[WikiEN-l] The harmful "Main article fixation" phenomenon

Sun May 29 19:29:07 UTC 2005

[[user:Dbachmann]] introduced the term "Main article fixation" at
[[talk:Germany]] for a phenomenon that, he and I think, is an impediment
for the improvement of Wikipedia. He noticed that editors are fixated on
arguing over every word on the main article [[Germany]] though the
article is of reasonable quality.

Editors seem to forget that [[Germany]]'s ancillary articles like
[[Geography of Germany]] are in a sorry state and in dire need of
competent editors.

I have the impression that this is a general phenomenon at Wikipedia,
not confined to [[Germany]]. The reason seems to be that editors think
that if their POV or positive fact is mentioned in a main article then
people will read it. I think editors forget that people who are
interested in a certain subject will also click on the more detailed
article that offers more facts and divers POVs

I hope that editors who read this will help to distract attention of
other editors from the main articles to the ancillary articles to enable
the overall better quality of Wikipedia.

Thanks. Andries K.D. 