h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

It would be relatively simple to add a few checkboxes at the bottom of the usual "Post to this discussion" form, saying things such as:

[ ] Bring this posting to the attention of a subeditor (spelling error, bad punctuation in the article)

[ ] Bring this posting to the attention of an updater (new/changed information or links)

[ ] Bring this posting to the attention of the editorial staff ("Italics") (Draw attention to a problem which trancends the normal repair/update process)

I'm sure someone could word it better, or at least Mark could word it more verbosely ( ) but the idea's simple to implement (at least at the front-end) and covers most of the user-interface side of the equation...

The problem with this (as I tried to point out in the proposal) is that it means official persons have to get involved in incorrect changes before anyone has had a chance to discuss them.

If the Updater only comes across the conversation after it is finished, they won't have to check to see if someone has disputed the change.

Notifting straight away gives rise to two problem situtations:
Firstly, some people will spot something they think needs changing, but get it wrong themselves: either the original was actually correct, or their version is no better.
Secondly, it opens the system up to deliberate abuse, where people will try and grab attention to their postings by constantly referring them to the Updaters, rather than waiting patiently for someone who knows what they are talking about.

I think the "SubEditor" link would be unnecessary, as this would all be part of the job of "Updater", and the "Italic" link would increase their workload unnecessarily. Consequently, the option that would make most sense would be "Raise this Entry in the Update Queue" - only workded so that it made more sense to the average Researcher. Personally, however, I'm not convinced by this, but I'll see what other people think.

[IMSoP]

OK... Your objection carries the implied assumption that a high percentage of the alerts will be incorrect, inaccurate or malicious.

I was assuming that a copy of the posting, with a link back to the original, would be attached to a page which was only visible to the intended group (sub-ed, updater or italic), which they could check at their leisure. It would only take seconds to ignore posts by newbies in the form "THIZ ZITE IS KEWL", and malicious postings shouldn't be too hard to spot.

I guess we have differing preconceptions about how responsible the average researcher is...

And bringing a posting to the attention of one of these groups isn't the same as requesting immediate action; it just means that they should be following the conversation from this point...

See F90511?thread=186221&post=2085303#p2085303

>> Bring this posting to the attention of the editorial staff ("Italics")

This is just a bad idea (imo). The italics are quite busy enough, imo, and don't need the extra random spam that would result (mainly from newbies). If someone *does* need to notify the italics, they should just go to the page of an italic (or <./>Feedback</.&gt and do so. Is that so hard?

It would be quite nice to have 'rate this entry' widget, part of which could include saying whether it needs an update or not. That seems a better approach, to me.

Lucinda, it's no more open to abuse than the Lin... sorry... Yikes button! As I pointed out, all it would do is hang a copy of the post off a generic "Italics" user page (U1? ) so that the editors could quickly spot messages directed at them, as opposed to just running across them randomly at the moment.

A newbie can still have something useful to contribute, even if they don't know what an Italic is or how to get to someone's user space... The freshest perspectives can be the most interesting.

no - the yikes button sends stuff to moderators, who deal with most complaints, so the average newbie 'what does this button do' complaint takes up exactly no italic time.

I dunno - we've got a set of Feedback forums that do the job, they're just one click away from any page, and they're subscribed to by lots of relevant people, including Gurus, ACEs, and know-it-alls. I don't see the benefit in having another parallel system to do the same thing.

You will notice that I've updated the page, and this conversation comes under Discussion Points A & C.

Keep up the good work, and let's see if we can crack it!

[IMSoP]

Hi Everyone,

I've made some responses to some of the points raised in the forums off the entry A760402 - sorry about letting this topic drift for such a long time, back on track now though. If you have anything more to add it would be great if you could create a new conversation at A760402 so that all discussion is happening in one place.

See you over there

Anna