[WikiEN-l] Scott McCloud on Wikipedia

[Peter Ansell]

On 25/02/07, Jake Nelson <duskwave at gmail.com> wrote:
> The entire deletion system is in a very bad state. This is nothing new
> - VFD has always had problems, and in the last 3-4 years, it's only
> gotten worse. It's our biggest PR problem. And I mean that: it's a
> bigger problem for our image than bad bios (though much less likely to
> cause legal trouble). Every use of "non-notable", "vanity", or
> "unencyclopedic" on VFD has hurt Wikipedia. Webcomics suffer the worst
> of it, but it's widespread and longstanding. Plus, the last few years
> have seen countless layers of procedure and rules encrustation on the
> original structure, making it more inconsistent and nonsensical. A
> newcomer can make no sense of the system at all, not even bringing the
> insanity of DRV into it.
>
> I increasingly think we need to just nuke the whole deletion system.
> Unless there's sensitive content (personal information, etc.) or
> copyright violations that need to be removed from article history,
> just fix, stub, substub, or blank it (in order of decreasing
> preference).
>

Of course by keeping an articles history available you respect the
GFDL, even if you do not appreciate it and wish not to have it
immediately available. You wouldn't want to actually do that now...
Would you? Afterall, the whole debacle relies on Wikipedia being able
to destroy GFDL'd content.

(With the exception of personally identifiable information which has
ethical and privacy implications of course)

Peter Ansell