[WikiEN-l] Lists of words

[Oldak Quill]

On 30/07/06, Guettarda <guettarda at gmail.com> wrote:
> It would appear that lists of words violate the provision that Wikipedia
> should not have articles which define individual words, nor should it
> include Lists of such definitions. However, we have
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lists_of_words ,
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lists_of_slang and
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Lists_of_phrases , among others.
> Policy is descriptive, not prescriptive. Is this policy still being applied
> (in which case, *all* of these articles must be deleted), or not (in which
> case the wording of the policy needs to be changed). I have raised the issue
> at
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia_talk:What_Wikipedia_is_not#Lists_of_Words
>
> I don't know if all of these articles need to be deleted, or whether policy
> needs to be modified to reflect reality.  But I think this needs to be
> determined in general, not determined piecemeal

We have many articles which define individual words (cheese,
lawnmower, carpenter, etc.), but I take the problem is to do with
articles about the words themselves. One that comes to mind is the
article [[fuck]], quite a good read.

Many articles which aren't specifically about the word have sections
concerning etymology and semantics.

I don't think this is a problem for Wikipedia. I don't think being
"encyclopaedic" is to do with what articles are about, it is to do
with how they are written and how the information is presented.
-- 
Oldak Quill (oldakquill at gmail.com)