[WikiEN-l] A proposal to improve war-prone pages.

Mon Jan 12 12:29:44 UTC 2004

Hi Zero, welcome to the list. 

I agree entirely with Zero's assessment of these hot-spots, few in number
but eternally contentious. Aside from content issues, many of these
articles are simply BAD PROSE; they bear the scars of too many edit-wars.

My only reservation is one of strictly practical grounds; since the
wikipedia software, like everything else here, is written by volunteers,
we probably shouldn't depend on substantial changes to the underlying
software, which such a scheme, at first glance, suggests. Our best bet --
at least in the short-term -- would be to try to develop organizational
strategies *within* the existing system. For example, leaving the main
article read-only and shifting ALL editorial development to the
corresponding Talk page and having only a committee or certain designated
users update the "official" version as needed. 

Technically speaking, this would require no changes; perhaps just a
message at the top of the page. However, I can already hear the
complaints: it would be counter-intuitive, managerial, "cabal-forming",
and -- above all -- counter the wiki spirit of "you can edit this page
right now!". But perhaps Zero is right: perhaps the original wiki
conception doesn't work for every page in the encyclopedia.

V.