[WikiEN-l] WTF Have I Missed?

Sun Aug 27 11:14:35 UTC 2006

Hey Joe,

> This article (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/5286458.stm) got my
> concern. Editorial control on the Wikipedia? What exactly have I missed?

The article discusses two changes, one in past and one in present tense. 
  The old change, mentioned as a reaction to the Siegenthaler[0] bizzo, 
was "recent changes make it harder for ordinary users to create and 
update pages on the site."  This obviously refers to banning new-page 
creation from anons[1] and semi-protection[2].

The more recent change, preventing anon users (I assume) from creating 
pages or making edits until they're approved by someone else, is 
something the author asserts the German Wikipedia are experimenting 
with.  However, given that it's been discussed repeatedly here, it's not 
unreasonable to assume, as the author does, that if the German trial 
goes well, we might adopt it, too.

[0] If I get it wrong this time, it's the BBC's fault.

[1] Much as I like the lower workload this has caused, it might be nice
     to new page creation back on and see what happens.  We can even call
     it an "experiment", if only to see how Bryan Derkson reacts ...

[2] Indeed, he mentions semi-protection explicitly later on.

-- 
Mark Gallagher
"What?  I can't hear you, I've got a banana on my head!"
- Danger Mouse