--- Brion Vibber <brion(a)pobox.com> wrote:
For months and months we've talked about
revamping
the article count
system, but nothing's changed. The article count is
still an extension
of the "comma count" used to filter out empty
articles in a search back
in the UseMod days.
Currently, a page is counted as an "article" for "we
have X articles"
purposes if it is:
* in the article namespace (so excludes talk
pages, user
pages, Wikipedia: help and utility pages)
* not a redirect
* contains a comma (!)
Now, we are well aware that page-count fever has
gripped Wikipedia for
some time. The obsession with breaking the
100,000-page barrier on the
English stifled any implementation of reforms for
fear of reducing the
count. Concerns about languages which don't use the
ASCII comma
character have been shrugged off. Well, today I've
seen enough.
While the English wiki has galumphed along for ages,
secure in its place
as The World's Largest Damn Wiki, the smaller
languages are in intense
(though friendly) competition with one another for
runner-up positions.
"In real life," Youssefsan tells me, "people look
for economic growth;
here for page growth. Both use 'creative
accounting.'"
On the francophone Wikipedia, we have been exposed
as the slaves to the
comma count that we all are but are ashamed to
admit. See:
http://fr.wikipedia.org/w/wiki.phtml?title=CULTe&action=edit&oldid=…
(Those who have trouble with my PGP-signed mail, go
to
fr.wikipedia.org,
look up article 'CULTe', and hit 'Modifier cette
page'.)
Yes that's right, people have started adding commas
as hidden comments
just to increase the stupid comma count. NO MORE, I
say! Ils ne
passeront pas!
Unless a better count system is proposed, I will
replace the comma check
with a greater-than-zero-size check within twelve
hours.
-- brion vibber (brion @
pobox.com)
Oui !
The french wikipedia has become a hunt place for
commas !
Even in articles less than 10 words long...
Why not a mix between the comma method, and a certain
number of words ? (at least people will know how to
count ;-))
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