Re: [Wiki-research-l] User type context sensitivity to introduction sections.

2019-02-12 Thread WereSpielChequers
Dear Stuart,

The problem with notifying the article creators and templating the articles
is that the people who wrote that content are not necessarily the ones who
can rewrite it more clearly. And templating rarely solves problems, it
often just adds more clutter to a confused article.

AutoInforming the editor probably works for people who have linked to
disambiguation pages. But otherwise as Ziko has pointed out the solution is
better writing, and you don't get that by templating. You do get that
through correcting and fixing things, Wikipedians notice when people
improve our contributions, and many of us learn from that. I certainly
have. Having a hidden category of articles with overly high reading ages
would be a good move, and could attract the sort of Wikipedians who can fix
that issue.

Some time around 2007 Wikipedia shifted from a soFixIt culture to the
current less supportive SoTemplateItForHypotheticalOthers to fix culture.
The community then went into decline, and despite the 2015 rally, in some
ways we have a smaller more toxic community now than in 2007. One theory is
that the three phenomena, community size, toxicity and templating are quite
closely related.

Jonathan


On Sun, 10 Feb 2019 at 02:02, Stuart A. Yeates  wrote:

> I believe that the English language term you are looking for is
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_English and the problem is that
> en.wiki policies already require plain english. The core of the issue
> is that writing in plain english is hard and currently there are few
> tools to support editors produce it.
>
> A decent reading level test applied by section and calculated using a
> javascript tool that fitted into the standard wiki framework for tools
> would be a very useful addition. The tool could annotate the article
> and for new articles notify the article creator.  Of course, we'd need
> supporting materials to aid editors learn plain english and so forth,
> but we have to start somewhere.
>
> cheers
> stuart
>
> --
> ...let us be heard from red core to black sky
>
> On Sun, 10 Feb 2019 at 11:22, Ziko van Dijk  wrote:
> >
> > Allow me to propose something different: Wikipedia needs better writing,
> > not technical solutions. And for different target groups, we need
> different
> > encyclopedias:
> > * for children
> > * for people with disabilities, such as
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leichte_Sprache
> > * for scholars, e.g. "Wikipedia scholar".
> > A different wiki for every target group can be arranged in the best
> > possible way for the target group.
> >
> > Kind regards
> > Ziko
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Am Sa., 9. Feb. 2019 um 21:55 Uhr schrieb Aaron Gray <
> > aaronngray.li...@gmail.com>:
> >
> > > I am thinking maybe we could use subdomains for layperson, and for
> schools,
> > > and maybe universities to have specialized [approved] content also ?
> Just
> > > an idea given this possible mechanism.
> > >
> > > On Sat, 9 Feb 2019 at 20:15, Aaron Gray 
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > Thank you please keep suggestions and pragmatics coming in !
> > > >
> > > > I looked at this problem some time ago and the extra programming for
> what
> > > > I am proposing is quite minimal utilizing existing MediaWiki
> libraries
> > > and
> > > > adding extra code to support the tag structure with defaulting to
> make it
> > > > seamless to existing articles.
> > > >
> > > > I really think this would increase the usability and audience of
> > > > Wikipedia and also might possibly allow us to integrate content from
> > > other
> > > > Wikipedia projects.
> > > >
> > > > Regards,
> > > >
> > > > Aaron
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On Sat, 9 Feb 2019 at 07:57, Amir E. Aharoni <
> > > amir.ahar...@mail.huji.ac.il>
> > > > wrote:
> > > >
> > > >> The suggestions that bring up the Simple English Wikipedia miss the
> fact
> > > >> that it only covers the English language, which most people don't
> know,
> > > >> and
> > > >> doesn't do almost anything for the many other languages of the
> world.
> > > (I'm
> > > >> saying "almost anything" because I know that there are people who
> prefer
> > > >> to
> > > >> translate articles from the Simple English Wikipedia, and this
> > > indirectly
> > > >> benefits other languages.)
> > > >>
> > > >> One thing about how Wikipedia works that practically no-one ever
> > > >> challenges
> > > >> is that every page title is associated with a page, and the page is
> > > always
> > > >> a single big blob of sections, section headings, templates and magic
> > > >> words.
> > > >>
> > > >> What if it was not a single blob?
> > > >>
> > > >> What if all the magic words, such as NOTOC, DISPLAYTITLE, and
> > > DEFAULTSORT
> > > >> moved to a separate metadata storage?
> > > >>
> > > >> More closely to this thread's topic, what if at least some sections
> that
> > > >> all or most pages have were stored separately, so that it would be
> > > >> possible
> > > >> to parse and render them semantically? The References section, for
> > > >> example,
> > > 

Re: [Wiki-research-l] User type context sensitivity to introduction sections.

