[WikiEN-l] The boundaries of OR (contd)

Wed Dec 27 19:19:01 UTC 2006

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Marc Riddell stated for the record:
> Quite seriously, though, I believe one of the persistent flaws in Wikipedia
> that is preventing it from having a wider, more professional acceptance is
> its policy 'anyone can edit'.
> 
> I get a great deal of satisfaction from contributing to Wikipedia. It is
> what's right that makes us good; but it is what's still wrong that keeps us
> from being great.
> 
> Regards,
> 
> Marc 

A free encyclopedia that only credentialled experts could edit was
tried: [[Nupedia]].  "Before it ceased operating, Nupedia produced 24
articles that completed its review process (three articles also existed
in two versions of different lengths), and 74 more articles were in
progress."

[[Wikipedia]], in contrast, is a free encyclopedia that anyone can edit.
 "Wikipedia has more than six million articles in many languages,
including more than 1.5 million articles in the English-language version
and more than half a million in the German-language version."

I find the contrast between those results hard to reconcile with the
idea that something is keeping us from being great.

I recommend judging the articles you read by the sources the cite.
Judging them by who their (often dozens of) editors were seems to me to
be a mistake.  The policy [[WP:OR]] explains this point in more detail.

- --
 Sean Barrett     | Portions of this message were
 sean at epoptic.com | composed using a computer.
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