[Wikipedia-l] Do we really need a Sifter project?

[Erik Moeller]

Daniel-
> We can use Erik's idea for adding neat features to the Brilliant prose page
> as a start. Then that page can act as a queue for articles that Nupedia can
> take-up and then put through a simplified Nupedia polishing process by area
> experts. The Sifter software can be used to make this easy but it is not
> really needed.

Well, here's the thing. Our Main Page is protected. Our Main Page links to  
the Brilliant Prose page, which would also be protected. The Brilliant  
Prose page would only link to verified revisions of articles. A user can  
choose this path

Main Page->Brilliant prose->Article

And they will never see an "unstable" article -- these pages would always  
be in a reasonable state. It is the same thing as a separate site, but  
happens entirely within Wikipedia. We might have to streamline the whole  
process -- turn BP into a directory of pages, make this directory part of  
the start page, and warn readers that pages linked from pages within that  
directory may not necessarily be in as good quality. This would not  
preclude us from also using a category system that contains *all*  
Wikipedia pages, not just filtered ones. On the other hand, we would  
retain wikiness and encourage people to also browse and participate in our  
unstable sections. I think that's a good thing.

Of course the BP articles could be taken as they are and copied to another  
site, but that would not really be very useful. What might be useful, if  
BP grows into a directory of sorts instead of just a single page, and if  
there would be lots of articles linked from there, is to publish only  
these articles on a CD-ROM, in print etc.

Regards,

Erik