[WikiEN-l] I better shut up (was vfd RFC)

[Dan Grey]

On 03/08/05, David Gerard <fun at thingy.apana.org.au> wrote:
> I sincerely believe the current VFD process and culture is so poisonous to
> Wikipedia that, at least for the moment, we would be better just letting
> the disks fill with band vanity, original research and poo jokes.

I agree (but the disks would never fill - see m:Wiki is not paper). 

Ed deleted VfD then someone else undeleted it. Hardly a big deal. In
the process he hit everyone right between the eyes with the fact that
VfD isn't great.

Moving forwards though, there only appears to be only two schools of thought:

1. Those who wish VfD to stay as-is with all discussions about
listings held in one place.

2. Those who think everything to do with an article should be
discussed on that article's talk page (and a list of pages under
discussion could be maintained with ease using a m:DynamicPageList,
which we all kinds of places on Wikinews).

The former allows very much the same people to contribute to each VfD
vote, with some 'interesting' concepts (eg. "notability", seemingly
never defined). This could, I feel, be the root of the problems David
and Ed are highlighting presently, the same ones that many have done
so before.

The second would make it harder for the same groups of people to
contribute to each VfD vote. It could quite possibly reduce it to only
the contributors to the article and those who have in interest in the
topic (picking up the discussion via the DPL).

VfD itself could easily be deleted again and no. 2 put in its place
within minutes of the devs turning the DPL extension on on Wikipedia.

Should we though?


Dan