Thread:Talk:Article feedback/Justin Bieber article not complete?/reply (13)

This is the direction I have wanted this feature to go since its inception. However, the underlying technology required to make this feasible remains to be built. As such, we have not included it in the roadmap.

There may be intermediate steps that can be taken, but there hasn't been a great deal of hard thinking about it. A primary concern is one of spammy-ness: if anyone can leave a suggestion at any time, we'll start getting crap data almost instantly.

One way to gate this information flood is to ask for suggestions after the user has rated the article, and within a set context.

For example, if a reader rates an article's completeness low - say, a value of 2 - then we can ask them: "We see you have given this article a poor rating for completeness. What do you think could be done to make the article more complete?" and then give them a list of suggestions - checkboxes, say:


 * The article needs more photographs
 * The article needs more references
 * The article needs to be brought up to date with current events
 * etc.

And they could then enter a text comment after, if need be. This data would then be tallied and thrown into a "to do" list for the article, that could be actionable by editors.

The overall assumption that follows "if people want to make suggestions, they should use the talk page" is an untenable one. Readers simply will not do this because the editing interface in general and talk pages in specific is frankly terrible verging on the unholy.

One of the largest problems facing the continued existence of Wikipedia (and its sister projects) is the simply terrifying learning curve that new users are required to climb for even the most minor of interactions. Reducing this complexity even a little bit will help to offset the harshness when and if the user ultimately decides to engage in a more meaningful way.