[WikiEN-l] Re: Culture glut

Fri Mar 11 08:37:17 UTC 2005

Fastfission has touched on an important point - the encyclopedicity of trivia.
I've had very similar arguments over some medical articles. Some articles 
on diseases (e.g. [[Parkinson's disease]], [[Pneumonia]]) have grown little 
lists of "famous people with pneumonia" etc.
As most know, millions of people worldwide die from pneumonia or 
Parkinson's, and just because the Pope is one of them hardly makes him 
worth mentioning in the article about the disease. Oddly, only some 
articles have grown these lists. Nixon had thrombosis, but he's not in 
[[deep venous thrombosis]]. Similarly, [[myocardial infarction]] (heart 
attack) does not have a list of famous people who died from it, because it 
is so very common.
I would like to seek consensus on what kind of morbidity is worthy of 
inclusion in articles. I would say: only if someone's morbidity has 
*significantly* altered public perception of a disorder is this person 
worth mentioning (e.g. [[Lou Gehrig]] and his eponymous disease; [[Stephen 
Hawking]] would qualify for this as well). Otherwise, only the article *on 
that person* should mention morbidity and mortality.

Jfdwolff

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