Wikinews:Red links

Discussion from Talk:Main Page
'Being a wiki doesn't have to mean being unprofessional...'

And that's what having a load of red links on the front page is--unprofessional. Of course there are going to be red links within the site--on topic and category pages. But not on the front page. It makes us look like a bunch of lazy, incompetent hacks. Kurt Weber 02:40, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Why I removed the red links from Main Page

If I'm not mistaken, policy evolves on a wiki by community consensus, correct?

If that is true, then the policies we had here before Jimmy Wales went crazy were in fact policies, his assertions to the contrary notwithstanding. There was no significant opposition, things were running smoothly, and everyone actually participating was just fine with the status quo. Perhaps it wasn't a fairly large community, but that's irrelevant--it WAS the extant community that decided the policy.

If Jimbo or Wikimedia wants to set policy without community consensus, that's their prerogative. I'm an objectivist; private property is sacred. However, just because someone is entitled to do something doesn't necessarily mean that it's a good idea or not hypocritical to do it. Jimbo wants to make Wikinews more "wiki"-like, which is fine, but he does it not by the proper wiki process of gaining community support, but in the very un-wiki manner of an edict from above. Like I said, if he wants to be the sole determiner of policy on his servers, that's his prerogative, but it's highly hypocritical to do so in the manner he has.

Anyway, what this has to do with my changes to Main Page is this: I am enforcing the current policy, which states that articles can be linked on the main page only AFTER they have been written.

Kurt Weber 04:16, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

In the absence of any information except the status quo, it's hard to say what the community consensus actually is. If you want to help figure out what it is, vote in the poll linked from the beginning of every page.


 * Thank you, Kurt. Ambi 04:47, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

Redlinks: Articles being edited box
I'm wondering what the genearl discussion would be about adding a header in ths box for redlinks? Personally, I do not like the idea, but I think so discussion should be had on the issue. I do like the box as it stands- although it might be tough to keep updated while the editor count is still low. Lyellin 06:29, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

It is worth experimenting, I would say, especially at this stage. Tomos 06:43, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)


 * Instead of "Articles being edited box" what do you think about "Articles being reviewed box" ? carlosar


 * Redlinks on the main page is a wonderful idea for this early stage. It gives newcomers a sense of purpose, a direction of where to get started, and allows us to have actual news (headlines at least) posted with an absolute minimum of effort.  This is not an encyclopedia -- we can't afford to wait until things are perfect before acknowledging their existence.  We need a review process in order to have stable versions for citation, but we must also take advantage of the inherent strengths of wikis and trust people to do the right thing.  It does seems sensible to have a separate section for redlinks so that people can immediately know what it is and why. Jimbo Wales 13:43, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)


 * Jimbo, sorry if I'm being rude or missing something, but I just don't see what you mean. We have the articles being edited box- removing the issue of "articles being perfect before acknowledging their existence". I also don't see why newcomers can't have a sense of purpose or direction from all of the welcome and "here's how to do things" messages we had, which is what I used and read to get started. Someone unfamilier with the wikiprocess won't KNOW that's how you get started, and I personally feel it's better to give them that mini intro before throwing them to the edit screen they'd get on a newssite. Lyellin 15:31, 23 Nov 2004 (UTC)

I have thinked about a little more and my opinion now is we cant have an articles being edited box, neither articles being reviewed box. The Main Page purpose is showing the more reliable and best articles we have. The Main Page is not a draft page. --carlosar