosly outdated :-)
- a page could be set to a "current events" or "live" mode individually,
similar to the soft protection tag. This could overrule any stable version for the time being. That would need a (minor) software change, though.
And one could then also argue that these features would do away with the basis on which people are arguing for showing the "stable" version by default - random passers-by would once again be exposed to the raw underbelly of Wikipedia with no reassurance that there's no vandalism, lies, libel, etc in what they're seeing. We would no doubt have had news of our "stable by default" policy spread far and wide in the media by that point so this could make the situation even worse, since visitors would now be expecting to see only vetted content when they click a Wikipedia link (moreso than they already do, that is).
I really think the best solution is just better education for passers-by of how Wikipedia works - more obvious disclaimers, "this is a work in progress" banners, etc. Ideally, stuff that would entice them to contribute themselves when they see problems.