[WikiEN-l] BJAODN restored again

[SJ]

On 6/6/07, Charlotte Webb <charlottethewebb at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 6/5/07, Angela Anuszewski <angela.anuszewski at gmail.com> wrote:
> > I'm sorry, I'm sorta new around here, and I guess I am not really sure
> > I understand exactly what the GFDL says and why this (in some people
> > eyes) is an issue. Is there a good summary of this controversy that a
> > neophyte can understand without slogging through months' worth of talk
> > pages?

Strict interpretation of the 'History' requirements of the GFDL might
suggest that a) a History section can only be preserved and added to,
and b) every published change to Wikipedia (acting as one large
3-million-page document) should include an addition to the History
section.  Any bit of edit history that is not attributed on the
'History' section, whatever that means, fails to comply with clause
4I.   (so, for instance, attribution via paste onto a talk page is
just another practical way to infer attribution -- morally a good
thing to do, since attribution is important, but not satisfying the
GFDL.)

So deleting any article or revision can be complicated -- one of the
many ways in which the GFDL wasn't designed for wiki-style creation.

SJ


> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:GFDL
> particularly section 4, which requires a document's edit history to be
> maintained in some form or fashion. Generally this is easy to fulfill
> because the software does it automatically. But, if we continue to
> publish text even after deleting the edits through which it
> originated, then no edit history relevant to this text could possibly
> be readable by the public. Thus the text is being used in violation of
> the GFDL, unless the edit history is preserved manually by alternative
> means. The following could be copied from the history window and be
> more than adequate:
>
> ==From [[Some deleted article]]==
> Edit history:
> *11:53, 31 May 2007 User3 (requesting zomg speedy deletion)
> *11:51, 31 May 2007 User2 m (typo fix using AWB)
> *20:13, 16 May 2007 User1 (←Created page with '// Actual text of joke. //')
>
> // Actual text of joke. //
>
> ==Next stupid joke==
>
> If it makes things easier, the edit histories of bad jokes tend to be
> pretty short.
>
> ―C.W.
>
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-- 
++SJ