[Foundation-l] Renaming "Flagged Protections"

[William Pietri]

On 05/21/2010 07:03 PM, Gregory Maxwell wrote:
> On Fri, May 21, 2010 at 5:38 PM, Rob Lanphier<robla at wikimedia.org>  wrote:
>    
>> implementation, and there's no "flagging" in the proposed configuration.
>> Additionally, "protection" in our world implies "no editing" whereas this
>>      
> [snip]
>    
>>    - Must not introduce obsolete terminology (e.g. there's no "flagging" in
>>    our proposed deployment)
>>      
> I guess I'm confused, because I see flagging all over this but you're
> saying there is none?
> To the best of my understanding:
>
> The flags are what distinguishes approved revisions from non-approved
> revisions and on designated pages controls which revisions are
> displayed by default to anons.
>    


I think under the hood this is true; as a programmer, the term flag, as 
in a binary condition marker often found in sets, makes sense to me 
here. But I don't think it does in normal English usage. In non-jargon 
usage, one normally flags something for review or attention, and here's 
it's just the opposite: when one takes an action with Flagged 
Protection, one marks the item as trusted.




>> Additionally, "protection" in our world implies "no editing" whereas this
>>      
> The protection interface controls and has long a number of things
> related to the permissions granted to manipulate a page.  The same
> protection interface allows a page to be "move protected" for example,
> which doesn't do anything related to _editing_ but instead prevents
> the page from being moved to a new name.   Following that mode, this
> feature enables the protection of the flagging process on pages which
> users deem require that level of protection— just as there as is the
> case for the other protective modes.
>    

You're totally right that Flagged Revisions and Flagged Protection fit 
perfectly well from the perspective of a technical insider. I think if 
that were the only issue, then we'd just stick with what we had.

The concern here is for the millions of outsiders that will come in 
contact with this, and the many outsiders that we would like to come at 
least a little farther inside. For those people, a name that makes sense 
only after you've learned other insider concepts or jargon is a problem. 
An name that is instantly comprehended is a real benefit to them.

William