The Wikifolk are talking about a new project that would cluster editors by school grade level. So, those adults who prefer 3rd graders would know just where to go, and won't be bothered by those other adults who prefer a more mature 7th grader. Moeller hasn't weighed in yet.

This subject too hot to touch, apparently.

Or just so obviously stupid it needs no comment, eh?

Another routine proposal by someone with absolutely no familiarity with how Wikipedia works. The school-Wikipedia idea died down a long time ago (I can't even remember what it's called), this won't even reach reality.

Another routine attempt to shoot down a proposal that isn't even specified in detail. This would not be Wikipedia. It would probably have real-life verification of identity and age, just as schools do. The site would be run by real kids, as kids, and real teachers, with proven real-life identities, and teachers must pass CORI tests, anyone who works with kids, in general, must. I certainly had to, twice, for two adoptions.

There is a very bright 8-year old (probably) active on Wikiversity. There are problems, he tends to reveal real-life names, but, overall, I was able to reach him and he stopped creating inappropriate mainspace pages, confining himself, almost entirely now, to user space fantasies and fiction combined with some probably real-life involvements, like soccer. And learning wikitext and writing skills and community responsibility. Before I "adopted" this user, he was engaged in cross-wiki editing which was seen as vandalism, and was being blocked and banned here and there, then blocked for socking, as he discovered, hey, all I do is register a new account from my school computer, or turn the modem at home on and off, and I can edit again. (He actually wrote, "No problem" in response to a block, revealing that this 7-year old, at the time, understood some of the situation.)

If this kid could work on real content, with support, it would be fantastic, and that content could be integrated, sometimes, with the main wikis. I bet a lot of the "vandalism" might disappear, if these kids had placed to go to "play." And to learn.

One more comment about the school idea. The site would be mostly private, but it would have public pages, approved as being of no hazard to authors if they are under age. Kids can talk with each other and work on projects together, just as they can in real schools. They can communicate off-wiki, just as kids at school can give each other phone numbers, and can visit each other at their homes or meeting in various public spaces. This requires that real-life identities be used, or at least verified and available to teachers, if nothing else.

The biggest problem I can see would be parent involvement. One way to deal with this would be to require CORI clearance for parents to be able to read the site, or there might be other technical solutions. (Parents are not now allowed to monitor their children's behavior while they are in school, generally.)

So, Abd... where did you disclose your real-life verification of identity and age on the Wikiversity project?

I haven't, because that's not the Rulez. I'm doing what any editor can do, under present rules. It's all in the open.

This kid doesn't have email enabled, and so it's all visible, as it should be. I do know where his school is, and probably his real name, and people actually suggested I call up his school, when he wasn't yet being totally cooperative. You'd be amazed what idiocy can be suggested by otherwise intelligent people. That would work *really* well, eh?

"Reach him" means to gain his apparent trust, operationally. He stopped socking (or at least slowed way down!), he keeps himself to his user space, at this point. And he's learning the software and what works and doesn't work.

Education.