[WikiEN-l] Linking Dates

[David Goodman]

Changing a previously widely accepted standard should take much wider
discussion than this has received, and over a longer period of time.
It's very easy at Wikipedia for a few people to move in fast and get
something changed; the test is whether it hold up under subsequent
scrutiny. And even actual consent ahead of time may change quite
rapidly once people truly see the implications on a large scale in the
encyclopedia.


On Sat, Oct 18, 2008 at 8:58 AM, Andrew Gray <shimgray at gmail.com> wrote:
> 2008/10/17 Marc Riddell <michaeldavid86 at comcast.net>:
>
>> Thanks for your thoughts, geni. Although I see value in linking the years,
>> what, in the end, I am REALLY looking for is some consistency. I still do
>> not understand fully much of the decision-making process that goes into
>> matters such as deciding on a specific format policy. But what I do see
>> throughout the encyclopedia is an arbitrariness in form and structure that
>> greatly detracts from the professionalism of the Project. A reader is coming
>> to the encyclopedia looking for information on a particular subject. That
>> information should be presented in a consistent, reliable, familiar form.
>> This form becomes the "signature" of the encyclopedia. As the Wikipedia
>> Project matures, it is important that the decision-making processes
>> regarding such basic issues as its very form and structure mature as well.
>
> Surely the thing you're bringing up - people going around and
> delinking dates for standardisation - is pretty much guaranteed to
> bring greater consistency of form in the medium term? There's two and
> a half million articles, most of which will have some date linking, so
> it's going to take time to get them all; a transitional period is
> always necessary for big changes. Nonetheless, I'm sure that in a
> month or two we'll be a lot closer to our ideal of consistency of
> style, once the new system's shaken out.
>
> The only real issue, from a consistency viewpoint, is that it decided
> to rescind a previous standard form. This is not a dealbreaker - yes,
> consistency over time is nice, but we should never be backed into a
> corner of continuing with a problematic "solution" simply because it
> seemed like a good idea five years ago, when the issues were much
> different.
>
> --
> - Andrew Gray
>  andrew.gray at dunelm.org.uk
>
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-- 
David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:DGG