[Commons-l] Rethinking [[COM:DEL]]

Wed Aug 16 06:13:26 UTC 2006

Hello,

We have lots of people from lots of projects familiar with lots of
different ways of organising noticeboards. Therefore I think we must
brainstorm to find a better model for our poor [[Commons:Deletion
requests]]. It simply creaks and groans under the weight of too many
requests, it is unmanageable.

Here are some requirements:
* The requests still have to be on the [[template:deletion requests]].
This is because the 'Commons-level' page is actually a 'shell' or
'wrapper' with some instructions, and these instructions can be
translated, while the actual requests themselves are not.
* Want to keep adding new items simple (possibly we can use tricks
with an input box similar to
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/COM:FPC#Nomination to keep it
outwardly simple)
* Want to be able to archive individual items - archiving a day at a
time is not appropriate because some debates drag on interminably
(sometime while we wait for more information, replies from other
people etc), and the system has to allow for these.

Some other ideas:
* Ability to watch certain debates only? This would require a separate
template for each item. I think a lot of people would find this
useful.
* Break up page according to ***type of request***? An obvious split
at this stage would be splitting off requests based on format
conversions, such as {{supersededSVG}} (since it seems people are
going to persist in requesting these for deletion, we should deal with
them in a more sensible manner). What other splits would be
appropriate? (Keep in mind it has to be simple for users to be able to
follow it - if they don't follow it, we're right back where we
started)
* Ability to flag debates as requiring participants having certain
skills or interests?? This would be really useful. If we could flag
debates as requiring say, German speaker, someone familiar with
derivative works, someone familiar with PD expiration in the US,
someone familiar with personality rights, someone familiar with
XYZwhatever. Then people would be able to decide what issues they're
interested in and look at those specifically. So this would again
require one template per debate, I imagine.

* Can we think up some extra-MW innovation and get some of our
toolserver friends to implement it? For example, before the en.wp DB
went kaput, en.wp had a very interesting toolserver-based thing for
dealing with 'proposed deletions' (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WP:PROD ).

* Need to keep track of those debates that drag on and maybe think up
a better process for dealing with them.

What are some other technical improvements that people would like to
see to this page, to make it more usable?

Are you aware of high-traffic noticeboards on other projects that are
managed easily and well? If so, provide some links so we can check
them out.

If you have ideas for improvements, I suggest implementing a model
with 5 or so fake debates in a user subpage, and again share the link
so we can compare it to the current model.

cheers,
Brianna
user:pfctdayelise