Henning Schlottmann wrote:
John Vandenberg wrote:
On wikimedia, young people learn how to properly
reference an article,
which will help them as they progress in their education.
Originally Wikipedia was about People, who could already write academic
papers and did not need tutoring or learning those abilities on
Wikipedia for their future life.
When was that ever a requirement? It's about everybody being able to
contribute. The kind of elite qualifications that you outline are
exactly the kind of things that are the features of the ivory tower that
need challenging.
Young people have the most to gain from
participating, because the
skills that they acquire on wikimedia will stay with them, helping
them in their many years to come.
And what does Wikipedia get from those young people? We don't have the
man power to nanny them or teach them academic writing. We all are
authors, first and foremost. I'm not going to change the diapers of any
promising "young people" who would like to make their first attempts of
focused writing on Wikipedia.
"Authors, first and foremost" is fine. Whining about those who don't
meet overblown standards has nothing to do with authorship.
Ec