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I've recently decided to create some articles on here, and had some questions/suggestions for the system. They are basically one and the same, but have some minor differences between question and suggestion. I'll start with the question.

It's a simple enough question, really. Why are articles able to be edited and altered by anyone? Why was the system created and set up this way?
Don't get me wrong, I kinda like how the article system operates here, but I don't understand why they are open for everyone to alter, change and add into? Isn't that what the forums are more or less for?

I ask as, having created three articles myself on the site, I've been having people changing things in the article. I don't overly mind, but it's kinda getting annoying as well when you go in to change and update an article you've spent hours on (literally, some of these took me all day to write, if not a couple of days to finish), and someone goes and changes my work on me? It just doesn't make sense to me at the moment. Maybe after you explain it to me...

As for suggestions on the article system, without knowing why it is set up the way it is at the moment, I'd like to suggest an authorization system to be implemented into the article system, something to make it so that before a change is implemented, the creator of the article would have to clear it through. So, say, someone can't just walk along, be a pest, take my article I work on for hours on end, and end up deleting it all without my consent, or make it improper. The other concept with this same idea is to maybe have edited portions have a name tagged to them, almost like the quote system, so that a change written by someone else might be easy to spot. Kinda a way to distinguish different voices in the text.

I also would love for articles to have a created by tag in it. Some of us work very hard and place a lot of thought into our articles, placed up from our efforts to help other people with questions, strategies, and suggestions, or even be fluff or a story we created. Some might be our opinions on certain options or strategies available with certain models or items in a game. It's a little counter productive when someone else changes this "opinion" with their own. Isn't that what the questions and comments section of the article system there for?

Overall, I love the article system as a way to help other people with guides, strategies and general rule clarification for several games. I just don't understand what the thought process was when it was designed to be open to all people, instead of just the creator of the article. If it is another discussion center, shouldn't it be in the forum section then? I don't see articles as discussion places on Dakka, but rather as a way to spread knowledge and aid, or as like a magazine article.

Can someone please clarify the article systems purpose for me, or maybe some more ownership "rights" be placed in? As I said though, I don't mind people added into it, but I'd wish for the changes to have to be approved, or be clearly separate from what I wrote myself (being the article's creator).

 Tesunie wrote:
It's a simple enough question, really. Why are articles able to be edited and altered by anyone? Why was the system created and set up this way?
Don't get me wrong, I kinda like how the article system operates here, but I don't understand why they are open for everyone to alter, change and add into? Isn't that what the forums are more or less for?

The vast majority of articles are open to be edited by anyone. Just like on any wiki; information can be added and updated over time, more detail can be added, etc... The reason they exist is as a permanent reference body; forms are too fluid and fast moving for easy reference.

I ask as, having created three articles myself on the site, I've been having people changing things in the article. I don't overly mind, but it's kinda getting annoying as well when you go in to change and update an article you've spent hours on (literally, some of these took me all day to write, if not a couple of days to finish), and someone goes and changes my work on me? It just doesn't make sense to me at the moment. Maybe after you explain it to me...

If someone is changing things in a negative way, you can report the changes to the mods who can look into it. However, some people will edit articles to improve structure, add in links or additional information like other wiki's.

As for suggestions on the article system, without knowing why it is set up the way it is at the moment, I'd like to suggest an authorization system to be implemented into the article system, something to make it so that before a change is implemented, the creator of the article would have to clear it through. So, say, someone can't just walk along, be a pest, take my article I work on for hours on end, and end up deleting it all without my consent, or make it improper. The other concept with this same idea is to maybe have edited portions have a name tagged to them, almost like the quote system, so that a change written by someone else might be easy to spot. Kinda a way to distinguish different voices in the text.

Old versions of the article are saved and can be restored if someone trashes it. I believe you can also see changes by clicking on the article history, although changes are not highlighted you can see what has changed by looking at different versions.

Edit: I have just checked and you can compare article versions and it will throw up any different sections.

I also would love for articles to have a created by tag in it. Some of us work very hard and place a lot of thought into our articles, placed up from our efforts to help other people with questions, strategies, and suggestions, or even be fluff or a story we created. Some might be our opinions on certain options or strategies available with certain models or items in a game. It's a little counter productive when someone else changes this "opinion" with their own. Isn't that what the questions and comments section of the article system there for?

You can tag your name to sections if you really want to. There are several tactical articles which are essentially point and counter point by various users.

Overall, I love the article system as a way to help other people with guides, strategies and general rule clarification for several games. I just don't understand what the thought process was when it was designed to be open to all people, instead of just the creator of the article. If it is another discussion center, shouldn't it be in the forum section then? I don't see articles as discussion places on Dakka, but rather as a way to spread knowledge and aid, or as like a magazine article.

Again, it is a wiki so open for anyone to edit. It is not your own personal, permanent memorial to immortalise your thoughts. It is meant to change to reflect new things, to be corrected when wrong, or to add additional points of view, yet still remain more stable than a forum.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
I'm also not really sure why you have split the 6th edition Tau article into two...

I had to split the 6th Edition Tau in two because it was actually too long for a single Article... What can I say? I had a lot to go over. Doesn't help that the codex is really old, so a lot of things needed to be explained, and while I was at it, decided to just cover everything.

An no. No one has done damage to any of my articles, I just see the potential for someone to do so if they tried. And I knew I could go back and see other changes. Maybe having it so if I back view to see changes, maybe have those changes Highlighted? It'd be easier to see if I feel a change should stay if I could see the change?

So it was suppose to be more like a Wiki, okay. Makes a bit more sense... I figured there was an explanation. And I did say I didn't mind the changes, right? Just... wished to be informed a little better about changes done is all I guess.

Yes, consider it a wiki rather then a posting.

Also wow, that's a lot of info. Well done.

The article system is a wiki, which means it is incredibly easy to track and remove changes to the article. For example, if you go to any article page and click on the 'history' link, you'll see a breakdown of every edit that has ever been done on the article and if you want you can even see exactly what was changed between two particular edits.

So it should never be a worry that someone will deface your article as it is incredibly easy for a moderator to revert it back.

The 'history' page of an article is also where people can see who wrote the thing if they want, but obviously if you want the article to have more of your own voice, then you should feel free to add a 'created by' blurb in it. I do that for the articles I've written.

It would be nice to have a 'written by' be an automatic feature, but honestly that just comes from being a wiki, where initial authorship is not that important.

I'll add that we do track the number of views each article gets, with the long term intention of providing authors of articles with better feedback and more promotion for their better work. Things like tacticas are invaluable and your work is very much appreciated. As yak says, moderators watch the wiki and will revert any abuse within a week at most, so you dont have to worry about people destroying your work. We allow global editing as 95% of edits are people correcting spelling, grammar or adding useful additional notes that improve our articles.