On Feb 26, 2007, at 7:06 PM, T P wrote:
Comprehensiveness sounds good, but there is a lot of room for
disagreement
about what "should" be included. Articles also need to be focused and
balanced, because on the Web they can't be very long. We have
links so
excessive detail and tangents can be linked to. And too many
articles have
long sections on one aspect while giving short shrift to other
aspects.
I tend to think that, of the many things to worry about in an
article, length is a secondary concern.
I'm not sure this is the same issue, but I had an
argument with
someone who
wanted to include some loosely related material because it "related
[the
subject] to people's lives". Frankly I don't think we need to
"sell" a
topic to the audience. People look up articles in an encyclopedia
because
they are already interested in the subject, it's not like a
magazine where
you come across the topic randomly.
Most of what I've seen suggests that we have a pretty high number of
people who browse around and learn new things. We should endeavor to
teach things that are interesting.
-Phil