Geogre, "your" proposed system is elegant and would certainly address many of the major concerns about VfD quite capably. My problem with it is best illustrated with that most cherished element of rhetoric, the hypothetical situation. I intend, like
Kurosawa's
Rashōmon, to present you with two parallel yet slightly different situations. (that was just too much damn work - FR)
Okay, look. Right now, any given stranger has some control over the content of an article. If someone makes a bad-faith edit, I can almost instantaneously recognize this and revert it. If you give a stranger the ability to make a bad faith subjective judgement of an article, I can do nothing. If a kid wants to wander around through the Wikipedia voting '5' on every article or voting '1' on every stub, how do we stop that? Granted, one kid is not a problem, but a a whole Counter-strike clan of kids is. Or the GNAA. A clan's worth of kids is easy to discern on VfD: figure out who signed up when and who's got too few edits. With the new system, this is much more difficult. Fernando Rizo T/ C 20:15, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
-- cesarb 01:33, 6 August 2005 (UTC)
Osomec 21:22, 7 August 2005 (UTC)
What a wonderful idea for Wikipedia - an evaluation system (And what glorious prose to discribe it - credit goes to Geogre). However, this proposal is going to need some serious reworking if this will ever work.
We're talking about a lot of system strain. VfD isn't the best solution (why else would so many people be trying to fix it?). However, I think that making it more effective might be the best solution in the near future.
One important thing I think is important in making such a system work is accountability. The edit history is the only real reason why this project has worked so well. I think if such a rating system was put into place, two things would be important:
Hey, if this system could work, I'd love it. I'm eager to see how everyone else reacts to the idea. - JJLeahy 03:03, 8 August 2005 (UTC)
As a developer I can say this would be pathetically easy to game by the use of bots. The gains to be made from gaming, and the losses to be made from not counter-gaming, are so high that I predict that, if we ever adopted this, we'd be spending lots of time in fire-fights just dealing with the sheer volume of bot work on Wikipedia. I myself would be tempted to write a watch bot which would spot deletion candidates in my list of important articles and carefully feed in positive votes at a rate just fast enough to save them without being detected.
There really is nothing wrong with VfD as it stands. It brings human judgement to bear on a problem that requires it, and it encourages and rewards lightning-fast research and cleanup. In fact, it's the most efficient cleanup forum we have. And it's relatively hard to game. And the best thing about VfD is that it's self-limiting. As it fills up, people moan about it not working any more and stop listing stuff for deletion. Perfect. -- Tony Sidaway Talk 17:53, 8 August 2005 (UTC)
I truly wish folks would note what I said about 4 places: This does not eliminate VfD. Seriously. I'm not kidding. It doesn't. It doesn't eliminate CSD, VFD, or anything else. All it does is create a new method for automatic nomination. That's all. Automatic nomination. The reason is that it catches up with the scaling issue. Further, it allows folks to have a quality assessment short of VfD and the others. The main advantage is that it solves the issue of "scaling," which will kill VfD and is killing VfD, and it creates multiple "versions" of the encyclopedia. I don't mean to be snippy, but let me say it again: This does not eliminate VfD. Instead it scales VfD. As for gaming, it cannot be gamed more easily than the present system and, in fact, is much less easy to game. Note the requirement of Quorum. (Honestly, I addressed this!) Why do I not do more policy? Because no one reads the policy proposals, when all the want to do is say the first objection that comes to mind. Finally, with all due respect, the Version System came from developers and, according to Tim anyway, is more easily implemented in 1.5 than it was before. Geogre 02:35, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
VfD scales itself. Eventually people tire of listing stuff and stop. -- Tony Sidaway Talk 02:37, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
Compared to some of the efforts, that's a wild, no holds barred compliment if you hadn't noticed! One thing, if we use the scoring system you propose, each day anywhere between 0 and 1000 articles may get proposed for deletion or featured-ising - particularly new articles may be unpredictable in their scores, due to the low base of votes from editors. In order to reduce the load and variability of those automatically put onto VfD or FAC, why not simply have the highest ranked or lowest ranked 4 articles (for example) proposed? Then, there is a guaranteed, manageable number of articles each day/week. Of course, the disadvantage of this is that otherwise good or poor articles may be overlooked since they are simply not poor enough for the that particular day or week.
