Wikiversity talk:WMF outreach

Opposition to interwiki links
See w:http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia_talk:Wikimedia_sister_projects&oldid=334206531. A WP admin is concerned, my summary, that linked pages may not satisfy External Link guidelines in some way. However, that could be true of any Wikipedia page. Wikipedia pages are exempt from EL guidelines because if there is a problem there, editors can fix it. The same is true for any sister wiki page. The admin thinks that links to pages on other WMF wikis may be pointing to information that is "inaccurate and unreliable." Again, that's true for any intra-Wikipedia link. It might be. And we depend on editors to fix it, rather than to remove an appropriate link!

Wikiversity has a method of handling conflict that is very different from Wikipedia, we tend to fork pages if there are conflicts over content, i.e., what's neutral. We do have the same overarching policies as all other WMF sites, neutrality being one of them. But we do this by forking or presenting alternate points of view, and we can use subpages. Pages here can be written from some particular POV, there is a template for that. Interwiki links should generally not be to such pages, which probably should not be at the top level in a resource hierarchy. The interwiki link should be to a neutral page. And if it isn't neutral, that should be fixed, the same as with any Wikipedia article.

The admin points to a Wikibook that is alleged to be biased or inaccurate. That's a Wikibooks problem, and it may not be uncommon. However, this could be handled by a disclaimer with the link on Wikipedia. I'd think that Wikibooks would want to address the difficulty as well, but I'll leave that to them.

I remember my early days on Wikipedia, when I researched the topic of low-carb dieting because of personal interest (and necessity!) I found a link in the WP article to a discussion site, where I found that many experts and ordinary people were discussing these diets in depth. It was invaluable. Then some other web site owner started adding his own site to the external links. The ultimate result was that an administrator removed all of these sites, because they contained "advertising." It was a loss for the readers. Based on a non-existent guideline.

To some, the encyclopedia is an abstract goal, the goal is text. To others, the goal is sharing human knowledge, which involves people and how people will use the site(s). Knowledge is acquired only partly through reading, discussion (and practice and the sharing of practice) can be far deeper and more powerful. --Abd 14:37, 17 August 2011 (UTC)