Re: Langmaker and FrathWiki (was Re: Wikipedia:Verifiability - Mailing lists as sources)

On Tue, Mar 4, 2008 at 1:01 PM, Jörg Rhiemeier <joerg_rhiemeier@...> wrote:
>  > I think even if there were an explicit purpose, it wouldn't help much
>  > with encouraging edits. Who's to evaluate fulfilment of said purposes?
>
>  While there may be instances where an objective evaluation may be
>  possible, in most cases it is not.  We are talking about *art* here,
>  and art is free - there is no "right" or "wrong" - and changing
>  someone else's work amounts more or less to vandalism.  What you
>  called "fear" I would rather call "respect" - respect of other
>  people's works.  You may voice your opinion on someone else's
>  conlang (and you could do that, on FrathWiki, via the discussion
>  page), you may suggest improvements to the author, but you may not
>  change it, at least not with the author's consent.
How about something like this:

Every page that is about a specific conlang or otherwise a matter
where this concern over author's creative purview is relevant, carries
a template at the top specifying what the appropriate participation
level is for that page.

The default is something like:

{{participation}} "Everyone is welcome to make edits to this page to
clear up prose and presentation. If you have any comment on the
content itself, please first see this conlang's [[/Purpose|statement
of purpose]] and then make them on the [[Talk:Articlename|talk
page]]." <!-- Author: please see [[Participation levels]] for other
options. -->

There would also be options like:

{{participation 1}} "Everyone is welcome to make edits to this page to
clear up prose and presentation. Before making any edits about the
content itself, please first see this conlang's [[/Purpose|statement
of purpose]]."

{{participation 2}} "This is a collaborative conlang; everyone is
welcome to participate. However, please first see this conlang's
[[/Purpose|statement of purpose]] and [[/Rules|rules of
participation]]."

{{participation 0}} "This is a controlled page. Please treat it as the
private space of [[User:Username]]. If you have any suggestions,
please leave them on the [[Talk:Articlename|talk page]]."

{{participation 1 naturalistic}} "Everyone is welcome to make edits to
this page to clear up prose and presentation. Before making any edits
about the content itself, please first see this conlang's
[[/Purpose|statement of purpose]], and bear in mind that this is a
[[Naturalistic artlang]]."

Etc - so one can specify both the level of interaction desired (with
something appropriate for almost everyone), the purposes or value-set
of the language, the rules if there are any special ones (a la
Kalusa), and (where applicable) the "schools" of conlanging which the
author agrees with for this language.

(The latter is essentially a way of making 'purpose' a bit templated,
so that one doesn't need to reiterate the shared statements of value
and can just say how this *particular* language differs from e.g. ye
generic naturalistic artlang. There would hopefully be several such,
giving more essay-form statements of purpose for various approaches
and styles of conlanging. None claiming to be The One True Way, just
different in ways that are still not completely unique.)


This way, there can be a reasonable default, and the author can be
encouraged to write up their purposes and thus encourage / allow
others to participate in a meaningful way, while still giving them the
ability to show what their limits are.

Respect vs fear is, of course, a continuum. Again, IMO this is very
much about communication and recognizing that people have differing
value-sets. Make clear the boundaries and the valuation from which to
work, and things flow more smoothly.

- Sai

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