[Wikipedia-l] Re: Stable versions policy

Fri Dec 30 01:31:17 UTC 2005

But passers-by will always be exposed to the underbelly: there's no way
every single article in the wiki could have a stable , agreed-on version.
The top 5% of articles, sure (and those articles will command
disproportionate traffic), but

The solution is to have a really, really good interface that makes it
absolutely clear that (1) the version they're seeing is dynamic, and (2)
there's also a stable version, a click away.

On 12/29/05, Bryan Derksen <bryan.derksen at shaw.ca> wrote:
>
> Magnus Manske wrote:
>
> >One could argue that if there are current events that lead to drastic
> >changes to an article,
> >* the stable version can be "unset", thus displaying the current version
> >again. Reason: The old stable version is obviuosly outdated :-)
> >* a page could be set to a "current events" or "live" mode individually,
> >similar to the soft protection tag. This could overrule any stable
> >version for the time being. That would need a (minor) software change,
> >though.
> >
> >
> And one could then also argue that these features would do away with the
> basis on which people are arguing for showing the "stable" version by
> default - random passers-by would once again be exposed to the raw
> underbelly of Wikipedia with no reassurance that there's no vandalism,
> lies, libel, etc in what they're seeing. We would no doubt have had news
> of our "stable by default" policy spread far and wide in the media by
> that point so this could make the situation even worse, since visitors
> would now be expecting to see only vetted content when they click a
> Wikipedia link (moreso than they already do, that is).
>
> I really think the best solution is just better education for passers-by
> of how Wikipedia works - more obvious disclaimers, "this is a work in
> progress" banners, etc. Ideally, stuff that would entice them to
> contribute themselves when they see problems.
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--
Ben Yates
Wikipedia blog - http://wikip.blogspot.com