[WikiEN-l] When Unsourced Isn't That Bad

[Sage Ross]

On 4/9/07, Kirill Lokshin <kirill.lokshin at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 4/9/07, Philip Sandifer <sandifer at english.ufl.edu> wrote:
> > So what can we do? What can we put into place that facilitates this
> > sort of local engagement?
>
> Work through the relevant WikiProjects more?  There's a certain
> element of disdain for them -- "I don't want to talk to WikiProject X
> because they're all fanboys/POV pushers/people violating OWN/etc." --
> that needs to be done away with; but they're an existing
> infrastructure for interacting with editors that work primarily in a
> particular subject area without getting involved in the Wikipedia-wide
> bureaucracy.
>

WikiProjects have actually been pretty receptive (in my experience) to
the guideline on in-universe perspective ([[WP:WAF]]).  The only
sustained opposition has been relatively tangential issues like plot
summaries and succession boxes for fictional entities.  Many of the
articles I tag with {{in-universe}} get cleaned up, and most others
just sit around for lack of active editing but don't incite fanboy
opposition.

I think a more concerted effort to have policy wonks assess
topic-specific problems and make suggestions to WikiProjects (or on
the talk pages of central articles, for when there is no WikiProject)
could be pretty successful.  As long as it's done with wikilove (or at
least a veneer of it), it shouldn't cause too much culture shock.

-Sage