[Wikipedia-l] Re: Wikipedia-l digest, Vol 1 #1249 - 14 msgs

[Erik Moeller]

sgilbert-
> 1. Who can add to brilliant prose? Sysops? What makes me (for
> example) more qualified to judge brilliant prose about the spectrum
> of human knowledge?

Well, right now we are already using a process on En: whereby pages have  
to meet with general approval before they are added to the page. See
http://www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Brilliant_prose_candidates
for details.

> 2. One of the great things about Wikipedia is that readers quickly
> become writers. If we were to use particular versions from article
> histories as stable articles, we'll need some way to allow readers
> to easily move into editing mode, i.e. an "Edit the current version of
> this article" link.

Yup, that's what I was thinking as well. Have a prominent notice on top of  
the page:

"You are viewing a stable, certified revision of this article. Errors may  
already be fixed in the [[latest unstable version]], which you can  
[[edit]] directly."

> 3. The synthesis of the first two concerns: what happens when
> there are errors in the stable version? Mistakes can be corrected in
> the current version, but only sysops will be able to change which
> version is listed on the locked Brilliant Prose page.

Sifter would have the exact same problem. IMHO the best solution is to  
give sysops some leeway to change the pointer to a new revision in case of  
obvious corrections (linkfixes, spelling, uncontroversial factual changes  
as per talk etc.), and to otherwise require a re-listing on the candidates  
page.

Regards,

Erik