[Foundation-l] GFDL Q&A update and question

[Mike Godwin]

Thomas Dalton writes:

> I guess if you leave it up to the editor to do it themselves, it could
> work, although it would still require someone to go along after them
> fixing the mess that would inevitably result from removing random
> chunks from the middle of articles. There would also be disputes over
> how much should be removed - can you remove a word because you
> corrected the spelling of it? (probably not) can you remove an entire
> sentence because it's an expansion of a sentence that you wrote?
> (probably, since there isn't an alternative, but that's going to
> really piss off the person that did all the work expanding it) And
> then you have to deal with disputes over whether the text that is put
> in to replace the removed chunks is sufficiently different so as not
> to infringe on the editor's copyright. I think it would end up being a
> lot of work for more than just the editor in question.

I agree with you that an editor who chooses to remove some large  
number of minor edits is going to be quite disruptive, but I think it  
goes without saying that some very tiny minority of editors is quite  
willing to be disruptive and antisocial in order to score to (a)  
vindicate their perceived rights or (b) (and less charitably) to score  
an ideological point.

I hope it is not news to anyone here that some (very tiny) fraction of  
editors values making a point over making information freely available  
to the world.


--Mike