[WikiEN-l] Re: Friday's featured article

Wed Mar 30 15:21:32 UTC 2005

Daniel Mayer said:
> --- Tony Sidaway <minorityreport at bluebottle.com> wrote:
>> April fools jokes are traditional.
>
> And what evidence do you have that respected encyclopedias have done
> this? I see no tradition there but please prove me wrong.

You're being unreasonable by demanding that a tradition cannot apply to
Wikipedia unless it also applies to "respected encyclopedias."
There are no encyclopedias like Wikipedia.  Britannica and Encarta don't
change from one day to the next.

> Given the
> controversial nature of our reliability, this stunt will likely harm us
> more than it is worth.

Nonsense. The European toilet paper holder article proposed is a
transparent hoax and quite harmless.  That Wikipedia cannot ever be more
reliable than its latest edit is intuitively understood by all readers, so
let's not foster the false impression that the situation is otherwise.