[Wikipedia-l] Wikipedia's scope

[lsanger at nupedia.com]

Mike, I'm extremely sympathetic to the concern about letting the wiki
process at Wikipedia continue unimpeded.  But do you understand that the
proposal on the table is to save, to a separate "namespace," approved
versions of articles--letting Wikipedia continuing on pretty much the same
way it did before?  There wouldn't be any (or very few) links from the
regular namespace and the "approved" namespace.  It's just that, if one
wanted to see approved articles, one could go to the "approved" namespace.

There are numerous complications associated with simply sending articles
to be approved to Nupedia--the main one being that, despite our already
having encouraged that greatly, either directly or via the Chalkboard, it
ain't happening.  There just isn't a significant payoff for Wikipedians to
get their articles in Nupedia.  The other significant consideration is
that it takes forever and a day for an article to get through Nupedia.
If we had a relatively simple approval process (two or three relevant area
reviewer approvals, and it's in), the Wikipedia approval process might be
much simpler.

What we might do, though, is make all Nupedia reviewers and editors
automatically Wikipedia reviewers, and ask them to do the honors.  This,
too, might not work very well, because many, probably most, Nupedia
reviewers think Wikipedia is a joke.  Farther down the road, however--when
Wikipedia has left Nupedia in the dust in terms of the amount of approved
high-quality content--I think more Nupedians will be amenable to the idea.

Before we set up any approval process, Magnus (and people who would like
to help him!!!) is going to have to finish the new software.  I imagine
this is going to take awhile...but not too long, I hope.

Larry

On Fri, 14 Sep 2001 mikedill at nupedia.com wrote:

> I dont agree that wikipedia should have frozen pages. My thought is
> that all of the 'approved' articles be copied to Nupedia, where you
> can have a fixed reference.
>
> At Nupedia, they can then undergo peer review, and then published
> as 'qualified' articles. I know that the current review cycle would
> have some problems with the amount of change that wikipedia
> generates, but Nupedia is the place where stable, if not the greatest
> in the world articles should be referenced.
>
> A suggestion: Perhaps it means that nupedia will have to change a bit
> and show 'non-reviewed' articles, but it would let the wiki process
> at wikipedia continue.
>
>
> mike dill0