Wikipedia should be SECRETLY satisfied ( was Re: [WikiEN-l] Proposal for a new policy

Don't sweat it so much. Sure wikipedia has the "goal" of being an encyclopedia, but achieving that goal would be a disappointment, it would become just another encyclopedia, something the world doesn't need. The real goal of wikipedia should be to become what wiki techniques and philosophy can achieve when it "tries" to become an encyclopedia. But it shouldn't try so hard that it abandons the wiki approach that makes it unique. If wikipedia does not achieve true encyclopedia status and standards will it have a purpose? I think it will at least have a niche and will provide information, not just about the subject of the articles, but about the people and the international cultural mileau that created it. Many articles may never reach a static state, but perhaps there is also information in a dynamic equilibrium, a perpetual edit war between two or more viewpoints. A lot of the unique information may also be in the histories or on the talk page. There will be information about the strengths and weaknesses of the different viewpoints when viewed through each others filters and the filter of the artificial unachievable wikipedia standards. I know if I were back in school, I would check wikipedia to supplement more traditional sources, and find it a more fertile source of ideas for papers and discussion, and perhaps crystalizing my own thinking. A lot of the information on wikipedia may not be about the subjects of the articles but about the people and peoples that created them. Yes, wikipedia may have to deal with vandals or the occasional rigid mind that refuses to acknowledge other positions, or the occasional dunce that can't recognize subteties, even when they are on his "side", but perhaps the best approach rather than compromising wiki principles would be patient, persistent dedication to the process rather than sweating the product or the failure to reach the ever distant "goal". Perhaps, like existentialists who are not "true" believers, we should continue to "act" like believers, but can be aware that we don't truly believe in the goals. The process, they dynamic equilibrium and the edit wars, and the attempts to resolve them, are all the REAL goal, while we are following yonder star and tilting at windmills. -- Silverback -------------- Original message --------------