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User:Boud/sandbox/draft RfC Reduce advocacy in Find sources Module

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Please freely edit the draft RfC below. This was initially proposed with a statement and proposed structure, but several people felt that (i) being neutral with respect to our mission was not neutral in the sense of an RfC statement and that (ii) the structure was either (a) too complex or (b) not sufficiently prepared, given the complexity of the question and the aim of achieving consensus on concrete, actionable edits.

To avoid confusion, please do your edits, with edit descriptions, directly in the three second-level header sections below. Discussion should mainly go on the talk page.

Signatures should not normally go on this page - make useful edit descriptions and discuss on the talk page. Whoever posts the initial statement and the post-statement structure in the RfC itself will give his/her signature at that time, over at Misplaced Pages:Village pump (proposals). This lead is not part of the RfC draft.

Hints for example formatting:

RfC initial statement

Should we reduce the non-mainspace advocacy for any particular search engine or meta-search engine for the purposes of diversifying the selection biases of our sources and for encouraging Wikipedians to protect their privacy?

RfC Categories

{{rfc|policy|tech}}

  • policy - not strictly policy, but fundamentally related to our mission, so people interested in policy are likely to be interested in this RfC
  • tech - because tech knowledge and editing rights are needed for the Module and the Template

RfC initial post-statement proposed structure

  • Proposed discussion structure: Please add Support or Oppose and arguments for or against the following specific proposals in the sections below, or add additional proposals, so that someone uninvolved can summarise the consensus after a reasonable period of debate.
  1. tech step 1: Add missing engines to the list of available search engines at Module:Find_sources/links, for engines that catalogue high numbers of pages, according to Comparison of web search engines, or are notable scholarly search engines:
    1. Add Qwant
    2. Add Mojeek
    3. Add Semantic Scholar
  2. tech step 2: Add some metasearch engines that respect privacy to the list of available search engines at Module:Find_sources/links
    1. Add Startpage.com
    2. Add 3-4 Searx instances such as https://opnxng.com or https://searx.be or https://priv.au
  3. policy step 1: modify Module:Find sources/templates/Find sources that defines the list of search engines at Template:Find general sources
    1. Replace Find sources: by Use a ] (]) to find sources: (which renders as: Use a search engine (comparison) to find sources:)
    2. remove the general link to Google and replace it by Startpage, Qwant and/or Mojeek and/or
    3. keep Google Books unless someone can propose a similar equivalent
    4. replace Google News by a link to the Startpage or a Searx instance like Opnxng.com News link (&categories=news

is needed in the URL) and/or

    1. replace Google Scholar by Internet Archive Scholar and/or a Searx instance like the Openxng.com Science link (&categories=science) and/or Semantic Scholar and/or
    2. (Other modifications)
  2. (Other)

tech step 1: Add missing engines

Add missing engines that catalogue high numbers of pages, according to Comparison of web search engines, or are notable scholarly search engines. The following should be added to the list of available search engines at Module:Find_sources/links (support/oppose NAME(s) or NUMBER(s) + evidence + reasons):

tech step 2: Add some metasearch engines that respect privacy

The following should be added to the list of available search engines at Module:Find_sources/links (support/oppose NAME(s) or NUMBER(s) + evidence + reasons):

policy step: Modifications to Module:Find sources/templates/Find sources

Modify Module:Find sources/templates/Find sources that defines the list of search engines that is used in Template:Find general sources in the following ways (support/oppose + evidence + reasons).

3.1: Replace 'Find sources'

Replace Find sources: by Use a ] (]) to find sources: (which renders as: Use a search engine (comparison) to find sources:)

3.2: Replace the generic Google link

Remove the general link to Google and replace it by Startpage, Qwant and/or Mojeek and/or .

3.3: Keep Google Books or propose alternative

Keep Google Books unless someone can propose a similar equivalent.

3.4: Replace Google News

Replace Google News by a link to the Startpage or Opnxng.com news link and/or . Startpage and Searx may need extra tech work since they don't display direct URLs to their news sections.

3.5: Replace Google Scholar

Replace Google Scholar by Internet Archive Scholar and/or Semantic Scholar and/or .

3.6: Other modifications

Other changes to the current content of Module:Find sources/templates/Find sources and its template form at Template:Find general sources could be proposed. However, for NYT vs AP, please go to the orthogonal RfC at Misplaced Pages:Village pump (proposals)#RfC on Module:Find sources - replace New York Times with Associated Press.

4 Other related changes

As an open-ended component of this RfC, feel free to add other (preferably concrete) proposals or 'see also' links.