Peter Ansell wrote:
On 30/08/2007, Stan Shebs
<stanshebs(a)earthlink.net> wrote:
Adrian wrote:
[...] We're getting swamped with fan-writing
on all
sorts of topics, much of it related to popular culture. I believe we
need to reign this in before even more intellectual editors decide leave
this kindergarten. Why is fan enthusiam encouraged over professional
enthusiasm? It may give Wikipedia greater popularity in the short run,
but it's ruining it in the long run. Or is it just me?
There are 99 fans for every professional (note the two sets are not
disjoint), so it shouldn't be too surprising that the disproportion is
reflected in WP. If we continue with our practice of quietly pruning
down (usually unsourced) "fan" content, while leaving the (usually
sourced) "intellectual" content, over time the intellectual content will
be greater and greater.
And 99 of every 100 professionals/academics get annoyed at the fact
that anyone (not just fans) can argue endlessly about minor points of
intellectual topics, and hence they leave without committing a serious
amount of knowledge to the encyclopedia.
In that case, Citizendium will be a stunning success, WP will fade away,
and CZers will someday debate over whether WP was ever notable enough to
warrant an article in CZ. :-)
But in reality, I know many of those 99 professionals, and most are not
very good at large collaborative projects anyway; too used to having
their pronouncements accepted uncritically, only want to interact with
the "right" people (defined as "good for career"), and so on. I used
to
be more solicitous of professionals getting involved, but they are often
far more trouble than they're worth; I just want a college student that
sticks to faithfully reporting what the sources say, doesn't try to
inject personal opinions dressed up to sound authoritative.
Stan