Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2006-12-11/WikiWorld

The strip is fun and the draughtmanship great – looking forward to future issues! Once Greg has amassed a number of strips, maybe something on the Main Page might link to one at random...? Best wishes, David Kernow (talk) 05:45, 12 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

That would tend to violate our policies on self-references- the same reason why they can't be linked from the articles they mention. But since the Signpost inherently includes self-references as a community newspaper, it's fine here. Ral315 (talk) 06:26, 12 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I don't think these cartoons are any different (in principle) from the "Did you know..." section. The cartoons pick some small interesting thing and invite people to read further into an article they would never have read otherwise - yet without having any pretension that they are documenting something deep and important. The biggest problem with them from a perspective of front-page use is that they are very hard indeed to edit - and it (presumably) takes Greg a good deal of effort to produce them. It's hard to have a proper review process under those circumstances. If Greg makes a mistake - or the article he based his cartoon on is found to be in error (quite likely when an obscure article gets a lot of exposure) - then we're either faced with fixing the cartoon (tricky - it's not just text) - or rejecting it (which is a HUGE waste of Greg's time). This makes these problematic for the front page where we can't tolerate errors. But I strongly believe that having something like this would be good for attracting new readers to Wikipedia and it's well worth the effort to find a way to use this valuable resource. Also - given the large number of people here on Wikipedia - I bet we have lots of other artistic types who could contribute work like this if there was a decent forum for displaying it. SteveBaker 14:47, 12 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Booyah! It's great to see that the usual row gave excellent results and that the issues raised with WikiWorld appear to have been resolved. I didn't realize that the Village Signpost had lacked this until I saw it here. --Kizor 15:19, 12 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I'll be happy to correct any errors that might somehow make their way into the comics. And, of course, if the error originates in the article I've adapted, it easily can be fixed in the article itself - where it really matters. My view of the comics is similar to SteveBaker's: They are intended to invite readers to explore articles they otherwise wouldn't have known about, in a fun and informative manner. If they are viewed in this manner - as promotional elements with a limited lifespan - then the issue of editing the comics becomes less critical. They're meant to be a "snapshot in time," the same as any future printed version of Wikipedia. Cheers! --Greg Williams 15:40, 12 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

Also, I should take this opportunity to express my thanks to Michael Snow and Ral315 for giving WikiWorld a home. --Greg Williams 15:44, 12 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]

I think the comics should be under the GFDL. See commons:Image talk:Redshirt comic.jpg#License. Superm401 - Talk 00:04, 19 December 2006 (UTC)[reply]