discuss: Thread: HOWTO-related deletions on Wikipedia

I just discovered that the Wikipedia entry on the Linux Documentation 
Project recently survived an attemt to have it deleted due to perceived 
lack of notability.

Proposer for deltion was user Thumperward who on his Wikipedia page lists 
amongst his projects "De-howto Wikipedia". I am not sure what has been 
wiped already, on deletion things are hard to rescue. There are two rescue 
sites for deleted articles: Wikiunderground and Deletionpedia. There might 
be HOWTOs there that can be of value to the LDP.

My lack of postings here lately is due to massive workload but I felt this 
was sufficiently important to make a post.


Regards,
    Stein Gjoen

Stein Gjoen a écrit :
> I just discovered that the Wikipedia entry on the Linux Documentation
> Project recently survived an attemt to have it deleted due to perceived
> lack of notability.
> 
> Proposer for deltion was user Thumperward who on his Wikipedia page
> lists amongst his projects "De-howto Wikipedia". I am not sure what has
> been wiped already, on deletion things are hard to rescue. There are two
> rescue sites for deleted articles: Wikiunderground and Deletionpedia.
> There might be HOWTOs there that can be of value to the LDP.
> 
> My lack of postings here lately is due to massive workload but I felt
> this was sufficiently important to make a post.

this page

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Documentation_Project

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Linux_Documentation_Project

"the result of discussion was Keep"

almost all advices are "keep"

jdd

-- 
http://www.dodin.net
http://valerie.dodin.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-eic8MSSfM

I believe if someone actually puts a decent HOWTO on Wikipedia, it
should not be deleted, but trans-wikid  to  WikiBooks,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:What_Wikipedia_is_not#Wikipedia_is_not_a_manual.2C_guidebook.2C_or_textbook
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikibooks
Or sent to  wikiHow
--->  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiHow

Unfortunately,  Wikipedia often seems to be filled (nowadays) with
deletionist scum more concerned with getting rid of useful documents
than sending them to the right place.

Deletionpedia/Wikiunderground  may be of help; well, it can be hard to
find what is
being deleted on that basis  that is Linux related.

Until  Wikipedia provides a reasonable recycle bin with tagging of
deleted content;
I think it may be best just to concentrate on making Linux-related howtos.

The hours one could spend searching for deleted relevant things could
just as well be spent
writing a new document :-)

--
-J

On Sun, Sep 28, 2008 at 1:44 PM, Stein Gjoen ####@####.#### wrote:
> I just discovered that the Wikipedia entry on the Linux Documentation
> Project recently survived an attemt to have it deleted due to perceived lack
> of notability.
>
> Proposer for deltion was user Thumperward who on his Wikipedia page lists
> amongst his projects "De-howto Wikipedia". I am not sure what has been wiped
> already, on deletion things are hard to rescue. There are two rescue sites
> for deleted articles: Wikiunderground and Deletionpedia. There might be
> HOWTOs there that can be of value to the LDP.
>
> My lack of postings here lately is due to massive workload but I felt this
> was sufficiently important to make a post.
>
>
> Regards,
>   Stein Gjoen

On Sun, Sep 28, 2008 at 10:45:02PM +0200, jdd wrote:
> Stein Gjoen a ?crit :
> > I just discovered that the Wikipedia entry on the Linux Documentation
> > Project recently survived an attemt to have it deleted due to perceived
> > lack of notability.

This means a website that is not notable.  But LDP is an organization
and it's more than just a website.  I read the page about us and it
fails to discuss our problems and the problem with out-of-date
documentation.  Someone might want to revise it.  It doesn't help us
by claiming that we are much better than we really are and by ignoring
our problems which soon become evident by anyone browsing our website.
I could do this but I've got stuff that's higher priority within LDP
but mostly higher priority outside of LDP and Linux.
			David Lawyer

> > [snip]
> this page
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Documentation_Project
> 
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Linux_Documentation_Project
> 
> "the result of discussion was Keep"
> 
> almost all advices are "keep"
So we don't need to be concerned about it being removed but do need to
be concerned about it being revised poorly.  It should point out our
problems and our need for volunteers, etc.

James Hess a écrit :

> Or sent to  wikiHow
> --->  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WikiHow

I don't think we should have to accept such HOWTO:
http://www.wikihow.com/Persuade-People-With-Subconscious-Techniques

and the "nc" in creative common means non free
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/2.5/

even if this site don't seems to use advertisements (at a very short
sight)

anyway, we don't have to search the web for HOWTOs!!! we are not
owners of the word, even capitalized, only probably the older web site
to have used this terminology

jdd

-- 
http://www.dodin.net
http://valerie.dodin.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-eic8MSSfM

David Lawyer a écrit :

> So we don't need to be concerned about it being removed but do need to
> be concerned about it being revised poorly.  It should point out our
> problems and our need for volunteers, etc.
> 
don't know if wikipedia will accept such "advertising like" add. will try

jdd

-- 
jdd for the Linux Documentation Project
http://wiki.tldp.org
http://www.dodin.net

David Lawyer a écrit :

> So we don't need to be concerned about it being removed but do need to
> be concerned about it being revised poorly.  It should point out our
> problems and our need for volunteers, etc.
> 

I tried to improve slightly the
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linux_Documentation_Project wikipedia page.

Slightly in the hope this will be kept :-)

however I find this sentence challenging:

"The LDP also publishes Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) lists, man
pages and other documents, as well as two webzines, the Linux Gazette
and Linux Focus."

are linux gazette and linux focus still alive and LDP related???

jdd

-- 
http://www.dodin.net
http://valerie.dodin.org
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-eic8MSSfM

Quoting Jean-Daniel Dodin ####@####.####

> however I find this sentence challenging:
> 
> "The LDP also publishes Frequently Asked Question (FAQ) lists, man
> pages and other documents, as well as two webzines, the Linux Gazette
> and Linux Focus."
> 
> are linux gazette and linux focus still alive and LDP related???

_Linux Gazette_ is alive and well in its 13th year of monthly
publication, and has had LDP affiliation for, I believe, that entire
time.  I am one of the magazine's editors.

I don't know much about _Linux Focus_, but notice that the Web site is
still there, but hasn't put out new issues in several years.

Quoting Stein Gjoen ####@####.####

> I just discovered that the Wikipedia entry on the Linux Documentation 
> Project recently survived an attemt to have it deleted due to perceived 
> lack of notability.

One of Wikipedia's institutional problems is a roving crowd of users
who propose page deletions without particularly understanding what they 
are urging deletion of.  See:

http://www.pcpro.co.uk/columns/204999/idealog/page1.html

Rick Moen a écrit :
> Quoting Jean-Daniel Dodin ####@####.####

>> are linux gazette and linux focus still alive and LDP related???
> 
> _Linux Gazette_ is alive and well in its 13th year of monthly
> publication, and has had LDP affiliation for, I believe, that entire
> time.  I am one of the magazine's editors.

good :-)

so this page needs probably updating (or copying to the wiki and updating)

http://tldp.org/docs.html#lg

jdd

-- 
jdd for the Linux Documentation Project
http://wiki.tldp.org
http://www.dodin.net