[WikiEN-l] Bans and online/offline reputation (was Re: Follow-up on my Ban from Wikipedia (part 3))

[Armed Blowfish]

On 09/09/2007, Steve Bennett <stevagewp at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 9/8/07, Armed Blowfish <diodontida.armata at googlemail.com> wrote:
>> Many people go on and on about how Wikipaedia is an
>> encyclopaedia and not a tabloid.  However, the encyclopaedia
>> is contained within the article namespace.  Is there any
>> reason for namespaces other than the main (article)
>> namespace and the image namespace to be indexed
>
> The Wikipedia namespace should be indexed, so you can search for terms
> like "neutral point of view". It also contains pointers to tools.
> MediaWiki should probably be indexed.
> User talk is probably the only strong candidate for non indexing. The
> other talks are probably ok...there are times when you want to search
> them.
> User is probably ok.
>
> Steve

Erm, not indexing on Google doesn't mean no searching -
MediaWiki does have it's own search capacity.  However,
things in the Wikipedia: namespace, and indeed every
namespace besides main and image, are generally not of
interest to non-Wikipaedians - no need to take up retail
space on other search engines.

Wikipaedia namespace also includes areas in which
particularly rude discussion often occurs (and, occasionally,
libellous as well).  For example - all the noticeboards,
Requests for comment, Requests for arbitration.  Talk pages
can get fairly ugly too.

The User namespace is at best a collection of personal
blogs, and at worst rude or even libellous, depending on the
page in question.  Same for User talk.