2019-02-10 Thread Gerard Meijssen
Hoi,
Do realise that when this is the 'best practice' we will make the gap
between English and the others only bigger.. From my perspective to improve
quality, we could start with linking to Wikidata for blue, red and black
links in any Wikipedia. This will have a measurable quality effect of some
6%. It is easy to implement and what is proposed  is imho technically not
something that is easily realised.
Thanks,
   GerardM

On Sun, 10 Feb 2019 at 13:27, Ziko van Dijk  wrote:

> Hello Stuart,
> No, I totally disagree. :-) I absolutely don't mean "plain English" but the
> special concept as described in the article linked.
> And I do not think that we need a software solution. We need good writing
> skills.
> Kind regards
> Ziko
>
>
>
> Am So., 10. Feb. 2019 um 03:02 Uhr schrieb Stuart A. Yeates <
> syea...@gmail.com>:
>
> > I believe that the English language term you are looking for is
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_English and the problem is that
> > en.wiki policies already require plain english. The core of the issue
> > is that writing in plain english is hard and currently there are few
> > tools to support editors produce it.
> >
> > A decent reading level test applied by section and calculated using a
> > javascript tool that fitted into the standard wiki framework for tools
> > would be a very useful addition. The tool could annotate the article
> > and for new articles notify the article creator.  Of course, we'd need
> > supporting materials to aid editors learn plain english and so forth,
> > but we have to start somewhere.
> >
> > cheers
> > stuart
> >
> > --
> > ...let us be heard from red core to black sky
> >
> > On Sun, 10 Feb 2019 at 11:22, Ziko van Dijk  wrote:
> > >
> > > Allow me to propose something different: Wikipedia needs better
> writing,
> > > not technical solutions. And for different target groups, we need
> > different
> > > encyclopedias:
> > > * for children
> > > * for people with disabilities, such as
> > > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leichte_Sprache
> > > * for scholars, e.g. "Wikipedia scholar".
> > > A different wiki for every target group can be arranged in the best
> > > possible way for the target group.
> > >
> > > Kind regards
> > > Ziko
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > Am Sa., 9. Feb. 2019 um 21:55 Uhr schrieb Aaron Gray <
> > > aaronngray.li...@gmail.com>:
> > >
> > > > I am thinking maybe we could use subdomains for layperson, and for
> > schools,
> > > > and maybe universities to have specialized [approved] content also ?
> > Just
> > > > an idea given this possible mechanism.
> > > >
> > > > On Sat, 9 Feb 2019 at 20:15, Aaron Gray 
> > > > wrote:
> > > >
> > > > > Thank you please keep suggestions and pragmatics coming in !
> > > > >
> > > > > I looked at this problem some time ago and the extra programming
> for
> > what
> > > > > I am proposing is quite minimal utilizing existing MediaWiki
> > libraries
> > > > and
> > > > > adding extra code to support the tag structure with defaulting to
> > make it
> > > > > seamless to existing articles.
> > > > >
> > > > > I really think this would increase the usability and audience of
> > > > > Wikipedia and also might possibly allow us to integrate content
> from
> > > > other
> > > > > Wikipedia projects.
> > > > >
> > > > > Regards,
> > > > >
> > > > > Aaron
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > On Sat, 9 Feb 2019 at 07:57, Amir E. Aharoni <
> > > > amir.ahar...@mail.huji.ac.il>
> > > > > wrote:
> > > > >
> > > > >> The suggestions that bring up the Simple English Wikipedia miss
> the
> > fact
> > > > >> that it only covers the English language, which most people don't
> > know,
> > > > >> and
> > > > >> doesn't do almost anything for the many other languages of the
> > world.
> > > > (I'm
> > > > >> saying "almost anything" because I know that there are people who
> > prefer
> > > > >> to
> > > > >> translate articles from the Simple English Wikipedia, and this
> > > > indirectly
> > > > >> benefits other languages.)
> > > > >>
> > > > >> One thing about how Wikipedia works that practically no-one ever
> > > > >> challenges
> > > > >> is that every page title is associated with a page, and the page
> is
> > > > always
> > > > >> a single big blob of sections, section headings, templates and
> magic
> > > > >> words.
> > > > >>
> > > > >> What if it was not a single blob?
> > > > >>
> > > > >> What if all the magic words, such as NOTOC, DISPLAYTITLE, and
> > > > DEFAULTSORT
> > > > >> moved to a separate metadata storage?
> > > > >>
> > > > >> More closely to this thread's topic, what if at least some
> sections
> > that
> > > > >> all or most pages have were stored separately, so that it would be
> > > > >> possible
> > > > >> to parse and render them semantically? The References section, for
> > > > >> example,
> > > > >> is something that many pages have. What if it could be separated
> > from
> > > > the
> > > > >> prose blob and stored separately, so that it would be parsed
> > > > semantically
> > > > >> 

Re: [Wiki-research-l] User type context sensitivity to introduction sections.

2019-02-10 Thread Federico Leva (Nemo)

This has been discussed many times, see also:
https://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposal:Multi-level_Articles_(By_Difficulty)
https://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposal:Filter_content_based_on_desired_level_of_detail
https://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposal:Divide_Wikipedia
https://strategy.wikimedia.org/wiki/Proposal:Create_Scientific,_Popular_and_Hobby_encyclopedia_levels
(and links from there)

Federico

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Wiki-research-l mailing list
Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org
https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l


Re: [Wiki-research-l] User type context sensitivity to introduction sections.

2019-02-10 Thread Ziko van Dijk
Hello Stuart,
No, I totally disagree. :-) I absolutely don't mean "plain English" but the
special concept as described in the article linked.
And I do not think that we need a software solution. We need good writing
skills.
Kind regards
Ziko



Am So., 10. Feb. 2019 um 03:02 Uhr schrieb Stuart A. Yeates <
syea...@gmail.com>:

> I believe that the English language term you are looking for is
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_English and the problem is that
> en.wiki policies already require plain english. The core of the issue
> is that writing in plain english is hard and currently there are few
> tools to support editors produce it.
>
> A decent reading level test applied by section and calculated using a
> javascript tool that fitted into the standard wiki framework for tools
> would be a very useful addition. The tool could annotate the article
> and for new articles notify the article creator.  Of course, we'd need
> supporting materials to aid editors learn plain english and so forth,
> but we have to start somewhere.
>
> cheers
> stuart
>
> --
> ...let us be heard from red core to black sky
>
> On Sun, 10 Feb 2019 at 11:22, Ziko van Dijk  wrote:
> >
> > Allow me to propose something different: Wikipedia needs better writing,
> > not technical solutions. And for different target groups, we need
> different
> > encyclopedias:
> > * for children
> > * for people with disabilities, such as
> > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leichte_Sprache
> > * for scholars, e.g. "Wikipedia scholar".
> > A different wiki for every target group can be arranged in the best
> > possible way for the target group.
> >
> > Kind regards
> > Ziko
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > Am Sa., 9. Feb. 2019 um 21:55 Uhr schrieb Aaron Gray <
> > aaronngray.li...@gmail.com>:
> >
> > > I am thinking maybe we could use subdomains for layperson, and for
> schools,
> > > and maybe universities to have specialized [approved] content also ?
> Just
> > > an idea given this possible mechanism.
> > >
> > > On Sat, 9 Feb 2019 at 20:15, Aaron Gray 
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > > > Thank you please keep suggestions and pragmatics coming in !
> > > >
> > > > I looked at this problem some time ago and the extra programming for
> what
> > > > I am proposing is quite minimal utilizing existing MediaWiki
> libraries
> > > and
> > > > adding extra code to support the tag structure with defaulting to
> make it
> > > > seamless to existing articles.
> > > >
> > > > I really think this would increase the usability and audience of
> > > > Wikipedia and also might possibly allow us to integrate content from
> > > other
> > > > Wikipedia projects.
> > > >
> > > > Regards,
> > > >
> > > > Aaron
> > > >
> > > >
> > > > On Sat, 9 Feb 2019 at 07:57, Amir E. Aharoni <
> > > amir.ahar...@mail.huji.ac.il>
> > > > wrote:
> > > >
> > > >> The suggestions that bring up the Simple English Wikipedia miss the
> fact
> > > >> that it only covers the English language, which most people don't
> know,
> > > >> and
> > > >> doesn't do almost anything for the many other languages of the
> world.
> > > (I'm
> > > >> saying "almost anything" because I know that there are people who
> prefer
> > > >> to
> > > >> translate articles from the Simple English Wikipedia, and this
> > > indirectly
> > > >> benefits other languages.)
> > > >>
> > > >> One thing about how Wikipedia works that practically no-one ever
> > > >> challenges
> > > >> is that every page title is associated with a page, and the page is
> > > always
> > > >> a single big blob of sections, section headings, templates and magic
> > > >> words.
> > > >>
> > > >> What if it was not a single blob?
> > > >>
> > > >> What if all the magic words, such as NOTOC, DISPLAYTITLE, and
> > > DEFAULTSORT
> > > >> moved to a separate metadata storage?
> > > >>
> > > >> More closely to this thread's topic, what if at least some sections
> that
> > > >> all or most pages have were stored separately, so that it would be
> > > >> possible
> > > >> to parse and render them semantically? The References section, for
> > > >> example,
> > > >> is something that many pages have. What if it could be separated
> from
> > > the
> > > >> prose blob and stored separately, so that it would be parsed
> > > semantically
> > > >> for different screens and contexts, such as Wikicite? Currently its
> > > >> rendering and storage is heavily biased for desktop and wiki syntax
> > > >> editing, and suboptimal for mobile display and editing, as well as
> for
> > > >> translation.
> > > >>
> > > >> And most closely to the thread's original topic, what if one page
> could
> > > >> have several lead sections? Sure, this can be done now with hacks
> such
> > > as
> > > >> templates and namespaces, but these are still hacks: they are not
> > > >> semantic,
> > > >> not portable across languages, and not easily machine-readable.
> > > >>
> > > >> Of course, doing all these things would require major, major
> changes in
> > > >> how
> > > >> Wikipedia's software works. 

Re: [Wiki-research-l] User type context sensitivity to introduction sections.

2019-02-09 Thread Stuart A. Yeates
I believe that the English language term you are looking for is
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_English and the problem is that
en.wiki policies already require plain english. The core of the issue
is that writing in plain english is hard and currently there are few
tools to support editors produce it.

