[Foundation-l] Is random article truly random

David Gerard dgerard at gmail.com
Thu Oct 20 15:13:22 UTC 2011


On 20 October 2011 16:02, Andreas K. <jayen466 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Not everybody uses the Internet in the same way. Many younger users are
> fairly inured to porn and gore, having seen it all before. But a lot of the
> people who have something to offer Wikipedia in the, you know, *educational*
> field, are turned off by it, finding it crass and juvenile.


This is the first I've seen a filter advocated as the solution to the
expert problem. Which was always previously put in terms of not being
able to keep idiots out of experts' faces.

But you're late - the expert problem turns out to be dissolving in a
surprising manner, i.e. they're coming to us anyway, because they want
their fields properly represented in the biggest encyclopedia. Which
is not a reason for complacency, but it *is* a reason to think twice
about using claims of the expert problem as justification for bending
the encyclopedia all out of shape for any other reason.


- d.



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