Proposal:A Wikipedia of "Locked" Featured Articles

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The status of this proposal is:
Request for Discussion / Sign-Ups

Strategic Priorities

Every proposal should be tied to one of the strategic priorities below.

Edit this page to help identify the priorities related to this proposal!

1. Achieve continued growth in readership
2. Focus on quality content
3. Increase Participation
4. Stabilize and improve the infrastructure
5. Encourage Innovation

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Summary

Wikipedia is too low-quality. Many articles are written everyday, and the number of low-quality articles and stubs is getting out of hand. It is too easy for a high-quality article to become a low-quality one. We need to have a more high-quality Wikipedia in order to become a better reference source.

Proposal

An idea I had one day and have thought about for some time is that once a Wikipedia article reaches Featured Article status, it would be put into a kind of "lock." Editing of this high-quality page would only be possible with the consent of several editors and/or an administrator.

Motivation

I have heard several users on Wikipedia mention a "Future Pristine Wikipedia/Wiktionary" If this ideal is to be achieved, then a reliable way must be found to keep high-quality articles as flawless as they are supposed to be. This is a lofty and noble goal. Wikipedia is my primary reference source and I hate it when people ridicule it for being susceptible to vandalism, and thus incredibly unreliable. I can find no other way to take a step towards this goal. Shouldn't every Wikipedia user have this in mind? Isn't a reliable and flawless Wikipedia what we are trying to work towards?

Key Questions

• How strong will this "lock" be?
  • How many users will it take to edit a "locked article"?
  • Should the consent of an adminastrator be required to edit a "locked article"?
  • Will this lock be strengthened in the case of new users?
• Will the "lock" be applied to all articles of Featured Article status?
• Should a less powerful lock be applied to lower quality articles (e.g. Good Articles)?
• Is this practical?
• Would it be too hard to edit?
• Will this decrease Wikipedia's popularity because of lack of freedom?
• How do we prevent locked articles getting out of date, since they won't benefit from the random edits that improve other articles?

Potential Costs

• Time
• Fancy programming
• Unusablility?
• Decreased popularity?

References

This is just an idea that I came up with. I don't believe it has been placed anywhere else.

Community Discussion

Do you have a thought about this proposal? A suggestion? Discuss this proposal by going to Proposal talk:A Wikipedia of "Locked" Featured Articles.

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