Arch Linux

henrywallace

Member

Registered: 2019-11-10

Posts: 5

[suggestion] Allow marking wiki sections as needs clarification

Sometimes when reading the wiki, there will be a sentence or paragraph that I think could use clarification.

My intent with this post is to consider how to make it easier for readers to mark such sections as needing improvement.

Currently, I think the following methods exist:
1. Posting a new topic here that links to the part that needs clarification.
2. Making an edit to https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ArchWiki:Requests that refers to the part that needs clarification.

Using (1) requires an additional login to this site, and incurs the weight having to publicize oneself in not understanding something, and having multiple people respond to that. While yes, a culture of learning is something to be fostered, it's still a speed bump that may deter some from noting something as being unclear anonymously.

Using (2) requires knowledge that such a page exists. At least for me, it took a little while to realize that it was appropriate to mark things as being unclear this this page, and that the page even existed. Adding something to this page is also detached from the context in which it is mentioned.

So, are the other more streamlined ways for readers to mark things as unclear? Whimsically I'm imagining that something like this could exist:
- Reader can highlight sentence and click "needs clarification".
- The page/paragraph holds aggregated counts of "needs clarification" allowing wiki editors to view places where improvements may be most useful.
- There may exist global "needs clarification" aggregated counts across all wiki pages.
- Sections marked as "needs clarification" expire after some number of overlapping edits on the referred to region of text.

I'd be happy to learn if I'm missing things already in place to address this. Or if other wikis have tools enabled for this.

Last edited by henrywallace (2019-11-10 18:29:23)

xse

Member

Registered: 2019-01-08

Posts: 36

Re: [suggestion] Allow marking wiki sections as needs clarification

I'd be happy to learn if I'm missing things already in place to address this. Or if other wikis have tools enabled for this.

Hi, I feel like the accuracy template kinda includes what you are saying, the use cases including, i quote:

This template should be added at the beginning of articles or sections suspected of incorrect, misleading, incomplete, or confusing content.

Granted it might feel a bit "broader" than "in need of some clarification" the template system allows you to have a look at all the page containing an accuracy template, it even provides a category which is "Pages or sections flagged with Template:Accuracy"

The style template might also fall under what you are describing, it all depends on how you interpret "Language improvement". Either case the little broom icon is 10x better than the one used for the accuracy template!

The idea of having people mark stuff like you're describing sounds cool too you know, i can see a sweet little system doing the job. Pros/Cons have to be weighted like that's something you have to maintain, to protect against misuses and stuff.

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Carefully explaining your problem is half the solution.

jasonwryan

Anarchist

From: .nz

Registered: 2009-05-09

Posts: 30,424

Website

Re: [suggestion] Allow marking wiki sections as needs clarification

Currently, I think the following methods exist:
1. Posting a new topic here that links to the part that needs clarification.
2. Making an edit to https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/ArchWiki:Requests that refers to the part that needs clarification.

Or, 3. the correct approach: open a discussion on the talk page that sets out exactly what you feel is unclear/needs revision.

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