Talk:Google Summer of Code/2012

I'm interested in seeing this come to fruition: SMW query management and smart updates. What can I do to help? I'm not sure I qualify as a mentor, but I'm also not sure there are any specific qualifications. I may only be assisting with doing bug testing or something like that. Should I add myself as an available "mentor"? I wouldn't mind being called a mere "helper", if that would better describe what I'm hoping I can do. Badon (talk) 07:09, 28 March 2012 (UTC)

I think you would talk with Jeroen and Markus to ask them how you can help.

I never get very far with things like that. I had an opportunity to answer questions directly from one of the candidates today, and it was productive. It might be better for me to just continue to informally answer questions that way.

Sounds reasonable. I expect that various members of the community will informally help students along during the summer -- I guess you'll be a part of that. :-)

"With FlaggedRevisions use expanding, and the multiple levels within it being suited to GA/FA article promotion in a Wikipedia-type environment" is mentioned in the suggestion with respect to Wikinews improvements. I'm not entirely certain where the idea comes from that FlaggedRevisions and GA/FA article development are a good match. During our trial on English Wikipedia, we found the opposite. FAs in particular tend to be significantly longer than the average article, and many of them are large enough that flagged revisions timed out during the review process before the proposed edit could be approved or rejected. As well, since FR review requires an additional permission, what could best be termed the "social" aspects of FR are fraught with challenges on any project where granting of the "reviewer" permission is not automatic at a predetermined point, or where it can be removed by a single administrator. Thus, we found ourselves in the situation on English Wikipedia where the creators of featured content were locked out of reviewing proposed edits to the articles they had crafted and maintained. FlaggedRevisions is a more complex tool (both technically and socially) than meets the eye, especially on large, non-homogeneous projects. Risker (talk) 02:13, 19 March 2012 (UTC)

That is fascinating, non-obvious information. Thanks for pointing it out.