User:Joe Beaudoin Jr./The "Debian" proposal

The "Debian" proposal is aimed at improving the quality of Wikipedia's articles as well as the perception of Wikipedia as a valid encyclopedic resource by implementing a "Debian"-type system.

Preamble

While it is a laudible goal to create an encyclopedia that "anyone can edit", this falsey assumes that everyone has the intention of making an encyclopedia the best it can be. Unfortunately, malicious people exist and one or two bad apples is all it takes to create a situation. (See John Seigenthaler Sr. Wikipedia biography controversy) Therefore, the following proposal is set to aid in avoiding such issues in the future, while keeping the core of Wikipedia's goals intact.

Proposal

When referring to "Wikipedia", the author means the English Wikipedia, not all the Wikipedia language versions in general. With that said, the previous statement does not preclude the possibility of this proposal being implemented in all Wikipedia projects.

Wikipedia should be divided up into three distinct entities. For the purposes of this proposal, the entities are called stable, testing, and unstable.

Stable

Wikipedia Stable contains articles that have been peer-reviewed, verified, cited with verifiable sources and have been copy-edited. Basically, these are articles that are featured articles.

Essentially stable is stuff that is honestly fit for print.

Only a small group of people (logistically speaking, likely in the 100s) are able to edit articles on Wikipedia Stable. All article editors would have administrator-level priviledges.

Regular viewers can also create accounts to stable. However, they would only be able to comment on talk pages.

Advantages

• Tighter editorial controls. Articles are of higher quality.
• Vandalism is severely reduced; virtually non-existant.
• Users who begin their research on stable do not need to worry about the quality (or validity) of the information contained in the articles.

Disadvantages

• Information is not as up to date, as corrections cannot be implemented immediately.

Testing

Wikipedia Testing contains articles that are in the process of being peer-reviewed, verified, cited with verifiable sources and copy-edited. After a voting process, the articles would then be sent in a queue to the stable version.

Testing, like the unstable branch of Wikipedia, would be editable by registered users. Anonymous users would not be able to edit.

Advantages

• Inherent focus on improving the quality of articles per guidelines. Less experimentation in format and structure, more polish.

Disadvantages

• None yet listed.

Unstable

Wikipedia Unstable is Wikipedia in its current form. Editable by all.

Advantages

• Keeps the spirit of wiki without stepping on anyone's philosophical toes.
• Allows people to hone their skills at wiki-editing.
• Allows all people to create, work, hack-and-slash, dismantle, decimate and build upon articles, templates, and all aspects of the wiki.

Disadvantages

• High uncertainty as to whether or not the content of articles is accurate. Issues of validity and verifiability are also present.
• Vandalism is also a persistent problem.

Arguments

Below are arguments for the overall proposal. These should be derived from discussions on the talk page.

Discussion

Please place all discussion on the talk page.