User:Demus Wiesbaden

My german page: http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benutzer:Demus_wiesbaden

I like constructive things and improvements. For instance: Remarks about my English and style. If they are civil, even better ;)

Click here to leave me a message on my discussion page or send me an email. Also, you can use the links on the bottom of my Sandbox or my Sandbox itself for convenient tests of wikipedia´s edit function.

Who writes Wikipedia
(The vast majority of contribution - counted by character - is by people who enter the least)
 * http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia

Inclusionism and its adversary
I would like to have access to as much structured and as easily accessible information as possible. Thats one cause why my opinions about collaboration in wikis are like opinions an "inclusionist" might have. I don´t want "deletionist" behaviour.

Links and excerpts about the topic: "Based on the difficulties Wikipedia has had to raise money lately, I'd say most people don't like their stand. Fork wikipedia already, I say, and create an all inclusive wiki, before there is only a handfull of articles left which reference Britannica as their only reliable source. Sigh."
 * http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/03/10/0057210

Yup, there are some interrelated problems from my point of view.

I think a possible solution would be to leave stuff in, but somehow promote "good" articles to some sort of "official article" status.

I gave up trying to add to wikipedia a long time ago due to info I added getting deleted. Granted, I never added or tried to add complete essay articles. I added more like bulleted info on areas I knew something about and where I could find no info on the matter on the site.

My take is that some info is better than no info. And it might inspire someone to add a bit to it and things can grow.

So I came across Citizendium again the other day and decided to check if I could perhaps add something there. No, they only want complete articles it seems. That is not my bag. They are going to get nothing from me. I would like to contribute, but they are ruling my contributions out before I begin. Which, I guess is better than after I have spent and wasted time trying to contribute.

( http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/Main_Page [citizendium.org] )

I think the dual status idea could help both sites.

Info can be added and remain even if not up to par. (Not talking seriously inaccurate here, just not complete and finished articles.) It can stay this way as long as it takes. When and if an article reaches a certain level of quality or completeness, it can get some sort of official article status.

Give viewers a toggle switch to limit views to only official articles should they so choose.

all the best,

drew http://zotzbro.blogspot.com/ [blogspot.com]


 * http://www.andrewlih.com/blog/2007/07/10/unwanted-new-articles-in-wikipedia/
 * http://www.economist.com/printedition/displaystory.cfm?story_id=10789354
 * http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclusionism

"Inclusionism is a philosophy held by Wikipedians who favour keeping and amending problematic articles over deleting them. Inclusionists are also generally less concerned with the question of notability, and instead focus on whether or not an article is factual.

If, for example, an article has some good content and some substandard content, the inclusionist will see the good content as reason to keep the article and, like eventualists, will have faith that the wiki process will improve the substandard content in time."

(s. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Inclusionist_Wikipedians#Compare%20with%20other%20associations for other Associations)
 * http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Association_of_Inclusionist_Wikipedians
 * http://courseware.hbs.edu/public/cases/wikipedia/

Remedy suggestions
(So every additional information deletionists might not like, can be moved to the other more bulky and less strict version of the other version, without losing everybody so much time and energy defending their choices.)
 * (See drew quote above:) "Give viewers a toggle switch to limit views to only official articles should they so choose."
 * One additional version of each wikipedia page.

(like: only change an article in any way if the information content is improved)
 * Policy changes

I would like to know how many people would like this change. How can I know that? de:User:Demus_Wiesbaden

Time Management
I am experimenting with writing down some use of my time. http://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=poR4BJywIfA05KKMW6SLeWA

Useful Stuff

 * My favorite English-German dictionary: dict.cc (http://www.dict.cc/?s=test)
 * Taskbar shuffle ("[...]rearrange the buttons on your Windows taskbar by dragging and dropping them[...]") - a small, very efficient windows improvement: http://www.freewebs.com/nerdcave/taskbarshuffle.htm
 * Windows XP/2000: I want my Explorer to show sizes of FOLDERS and files in the same column: http://foldersize.sourceforge.net/, see also:
 * WinDirStat

Tests
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Interlanguage_links