At Mon, 31 Mar 2003 12:40:12 +0100, tarquin (tarquin@planetunreal.com) wrote:
Gary Curtis wrote:
I propose a number of changes to the Wikipedia software to enable "software assisted context resolution", or if you prefer "software assisted disambiguation". The primary purpose of these changes is to allow users to more easily resolve ambiguous links at the time they are created, or if necessary, at some later stage. I stress that this is not "automatic" link resolution, although the process will be invoked automatically in many cases.
Well we sort of already have this... Maintenance page -> disambiguation pages with links
:-)
The other mechanism we have for this is Plain Old Brainpower -- if you write in a certain area of the Wikipedia for some time, you come to know which pages are disambiguation and which aren't.
Frankly, this proposed mod is not for users of the skill level of tarquin (or say mav or zoe). They don't need "software assistance", but would probably use it ;-).
It is for Jack or Jill Average, who adds a link to [[mercury]] with little thought that there are so many mercury's. I want the software to "protect" the database from this user's well- intentioned edit. Not that the user is going to do any real damage here, but if the user resolves the link then someone doesn't have to do it later.
Gaz
--------------------------------------------------------
Looking for a free email account? Get one now at http://www.freemail.com.au/
--------------------------------------------------------
--- Gary Curtis wikiman@freemail.com.au wrote:
It is for Jack or Jill Average, who adds a link to [[mercury]] with little thought that there are so many mercury's.
Yes, that's a real problem; when linking to something, you can never be sure whether the target is a disambiguation page or not.
Here's a slightly simplified version of your proposal: whenver you hit "Preview", the software presents you with a list of all those links on the current page that point to disambiguation pages. Ideally, each such disambiguation page would be given along with a list of all the "real" pages the disambiguation page points to, to make the fixing of the current article easier.
Axel
__________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Platinum - Watch CBS' NCAA March Madness, live on your desktop! http://platinum.yahoo.com
(Axel Boldt axelboldt@yahoo.com): --- Gary Curtis wikiman@freemail.com.au wrote:
It is for Jack or Jill Average, who adds a link to [[mercury]] with little thought that there are so many mercury's.
Yes, that's a real problem; when linking to something, you can never be sure whether the target is a disambiguation page or not.
That's not a bug, it's a feature. Seriously, accidental discovery of vaguely related things is one of the fun parts of Wiki surfing, and part of the value of the medium. Let's not go overboard and "fix" things that are useful just because they seem unplanned.
--- Lee Daniel Crocker lee@piclab.com wrote:
(Axel Boldt axelboldt@yahoo.com):
Yes, that's a real problem; when linking to something, you can never be sure whether the target is a disambiguation page or not.
That's not a bug, it's a feature. Seriously, accidental discovery of vaguely related things is one of the fun parts of Wiki surfing, and part of the value of the medium. Let's not go overboard and "fix" things that are useful just because they seem unplanned.
Well, if a link to a disambiguation page is planned, then that's fine I suppose, but often the author is unaware of it and the link may then become imprecise and unhelpful. For example, in the eighteenth century there were three mathematicians named "Johann Bernoulli". Also, lots of technical terms have various definitions depending on context, and while experts can usually tell which one is meant, those people are not our main audience.
Axel
__________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - File online, calculators, forms, and more http://platinum.yahoo.com
(Axel Boldt axelboldt@yahoo.com):
--- Lee Daniel Crocker lee@piclab.com wrote:
(Axel Boldt axelboldt@yahoo.com):
Yes, that's a real problem; when linking to something, you can never be sure whether the target is a disambiguation page or not.
That's not a bug, it's a feature. Seriously, accidental discovery of vaguely related things is one of the fun parts of Wiki surfing, and part of the value of the medium. Let's not go overboard and "fix" things that are useful just because they seem unplanned.
Well, if a link to a disambiguation page is planned, then that's fine I suppose, but often the author is unaware of it and the link may then become imprecise and unhelpful. For example, in the eighteenth century there were three mathematicians named "Johann Bernoulli". Also, lots of technical terms have various definitions depending on context, and while experts can usually tell which one is meant, those people are not our main audience.
I have to repeat that "unplanned" or "unintentional" aren't bad. "Wrong" is of course bad, but that's a minority case. There was a time when a link on the "Jesus" page that was supposed to go to the apostle Bartholomew actually went to Bart Simpson--that was bad. Funny, but bad. But the majority of cases, people will just put a link around something like "Mercury" without knowing that it will go to a page that shows links to 4 or 5 different subjects, one of which will be intended and the rest accidental--but that's a /good/ thing. If someone is researching the god or the element and just happens to run across articles on the space program, that's part of the Wiki experience, so long as he can /also/ find what he's actually looking for without much trouble.
wikipedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org