Editing Incubator escapee wiki:Help desk/Archive 3 (section)

==Some ''major'' problems with Wikipedia==

There's too much information, too poorly organized. That's the root problem which leads to the following issues: 

*1) The server is too slow or fails on occasion, which means a) an unsaved edit can easily be lost when clicking the 'submit' button. b) the search facility is cumbersome and, I guess, not updated fast and efficiently enough, because some contributions never show up on even Google and Yahoo. Can't Wikipedia break down its contents over several servers distributed across the country or the world? Perhaps they've already tried, in which case one could at least focus on improving the search function.

*2) There is no coherent, rational structure or index for the distribution of articles, and no specified protocol which makes this structure/ index possible; because the current distribution is not rational, access routes to information are not reversible. Sure, each article has links that lead to other links but that is not adequate; to illustrate with an example, 1) User A creates article on Famous Scientist. Famous Scientist belongs to Specific Science, and is citizen of Certain Country; however, clicking on link to "Specific Science" does not lead to a COMPREHENSIVE list of famous scientists which will lead back to the Famous Scientist in question; in some cases it does not even lead to a list, or a history, or any such thing; similarly, clicking on "Certain Country" does not lead to a comprehensive list of famous scientists, or even "Contributions to Science" subdivision which will lead back to the Famous Scientist in question. User A may make an effort to rectifying said links and lists, but there are too many articles, lists, links and so on to ensure the changes have much impact. It would be much simpler to encourage a protocol among article creators and editors that would give rise to indexing, and will make these "information access routes" smoother and rational.

*3) There is no easy way to contact a single body of authority concerning issues which are not listed in Help and FAQ pages - and there are too many of the latter, in too many various subdivisions, that are not always linked to each other, which means you can easily waste too much time looking for help in the wrong places. You may have a list of administrators and bureacrats, but there is no easy way to judge a) which of them have been recently active and/or are b) likely to respond c) have enough competency or authority to deal with your problem; no easy to way to judge d) whom to turn to in case this administrator does not respond, which means e) go through the whole tortuous process of looking for help all over again, usually just to answer a simple question. It is frustrating, to put it mildly. 

- [[User:Simonides|Simonides]] 15:05, 18 Jun 2004

:Well, as for your third problem, I think you've found the right place.  That's what we're here for--we'll answer the questions we can, but even if we can't, we generally know where to go to get answers.

:As for your first complaint, I agree, it's a problem.  Apparently, the trouble isn't location, but simply the number of servers--we're going to have to buy a new one about every month to keep up.  However, this is sure to improve as more donations come in. 

:With regards to the second complaint, you might want to look into [[Wikipedia:Categorization]].  This is a new feature, so people are still adapting to it, but it sounds like just what you're looking for.  Hope this helps--you sound like an insightful contributor, and we'd hate to lose you.  Best wishes, [[User:Meelar|[[User:Meelar|Meelar]] [[User talk:Meelar|(talk)]]]] 15:11, 18 Jun 2004 (UTC)

::Thanks for the quick response, Meelar. I posted a request here and a different one yesterday on the General complaints board, neither of which were answered. 1) I would like to know whether a user IP address can be deleted/ modified on a Page History list, for privacy reasons. 2) I have created three new articles recently; while the first one showed up immediately after a search, the second two never show up on search results either on Wikipedia or on Google & Yahoo! What's wrong? 3) I can't seem to move pages either. Though I did it for my first article, everytime I try to move a page now Wikipedia tells me I am not logged in, though I am and can still make edits. Please send me an email! - [[User:Simonides|Simonides]] 15:53, 18 Jun 2004

:::As a Newbie, I'd like to back up Contributor Simonides.  It's very difficult when you have to learn a new set of jargon, new system convetions etc. and to top it all off, things don't work properly.  Now, I tend to be patient by nature and I'm stubborn enough to keep at it, but I can see where you might lose some clever contributors who might give up in frustration.

:::Issue 2 is a real problem for those of us who are academic. Thanks for the link Meelar, but this is a case in point; there seems to be a solution for Issue 2, but it's frustrated by Issue 1.  Here I am, with some free time, ready to do some Wikipedia studying.  Took me ages to even sign on to Wikipedia.  Now it's taking an age for the system to respond to each click of my mouse button, and it seems as though it's hanging.  Even if I'm willing to read through different DISCUSSION pages and sets of FAQs to get the answer to my stupid little question, I can't access the FAQs.  I still want the answer to my question, however, because I'd like to fix it ''now'', while I'm thinking about it and have time to do so, because otherwise I might forget, futher adding to Issue 2.  Which brings me to issue 3--in the absence of being able to find the answer in a FAQ list, which Administrator do I bother with my stupid little question?  My only recourse seems to be to ask it here, which I will do, below...[[User:Quill|Quill]] 00:52, 19 Jun 2004 (UTC)

:::: I dunno, I'm a newbie and I've found it pretty easy to fix up stories in Wikipedia! Check out [[Pnau]] and [[exploding whale]]. - [[User:Ta bu shi da yu|Ta bu shi da yu]]

:: In response to Simonides, take a look at [[Wikipedia:Changing attribution for an edit]] for the issue of IP addresses in page history. [[User:Jrdioko|<nowiki></nowiki>]] &nbsp;&ndash; [[User:Jrdioko|Jrdioko]] [[User talk:Jrdioko|<small>(Talk)</small>]] 01:57, 19 Jun 2004 (UTC)

:::Thanks jrdioko, Meelar sent me an email and cleared up that one issue. If you or anyone else is interested in the other issues, I have taken most of my questions there and a discussion is ongoing. Please drop in! [[User:Simonides|Simonides]] 05:14, 19 Jun 2004 (UTC)

::As a quick response to the second point (2) [erm... the one about searching, anyway] the internal site search has been disabled for as long as any of us can remember because it was putting too much strain on the servers, hence the links to Google and Yahoo! searches. However, we have no special arrangement with those search engines, so we're reliant on them crawling the site every few weeks just like they do the rest of the Internet, and there's no guarantee they'll pick up on every new article. The good news is, the latest hardware upgrade has provided the means to switch the internal search back on, so this should no longer be a problem! Hooray! - [[User:IMSoP|IMSoP]] 12:02, 24 Jun 2004 (UTC)