On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 10:45 PM, phoebe ayers <[email protected]> wrote:
<snip> > Agreed with David G. on this point. The general sentiment to keep up > with BLPs is ok, I think; but most of the time sources can be found > for most bios. (And yes, I do make an occasional hobby of sourcing > random BLPs I do this sometimes as well, but not random ones. I pick ones I know will have a plethora of sources. I guess that is cheating, but I don't have the time or motivation to scrabble around for sources for some random stubs, when I know in my heart of hearts that some articles just aren't really suitable for Wikipedia (the question is whether to allow others a chance, and for how long). > it's hard work and takes at least a good hour or two > per bio to do properly, and that's with access to a full university > library). To be fair, it only takes time if you allow yourself to get distracted, and aim for relatively high standards (which you should do for BLPs as a matter of course). I took half an hour to do this: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ronald_Urwick_Cooke&action=historysubmit&diff=340263275&oldid=306734087 Clearly, there is still more work both possible and needed. But I could have just thrown in the "won the Gold Medal of the RGS" statement and the accompanying reference, both to this article and to two others I spotted: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Drewry http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Holdgate Indeed, I will now go and do just that for the other two (actually, I will likely get distracted again - one source will lead to another, and I will keep going until I've done the best I think I can do in a half hour or so for each one - clearly, this amount of time is reduced if you find yourself unable to find any suitable sources). But the question is whether it is better to pass through all the unsourced BLPs quickly (a "rough and ready" approach), or to take the time to do each one to a higher standard, at the cost of taking longer. Ideally, someone would both set deadlines, say how much effort to spend per BLP, work out how long it will take to clear the current backlog, and cut off the incoming flow (or delegate a separate task force to do rough-and-ready sourcing of newly created BLPs). But that requires both leadership, organisation and a dedicated and committed workforce. Does Wikipedia have that? Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't. Depends on the workflow and the nature of the work. Carcharoth _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
