User:JustinTime55/sandbox/Idiot-proofing the Wikipedia
Sometimes users make annoying edits that have to be reverted (WP:AGF: made because of their ignorance and the fact they "don't know what they don't know".) The chances of edits like this may be reduced by taking care in writing the text in question, so such incompetent users are less likely to misunderstand the intent.
(Of course, as some wag has observed, "this can't be idiot-proofed, because the idiots are so ingenious."
Examples[edit]
- The word attitude being mistaken for altitude in the context of flight or spaceflight; especially, the phrase "attitude control" being changed to "altitude control". WP:wikilinking the text may help;
- The international standard thermometer scale as originally invented by Celsius was actually reversed: the boiling point of water was defined as 0 degrees, and the scale increased as the temperature decreased to 100 degrees at the freezing (melting) point. Hidden comments were used inside the text in an attempt to warn the incompetent:
<!--This is correct. The original scale was the "wrong" way round"-->In 1742, [[Anders Celsius]] (1701–1744) proposed a scale with zero at the boiling point and 100 degrees at the freezing point of water,<!--This is correct, originally 0 at boiling point, 100 at melting point, please do not switch these--><ref>R.P. Benedict (1984) Fundamentals of Temperature, Pressure, and Flow Measurements, 3rd ed, ISBN 0-471-89383-8 page 6</ref> though the scale which now [[Celsius|bears his name]] has them the other way around.<ref>[http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/heat/1951-581.aspx Christin's thermometer] and [http://www.linnaeus.uu.se/online/life/6_32.html#bild2 Linnaeus' thermometer]</ref>
Despite this, on August 13, 2016, one incompetent IP user apparently ignored this and thought he knew better; fortunately another intelligent IP user corrected it. If the text is slightly rewritten, mentioning the scale reversal first, there should be no excuse for misunderstanding the intent: