On 6/25/07, Brion Vibber brion@wikimedia.org wrote:
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Rob Church wrote:
On 23/06/07, Bryan Tong Minh bryan.tongminh@gmail.com wrote:
So how does the software know that a page is up for deletion? Pending deletions are done using templates, not by some internal mechanism by the software.
Yet.
*cough* Deletion work queue? *cough*
*ding ding ding* We have a winner!
Since marking things for deletion, discussing them, and then either letting them disappear or cancelling it is
a) A very common operation
b) Relatively easily codified in a queue system
it's a prime candidate for adding more software support. This is particularly so given that that software support would make it a lot easier to give people the feedback they need to:
a) not feel like they're being personally attacked or betrayed by other people
b) find out about what happens to their pages
c) get closure
Once upon a time, a busy programmer hacked a little extension called "Tasks". It was supposed to help semi-automate recurring tasks, from deletion requests to anon page creation petitions. It can automatically generate a page for each task in a special namespace where said task can be discussed. Tasks can be listed by type (and by page category, if enabled), and are shown in the page header or sidebar, depending on the type.
But, while some people use (used?) it on other MediaWiki installations, it got not much attention on Wiki(m|p)edia and is now all dusty and rusty, and probably doesn't work anymore after the many changes in MediaWiki that were done in the meantime. However, yours truly is confident that it could be adapted to the current system, if someone who knows the current Wikimedia setup (caching etc) intimately, like, say, someone who works there :-) would make a brave attempt to revive it.
Will it run happily ever after? We shall see in the next episode of "all my extensions"...
Magnus