[WikiEN-l] Why Academics are Useful to Wikipedia

Mon Sep 13 15:09:39 UTC 2004

Mav wrote

> Yes - we are getting slammed in the media (and by school teachers and
> librarians) for being an untrustable source *and* we want a way to approve
> content for publication.

Well, of course, on the first point, no one responsible is going to give out
advice to _trust_ WP if they know anything about the Internet, wiki, how
voluntary projects run.  Any more than 'believe something if you read it in
a newspaper' holds water.

The second point carries more weight with me.  It's odd that people would
pay money for _less_ information than they could have for free, online.  It
becomes less odd if egregious blunders have been cut away.  Yes, let's think
about filters.  I don't doubt that there are experts who would gladly take
money for reading WP articles.  Turning a profit on the resulting
publication would be another matter.

Charles