[Taxacom] Wiki vs EOL - simple question

[Cynthia Parr]

To answer Michael Ivie's question, EOL currently "vets the vetters
(curators)." However, content contribution is open to anyone, just like
Wikipedia/Wikispecies/Wikimedia.

We mark (with a yellow background) content for which the level of review is
uncertain or which we know is unreviewed. So, we currently mark Flickr,
Wikipedia, and direct contributions (adding text directly on the site) as
unvetted on EOL, until a curator tells us the info is trustworthy. Sources
from the scientific community, e.g. online databases, LifeDesks, etc. are
typically considered pre-vetted.

We encourage anybody contribute to any of the Wiki efforts -- we already
display Wikimedia and Wikipedia content and there's no particular reason why
we aren't including Wikispecies yet. We will prioritize it if there is great
demand for it.

EOL has discussed internally the possibility of having the content authored
by EOL curators (e.g. on Wikipedia or Flickr) automatically appear as vetted
on EOL. All of this is do-able but takes time and the requirements can be
complicated. Input is welcome.

Oh, to pick up on a related thread, we are also in the process of testing
out some "data" aggregation to complement the "information" on our pages.

You can think of EOL more as an aggregator or indexer, or even as a quality
control service; so it could be argued that we aren't directly competing
with the wiki sites.

Cyndy