A decent reading level test applied by section and calculated using a
javascript tool that fitted into the standard wiki framework for tools
would be a very useful addition. The tool could annotate the article
and for new articles notify the article creator.  Of course, we'd need
supporting materials to aid editors learn plain english and so forth,
but we have to start somewhere.

cheers
stuart

--
...let us be heard from red core to black sky

On Sun, 10 Feb 2019 at 11:22, Ziko van Dijk  wrote:
>
> Allow me to propose something different: Wikipedia needs better writing,
> not technical solutions. And for different target groups, we need different
> encyclopedias:
> * for children
> * for people with disabilities, such as
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leichte_Sprache
> * for scholars, e.g. "Wikipedia scholar".
> A different wiki for every target group can be arranged in the best
> possible way for the target group.
>
> Kind regards
> Ziko
>
>
>
>
> Am Sa., 9. Feb. 2019 um 21:55 Uhr schrieb Aaron Gray <
> aaronngray.li...@gmail.com>:
>
> > I am thinking maybe we could use subdomains for layperson, and for schools,
> > and maybe universities to have specialized [approved] content also ? Just
> > an idea given this possible mechanism.
> >
> > On Sat, 9 Feb 2019 at 20:15, Aaron Gray 
> > wrote:
> >
> > > Thank you please keep suggestions and pragmatics coming in !
> > >
> > > I looked at this problem some time ago and the extra programming for what
> > > I am proposing is quite minimal utilizing existing MediaWiki libraries
> > and
> > > adding extra code to support the tag structure with defaulting to make it
> > > seamless to existing articles.
> > >
> > > I really think this would increase the usability and audience of
> > > Wikipedia and also might possibly allow us to integrate content from
> > other
> > > Wikipedia projects.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > >
> > > Aaron
> > >
> > >
> > > On Sat, 9 Feb 2019 at 07:57, Amir E. Aharoni <
> > amir.ahar...@mail.huji.ac.il>
> > > wrote:
> > >
> > >> The suggestions that bring up the Simple English Wikipedia miss the fact
> > >> that it only covers the English language, which most people don't know,
> > >> and
> > >> doesn't do almost anything for the many other languages of the world.
> > (I'm
> > >> saying "almost anything" because I know that there are people who prefer
> > >> to
> > >> translate articles from the Simple English Wikipedia, and this
> > indirectly
> > >> benefits other languages.)
> > >>
> > >> One thing about how Wikipedia works that practically no-one ever
> > >> challenges
> > >> is that every page title is associated with a page, and the page is
> > always
> > >> a single big blob of sections, section headings, templates and magic
> > >> words.
> > >>
> > >> What if it was not a single blob?
> > >>
> > >> What if all the magic words, such as NOTOC, DISPLAYTITLE, and
> > DEFAULTSORT
> > >> moved to a separate metadata storage?
> > >>
> > >> More closely to this thread's topic, what if at least some sections that
> > >> all or most pages have were stored separately, so that it would be
> > >> possible
> > >> to parse and render them semantically? The References section, for
> > >> example,
> > >> is something that many pages have. What if it could be separated from
> > the
> > >> prose blob and stored separately, so that it would be parsed
> > semantically
> > >> for different screens and contexts, such as Wikicite? Currently its
> > >> rendering and storage is heavily biased for desktop and wiki syntax
> > >> editing, and suboptimal for mobile display and editing, as well as for
> > >> translation.
> > >>
> > >> And most closely to the thread's original topic, what if one page could
> > >> have several lead sections? Sure, this can be done now with hacks such
> > as
> > >> templates and namespaces, but these are still hacks: they are not
> > >> semantic,
> > >> not portable across languages, and not easily machine-readable.
> > >>
> > >> Of course, doing all these things would require major, major changes in
> > >> how
> > >> Wikipedia's software works. Developers would have to write a lot of code
> > >> and editors would have to get used to new things. But sometimes it's
> > worth
> > >> thinking our of the box instead of saying "that's not how Wikipedia
> > >> works".
> > >>
> > >> בתאריך שבת, 9 בפבר׳ 2019, 02:16, מאת Aaron Gray <
> > >> aaronngray.li...@gmail.com
> > >> >:
> > >>
> > >> > I am suggesting WikiPedia has context-sensitive articles so if you
> > are a
> > >> > kid or a layperson or an expert in a field you get a different
> > >> > introduction.
> > >> >
> > >> > Often the reason people don't read or use WikiPedia is articles 

Re: [Wiki-research-l] User type context sensitivity to introduction sections.

2019-02-09 Thread Ziko van Dijk
Allow me to propose something different: Wikipedia needs better writing,
not technical solutions. And for different target groups, we need different
encyclopedias:
* for children
* for people with disabilities, such as
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leichte_Sprache
* for scholars, e.g. "Wikipedia scholar".
A different wiki for every target group can be arranged in the best
possible way for the target group.

Kind regards
Ziko




Am Sa., 9. Feb. 2019 um 21:55 Uhr schrieb Aaron Gray <
aaronngray.li...@gmail.com>:

