Tom Purl wrote:
Ok, so here's the proposed workflow: ...
Tom - thanks for spelling out the proposed workflow. Studying the details is essential for evaluating the system. OTOH I guess we could just go with something, and if it doesn't work we would refactor! If you post another workflow, how about a couple more details, namely what are the actual URLs that Veronica would visit? In step 2, Veronica "joins the vimtips Google group" to post a message requesting access. I think you're also saying that she needs a Google id before doing this. It would be better to use an existing Vim mailing list (or a new one just for tips) IMHO. It might be quite a bother for admins to check a vimtips Google group (or is there a way to be notified of changes?). Using the Google wiki, it seems Veronica really would need a Google id, so she may as well get it upfront. OTOH it's going to discourage anyone who might just want to comment on a tip they are reading (typo, bug, improvement). That's why I earlier suggested that the initial contact would be via a simple email to an automated account (no idea who is going to set that up). The automated mail account would: - Drop any message where subject does not start with "vimtip". - Forward vimtip messages to a Vim mailing list. Ideally there would also be some logic to switch off if a burst of messages occurs (abuse defence). I realise that an automatic way of spamming a mailing list is dangerous ... any ideas? Advantage: If Veronica just wants to make a quick comment, she doesn't need anything special. Frankly, I think the fact that the community is forced to think about the comment is another benefit. All these ideas have ugly features, and are against the spirit of a wiki. OTOH many of us have seen predictions that spam attacks on wikis and blogs etc are going to become really problematic. There are claims that captchas will be defeated in the next few months. So, whereas there are a lot of ugly features and admin overhead in a scheme based on the Google wiki, maybe in the end the pain would be less than dealing with spam. Also, once 20 or so admins from here are established, maybe there won't really be much overhead from other people wanting to make quick comments/corrections. John
