[WikiEN-l] Article deletion

Tue Sep 13 16:11:21 UTC 2005

>From: fun at thingy.apana.org.au (David Gerard)
>
>JAY JG (jayjg at hotmail.com) [050913 07:38]:
> >From: fun at thingy.apana.org.au (David Gerard)
>
> > >I reiterate my suggestion: suspend the deletion mechanism (keep CSD for 
>our
> > >remaining sanity) for a month working out a deletion mechanism that 
>won't
> > >drive people away
>
> > Have people been driven away?
>
>I refer you again to the two examples that have been brought up repeatedly:
>Memory Alpha and Comixpedia. We're not getting those volunteers back, and
>in the former case we can't ever heal the fork because they chose a
>different licence. Those forks were a stupid and bad idea. And if you
>disagree on that, please explain what good they do Wikipedia, both in
>themselves as forks and as bad examples frustrated contributors may follow
>in the future.

As Angela has pointed out, Memory Alpha was not a fork.  But even if it 
were, I think we have to accept that Wikipedia will not be the only 
encyclopedia on the internet, and also that this is not necessarily a bad 
thing.  Wikipedia is a general purpose encyclopedia, and the level of detail 
is appropriate for the general reader.  There will always be special purpose 
areas of knowledge for restricted audiences which will delve into areas in 
considerably more depth.  That's the way it is with printed encyclopedias as 
well.

In addition, special purpose encyclopedias will almost certainly have 
editing policies which differ from Wikipedia's, particularly around issues 
such as NPOV and Original Research.  I can easily imagine, for example, 
various religious groups setting up Wikis for areas of specialized 
knowledge, which would both have far more detail than Wikipedia, but also 
their own rules for content, and I don't think this is a bad thing.

Finally, competition is good; it makes us produce a better product than if 
we were a monopoly. I don't think we should strive to be the *only* 
encyclopedia on the internet, but instead strive to be the *best* one out 
there.

Jay.