MEpedia talk:Cleanup

Using the cleanup tag -- Canele (talk) 20:29, June 25, 2019 (EDT)
(Copying over from User talk:JenB to allow for extended discussion!)

Hey, theoretically on a wikibreak but saw there was concern about tagging pages for cleanup. As that does exist, I've tried to make instructions for it a little easier to find by creating MEpedia:Cleanup (which previously redirected to the list of entries already tagged). So far it's just a preliminary explanation (would be better to have all the how-to in one place instead of pointing to the Template page). But User:JaimeS I saw you had concerns about the cleanup tag--since we do have it (and a lot of pages are already tagged with it), I'm wondering if you have thoughts on particular ways we could improve the parameters for applying it that would make it more constructive? We could add them in to the above page of instructions and then also to the great MEpedia:Tutorial that User:Pyrrhus wrote. Two questions that came to mind for me:
 * Should the instructions page to include the project email address in case applying the tag is more than a concerned reader can manage? (On the one hand, that might generate really a lot of email; on the other hand, if you've never edited a wiki, you do have to learn quite a lot just to add the tag. Also some may be intimidated even if they are able: not everyone really has the sensibility that a wiki truly is theirs to edit just as much as anyone else!)
 * Should we clarify about whether the tag is meant to communicate with editors or readers or both? I know that Wikipedia is very insistent that cleanup tags are not meant to communicate problems to readers, because the entire site is supposed to be read with a "buyer beware" approach, and they don't want the absence of a cleanup tag to have any implication the page is more valid that others. So there's emphasis on using tags only to help other editors find things to work on. I don't know if that's the approach we want, but a consideration. Canele (talk) 16:01, June 25, 2019 (EDT)


 * That’s fascinating that Wikipedia views “Cleanup” template tags and “Stub” template tags as communications to other editors rather than as disclaimers to readers! I guess that’s why they have a preference for placing those two tags at the bottom of pages instead of at the top of pages?  My impression is that MEpedia uses those two tags mainly as disclaimers to readers, but I doubt there is any official policy to that effect.  Maybe it’s because we’re a young wiki, or maybe our ultra-picky readers require more disclaimers?  Or maybe we use those tags strategically to gently encourage readers into becoming editors?  I’m not sure Jen’s talk page is the best place for this discussion, but this is an important discussion to have.  Thanks, User:Canele!
 * Pyrrhus (talk) 17:08, June 25, 2019 (EDT)