[WikiEN-l] A future for Nupedia?

Sun Sep 12 04:54:21 UTC 2004

Fellow Wikipedians,

I agree with this proposal providing that all experienced users who over a period of time have made valuable contributions to the subject in question are eligible to approve edits after an election.

I would think that the editorial board would consist of a number of people with qualifications in the relevant area and people with an interest in the topic. For example while most if not all people in technical areas like maths and physics would have degrees if not advanced degrees, the people who write articles on areas of general interest such as sport or popular culture would be more varied. 

It should be seen as a method of ensuring that we consolidate what we have and provide assurances that Wikipedia is a generally reliable information source rather than excluding anyone from making a contribution. The individuals contributions to Wikipedia rather than just credentialism should be the key to becoming part of the editorial board.

Daniel Mayer <maveric149 at yahoo.com> wrote:
--- Jens Ropers wrote:
> We don't have to give them "that bit of comfort". They will get around 
> to reading and trusting our content anyway.

And yet they are not and are in fact warning others to stay away from it. My
best friend, whose opinion I regard very highly, is a grade school teacher. She
is very intelligent, liberal minded, and has listened to me describe Wikipedia
and how it works. It pains me greatly to concede that she will not allow any of
her students to use our content as a reference due to the fact that it is not
approved by people with relevant degrees. She went so far as insinuate that the
mere existence of Wikipedia is harmful due to the fact that children *will*
innocently use it, thinking it is an authoritative source. The librarian at her
school is similarly convinced as well as the two other librarians I've talked
to about this. 

We can only go so far with FA-like selection processes (granted that will often
be upwards of 90% - the rest largely being perception). I in fact pointed to
our FA list as an example and my best friend repeated the same objections.
Again, each subject area board should formulate their own selection criteria
and it is *they* who should decide what mix of criteria are needed to approve
articles and who can approve them. Limiting what they can do at this point is a
huge mistake. 

-- mav

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