> I am thinking maybe we could use subdomains for layperson, and for schools,
> and maybe universities to have specialized [approved] content also ? Just
> an idea given this possible mechanism.
>
> On Sat, 9 Feb 2019 at 20:15, Aaron Gray 
> wrote:
>
> > Thank you please keep suggestions and pragmatics coming in !
> >
> > I looked at this problem some time ago and the extra programming for what
> > I am proposing is quite minimal utilizing existing MediaWiki libraries
> and
> > adding extra code to support the tag structure with defaulting to make it
> > seamless to existing articles.
> >
> > I really think this would increase the usability and audience of
> > Wikipedia and also might possibly allow us to integrate content from
> other
> > Wikipedia projects.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Aaron
> >
> >
> > On Sat, 9 Feb 2019 at 07:57, Amir E. Aharoni <
> amir.ahar...@mail.huji.ac.il>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> The suggestions that bring up the Simple English Wikipedia miss the fact
> >> that it only covers the English language, which most people don't know,
> >> and
> >> doesn't do almost anything for the many other languages of the world.
> (I'm
> >> saying "almost anything" because I know that there are people who prefer
> >> to
> >> translate articles from the Simple English Wikipedia, and this
> indirectly
> >> benefits other languages.)
> >>
> >> One thing about how Wikipedia works that practically no-one ever
> >> challenges
> >> is that every page title is associated with a page, and the page is
> always
> >> a single big blob of sections, section headings, templates and magic
> >> words.
> >>
> >> What if it was not a single blob?
> >>
> >> What if all the magic words, such as NOTOC, DISPLAYTITLE, and
> DEFAULTSORT
> >> moved to a separate metadata storage?
> >>
> >> More closely to this thread's topic, what if at least some sections that
> >> all or most pages have were stored separately, so that it would be
> >> possible
> >> to parse and render them semantically? The References section, for
> >> example,
> >> is something that many pages have. What if it could be separated from
> the
> >> prose blob and stored separately, so that it would be parsed
> semantically
> >> for different screens and contexts, such as Wikicite? Currently its
> >> rendering and storage is heavily biased for desktop and wiki syntax
> >> editing, and suboptimal for mobile display and editing, as well as for
> >> translation.
> >>
> >> And most closely to the thread's original topic, what if one page could
> >> have several lead sections? Sure, this can be done now with hacks such
> as
> >> templates and namespaces, but these are still hacks: they are not
> >> semantic,
> >> not portable across languages, and not easily machine-readable.
> >>
> >> Of course, doing all these things would require major, major changes in
> >> how
> >> Wikipedia's software works. Developers would have to write a lot of code
> >> and editors would have to get used to new things. But sometimes it's
> worth
> >> thinking our of the box instead of saying "that's not how Wikipedia
> >> works".
> >>
> >> בתאריך שבת, 9 בפבר׳ 2019, 02:16, מאת Aaron Gray <
> >> aaronngray.li...@gmail.com
> >> >:
> >>
> >> > I am suggesting WikiPedia has context-sensitive articles so if you
> are a
> >> > kid or a layperson or an expert in a field you get a different
> >> > introduction.
> >> >
> >> > Often the reason people don't read or use WikiPedia is articles are
> too
> >> > complex at the start.
> >> >
> >> > Having an adaptive setting that can be chosen but users as default
> needs
> >> > facilitating by WikiMedia technology.
> >> >
> >> > Thoughts and ideas and possible implementation ideas on this idea are
> >> > welcomed.
> >> >
> >> > Regards,
> >> >
> >> > Aaron
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > --
> >> > Aaron Gray
> >> >
> >> > Independent Open Source Software Engineer, Computer Language
> Researcher,
> >> > Information Theorist, and amateur computer scientist.
> >> > ___
> >> > Wiki-research-l mailing list
> >> > Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> >> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l
> >> >
> >> ___
> >> Wiki-research-l mailing list
> >> Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l
> >>
> >
> >
> > --
> > Aaron Gray
> >
> > Independent Open Source Software Engineer, Computer Language Researcher,

Re: [Wiki-research-l] User type context sensitivity to introduction sections.

2019-02-09 Thread Aaron Gray
I am thinking maybe we could use subdomains for layperson, and for schools,
and maybe universities to have specialized [approved] content also ? Just
an idea given this possible mechanism.

On Sat, 9 Feb 2019 at 20:15, Aaron Gray  wrote:

> Thank you please keep suggestions and pragmatics coming in !
>
> I looked at this problem some time ago and the extra programming for what
> I am proposing is quite minimal utilizing existing MediaWiki libraries and
> adding extra code to support the tag structure with defaulting to make it
> seamless to existing articles.
>
> I really think this would increase the usability and audience of
> Wikipedia and also might possibly allow us to integrate content from other
> Wikipedia projects.
>
> Regards,
>
> Aaron
>
>
> On Sat, 9 Feb 2019 at 07:57, Amir E. Aharoni 
> wrote:
>
>> The suggestions that bring up the Simple English Wikipedia miss the fact
>> that it only covers the English language, which most people don't know,
>> and
>> doesn't do almost anything for the many other languages of the world. (I'm
>> saying "almost anything" because I know that there are people who prefer
>> to
>> translate articles from the Simple English Wikipedia, and this indirectly
>> benefits other languages.)
>>
>> One thing about how Wikipedia works that practically no-one ever
>> challenges
>> is that every page title is associated with a page, and the page is always
>> a single big blob of sections, section headings, templates and magic
>> words.
>>
>> What if it was not a single blob?
>>
>> What if all the magic words, such as NOTOC, DISPLAYTITLE, and DEFAULTSORT
>> moved to a separate metadata storage?
>>
>> More closely to this thread's topic, what if at least some sections that
>> all or most pages have were stored separately, so that it would be
>> possible
>> to parse and render them semantically? The References section, for
>> example,
>> is something that many pages have. What if it could be separated from the
>> prose blob and stored separately, so that it would be parsed semantically
>> for different screens and contexts, such as Wikicite? Currently its
>> rendering and storage is heavily biased for desktop and wiki syntax
>> editing, and suboptimal for mobile display and editing, as well as for
>> translation.
>>
>> And most closely to the thread's original topic, what if one page could
>> have several lead sections? Sure, this can be done now with hacks such as
>> templates and namespaces, but these are still hacks: they are not
>> semantic,
>> not portable across languages, and not easily machine-readable.
>>
>> Of course, doing all these things would require major, major changes in
>> how
>> Wikipedia's software works. Developers would have to write a lot of code
>> and editors would have to get used to new things. But sometimes it's worth
>> thinking our of the box instead of saying "that's not how Wikipedia
>> works".
>>
>> בתאריך שבת, 9 בפבר׳ 2019, 02:16, מאת Aaron Gray <
>> aaronngray.li...@gmail.com
>> >:
>>
>> > I am suggesting WikiPedia has context-sensitive articles so if you are a
>> > kid or a layperson or an expert in a field you get a different
>> > introduction.
>> >
>> > Often the reason people don't read or use WikiPedia is articles are too
>> > complex at the start.
>> >
>> > Having an adaptive setting that can be chosen but users as default needs
>> > facilitating by WikiMedia technology.
>> >
>> > Thoughts and ideas and possible implementation ideas on this idea are
>> > welcomed.
>> >
>> > Regards,
>> >
>> > Aaron
>> >
>> >
>> > --
>> > Aaron Gray
>> >
>> > Independent Open Source Software Engineer, Computer Language Researcher,
>> > Information Theorist, and amateur computer scientist.
>> > ___
>> > Wiki-research-l mailing list
>> > Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org
>> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l
>> >
>> ___
>> Wiki-research-l mailing list
>> Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org
>> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l
>>
>
>
> --
> Aaron Gray
>
> Independent Open Source Software Engineer, Computer Language Researcher,
> Information Theorist, and amateur computer scientist.
>


