From: Ray Saintonge <saintonge(a)telus.net>
Reply-To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2007 00:49:19 -0800
To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org>
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Could we tone down the language a bit?
Marc Riddell wrote:
From:
"K P" <kpbotany(a)gmail.com>
Yes, this is problematic, but if the "experts" use so much jargon
that the
lay reader cannot use the article, which is often the case, then it's as
good as no article, because experts probably aren't consulting Wikipedia for
information in their field. This is another area where it is hard to get
some Wikipedia editors to see the problem, that using jargon, first isn't
necessary, and that second, blue-linking jargon doesn't make it acceptable,
and that third, if you can't explain it without the jargon maybe someone
else should be writing it.
KP,
I absolutely agree with you. As I said somewhere else, the real test of an
"expert" is their ability to explain something to someone who isn't. There
are many, many fields I don't have a technical clue about, but I do have the
curiosity to want to know something about. Therefore, my questions are going
to be very basic ones, and it's a joy to come across a source that has the
ability to answer these basic question in terms I can understand.
In Wikipedia, if an Article is written by an "expert" in the field, and it
cannot be understood by someone who is not, it should be edited by another
"expert" in that field with the ability to make it understood.
I'm led to believe that we have many articles on mathematics that could
use this kind of treatment. :-)
People familiar with the jargon tend to be blind to the effect on the
learnng of others. The use of WP: shortcuts on this mailing list is an
example of this.
Ec