[WikiEN-l] A bold fix needed to the "omg backlog" problem

Thu Dec 1 17:41:19 UTC 2005

I will copy what I wrote to David here...

That's right!

I want to ask for your opinion here. I was feeling brave this morning and
decided to see if I could make a dent in Category:Wikipedia
backlog<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_backlog>.
After looking at about 25 articles with the wikification tag attached to
them, and being so disgusted with the lot as to be unable to make a *single*
change, something major hit me.

We need to, as one might say, flush the crap down the toilet. Allow me to
explain.

A LOT of the articles in Category:Articles that need to be
wikified<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Articles_that_need_to_be_wikified>are
so poorly written and so obscure that they have
*no possible use, worth or value to anyone!* Jimbo himself made it clear in
that interview that although Wikipedia does have some gems of articles (ie
our Featured Articles), there is a rather poor signal to noise ratio. We all
know that backlogs need to be cleared out, but no one is going to be able to
do it without a.) time that reaches beyond time itself, b.) unlimited
patience and c.) endless knowledge. In other words, to clear out the
backlogs would be akin to an act of God.

I know you know what I'm thinking, David. I want to nuke a ton of articles
in the backlog. Things like
this<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Help_the_Aged>may have a place on
Wikipedia, but *not* in their current form. If these
things are important enough, they can be tagged as such and someone can be
given it to work with. But I want to delete a lot of articles.

I know I'm going to get a lot of flak from other users concerning this. They
will kneejerk to "OMG ABUSIVE ADMIN LALALALLA" and "DELETIONIST! OMG
DELETIONIST!". But, we *need* to do something about the absolutely wretched
backlogs.

Get back to me on this. Thanks. Alex
Schenck<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Linuxbeak>(that's
Linuxbeak <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Linuxbeak> to you) 16:40,
1 December 2005 (UTC)

Now, with that said, I need feedback. Please provide.

--Linuxbeak