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Re: [Wiki-research-l] User type context sensitivity to introduction sections.

2019-02-09 Thread Aaron Gray
Thank you please keep suggestions and pragmatics coming in !

I looked at this problem some time ago and the extra programming for what I
am proposing is quite minimal utilizing existing MediaWiki libraries and
adding extra code to support the tag structure with defaulting to make it
seamless to existing articles.

I really think this would increase the usability and audience of
Wikipedia and also might possibly allow us to integrate content from other
Wikipedia projects.

Regards,

Aaron


On Sat, 9 Feb 2019 at 07:57, Amir E. Aharoni 
wrote:

> The suggestions that bring up the Simple English Wikipedia miss the fact
> that it only covers the English language, which most people don't know, and
> doesn't do almost anything for the many other languages of the world. (I'm
> saying "almost anything" because I know that there are people who prefer to
> translate articles from the Simple English Wikipedia, and this indirectly
> benefits other languages.)
>
> One thing about how Wikipedia works that practically no-one ever challenges
> is that every page title is associated with a page, and the page is always
> a single big blob of sections, section headings, templates and magic words.
>
> What if it was not a single blob?
>
> What if all the magic words, such as NOTOC, DISPLAYTITLE, and DEFAULTSORT
> moved to a separate metadata storage?
>
> More closely to this thread's topic, what if at least some sections that
> all or most pages have were stored separately, so that it would be possible
> to parse and render them semantically? The References section, for example,
> is something that many pages have. What if it could be separated from the
> prose blob and stored separately, so that it would be parsed semantically
> for different screens and contexts, such as Wikicite? Currently its
> rendering and storage is heavily biased for desktop and wiki syntax
> editing, and suboptimal for mobile display and editing, as well as for
> translation.
>
> And most closely to the thread's original topic, what if one page could
> have several lead sections? Sure, this can be done now with hacks such as
> templates and namespaces, but these are still hacks: they are not semantic,
> not portable across languages, and not easily machine-readable.
>
> Of course, doing all these things would require major, major changes in how
> Wikipedia's software works. Developers would have to write a lot of code
> and editors would have to get used to new things. But sometimes it's worth
> thinking our of the box instead of saying "that's not how Wikipedia works".
>
> בתאריך שבת, 9 בפבר׳ 2019, 02:16, מאת Aaron Gray <
> aaronngray.li...@gmail.com
> >:
>
> > I am suggesting WikiPedia has context-sensitive articles so if you are a
> > kid or a layperson or an expert in a field you get a different
> > introduction.
> >
> > Often the reason people don't read or use WikiPedia is articles are too
> > complex at the start.
> >
> > Having an adaptive setting that can be chosen but users as default needs
> > facilitating by WikiMedia technology.
> >
> > Thoughts and ideas and possible implementation ideas on this idea are
> > welcomed.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Aaron
> >
> >
> > --
> > Aaron Gray
> >
> > Independent Open Source Software Engineer, Computer Language Researcher,
> > Information Theorist, and amateur computer scientist.
> > ___
> > Wiki-research-l mailing list
> > Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l
> >
> ___
> Wiki-research-l mailing list
> Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l
>


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Information Theorist, and amateur computer scientist.
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Re: [Wiki-research-l] User type context sensitivity to introduction sections.

2019-02-08 Thread Kerry Raymond
I think we might be missing the point here of the original request. I am a 
native fluent speaker of English and I have 4 university degrees. I don't need 
Simple English Wikipedia, but there are definitiely articles on English 
Wikipedia that I cannot read because they are not sufficiently introductory in 
terms of content. For example

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nucleotide

loses me pretty quickly as I have not studied biochemistry for some number of 
decades so I don't really understand/remember the terms in which nucleotides 
are defined within the article. But I don't think we need to have a technical 
solution. We probably need some simpler introductions to some topics, either 
within one article or as two separate articles, e.g.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introduction_to_genetics

Perhaps we need some navboxes that provide a sequence for reading through a 
number of articles in some sensible sequence to learn about a larger topic.

