[Wikipedia-l] Marketing: a question

Wed Jul 12 17:52:45 UTC 2006

Oldak Quill wrote:

>You mention trying to get permanently featured as "not everyone knows
>that" sections on the fun pages of newspapers. Could this not fuel a
>perception of Wikipedia as somewhat frivelous? 
>
So what?  Let them have whatever perception they want.  People are 
fascinated by these snippets of information that are short enough that 
they can just repeat to their friends over the next glass of wine.  If 
you are worried about it being seen as frivolous then you are taking 
this all too seriously

>Couldn't it encourage
>more people to see our contents as a random collation of facts rather
>than a great source of information?
>
Yes, that would be an excellent outcome.

I don't see the point of getting into such complicated legalese 
contortions over what amounts to very short extracts from Wikipedia.  
Saying simply "Source pms.wikipedia.org" (or whatever language version) 
should be enough for anything that does not exceed two paragraphs in 
length.  A simple policy statement that any such usage will be viewed as 
fair use should be adequate to the circumstances.  Trying to dissect the 
minutiae of GFDL to deal with this can only benefit stupid lawyers.

Ec