[WikiEN-l] Re: Wikipedia's provable anti-expertise bias (was How didthis happen (comixpedia??))

[Ray Saintonge]

geni wrote:

>On 11/15/05, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>geni wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>Does "the entire world does not have broadband" mean anything to you?
>>>Ok so 32 is probably a little low for an article size limit but 40+
>>>and popular culture/trivia are second on my list of things to kill
>>>      
>>>
>>You mentioned the Arb Com as someone to deal with this sort of thing.
>>I suggest you check the case of Robert the Bruce, where systematic
>>removal of verifiable information from articles was considered the
>>most heinous of his offences.
>>
>>What on Earth do you think you're doing? Spin it out to a separate
>>article if its presence offends your sense of order so grievously.
>>    
>>
>If popular culture/Trivia are so important why does [[Hurricane
>Katrina]] (to chose a random example) not include either word?
>
>Lets consdir the situation:
>
>The problem: This article is to big and there is no obvious split
>Solution. Remove stuff while doing the minium posible damage to the article.
>
>That tends to result in the popular culture/trivia section being the
>first to go.
>  
>
I have always agreed that an article that exceeds 32k in length should 
be a candidate for revision, and that it is sometimes difficult to find 
an obvious place to split the article.  Another good way of reducing an 
article is to tighten up the language.  Many writing styles are far too 
verbose, and a friendly fire casualty of multiple editors is often the 
prose style.  This kind of work can even be done by someone with little 
or no knowledge of the subject.  Unfortunately, this kind of clean-up 
takes a lot of hard work, and I can see that hard work would not sit 
comfortably with those who prefer the convenience of snipping out entire 
paragraphs.

I would not consider myself a big fan of popular culture, but I respect 
the interest of others in it.  I certainly do not support the credo that 
it somehow impugns the dignity of Wikipedia.  People love trivia.  
Trivia is the meat and potatoes of the party conversation that begins 
with, "Did you know that ..."  The staged photo of a small group of US 
troops in Iraq with an enormous and dangerous desert crab became the 
inspiration of many conversations.  Sometimes the most memorable 
information in an otherwise completely tedious article is the trivia.

Ec