Wikiflow

First draft.

Wikiflow is a proposed wiki-workflow mechanism for MediaWiki 2.0. It will allow information to flow through different states ("published", "stable", "edit copy/live copy", "deleted") once certain conditions are met:

• the wiki community has reached consensus in one or multiple categories to proceed
• a time limit has elapsed
• a certain number of people have had an opportunity to review the article and discussion

Possible applications:

1. peer review of articles in various categories (accuracy, completeness, copyright status, style, etc.)
2. virtually eliminate current permanent protection of pages and replace with time-delayed edit mechanism, where edits pass through by default, but can be blocked if there is no consensus
3. review of Wikinews articles prior to publication
4. replacement for w:Wikipedia:Votes for deletion and similar pages
5. putting users on "probation" for review of their edits before publication

Wikiflow requires a mechanism by which consensus in a category like "Factual accuracy" can be measured. This must be resistant to abuse and edit wars. Such a mechanism could be directly linked to the LiquidThreads discussion system: When an editor posts a comment in a Wikiflow category discussion, they can register their opinion formally: object, support, neutral. They can easily change that registered opinion later.

Together with the other conditions (time limit, participating people etc.) we can then calculate a "category state": red, yellow, or green. If all categories are in a green state, the article changes its state.

Two mechanisms could be built in to prevent abuse:

• registered opinions expire (assuming the article itself has had major edits) if the user does not refresh them within regular intervals, either by doing so manually or by participating in the discussion
• sysops can override any decision, but only in accordance with community policy.