Hi all,
I really, really struggle with the idea of "notability" and
attempting to work out how much information is "tolerated" in
Wikipedia before people start nominating it for deletion with various
words ending in "-cruft".
So, a concrete example. I would be tempted to add more information on
juggling tricks into Wikipedia. There is already an excellent juggling
wiki (
http://www.jugglingdb.com/jugglewiki/), but this poses no
obstacle: our mythical African Wikipedia reader may not have access to
the net.
So, it is almost unarguable that [[cascade (juggling)]] has no place
in WP. This is the most basic juggling pattern, and a term that many
are likely to know.
Next down the notability scale, we have [[reverse cascade]], [[shower
(juggling)]] and [[fountain (juggling)]]. Basic patterns that deserve
to be documented.
Now, how about [[machine (juggling)]], [[Mills Mess]] and
[[Rubinstein's Revenge]]? These are more advanced tricks that a
non-juggler is unlikely to know. He may recognise the first two, but
probably not the third.
Continuing, [[crossed-arms cascade]], [[contortionist (juggling)]] and
[[penguin (juggling)]] would represent even less well-known moves,
that are however known to almost all jugglers.
Even more obscure, how about [[Luke's Lobotomy]], [[Time-reversed
Mills Mess]] or [[Manham's Mangle]]? These are unknown to anyone
except serious jugglers, and very unlikely to be seen in a performance
for a general audience.
And to take one final leap, how about [[Seven Ball Marden's Mayem]],
[[Turbo Wally Walk]], [[Mountain Tennis]] or even [[Hermine
(juggling)]]? I haven't heard of any of these, I found them on
jugglewiki. The last one has possibly never been attempted by anyone
other than its inventor, yet is documented thoroughly with video
footage.
So, my question is: where should the line be drawn on inclusion into
"the sum of all human knowledge", and on what basis? Also, is that
basis really documented anywhere, or does it all come down to the
caprices of the editors who one day decide that these tricks aren't
"notable", and that this jugglecruft (I swear this word will be used)
has to die?
Thanks all for any comments, advice etc.
Steve