[WikiEN-l] A future for Nupedia?

Fri Sep 10 07:20:54 UTC 2004

--- Patrick Aiden Hunt <skyler1534 at comcast.net> wrote:
> I know this may seem to some to be a silly question, but why do you need
> someone with academic credentials reviewing articles? Any normal
> encyclopedia simply uses a basic bibliography and the information in the
> article is from books that are written by experts who have academic
> credentials already recognized. If we had people simply cite sources for
> information, then it seems like we would have to worry much less about
> the reviewers' credentials.

Pragmatic; many people will not trust and in fact warn people against using our
content otherwise. Think of it as building a bridge to the old way of
publishing and to the drones who think that is the only way content can be
trusted. 

It is also another level of article verification - at least one set of eyes
from somebody who has formal training in the subject has looked at the article
and says its OK. That is more like how academic/scientific peer review works
(although panels in the related field are most often used instead). 

I for one value that type of feedback for my articles since I hardly ever write
in the area I majored in. 

The important thing is that this is in addition to our current best practices
and not a replacement for them. Just another layer. 

-- mav

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