[Wikipedia-l] Edit conlfict screen (was: A concept from Buckminster Fuller)

Fri Nov 22 23:28:42 UTC 2002

On Friday 22 November 2002 18:09, Poor, Edmund W wrote:
> Brion,
>
> I've been confused by the "edit conflict" screen so many times that I
> seriously think the page should be redesigned. Other contributors also have
> frequently commented on talk pages that they lost what they just typed, due
> to edit conflicts.
>
> I'd like to have the columnwise, side by side "revision of" display show up
> at the top of the page, where I can't possible miss it!!
>
> Below that, I'm not sure what needs to come next, but:
> * we need to make it VERY EASY for users to recover from the edit conflict
> * users should NEVER feel they have to lose what they just typed
>
> I'm not looking for a quick fix on this, but I bet dozens of users have the
> same issue kq and I have.

It is particularly annoying when I add some mispeelings, making scattered 
edits to the page, and someone else does the same thing.

How about this solution to the problem:
Given a text A, Jeeg edits it to B and Talen edits it to C. Apply Talen's 
edits to B, getting D1, and Jeeg's edits to C, getting D2. If D1=D2, set D to 
D1 and display it. If D1<>D2, set D to some string that includes both, with 
markup to indicate where conflicts occur.

phma