[Wikipedia-l] An Approval Process (Proposal)

[David Levinson]

Proposal for a Wikipedia Article "Approval" Process

Assuming there is support for a stable version of wikipedia, some 
mechanism for stability is required.

Allow logged in users to approve any version of an article. Logged in 
users could also disapprove any or  every version of an article.  
Articles would be scored based on number of users who approved 
(weighted?) - number of users who disapproved (weighted?).  The article 
with the highest approval rating would be the released (approved) 
article.  This would be displayed somewhere distinct from the working 
wikipedia (e.g. sifter.wikipedia.org, or something similar).

New users would be presented with Wikipedia Release edition.  They 
could still edit the article, but it would not be released until the 
approvals on the new article exceed the approvals on the previously 
released article. The under-edit version from which users are working 
may differ from the release version if approvals have not yet been 
found. The differences would be highlighted on the edit screen.

Edits would of course appear in Recent Changes.  In addition, there 
would be Recent Approvals tracking articles which recently were voted 
on for approval.

An edit would of course count as a vote for approval (if preferences so 
set).

Under the article (in view mode) (for logged in users) would be  "vote 
to approve" and "vote to disapprove" buttons. A vote to approve would 
transfer a users vote to this version for approval and remove it from 
previous versions. A vote to disapprove would remain even if another 
version was disapproved.

Possible weight =  1 if under 100 edits, 2 if under 200 edits, 3 if 
under 300 edits, 4 otherwise. Alternative weighting schemes are 
possible as well, including weight=1 for all logged in users.

Comments?

-- DavidLevinson