[WikiEN-l] The deletion paradox

[Peter Mackay]

> From: wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org 
> [mailto:wikien-l-bounces at Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of Steve Bennett
 
> [originally sent yesterday but didn't seem to get through the 
> moderator, perhaps due to my mail server?]
> 
> Hi all,
>   This is the deletion paradox as I see it:
> 
> 1) Wikipedia has nearly a million articles. A very large 
> number of them are crap. The more articles we delete, the better.
> 2) Deleting articles causes unhappiness and tension. The more 
> articles we delete, the more unhappiness and tension.
> 
> Anyone have a solution?

Maybe there *isn't* a solution. There are many paradoxes and inconsistencies
in human life. People get hot under the collar about illegal drugs when
legal drugs are a far greater health hazard, for instance. Jails don't
reduce crime, judging by the growing number of inmates.

Some things are apparently incapable of a neat solution.

The way I see it is that in an encyclopaedia that anyone can edit, one where
WP:AGF applies, editors will happily create articles that document their own
peculiar interests and fetishes, because these things are useful and
interesting to them and people like them. Other editors will see these
articles as crap.

A lot of these minority interest things ARE crap. But how does the average
Wikipedian discern the difference when they know very little about the
subject?

To my mind, deleting articles isn't the real problem. Editors, especially
admins, who assume bad faith and abuse others are the problem.

Peter (Skyring)