I think we have plenty of solutions with the tools at hand. I think we just 
need to identify the problematic articles and hope someone with the right 
expertise is willing to write the simple introduction or suggest a sequence of 
articles to be read or whatever is deemed to be the best way to cope with 
readers coming to the topic with a range of prior knowledge.

Kerry

 



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Re: [Wiki-research-l] User type context sensitivity to introduction sections.

2019-02-08 Thread Stuart A. Yeates
On the English language wikipedia the guidelines about ledes are
pretty clear and such articles are in breach of them. Please tag them
with {{lead rewrite}} when you find them. TW lets you do this via
javascript magic.

cheers
stuart


--
...let us be heard from red core to black sky

On Sat, 9 Feb 2019 at 13:15, Aaron Gray  wrote:
>
> I am suggesting WikiPedia has context-sensitive articles so if you are a
> kid or a layperson or an expert in a field you get a different
> introduction.
>
> Often the reason people don't read or use WikiPedia is articles are too
> complex at the start.
>
> Having an adaptive setting that can be chosen but users as default needs
> facilitating by WikiMedia technology.
>
> Thoughts and ideas and possible implementation ideas on this idea are
> welcomed.
>
> Regards,
>
> Aaron
>
>
> --
> Aaron Gray
>
> Independent Open Source Software Engineer, Computer Language Researcher,
> Information Theorist, and amateur computer scientist.
> ___
> Wiki-research-l mailing list
> Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l

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Re: [Wiki-research-l] User type context sensitivity to introduction sections.

2019-02-08 Thread Timothy Wood
Well the purpose of the Simple English Wikipedia is to provide a resource
for children, people who are learning English, or others who have
difficulty understanding the regular English Wikipedia. It's understaffed
and underpopulated, but in principle it takes care of a lot of your problem
if eventually fleshed out in content and coverage.

Wikimedia projects are good at copy/pasting the software to make new
projects, but we're not very good at significantly adapting radical new
features of the exiting software, which is why we ended up with a Simple
English Wikipedia as a stand alone project, rather than a tab in the
existing English Wikipedia to switch to "simple mode". But we still have
the problem of adequate volunteers, and lesser populated projects can
struggle for years.

The main problem with suggesting an "expert" version of an article is that
we're very short on experts. The system is designed to compensate for that
by requiring expert sources, meaning you don't need to be an expert to
contribute; you just need to be competent enough to read and understand
what the experts have written.

I may be confusing things even further, and sorry if I am.

V/r
TJW/GMG



On Fri, Feb 8, 2019 at 8:25 PM Aaron Gray 
wrote:

> On Sat, 9 Feb 2019 at 01:01, Timothy Wood 
> wrote:
>
> > This has been somewhat answered by the Simple English Wikipedia. But even
> > Simple was recently nominated for deletion in whole on meta, although the
> > nomination failed. I'm not sure it can be done without splitting off
> > multiple projects, but the problem with that is that our cross-wiki
> vandals
> > are savvy to new sparsely populated projects, and they use those as a
> place
> > to roam, meaning you need significant community effort just to maintain
> > whatever content contributions are to be had.
> >
>
> This sounds crazy can you explain it properly as I dont contribute to
> WikiPedia that much these days so am not really aware of whats going on
> politics wise.
>
> I am suggesting basically a new (sub) section tags for introductions that
> can contain :-
>
> a) A default introduction
> b) The expert topic area.
> c) Individually targetted introductions
>
> Thanks for the reply,
>
> Aaron
>
>
>
> > V/r
> > TJW/GMG
> >
> >
> > On Fri, Feb 8, 2019 at 7:15 PM Aaron Gray 
> > wrote:
> >
> > > I am suggesting WikiPedia has context-sensitive articles so if you are
> a
> > > kid or a layperson or an expert in a field you get a different
> > > introduction.
> > >
> > > Often the reason people don't read or use WikiPedia is articles are too
> > > complex at the start.
> > >
> > > Having an adaptive setting that can be chosen but users as default
> needs
> > > facilitating by WikiMedia technology.
> > >
> > > Thoughts and ideas and possible implementation ideas on this idea are
> > > welcomed.
> > >
> > > Regards,
> > >
> > > Aaron
> > >
> > >
> > > --
> > > Aaron Gray
> > >
> > > Independent Open Source Software Engineer, Computer Language
> Researcher,
> > > Information Theorist, and amateur computer scientist.
> > > ___
> > > Wiki-research-l mailing list
> > > Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l
> > >
> > ___
> > Wiki-research-l mailing list
> > Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l
> >
>
>
> --
> Aaron Gray
>
> Independent Open Source Software Engineer, Computer Language Researcher,
> Information Theorist, and amateur computer scientist.
> ___
> Wiki-research-l mailing list
> Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l
>
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Re: [Wiki-research-l] User type context sensitivity to introduction sections.

2019-02-08 Thread Adam Sobieski
Aaron,



Interesting ideas. I’ve thought about these topics in the contexts of digital 
textbooks and e-learning, adaptive content and adaptive explanation.



An implementation idea is that users could have settings and preferences and 
that these could be accessed in the server-side processing of wiki articles 
utilizing something like conditional preprocessor macros. Also possible is the 
utilization of wiki templates or Lua scripting. This could require users to log 
in to access these features. Default content could need to be provided for 
users not logged in.