Two more things; If an article's ranking changes before a decision is made on VfD or FAC, will it automatically be removed from the page, even if voting/discussion has already begun? Secondly, will editors still be able to propose regardless articles for either of the two pages? If not, why not, that is instruction creep and limiting the power of your average Joe Editor. If yes, what is the point of the whole new system when it can be bypassed! (Note: I'm not trying to be inflammatory, negative or depressing, simply trying to see the argument from both extremes and to prompt constructive ideas/reactions!) Mark Lewis 11:58, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
I do see all sorts of issues, but maybe it's like Wikipedia itself - it doesn't work in theory but it sort of does in practice. How difficult would be to implement the system and try it on a limited subset of articles? Rd232 22:14, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
By the way, there is a trial (such as it is) featured on one of the signpost articles this week on a test wiki, though it is unweildy I feel as it stands. Mark Lewis 15:20, 10 August 2005 (UTC)
Okay, thanks, have found the relevant point on "The fix (is not in)", though a little more on the specifics is going to be needed to convince people. For example, we will need guidelines (as will admins if they are to be responsible) as to what exactly constitutes a 'major rewrite', and the process must require sufficient reasoning upon the suggestion that prevent new editors/vandals put in hundreds of random requests.
Secondly, (working my way down the article slowly!) I don't see why a talk page must be created when creating the article. Unless there are technical barriers, I was visualing a simple rating system inside the left column of the page, or on a new column on the right hand side. This makes it easier to see the ranking of the article by readers, and simpler to vote. To clear up how to vote, there could be a voting help or rating help link to the relevant page (as exists already for editing). Two more advantages that I can think of - server load could be reduced as far fewer talk pages will have to be created - just one central page which can be altered easily if and when the voting system changes. Secondly, talk pages which already exist will not have to be erased or moved, also reducing the difficulty of application.
Lastly, can one IP only vote once, or once per edit, or as many times as he/she wishes? Ta, Mark Lewis 23:27, 10 August 2005 (UTC)
Automated scoring would be a huge help in turning Wikipedia into the reputable instrument I would like it to be. I'm entranced by the idea of a Professional Wikipedia. But I'm unclear as to how it will reduce the load on VfD. If, as you say, VfD will not go away, that means that in addition to the articles being placed on VfD by editors, there will now be those automatically placed on the agenda.
I support the idea of quorum. I have felt for some time that there needs to be a suitable combination of votes and time before consensus can be clearly said to have been met. While it may not be immune to Tony's votebot, it is also true that the intersection between those who are fervent inclusionists and those who can program a bot is quite small.
Thanks for your hard work, Geogre!
Denni ☯ 03:08, 2005 August 11 (UTC)
I like the idea of rating Wikipedia articles--if the rating was based on reliability of an article and not tied in with possible deletion or featured article status. To tie a rating in with deletion or Fa status will, as others have said on this page, invite gaming. For an example of what can happen in this regard, check out sites like Zoetrope, where benefits (such as recognition and possible publication) can result from a high rating. This system has created large numbers of cliches that help bump up the ratings of their friends' stories and screenplays.
I still believe Wikipedia should have a rating system. The catch, though, is that there should be no benefit to an article or editor of a rating except that it helps readers determine the reliability of an article.-- Alabamaboy 14:55, 13 August 2005 (UTC)
I would agree that a rating system would be a good idea. But despite your suggestions about discriminating admins, i am absolutely certain that people will tweak their score for an article bearing in mind the risk of it being deleted, or their desire for it to be. That is pretty obvious: if the result of the score is to nominate for deletion, then that is how they will choose their own rating. Maybe software or admins can catch extreme votes, but if you just bump up or down 1 or 0.5 on your scoring system, then it is just going to get lost in the normal variation between voters and articles. It would inevitably become gaming. It could only fail to do so, if there is no penalty to an article you favour despite your criticising it. Then you might give an honest vote that although you think an article needs to exist, its current contents are rubbish. Sandpiper 21:43, 20 August 2005 (UTC)
66.167.137.37 11:03, 15 August 2005 (UTC): While it's nice to be warned:
It would be nicer and quite useful to have a short summary of the proposal at the beginning of the proposal. The proposal is too long and too stylized for at least some of us to want to read it, even if we are interested in the topic.
