[Wikipedia-l] Semi-protection

Mon Nov 13 02:20:21 UTC 2006

Gregory Maxwell wrote:

>On 11/12/06, Erik Moeller <erik at wikimedia.org> wrote:
>  
>
>>On 11/13/06, James Hare <messedrocker at gmail.com> wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>I believe it's been brought up to use an edit-approval program where new
>>>accounts would have to get their edits approved if they're new -- this would
>>>be in place of semiprotection.
>>>      
>>>
>>I oppose this. It undermines the assumption of good faith, whereas S-P
>>is specifically used on pages that have a record of vandalism.
>>    
>>
>Personally, I've always been in favor of changes which reduce the
>exposure of completely unchecked material to the general public who is
>generally unaware and disinterested in the internal operation of
>Wikipedia.  There are a number of people who oppose this notion, but I
>wonder if their tune will change after the first highly publicized
>death which can be linked back to obviously incorrect information in
>Wikipedia.
>
When this came up at Wikimania there seemed to be at least an acceptance 
there to flag articles as checked for obvious vandalism.  I would have 
gone further.  We were going to wait to see the results of a similar 
pilot proposal on de:wp.  Has that gotten anywhere.

Fatalities caused by incorrect Wikipedia information seems far-fetched.  
The concern about inaccurate medical information has always been there.  
It's hard to imagine the extent to which people will misunderstand 
information.

Ec