Gerard, I disagree. I love reading all the nonsense as well as all the
thoughtful articles. And sometimes it's the nonsense that triggers me to
clean it up and learn something. If there is one thing I have learned in my
time in the Wikiverse, it's that there are lots unexpected gems of
information locked into unreadable snippets of text.
On Wed, Jun 24, 2015 at 1:06 AM, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Hoi,
I don't but there is a place for them and it is not in endless drudgery
that is best done in other ways. We need text junkies who love their
language, who can explain things and make them understood as expected of an
encyclopaedia. We do not need endless wikitext we need text. We do not need
templates galore every time done in an incompatible and unintelligible way.
Article writers should be able to distance themselves from such drudgery.
When you call article writers people who are very good at such nonsense
than yes, we need fewer of those because in the end they lose us more
writers than they gain us quality content.
Thanks,
GerardM
On 23 June 2015 at 23:16, Ed Erhart <the.ed17(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Gerard,
We need many more "text junkies," also known as article writers. Don't
denigrate them.
Best,
--Ed
On Tue, Jun 23, 2015 at 1:50 PM, Gerard Meijssen <
gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
Hoi,
I think I understand how much time is wasted replicating the same thing
over and over again. When we know specific facts for instance an old
president of the Sierra Leone dies, all articles about him have to
change.
> When new demographics of Almere become known, all articles are to
change.
> Adding information to Wikidata should be
trivially easy on a
smartphone.
This has
been proven by "The Game". When it is that easy to add
information, the information can be updated in lists, in info boxes and
alerts may be generated to modify the text where needed. You will often
find that there is little to write when all the list, categories, info
boxes are already updated.
The consequence is that people who want to write articles may continue
doing this. They do what they like best but at the same time we can do
with
> fewer text junkies. The fun thing is that experience has learned us
that
when
information becomes more complete we will attract more people
anyway.
> It is just that all information does not need to be typed in manually
all
> the time, everywhere ad nauseam.
>
> With more people adding data that is used everywhere, the problem of
> sourcing becomes easier as well. Because a source is a source <grin>
and
every
language has its bias </grin> but that is a different issue. One
solace, we should always compare Wikidata data with other external
sources.
> In this way we will also get some/more grip on what sources to trust.
:)
Thanks,
GerardM
On 22 June 2015 at 23:46, Risker <risker.wp(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> Gerard, I think you may be missing the point of the NYT op-ed. The
issue
isn't
data, it's people who will use that data (whether it comes from
structured data sets like Wikidata, or from dead-tree or electronic
media)
to create articles, curate them, maintain them,
keep the various
wikipedias
> mostly spam-free, and develop communities around them. We're not
lacking
> in data. We're lacking in human beings
and healthy, growing
communities.
>
> On the other hand, I'm not entirely certain that Andrew's concerns
about
> the use of smartphones as the primary mode
of access is entirely
> justified. We've known for a long time that many of our editors in
Asian
> > countries edit using smartphones, often with a keyboard attached;
we've
even featured them in videos. But realistically, the
overwhelming
majority
> of Wikipedia *readers* have never considered, even for a moment,
actively
> participating in editing - and it has been
that way pretty much since
at
> > least 2005, and maybe earlier. We can do better, of course, and
making
> it
> > easier to edit on tablets in particular is a worthwhile enterprise
> > (smartphones...well, I'm not even persuaded they're going to exist
five
>
years from now in the way that we know them today...)
>
> Risker/Anne
>
> On 22 June 2015 at 13:41, Gerard Meijssen <gerard.meijssen(a)gmail.com
> wrote:
>
> > Hoi,
> > Magnus pointed the way forward when he started MediaWiki. When you
look
> > into the whole stack of his data
related tools, you will find how
they
> make
> > aggregating data a whole lot easier and worthwhile. He demonstrated
how
> > > people on a mobile can be asked to help with "simple" tasks it
works
> well
> > > and it continues to work in production (labs willing).
> > >
> > > When you are talking micro contributions, every statement in
Wikidata
> is
> > > one. It can easily be done from a mobile when the UI is given
> attention.
> > It
> > > is known how to create articles from data. The Swedes, Dutch etc
have
> > done
> > > it often enough and it brought them more readers and more
editors...
>
>
> > Study what we already know. There is nothing new here and the
solutions
> are
> > there to be had. We only have to accept them. I do agree that the
old
> > old
> > > way of Wikipedia is ultimately a dead end.
> > > Thanks,
> > > GerardM
> > >
> > > On 22 June 2015 at 19:28, James Heilman <jmh649(a)gmail.com> wrote:
> > >
> > > > What we need to figure out is how to allow translation of
articles
> >
> through micro contributions via cellphones.
> > >
> > > Maybe send out sentences one by one for translation from one
language
> > > to another. Just start with the
leads of articles that are deemed
to
> > > be of good quality. Than when the
lead is all translated join it
back
> > > together and add it to that
language. This would of course only
apply
> > > > to articles which are non existent in the target language.
> > > >
> > > > Maybe Amir's "content translation" tool could do this
eventually
> > > >
https://www.mediawiki.org/wiki/Content_translation
> > > >
> > > > --
> > > > James Heilman
> > > > MD, CCFP-EM, Wikipedian
> > > >
> > > > Starting July 2015 I am a board member of the Wikimedia
Foundation
> >
> My emails; however, do not represent the official position of the
WMF
>
>
> > The Wikipedia Open Textbook of Medicine
> >
www.opentextbookofmedicine.com
> >
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