Well, I'd be delighted with a condensed version, but I proposed this as a reminder and a sui generis piece, and not part of the unified page. I don't mean to be recalcitrant, but one of the problems with proposals is that they end up like PowerPoint slides with 4 bullets. I agree that the writing is stylized. That was intended to make it less onerous to deal with all the words. In a sense, I suppose that I'm saying that I have made it as short as I can, and I surely don't mind anyone else making a briefer version. I own neither the idea nor the words, after all -- same as all of us -- but I would urge anyone undertaking it to realize that there were/are quite a few safeguards in the proposal really are vital to it. This isn't a modding system, and it isn't a VfD replacement, and I had to go to some length to explain why it isn't. Geogre 19:26, 16 August 2005 (UTC)
Geogre, "your" proposed system is elegant and would certainly address many of the major concerns about VfD quite capably. My problem with it is best illustrated with that most cherished element of rhetoric, the hypothetical situation. I intend, like
Kurosawa's
Rashōmon, to present you with two parallel yet slightly different situations. (that was just too much damn work - FR)
Okay, look. Right now, any given stranger has some control over the content of an article. If someone makes a bad-faith edit, I can almost instantaneously recognize this and revert it. If you give a stranger the ability to make a bad faith subjective judgement of an article, I can do nothing. If a kid wants to wander around through the Wikipedia voting '5' on every article or voting '1' on every stub, how do we stop that? Granted, one kid is not a problem, but a a whole Counter-strike clan of kids is. Or the GNAA. A clan's worth of kids is easy to discern on VfD: figure out who signed up when and who's got too few edits. With the new system, this is much more difficult. Fernando Rizo T/ C 20:15, 2 August 2005 (UTC)
-- cesarb 01:33, 6 August 2005 (UTC)
Osomec 21:22, 7 August 2005 (UTC)
What a wonderful idea for Wikipedia - an evaluation system (And what glorious prose to discribe it - credit goes to Geogre). However, this proposal is going to need some serious reworking if this will ever work.
We're talking about a lot of system strain. VfD isn't the best solution (why else would so many people be trying to fix it?). However, I think that making it more effective might be the best solution in the near future.
One important thing I think is important in making such a system work is accountability. The edit history is the only real reason why this project has worked so well. I think if such a rating system was put into place, two things would be important:
Hey, if this system could work, I'd love it. I'm eager to see how everyone else reacts to the idea. - JJLeahy 03:03, 8 August 2005 (UTC)
As a developer I can say this would be pathetically easy to game by the use of bots. The gains to be made from gaming, and the losses to be made from not counter-gaming, are so high that I predict that, if we ever adopted this, we'd be spending lots of time in fire-fights just dealing with the sheer volume of bot work on Wikipedia. I myself would be tempted to write a watch bot which would spot deletion candidates in my list of important articles and carefully feed in positive votes at a rate just fast enough to save them without being detected.
There really is nothing wrong with VfD as it stands. It brings human judgement to bear on a problem that requires it, and it encourages and rewards lightning-fast research and cleanup. In fact, it's the most efficient cleanup forum we have. And it's relatively hard to game. And the best thing about VfD is that it's self-limiting. As it fills up, people moan about it not working any more and stop listing stuff for deletion. Perfect. -- Tony Sidaway Talk 17:53, 8 August 2005 (UTC)
I truly wish folks would note what I said about 4 places: This does not eliminate VfD. Seriously. I'm not kidding. It doesn't. It doesn't eliminate CSD, VFD, or anything else. All it does is create a new method for automatic nomination. That's all. Automatic nomination. The reason is that it catches up with the scaling issue. Further, it allows folks to have a quality assessment short of VfD and the others. The main advantage is that it solves the issue of "scaling," which will kill VfD and is killing VfD, and it creates multiple "versions" of the encyclopedia. I don't mean to be snippy, but let me say it again: This does not eliminate VfD. Instead it scales VfD. As for gaming, it cannot be gamed more easily than the present system and, in fact, is much less easy to game. Note the requirement of Quorum. (Honestly, I addressed this!) Why do I not do more policy? Because no one reads the policy proposals, when all the want to do is say the first objection that comes to mind. Finally, with all due respect, the Version System came from developers and, according to Tim anyway, is more easily implemented in 1.5 than it was before. Geogre 02:35, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
VfD scales itself. Eventually people tire of listing stuff and stop. -- Tony Sidaway Talk 02:37, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
Compared to some of the efforts, that's a wild, no holds barred compliment if you hadn't noticed! One thing, if we use the scoring system you propose, each day anywhere between 0 and 1000 articles may get proposed for deletion or featured-ising - particularly new articles may be unpredictable in their scores, due to the low base of votes from editors. In order to reduce the load and variability of those automatically put onto VfD or FAC, why not simply have the highest ranked or lowest ranked 4 articles (for example) proposed? Then, there is a guaranteed, manageable number of articles each day/week. Of course, the disadvantage of this is that otherwise good or poor articles may be overlooked since they are simply not poor enough for the that particular day or week.
