[WikiEN-l] Edit Wikipedia Week is coming. How not to bite the n00bs?

[Omegatron]

On 11/6/07, James Forrester <jdforrester at gmail.com> wrote:
> Seriously, a lot of what some term "newbie-biting" comes from the
> concept held dear by many that our old creed of eventualism is dead,
> and that expedient removal of vandalism trumps all other concerns,
> including having a project worth defending.

My idea for making vandalism much more catchable:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Omegatron/Most_needed_software_features#Diff_summaries>

On 11/6/07, David Goodman <dgoodmanny at gmail.com> wrote:
> Anyone who uses the internet knows there is a chance of getting
> inappropriate content.   We have one of the best protection mechanisms
> for it available, because of the very large number of users.

"One of the best available"?  Really?

On 11/6/07, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
> I think it's worth realising that we're a work in progress.

I think it's more important that the general Google-linked public realize this.

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MediaWiki_talk:Tagline#.22that_anyone_can_edit.22>

Sigh.

On 11/6/07, William Pietri <william at scissor.com> wrote:
> My point is that problems are indeed problems, but in
> that they serve as a call to involvement and an easy way to get started,
> we derive some benefit from them, too.

I also sometimes wonder if allowing kids to write crappy articles
about their high schools might not actually be so harmful in the long
run.  Let them learn about neutrality and collaborative editing on
pages that no one outside their microcosm is going to read anyway.