[Wikipedia-l] Changes and suggestions (was Re: slight change to the announce-l list)

[Anthere]

--- Brion Vibber <brion at pobox.com> wrote:
> On Sat, 2003-03-29 at 23:52, Anthere wrote:
> > 1. Was the count system for pages changed ? If it
> was,
> > when was it ? When it is changed, could it be
> > announced on the "announced list" please ? It will
> > also need to be made obvious on the stats pages
> 
> The official vote results were to count pages in
> article space that are:
> * not completely empty (size greater than 0 bytes)
> * contain at least one link (search for "[[" should
> do)
> 
> Unless someone else snuck it in and forgot to tell
> me, the change has
> not yet been put in effect, as I'm a lazy, grumpy
> bastard and way way
> too busy of late. :)

You are nothing like a lazy grumpy bastard Brion !
Just don't forget to tell us just before (so the
interested ones will be able to see the difference
:-))

> > 2. When are we going to have the counts of hits
> per
> > page up again on the english wiki ? with the new
> > server ?
> 
> Maybe. I'm not terribly interested in the counts, so
> it's a very low
> priority for me. If performance picks way up (or
> someone else
> contributes a more server-friendly count method),
> it'll go back in.

I'm interested. So, i'll come back back when
performance issues are solved
  
> >  when is that new server expected ? could we
> > have any time line here ?
> 
> I know nothing... Jason? Jimbo? While I'm asking,
> Jimbo, how's that
> foundation coming along? :)
> 
> > 3. Could it be possible that the "random page" be
> (per
> > option) chosen with a size threashold ? This would
> be
> > to avoid all these pages about dates and french
> little
> > villages that keep on appearing on random pages
> :-).
> 
> Hehe... Traditionally people asked for that to keep
> out the city pages
> on the English wiki, which wouldn't help at all
> since those pages are at
> or _above_ the median article size...

Sigh. Yes. Well...most of these are under the median
article I guess. If above, they provide information at
least. 
The best option would be to set categories, and to
shuffle through the categories we like of course
When I was a kid, I always picked up the same couple
of books from my parents 20 tomes encyclopedia...

But...well...would it be feasible...?

> > Editors would put the option without threashold
> for
> > article-to-improve, and readers would have a
> > threashold to remove stubs when just chasing
> > interesting articles to *read*
> > (this request reported from some french people)
> 
> Hmm, maybe. Personally I may find short articles
> more fun to read than
> 20-page dense monstrosities on n-dimensional
> topology. My personal
> opinion is simply that if you don't like what the
> random selection turns
> up, you should keep pushing the button! It isn't
> clear to me that
> fudging the selection in one direction or another is
> a better default.

hum...quite true. Unless pushing the button takes 30
seconds each time :-(
But, here, you hold the position of an editor; not of
a reader.


> > 4. Could we slightly improve the search box, maybe
> by
> > having a drop down menu aside from it : search in
> > encyclopedia by default as right now, search in
> > personnal pages, search in meta pages...but have
> it at
> > first level, not on a second page, after a first
> > unfruitful search.
> 
> Yes, that would be lovely.

yes, yes, yes !

Say...this could improve performance issues, no
?...so...could it be planned if nobody disagrees ?

Does someone disagree ?
Which categories would we define ?
 
> > So, since others protest and undelete the
> > redirections, some asked if it would be possible
> to
> > somehow catch mispellings, redirect the mispelled
> > title to the right-spelled page, *and* dynamically
> > display a message at the top of the article saying
> > "you asked for "fachisme", this word does not
> exist,
> > and is probably a mispelling of "fascisme".
> 
> It has in the past been suggested to have a special
> type of redirect for
> misspellings. These could have a "you're an
> illiterate idiot, from now
> on please type 'X'" message display when visited or
> searched, but be
> hidden from lists like the Allpages list or general
> search results.
> 
> Would that be a help?

That's what some people ask for...
I'll report...
Question : even if hidden, would it be known by google
?

given the number of times I mispell neartic instead of
nearctic (who had the weirdest idea to put a c here),
I could be convinced I am an illiterate idiot...:-(

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