Another implementation idea is to output HTML/XHTML documents which include all 
of the possible content and which utilize JavaScript for client-side processing 
of articles, accessing user settings and preferences to process and present 
adaptive articles.



Another implementation idea is to utilize user-controlled data storage 
solutions such as Solid [1][2] to store users’ settings and preferences. With 
Solid, the same data for users’ settings and preferences could be utilized 
across Wikipedia, digital textbooks and e-learning solutions.





Best regards,

Adam



[1] https://solid.inrupt.com/about

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Solid_(web_decentralization_project)




From: Wiki-research-l  on behalf 
of Aaron Gray 
Sent: Friday, February 8, 2019 7:15:21 PM
To: Research into Wikimedia content and communities
Subject: [Wiki-research-l] User type context sensitivity to introduction 
sections.

I am suggesting WikiPedia has context-sensitive articles so if you are a
kid or a layperson or an expert in a field you get a different
introduction.

Often the reason people don't read or use WikiPedia is articles are too
complex at the start.

Having an adaptive setting that can be chosen but users as default needs
facilitating by WikiMedia technology.

Thoughts and ideas and possible implementation ideas on this idea are
welcomed.

Regards,

Aaron


--
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Independent Open Source Software Engineer, Computer Language Researcher,
Information Theorist, and amateur computer scientist.
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Re: [Wiki-research-l] User type context sensitivity to introduction sections.

2019-02-08 Thread Aaron Gray
On Sat, 9 Feb 2019 at 01:01, Timothy Wood 
wrote:

> This has been somewhat answered by the Simple English Wikipedia. But even
> Simple was recently nominated for deletion in whole on meta, although the
> nomination failed. I'm not sure it can be done without splitting off
> multiple projects, but the problem with that is that our cross-wiki vandals
> are savvy to new sparsely populated projects, and they use those as a place
> to roam, meaning you need significant community effort just to maintain
> whatever content contributions are to be had.
>

This sounds crazy can you explain it properly as I dont contribute to
WikiPedia that much these days so am not really aware of whats going on
politics wise.

I am suggesting basically a new (sub) section tags for introductions that
can contain :-

a) A default introduction
b) The expert topic area.
c) Individually targetted introductions

Thanks for the reply,

Aaron



> V/r
> TJW/GMG
>
>
> On Fri, Feb 8, 2019 at 7:15 PM Aaron Gray 
> wrote:
>
> > I am suggesting WikiPedia has context-sensitive articles so if you are a
> > kid or a layperson or an expert in a field you get a different
> > introduction.
> >
> > Often the reason people don't read or use WikiPedia is articles are too
> > complex at the start.
> >
> > Having an adaptive setting that can be chosen but users as default needs
> > facilitating by WikiMedia technology.
> >
> > Thoughts and ideas and possible implementation ideas on this idea are
> > welcomed.
> >
> > Regards,
> >
> > Aaron
> >
> >
> > --
> > Aaron Gray
> >
> > Independent Open Source Software Engineer, Computer Language Researcher,
> > Information Theorist, and amateur computer scientist.
> > ___
> > Wiki-research-l mailing list
> > Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l
> >
> ___
> Wiki-research-l mailing list
> Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l
>


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Information Theorist, and amateur computer scientist.
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Re: [Wiki-research-l] User type context sensitivity to introduction sections.

2019-02-08 Thread Timothy Wood
This has been somewhat answered by the Simple English Wikipedia. But even
Simple was recently nominated for deletion in whole on meta, although the
nomination failed. I'm not sure it can be done without splitting off
multiple projects, but the problem with that is that our cross-wiki vandals
are savvy to new sparsely populated projects, and they use those as a place
to roam, meaning you need significant community effort just to maintain
whatever content contributions are to be had.

V/r
TJW/GMG


On Fri, Feb 8, 2019 at 7:15 PM Aaron Gray 
wrote:

> I am suggesting WikiPedia has context-sensitive articles so if you are a
> kid or a layperson or an expert in a field you get a different
> introduction.
>
> Often the reason people don't read or use WikiPedia is articles are too
> complex at the start.
>
> Having an adaptive setting that can be chosen but users as default needs
> facilitating by WikiMedia technology.
>
> Thoughts and ideas and possible implementation ideas on this idea are
> welcomed.
>
> Regards,
>
> Aaron
>
>
> --
> Aaron Gray
>
> Independent Open Source Software Engineer, Computer Language Researcher,
> Information Theorist, and amateur computer scientist.
> ___
> Wiki-research-l mailing list
> Wiki-research-l@lists.wikimedia.org
> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wiki-research-l
>
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[Wiki-research-l] User type context sensitivity to introduction sections.

2019-02-08 Thread Aaron Gray
I am suggesting WikiPedia has context-sensitive articles so if you are a
kid or a layperson or an expert in a field you get a different
introduction.

Often the reason people don't read or use WikiPedia is articles are too
complex at the start.

Having an adaptive setting that can be chosen but users as default needs
facilitating by WikiMedia technology.

Thoughts and ideas and possible implementation ideas on this idea are
welcomed.

Regards,

Aaron


-- 
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Independent Open Source Software Engineer, Computer Language Researcher,
Information Theorist, and amateur computer scientist.
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