[Wikipedia-l] trust metrics

[Lars Aronsson]

Jimmy Wales wrote:
> For us, we have nothing like a 'transaction',

Well, this is what "an edit" is, very similar to "a move" in chess or
"a deal" on eBay.  Every "edit" on Wikipedia leaves a record in the
recent changes log and a "diff" between an old and the new version of
an article.  Every edit is made by one person (logged in or IP
address).

If the "old" database table was redesigned only to contain the diffs,
similar to how RCS and some other version control systems work, as was
discussed recently on wikitech-l, this would become even more clear.

One problem with identifying such transactions is the moving of large
chunks of texts within or between articles, as this leaves a large
"diff" at a rather small effort.  Perhaps a special HTML form could be
designed for moving text, one which opens both articles, having a
single submit button, leaving a single recent changes record.


-- 
  Lars Aronsson (lars at aronsson.se)
  Aronsson Datateknik - http://aronsson.se/