William Pietri wrote: > That reminds me of something I've been meaning to propose: > topic-specific groups of subject-matter experts who serve as resources > for article writers. > > <snip> > I saw this mainly as an editor-pull system, rather than a expert-push > system. Any such "layer" needs to take account of wikiprojects, naturally. And of the tendency of dispute resolution, wrongly set up, to invite escalation. Wikiprojects are a mixed bunch, most being small in terms of active members, I guess; but the first place to take a content dispute should be the wikiproject's main talk page. Only a small proportion of disputes or difficulties, in an editor-pull system, should be getting to the "panel of experts" stage, since most issues are best dealt with by informal mediation and/or someone digging up further references.
There have been such suggestions before (2004 springs to mind) and none so far has filled the yawning gap of "content dispute resolution". Which, looked at over historical time, seems somewhat remarkable - or more precisely it seem surprising that we have limped on to where we are (which is not a bad place to be, really) without an implementation of some sort of external refereeing. WP still has nothing to "sell" to academia, but per David Goodman we perhaps have a chance to "parlay" a bit, and get experts more interested. I don't quite see how we would do a serious scheme, and deal with the downside. The downside is obvious to academics or ex-academics like me (there is an inaccurate written account of my role in the fight between [[John H. Coates]] and [[Alan Baker (mathematician)]], but as it is in Japanese I have been spared having to read it and get annoyed). Importing more proxy wars into WP wouldn't be the best idea: we have one or two already. It wouldn't do to be naive about expert input as panacea. Charles _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
