[Wikipedia-l] The 100,000 articles goal

Fri Sep 13 23:25:20 UTC 2002

Axel Boldt wrote:

>Currently, the introductory sentences on the main page read
>
> Welcome to Wikipedia, a collaborative project to produce a complete
> encyclopedia from scratch. We started in January 2001 and already
> have 43165 articles. We want to make over 100,000 complete articles,
> so let's get to work!
>
>I find the 100,000 article sentence out of place:
>
>* The goal is to create a complete, high-quality and free
>  encyclopedia. Nobody knows whether that requires 80,000 or 800,000
>  articles. Nor should anybody care.
>
>* The "100,000 article goal" fosters an unhealthy obsession with
>  statistics, and I'm afraid it can lead people to create stubs, just
>  to help bring the project "closer to this goal", which is of course
>  not its goal at all.
>
>I vote for simply removing this "100,000 article" sentence.
>

I can see your point, but I don't see it as much of a concern.  Building 
bulk is fine as a short term goal.  If the projections that I made a few 
days ago are at all meaningful we should reach that 100,000 early in 
2003.  Let's leave it in until we reach that goal then not replace it 
with any new numerical goal at that time.

Eclecticology