[WikiEN-l] Attributing articles to their authors

[Shmuel Weidberg]

On Jan 24, 2008 4:29 PM, Ian A Holton <poeloq at gmail.com> wrote:
> How about a separate author tab, similar to the revision one? All
> authors of non-minor marked edits could be named, possibly in the form
> of a "tag-cloud" where weight is given to the amount of edits and bytes
> added.

I wouldn't be averse to that knowledge being readily available, but I
don't think it does the trick.

I don't think an automated process could ever give the proper amount
of credit, and some types of credit are simply impossible to detect
automatically.

I also think, that the authors must be part of the article when it is
printed. It is not simply a matter of being able to find out who the
author is, but acknowledging the author, and that can only be done
properly if it is part of the article and hand edited.

The same thing that makes people afraid that people might get offended
for being left off the list, is what gives it the power of rewarding
people for the good work they have done by being acknowledged by other
human beings.

Regards,
Ezra