Proposal:Using a comments namespace on Wikipedia

From Strategic Planning
Status (see valid statuses)

The status of this proposal is:
Request for Discussion / Sign-Ups

This proposal is associated with the bolded strategic priorities below.


  1. Achieve continued growth in readership.
  2. Focus on quality content.
  3. Increase Participation.
  4. Stabilize and improve the infrastructure
  5. Encourage Innovation


Summary

  • Start using a comments namespace on Wikipedia, similar to the one used on Wikinews.

Proposal

Enable the use of a comments namespace on Wikipedia, the tab next to the "talk" tab, possibly using the liquid threads extension and add a link at the bottom of the page to the comment page, similar to Wikinews' template.

Motivation

  1. A comments namespace creates a forum for anons and uses to discuss the article with opinions and gives another possible medium for anons/new users to point out errors in the articles.
  2. The namespace could also increase readership because many users would be excited to discuss articles with the many others readers.

Key Questions

  • Will this generate more enthusiasm for readers to continue reading Wikipedia content?
  • Will potential commentators use the namespace?
  • Will administrators be willing to moderate these comments and remove libelous content and possible legal issues?
  • Will this become more of a problem than a benefit to the project?
  • Are there readers who would like the idea of a comments namespace?
  • Is the comments namespace just a new breeding ground for trolls?

Potential Costs

  • Developers' time.
  • Server management costs (database, computation, bandwidth).
  • Increased difficulties in explaining that Wikipedia is not a forum
  • Legal problems for allegedly libelous/defaming comments and similar things; administrative work to maintain comments pages.
  • Decrease in use of talk pages for actually in-topic and useful comment on the article.
  • Decrease in useful edits as people may just comment instead of actually contributing.

References

Community Discussion

Do you have a thought about this proposal? A suggestion? Discuss this proposal by going to Proposal talk:Using a comments namespace on Wikipedia.

Want to work on this proposal?

  1. Mikemoral
  2. 71.214.167.38
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