On 12/30/05, Magnus Manske <magnus.manske(a)web.de> wrote:
It seems that for the stable version feature, there is
much support for
having a stable version, but not as much for displaying it by default.
Yes, this seems to be the case, but I think we should have a poll on
this on the Wikipedia itself, as visibly as possible, since at least
#2 (and imho #1 too) would be a big change. Judging support just from
the few participants in this discussion would give you an unreliable
result.
Suggestion:
1. Have stable versions, but not as default, like on my test page [1]
2. Once that runs for some time without problem, we turn on stable
versions as default *for a week* and see what happens
If the number of (non-vandal) edits drops like the new market used to,
we keep it like #1. However, if there is no significant reduction in
edits, we turn on #2 for, say, a month, or three month. If there's no
ill effect either, we keep it on.
Since this is a controversial issue, I think the idea of an experiment
sounds nice. The details, however, need a few changes. After turning
on #1, we could monitor the growth of edits, new users and the use of
the stable versions for a few months. If there are negative changes to
the growth pattern, we would step back to the current situation.
Otherwise we could go on to try #2, and monitor the same things for a
few months, and again step back if there are negative changes.
Additionally, of course, the decision to try this
would be optional for
every wikipedia individually.
A more long-term experiment would be to create a fork with the new
policy, and see how that develops (
en-stable.wikipedia.org, for
example), but that would put the new proposal at an great
disadvantage, since it would start out with almost no editors, so it
would be very hard to get any useful results.
That solution should satisfy everyone concerned about
the project,
though it might not satisfy those who want a wiki, just a wiki, nothing
else.
Personally, I want an encyclopedia (though in the inclusionist sense),
but I think that the fastest and best way to build that is through the
current wiki process.