Jake Waskett (jake(a)waskett.org) [050208 03:28]:
Create and use a template for controversial articles,
that says, in effect:
"This is a highly controversial article. Before making any changes, please
familiarise yourself with the discussion page, and add a comment describing
your change and the justification for it." We should also link to WP:NPOV.
Such a template exists, but it's presently only applied to talk pages.
(The idea is that such messages to Wikipedia editors are only ever to be
applied to an article as a temporary thing in the hope of facilitating
their removal - e.g. {{protected}}, {{npov}}, even {{stub}}. Ones intended
to be permanent fixtures seem not to be favoured at all by most editors.)
If it doesn't work, we can create a "3
unjustified edits rule", similar to the
3RR, and enforced in the same way. This need only be applied to articles with
the controversial header.
This should help to some extent, as forcing descriptions and justifications
will slow editors down and may also create a deterrent for edits that authors
*know* are NPOV or are unwilling to discuss the matter. This may help get rid
of the more rabid POV editors.
I don't think it'll do a damned thing to slow down POV pushers, but I do
think the Summary field being compulsory would be good. It actually took me
a couple of days to realise what it was for (commenting in a version
control system).
- d.