[WikiEN-l] Re: Historian: origin of apparent "policy" re recipes and how-tos?

Thu May 13 00:38:22 UTC 2004

I would like to note that we discussed this matter in February, and 
although perhaps no consensus was formed on policy, I continue to stand 
by my statements on the topic, particularly that how-tos, recipes, and 
similar didactic texts are inherently POV and don't belong on Wikipedia 
proper.

<http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2004-February/010873.html>
<http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2004-February/010883.html>

Note, however, that information about this kind of content is decidedly 
NPOV.

For examples of articles about culturally-important dishes that are not 
ridiculous strawmen, see:

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guacamole>
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paella>

There was a small edit war/debate about what ingredients are permitted 
in Paella (see <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Talk:Paella>). One can only 
imagine what kind of chaos that debate would have engendered if there 
had been a recipe. And who knows if the resulting recipe would have even 
been edible! :-)

In any case, the point is that there is no such thing as a neutral 
recipe, only a neutral "meta-recipe".

- David

Daniel P.B.Smith wrote:
> NOT a rhetorical question.
> 
> I've been very puzzled by an apparent consensus or policy--one with 
> which I obviously do not agree--that recipes in particular, and didactic 
> or "how-to" articles in general, do not belong in Wikipedia. I can give 
> cogent-to-me reasons for not agreeing with this. But I don't want to 
> discuss that now.
> 
> Here's what I want to know. Is this an example of a difficult, 
> carefully-threshed-out consensus that newer Wikipedians, having not 
> participated in that consensus, may be unaware of?
> 
> (And if so why isn't it documented on any of the policy pages I've been 
> able to find?)
> 
> 
> -- 
> Daniel P. B. Smith, dpbsmith at verizon.net 
> alternate: dpbsmith at alum.mit.edu
> "Elinor Goulding Smith's Great Big Messy Book" is now back in print!
> Sample chapter at http://world.std.com/~dpbsmith/messy.html
> Buy it at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403314063/
> 
> 
> 
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