[WikiEN-l] Britannica quote of the day

[Mathias Schindler]

David Alexander Russell wrote:
> Nothing to do with the fact that Britannica Online has about 100,000 
> articles and the English Wikipedia (Britannica's direct competitor) has 
> over a million?

Out of all figures, the raw number of "articles" (including those pages 
which are in namespace=0 and lack any attribute of an article, such as 
lists) is the worst and most ignorable number. EB.com's 100K are 
shrinking to some 20.000 "articles" when you look at what's online 
without subscription.

Out of this 20K, there are stubs, substubs and subsubstubs.

Some of the more veteran internet users might be able to remember the 
Britannica Online desaster when their business plan collided with reality.

If any, an Wikipedia that accepts fancruft and unverifiable information 
about the unreleased demo tape of a gothic band that stopped to exist 
before releasing any other medium as a single article should not start 
to see large numbers of articles as a sign of quality.

Mathias