User talk:Ori Redler

Welcome, Ori! --Larry Sanger 02:19, 31 October 2006 (CST)

Thanks! Ori Redler 08:18, 31 October 2006 (CST)

Hi Ori, I am curious how you are making your decisions about what articles to delete. Can you articulate/propose a policy that clearly encompasses the articles that you have tagged for deletion? You might link to such a policy here.

--Larry Sanger 15:32, 12 November 2006 (CST)

Hi Larry,

I'm marking for deletion articles that are, as the Policy Outline states "of poor quality and not worth fixing."

Specifically, I mark for deletion articles that following the Article Quality guidelines are: A. Inaccurate to such a degree that it would be easier to delete and write them from scratch than edit them. B. Non Encyclopaedic: mainly lists, articles copied verbatim from a data source (with or without copyright violation), and dictionary definitions under the guise of articles. I do not mark for deletion articles that contains tables as an aid or reference, but I do mark for deletion articles where this is the entire content. C. Poor Writing: Articles where the writing is very poor. I emphasise a writing effort being made. If the author tried, however clumsily, to actually write an article, then it should be kept. If it's just a plain hopeless case of copy and paste from some source, then it should be deleted so at the very least someone else will be able to tell that something needs to be done. D. Vanity Articles: Articles with very little information, that seem to be serving some "vanity purpose" (e.g., to eliminate "red" links from a template, to fill in the "complete" list of people who did this and that, etc.

I try not to mark someone for deletion just because s/he's a nobody. It should be done, though.

I think there shouldn't be any strict rules for deletion, but with each article, before marking it for deletion, it should be asked:

1. Is the article copied verbatim or almost so? If so, it should be deleted if the source is unreliable, kept if it is reliable.
2. Does the article give a sensible answer to basic questions? For a person, for example, those should be who that person is/was, when and where that person lived, what did that person do, and why this should interest us. For an item (movie, song, album, etc.) we should have a proper description of the item that will serve the unacquainted in such a manner that similar questions will be answerable. If the editor/author/reviewer can answer the question based on the content of the article and/or by bringing in his/her knowledge of the subject matter, than it should be kept. Otherwise, deleted.
3. Does the article contain data or information? That is, does it contain raw data, or data organised by the author so it became information. Encyclopaedia is data organised so it becomes information and allow the reader to gain knowledge. Articles that contains information, at least to some extent, should be kept. Articles that only contain data, and the editor/author/reviewer cannot create useful information from that data should be deleted.

Ori Redler 16:04, 12 November 2006 (CST)

Hi, Ori! You're in the Religion workgroup, among others. What do you think we should make our priorities there? --Peter Kirby 23:05, 8 December 2006 (CST)

Hi Peter! The obvious is to go from top to bottom: attend to the critical article of the main religions (by head-count, which is the least controvertial: Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Islam. The rest are not as pressing. With each, we should attend to the central themes and figures first. With Christianity, for example, we should target Jesus, Paul, Augustinus, Luther and the key concepts of Trinity, transubstantiation, grace, etc. The main emphasis should be on balancing stuff. With the current set of articles there's too much focus on Protestant church and a weak set of articles about the basic tenents, the development of the church pre-Luther, etc.

With all, I think we should have 5 basic articles in each of the main sections:

1. Main figures
2. Main tenants and concepts
3. Main Historical developments

The hope is that there will be more of a historical approach to this than a religious one, as the historical background is very much lacking and sometimes completely absent in many articles (e.g. Mary (mother of Jesus)). Ori Redler 07:37, 9 December 2006 (CST)