On Sat, Feb 18, 2012 at 9:27 AM, Tom Morris <t...@tommorris.org> wrote:
> Commit to clear writing by adopting a policy of "copyediting almost > always welcome" for chapter wikis, Foundation documents and as close > to everything as possible. There are volunteers in the movement who > happily spend hour after hour copyediting on Wikipedia and Wikinews > and Wikibooks and so on. Give them the opportunity to fix up the > language used by the Foundation and the chapters. > > Remember: how can community members support and become more deeply > involved with the work of the chapters and the Foundation if they > can't understand what you are saying? > First Tom, thank you for the constructive suggestions all around. If everybody came forward with criticisms that also included options for fixing things in a simple way, then Foundation-l would be a lot happier place. The only possible hitch I see in the idea to welcome more copyediting in public documents is that, unlike say the Wikipedia article about cars or the Simpsons or what have you, writing about Foundation work usually involves describing things a volunteer doesn't know about unless they were a part of doing the job. I don't mean they don't have the capability to understand, just that if you're working on something that is not common knowledge, how is it possible for random folks who come along to clarify the language? There are no reliable sources to go read and cite, because it's original research. ;-) Seems like a Catch-22 to me: documents about what we do at the Foundation are sometimes not plainly understandable, and yet you can't make them understandable unless you know what it is you're supposed to be describing. Best regards, Steven _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l
