[Bug-gnupedia] Just a few issues

[Tom Chance]

Ok I thought of two things that need some thought,
both involving moderation and editing of articles.

First of all, its easy to forget that an article
written by somebody living in Texas, USA may not be
understood by someboyd living in Perth, Australia or
even in Boston, USA. National and regional variations
in language will need to be ironed out, as a 'pedia
few can understand isn't much use. As such perhaps all
articles should have to be read by somebody from the
same country, and another from a different country
speaking the same language, before it is displayed, to
ensure that is comprehensible. Obviously those that
read it would have to be knowledgeable about the
subject, and the original author would get to check
that the emphasis/meaning of the text hasn't been
altered, etc.

And on the moderator theme, should there be such a
thing? Obviously a group of 50 mods who are chosen
from this list will be very biased towards open source
software, and many other things besides. Any moderator
idea would rely on a very dissperate group of mods
being available, and an input from the author, so the
'pedia keeps many viewpoints and not just the
prevailing ones of us lot. And if we did have mods,
they would have to gain the status through trust and
quality articles (not quantity, more of a /. style
karma approach).

And finally on ranking articles Good-bad or 1-5, I
think this could be a mistake. This will marginalise
views that aren't mainstream, so that if somebody
submits an article on gene therapy that is very pro
the subject, and a lot of people are against it, the
article would look bad perhaps unjustly. As such I
would say when reviewing a rating is available, but it
is not shown. Instead each article could build up a
score, and if it were sufficiently negative the
article should be highlighted on this list/to whoever
else ends up as mods/etc. as one that mighr be
removed. And then only on grounds of complete
fabrication of facts, lack of any content, or
something similar.

Thom Chance

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