[WikiEN-l] Community vs Encyclopedia

Sat Jun 3 20:59:54 UTC 2006

Steve Bennett wrote:
> On 6/3/06, Joe Anderson <computerjoe.mailinglist at googlemail.com> wrote:
>   
>>> It's probably more of a naming thing than anything else, but it does
>>> imply a point of view on whether the encyclopaedia has actually been
>>> created yet. Is the online version of Wikipedia an encyclopaedia, or
>>> is it a peek into a work in progress?
>>>
>>>       
>> The principle of the Wikipedia is that it's a work in progress, surely?
>>     
>
> A perpetual work in progress? Do we never want to deliver a "complete"
> first version?
>   

Well, IMO we should certainly keep the main working copy a perpetual 
work in progress, unless we expect that there will come a time when 
we've finished producing the perfect encyclopedia to which no 
improvements can be made.  That doesn't preclude, of course, 
occasionally forking off "release" versions that get polished up and 
sent out into the world, much like is done in the free-software world.

-Mark