Editing Encyclopedia:Historical archive/Policy/Approval mechanism (section)

==== Establishing Release Edition ====
The "Wikipedia Release Edition" would be a (hopefully large) subset of "Wikipedia Working Edition".

Users could browse the release edition or the working edition. When browsing, a header would note whether or not the latest version in the working edition was the same as the release edition.

At the bottom of every page of Wikipedia there would be two buttons: "Approve" and "Disapprove". 

Any logged in user can vote once.  Article versions would be scored based on number of votes for approval minus votes for disapproval.   The article version with the highest score (so long as it is greater than 1) would be the released article. 

A user who clicks "edit this page" would be presented with the newest version, and a note if this is not the Release Edition version. (showing differences)

Any save is automatically a vote in favor of that version and a removal of approval votes for every previous versions by that user.

Recent changes would note if a new version becomes the release version.

===== Advantages =====
* Doesn't rely on "expert model",
* Uses consensus approach, the article with the most favorable votes, and more favorable than unfavorable votes, is released;
* If votes go awry, edit wars begin, sensible users can vote to "disapprove" bringing score negative;
* Release edition can happen quickly, no approval queue waiting for votes, only one voter beside author is required (assuming the article garners no disapprovals).

===== Disadvantages =====
* An older version with lots of votes in favor may be difficult to dislodge without active observation.
* Editing may be more complicated with different versions for release and working edition.
* Votes can be manipulated by a user with multiple log-ins.