Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-06-20/News and notes

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The crucial task, it seems to me, in regard to both ambassadors and new university editors is that they are rapidly integrated into the wider wikipedia community, and that their editing and involvement extends beyond the compulsory engagements of their courses. Given the expansion of the program despite the dubious achievements of the first trial, I worry as to what the success rate will be. Ajbpearce (talk) 22:09, 21 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Actually I don't think it's a given that people have to be permanently integrated into the community as volunteers. If a student writes a GA or FA, that article continues to be extremely valuable whether they leave or not. Of course it's the ideal situation that these students become fully-fledged Wikipedians, but that doesn't mean just writing high quality content once and then leaving it to the community to continue to nourish is not helpful. These students have done a great job of helping grow the encyclopedia, especially considering they were totally new to it. Steven Walling at work 22:37, 21 June 2011 (UTC)[reply]

Good news about the 'Simple' language Wikipedias. Encyclopedias have existed at two levels , adult and children , for over a century and there is no reason on line encyclopedias should be any different. I've always found print children's encyclopedias a good way to engage with a new subject, even as an adult. Lumos3 (talk) 09:41, 26 July 2011 (UTC)[reply]