[Wikipedia-l] Openness is a means to an end. Nothing more

Fri Dec 2 22:46:30 UTC 2005

Daniel Mayer wrote:

>-- Delirium <delirium at hackish.org> wrote:
>  
>
>>I strongly disagree with that---that may be your goal (and perhaps 
>>Jimbo's), but a goal of a lot of people here is to create a Free (as in 
>>Freedom) encyclopedia as the primary end.  The fact that this increases 
>>its availability is quite nice, but the Freedom aspect is not merely a 
>>means to the end of increasing availability, but the end itself.  
>>    
>>
>You say that, but then you explain why that is so in terms of increasing use and availability
>(bringing us back into means-to-an end territory). Also, freedom to use Wikipedia would be
>pointless if its quality was so bad that nobody would bother. 
>
>I'm here to create something that people will find useful. If it ain't useful, then who cares if
>it is free? Wikipedia's free qualities are very, very important to be sure. But that aspect is
>only part of the picture. 
>  
>
Usefulness is another one of those subjective terms that varies with the 
user. 

Ec