[WikiEN-l] Making it easier for the public to help out

Sun Nov 19 14:54:25 UTC 2006

On 11/20/06, James Hare <messedrocker at gmail.com> wrote:
> We could put a link like this up in the Sitenotice/Anonnotice so it'll
> easily be available on every article.

Where would that appear exactly? I actually should have said "It will
appear when viewing any article", rather than looking like part of the
article itself. Hell, a floating bubble would probably be the most
correct - if you find a problem at the bottom of the article, you may
not scroll back to the top looking for a way to report it.

Now, to implement this "The simplest way that could possibly work",
what should happen? Perhaps it should just generate a bunch of text
(substing a template?) and dump it on the bottom of the talk page? It
could even include a {{Flagged problem to be resolved}} template or
something to get people's attention. Add the talk page to a special
category, even...

What sorts of problems and resolutions should we offer?
1) Plagiarism: Describe the offending text and its originating URL if
possible. Give contact details? (a problem if leaving an email address
on the talk page...)
2) Factually incorrect: Give details
3) Duplicate article: Name the other article(s), with comments
4) Incorrect name: Suggest a new name
5) Missing info: Provide URLs or deadtree references for further
information? That could be really handy if academics are wandering
past...

Now, I'm presuming the basic workflow is going to go like this:
1) User clicks a general purpose "I want to help with this article" button
2) User is taken to new page (or expanding window?) with options
3) User selects an option, taken to another new page?
4) User is shown informaiton on the option they've chosen, enters more
information about the problem...
5) The problem is now reported on the talk page - obviously some state
needs to be maintained here.

Anyone know how to implement this?

Steve