Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2011-11-28/Recent research

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Hope the Oliver (2011) research on improvements to quality due to articles being in-the-news leads to something like a visit-count spike indicator that is automagically posted to the project page(s) so that it draws project watchers to it. Shyamal (talk) 09:04, 29 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

The "In the news" research is very interesting. My anecdotal experience has been that articles on certain topics (like nobel prize winners for example) are often far far improved after they win their award, because they are brought to the attention of a large number of people who are naturally interested not only in the award but in the work behind the award and the life of the individual in question. Contrariwise, other kinds of news stories such as those on celebrities or politicians are much less likely too benefit the relevant articles very much, if at all - as in this case the subject is already well known or the interest is only around a particular event, and the news coverage may not spark much "new" sustained interest in the subject. Infact, in the worse cases such coverage may mean attracting POV pushers and editors who create BLP issues. (of course there are exceptions to this depending on the kind of coverage - deaths for example naturally get people more interested in the whole lives of an individual) -- Ajbpearce (talk) 21:48, 30 November 2011 (UTC)[reply]

I agree. When the big controversy over President Obama's birth status was being aired and during the election, there was a lot of edit wars going on that served no one. Sometimes person opinion tends to cloud the contributions of wikians, especially when it comes to politics which tends to have the most debates on their talk pages. The page has to have a balance of relevancy and interest, other groups of various wikians of different agendas can and will cause a mess.Merging people in meh Chambah. (talk) 15:23, 6 December 2011 (UTC)[reply]