I emailed Jimmy Wales about adding a "real" discussion function to Wikipedia. He suggested that I post to this mailing list to start a discussion. Below are the 4 emails we exchanged. What do you think? 1. My initial email: -------------------------------- Hi, This is Will. I am the co-founder of Nabble, a project for making discussions better. I have been following the discussions on the wikia mailing list (http://n2.nabble.com/Wikia-Search-f738587.html). I like your product design work and philosophy, for example, "avoid excessive a priori thinking", we do the same in our work. I write to you because you don't seem to care much about discussions. On Wikipedia, the "discussion" tab is ubiquitous, but you don't allow people to discuss the subject there because discussions can ONLY be about improving the main page. This rule sounds arbitrary. Why can't a I ask a question about the subject there? You have many experts and fellow users visiting the same page, wouldn't it be good if they can talk and socialize and help each other out? Communities grow there. You can have a separate discussion area dedicated to editors. But currently it's all editors. What's more, the design of the discussion function is so wiki-centric, you probably designed it on purpose in order to keep the regular guys out. You seem to be missing a community opportunity here. I hope to continue this conversation, if you are interested... Regards, Will 2. Jimmy Wales' response: -------------------------------- I think you're just mistaken. On the main page, the discussion is about the main page. On every other page, the discussion is about the subject. Or wait, maybe you aren't mistaken but just I am confused by your terminology. When we say "main page" we are always referring to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page But maybe you are making a more subtle point about the distinction between "article space" and "talk space"? So, you are asking, why can't I just ask a question about Thomas Jefferson, here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Thomas_Jefferson Is that right? Well, because that's not what we *do*. Nor is it something we want to do. We care about community, but the community is always subordinate to the goals of the community. Being a general chat board is a good thing for... general chat boards. At Wikia, we do support those. 3. My response: -------------------------------- Sorry for the delay in getting back to you. I made at least ten drafts for this reply. I hope you see my point. Yes. You got my point. Asking questions and debating and watching other people ask and debate is a crucial part of learning. Have you ever learned a subject by just reading an article? For example, you can read an article on breast cancer, but if your wife has it, then you WILL have tons of questions, few of which are addressed by that article. Similarly, you can read the article on SEO, but if you are a web start-up that needs it, then you will have questions. Learning is called "学问" in Chinese. 学 means to "study", and 问 means to "question". Wikipedia has 学 but not 问. I am not just being philosophical here. I am a practical guy and I use wikipedia a lot. Right now I do the 问 part in other places, but you could have me easily. It will be a natural addition to Wikipedia. You are saying that your goal is to create an encyclopedia and there is nothing else to it, right? You can always reject a new idea by stating an old goal. I say it's an old goal because it was already achieved a few years ago. Wiki is already history as Wikipedia has done nothing new since you started working on search engines. Maybe we can ask what is the goal of an encyclopedia? If you see it along the lines of learning (学问), then you will see my point as relevant. Otherwise, nice talking to you. I appreciate you actually get back to me. 4. Jimmy Wales' response: -------------------------------- :-) It is very interesting, and is affecting my thinking. But of course decisions like this are not up to me really. They are more up to the community... you might want to start a discussion on wikien-l.