Two more things; If an article's ranking changes before a decision is made on VfD or FAC, will it automatically be removed from the page, even if voting/discussion has already begun? Secondly, will editors still be able to propose regardless articles for either of the two pages? If not, why not, that is instruction creep and limiting the power of your average Joe Editor. If yes, what is the point of the whole new system when it can be bypassed! (Note: I'm not trying to be inflammatory, negative or depressing, simply trying to see the argument from both extremes and to prompt constructive ideas/reactions!) Mark Lewis 11:58, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
I do see all sorts of issues, but maybe it's like Wikipedia itself - it doesn't work in theory but it sort of does in practice. How difficult would be to implement the system and try it on a limited subset of articles? Rd232 22:14, 9 August 2005 (UTC)
By the way, there is a trial (such as it is) featured on one of the signpost articles this week on a test wiki, though it is unweildy I feel as it stands. Mark Lewis 15:20, 10 August 2005 (UTC)
Okay, thanks, have found the relevant point on "The fix (is not in)", though a little more on the specifics is going to be needed to convince people. For example, we will need guidelines (as will admins if they are to be responsible) as to what exactly constitutes a 'major rewrite', and the process must require sufficient reasoning upon the suggestion that prevent new editors/vandals put in hundreds of random requests.
Secondly, (working my way down the article slowly!) I don't see why a talk page must be created when creating the article. Unless there are technical barriers, I was visualing a simple rating system inside the left column of the page, or on a new column on the right hand side. This makes it easier to see the ranking of the article by readers, and simpler to vote. To clear up how to vote, there could be a voting help or rating help link to the relevant page (as exists already for editing). Two more advantages that I can think of - server load could be reduced as far fewer talk pages will have to be created - just one central page which can be altered easily if and when the voting system changes. Secondly, talk pages which already exist will not have to be erased or moved, also reducing the difficulty of application.
Lastly, can one IP only vote once, or once per edit, or as many times as he/she wishes? Ta, Mark Lewis 23:27, 10 August 2005 (UTC)
Automated scoring would be a huge help in turning Wikipedia into the reputable instrument I would like it to be. I'm entranced by the idea of a Professional Wikipedia. But I'm unclear as to how it will reduce the load on VfD. If, as you say, VfD will not go away, that means that in addition to the articles being placed on VfD by editors, there will now be those automatically placed on the agenda.
I support the idea of quorum. I have felt for some time that there needs to be a suitable combination of votes and time before consensus can be clearly said to have been met. While it may not be immune to Tony's votebot, it is also true that the intersection between those who are fervent inclusionists and those who can program a bot is quite small.
Thanks for your hard work, Geogre!
Denni ☯ 03:08, 2005 August 11 (UTC)
I like the idea of rating Wikipedia articles--if the rating was based on reliability of an article and not tied in with possible deletion or featured article status. To tie a rating in with deletion or Fa status will, as others have said on this page, invite gaming. For an example of what can happen in this regard, check out sites like Zoetrope, where benefits (such as recognition and possible publication) can result from a high rating. This system has created large numbers of cliches that help bump up the ratings of their friends' stories and screenplays.
I still believe Wikipedia should have a rating system. The catch, though, is that there should be no benefit to an article or editor of a rating except that it helps readers determine the reliability of an article.-- Alabamaboy 14:55, 13 August 2005 (UTC)
I would agree that a rating system would be a good idea. But despite your suggestions about discriminating admins, i am absolutely certain that people will tweak their score for an article bearing in mind the risk of it being deleted, or their desire for it to be. That is pretty obvious: if the result of the score is to nominate for deletion, then that is how they will choose their own rating. Maybe software or admins can catch extreme votes, but if you just bump up or down 1 or 0.5 on your scoring system, then it is just going to get lost in the normal variation between voters and articles. It would inevitably become gaming. It could only fail to do so, if there is no penalty to an article you favour despite your criticising it. Then you might give an honest vote that although you think an article needs to exist, its current contents are rubbish. Sandpiper 21:43, 20 August 2005 (UTC)
66.167.137.37 11:03, 15 August 2005 (UTC): While it's nice to be warned:
It would be nicer and quite useful to have a short summary of the proposal at the beginning of the proposal. The proposal is too long and too stylized for at least some of us to want to read it, even if we are interested in the topic.
Well, I'd be delighted with a condensed version, but I proposed this as a reminder and a sui generis piece, and not part of the unified page. I don't mean to be recalcitrant, but one of the problems with proposals is that they end up like PowerPoint slides with 4 bullets. I agree that the writing is stylized. That was intended to make it less onerous to deal with all the words. In a sense, I suppose that I'm saying that I have made it as short as I can, and I surely don't mind anyone else making a briefer version. I own neither the idea nor the words, after all -- same as all of us -- but I would urge anyone undertaking it to realize that there were/are quite a few safeguards in the proposal really are vital to it. This isn't a modding system, and it isn't a VfD replacement, and I had to go to some length to explain why it isn't. Geogre 19:26, 16 August 2005 (UTC)