[Wikipedia-l] production notes

[Robert Bihlmeyer]

When writing or substantially rewriting an article, I would sometimes
like a space where I could record certain "design decisions" made
during creation of a paragraph. I think this could help future editors
to sensibly continue my work.

What we now have is:

* The version log, which favors short decriptions of the changes, but
  not (perhaps longer) arguments *why* something was changed.

* /Talk can be used for my purpose, but convention has it that it is
  mainly for discussion, i.e. when someone (not knowing my thoughts)
  executes the exactly opposite decision I can bring this up on /Talk.

What I envision is that the edit page not only offered the option for
a one-line log message, but also a multi-line argument section. As
long as the change is diff-able (at least two weeks, hopefully
forever), both should be viewable somehow. The Recent Changes should
list the short What message as it does now.

Example:

Summary of changes: [rewrote the first paragraph]
Why did I change it:
[Many people ignorant about Pascal will probably be confused         ]
[by the terms 'parse' and 'token look ahead'. If necessary, this     ]
[information should come later in the article. I think my simplified ]
[variant is enough, though.                                          ]

I think this will replace some aspect of what /Talk pages are used
for: discussion between various authors. /Talk (or talk:) will
probably still have other uses, though. But the need will be somewhat
lessened.

Advantages over just using /Talk as we do now:

* Some useful /Talk conventions are automatically ensured by the
  software:
  + Reverse date order (often forgotten by newbies and me)
  + Separation of arguments by different people (sometimes it is
    unclear in /Talk pages whether a new paragraph is by the same
    person as the last)
  + Signing of arguments
  + Significantly editing other's comments is faux pas.
* If a change is no longer viewable, its supporting argument is
  automatically deleted. These often stay in /Talk forever.
* The "Be bold in editing" dogma is fostered: I am much more
  comfortable with editing right away rather than debating first when
  I can state my point at the same time.


-- 
Robbe
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