[WikiEN-l] What is the fundamental goal of the project?

Thu Jan 25 16:27:06 UTC 2007

You could try a machine translation, but if the intended audience don't
understand the article because it's badly translated you've achieved
nothing. That's why we don't do it. It is worse than nothing, because it can
confuse the reader.

Mgm

On 1/25/07, Omegatron <omegatron+wikienl at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> In Jimbo's 2005 "Wikipedia is an encyclopedia" post, he described the
> purpose of the project:
>
>    Wikipedia is first and foremost an effort to create and distribute a
>    free encyclopedia of the highest possible quality to every single
>    person on the planet in their own language.
>
> Does this still hold true?  There have been a lot of major changes in
> policy in the months since, which, we all hope, are supportive of our
> fundamental goals.  I think almost everyone who contributes to the
> project agrees completely with this mission and wants to maintain it.
> But if you think about it, the statement actually contains several
> goals:
>
> * free
> * (create an) encyclopedia
> * of the highest possible quality
> * (distribute) to every single person on the planet
> * in their own language
>
> In fact, these goals occasionally conflict.  For instance, machine
> translations are considered "worse than nothing" because of their poor
> quality, so it would seem that "of the highest possible quality" is
> more important than "in their own language".
>
> If Jimbo's statement is still valid, which objectives override the
> others?  Can they be arranged (preferably by Jimbo) in order of
> priority?
>
> Can this statement or the principles it represents ever be repealed or
> changed?  Who has the power to change it?  Is this simply a top-down
> authoritarian mandate that can't be challenged, or do regular
> Wikipedians have a say when changes are made to the ultimate goals and
> priorities of the project?
>
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