Dave McKee wrote:
- Whilst I accept that Wikipedia requires a total deletion system in
some cases, what are the accepted administrative reasons behind deletions?
Just speaking off the top of my head, I think that total deletions seldom make sense. They should be reserved primarily for pages that are just completely mistaken (typos, unlikely misspellings), or for pages that are nothing more than insults.
Another class of pages for which total deletion makes sense would be for legitimate page titles with totally nonsensical content. A total deletion is better than a page clearing, because it restores the ? link on pages that may mention this page, thus alerting us that it needs fixing.
For example, a couple of days ago I noticed that we didn't have a page on Colin Powell, while reading a page about the current effort. If there had been a blank page there, I would not have noticed it, and we wouldn't have that content now.
- Are the deletions tracked (even if not available to the public) in
any way? Is there any way that it can be determined which administrator has deleted a file (eg: usernames, IP addresses)? If not, is there any reason why there shouldn't be in the future?
I think it is obvious that pretty much nothing should be done in secret.
of Wikipedia, which is probably Bomis' biggest asset.
Well, not really. Wikipedia traffic is extraordinarily tiny compared to our other properties. Nonetheless, I do think Wikipedia is exciting and promising.
--Jimbo