[WikiEN-l] What makes a good article?

[Phil Sandifer]

On Feb 26, 2007, at 7:06 PM, T P wrote:

>
> Comprehensiveness sounds good, but there is a lot of room for  
> disagreement
> about what "should" be included.  Articles also need to be focused and
> balanced, because on the Web they can't be very long.  We have  
> links so
> excessive detail and tangents can be linked to.  And too many  
> articles have
> long sections on one aspect while giving short shrift to other  
> aspects.
>

I tend to think that, of the many things to worry about in an  
article, length is a secondary concern.
> I'm not sure this is the same issue, but I had an argument with  
> someone who
> wanted to include some loosely related material because it "related  
> [the
> subject] to people's lives".  Frankly I don't think we need to  
> "sell" a
> topic to the audience.  People look up articles in an encyclopedia  
> because
> they are already interested in the subject, it's not like a  
> magazine where
> you come across the topic randomly.

Most of what I've seen suggests that we have a pretty high number of  
people who browse around and learn new things. We should endeavor to  
teach things that are interesting.

-Phil