On Fri, Apr 16, 2010 at 11:59 AM, Charles Matthews <charles.r.matth...@ntlworld.com> wrote: > In terms of project management (not that we do any such thing) what > conclusions to draw? We certainly have seen little cost-benefit analysis > on the FA system as a whole.
Of course individual editors do their own cost/benefit analysis for whether to participate in FA. In my experience, FA is useful for: * Improving compliance with the manual of style, and improving prose structure in general * Helping editors with less research and writing experience improve their skills, much like the feedback on graded student essays helps students write better essays in the future. Positive feedback from FA reviews can also give editors with little research and writing experience some encouragement that they are doing a good job. * Giving editors a goal to work towards, thus encouraging them to do their best work. Editors find that getting an article promoted to FA gives them a feeling of accomplishment, a line they can add to their "wikipedia vita", and in the best case some publicity for their topic if it appears on the main page. To the extent that this encourages editors to contribute to Wikipedia, it's a good thing. For editors who are not concerned with the finer points of the MOS, who have confidence in their own research and writing abilities, and are who motivated to edit WP without a need for external rewards, it isn't clear at all that the effort of going through the FA process is worthwhile. Speaking for myself, I have always thought that there isn't enough of a benefit to the FA system to participate in it, and therefore I don't, although I have nothing against other editors who find it worthwhile. I would be much more interested in a system for expert refereeing than the present FA system. To some extent, the current "peer review" process can already be used for this, but I don't expect to see a real change in this direction until the successor to Wikipedia. - Carl _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@lists.wikimedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l