[WikiEN-l] No wonder people don't realise that anyone can edit Wikipedia

Mon Dec 12 17:17:00 UTC 2005

Anthony DiPierro wrote:
>On 12/12/05, Sam Korn <smoddy at gmail.com> wrote:
>> On 12/12/05, Anthony DiPierro <wikilegal at inbox.org> wrote:
>> > But then again, I have my doubts Wikipedia should be calling itself an
>> > encyclopedia in the first place.  It's not really an encyclopedia,
>> > it's a website for a group of people who are building an encyclopedia.
>> >  I remember arguing that years ago on IRC, though, and I lost the
>> > argument.  Most Wikipedians insist that Wikipedia is an encyclopedia,
>> > even though common sense says that it is not.

>> Yet.

>I think that's implied in what I said.  We're building an
>encyclopedia.  We haven't produced one yet, at least not in English.

Suggested soundbite: "It's not a polished encyclopedia, it's the raw
materials for one."

But considering this obvious beta is a top-30 website, there's clear
demand for what we offer. Saying "no no no we produce the materials
for others to distribute" may well be as disingenuous as when Mozilla
claimed the same.

>German Wikipedia arguably *has* produced an encyclopedia.

With considerable assistance from Directmedia, the outside company
that actually publishes it.

But I think commercial republishing of our content is entirely within
not merely the GFDL, but our mission: USE OUR STUFF! THAT'S WHY IT'S
THERE!

- d.