[Wikipedia-l] Re: What is the purpose of this mailing list ??

Wed Aug 25 16:48:59 UTC 2004

--- "Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales" <jwales at wikia.com> wrote:
>...
> To further illustrate the difference, compare:
>
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.cfm?genusname=Carcharodon&speciesname=carcharias
> with
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_White_Shark
> 
> Notice that our article (quite properly) discusses the movie Jaws, and
> links to Steven Spielberg.  Fishbase does not, and again, quite
> properly.
> 
> I see a species directory as a significantly different *kind* of
> resource than a general encyclopedia.  They can be mutually
> reinforcing and supporting, as with wikitnary and wikipedia.
> But they are not the same thing.

Jimbo - *all* the info at
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.cfm?genusname=Carcharodon&speciesname=carcharias
should be in our corresponding Wikipedia article (along with the other stuff
you mention). *Why* in the world would we want to 
1) Not have that info in Wikipedia but have it it a separate project
2) Have it in both places and thus have to maintain it in both places

The "general purpose" aspect of Wikipedia in reality means that we have a great
deal of info on various different aspects of a single topic. There is zero
reason to have a specialized project when specialized info is already most
welcome in Wikipedia (usually in the form of summaries that lead to more
detailed treatments on separate articles). 

Every example I've seen about what the entries in this proposed fork will
consist of could be incorporated into one of more current (or in the case of
Wikimedia Commons) planned Wikimedia projects.

-- mav

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