[WikiEN-l] Eschatology and Wikipedia

[Ray Saintonge]

On 12/22/10 2:55 AM, Tony Sidaway wrote:
> The single best way to improve usability of Wikipedia would be to
> scale back the use of jargon.
>
> if you look at early discussions in those days they were usually held
> in plain English, with very little jargon.  I've tried to keep up that
> style, but it is now quite rare.
>
> I don't see why this should be. Our policies have perfectly good
> English language names, "Neutral point of view", "What Wikipedia is
> Not", "Verifiability", and so on.  There's absolutely no need to
> replace these English phrases with gobbledygook.
>
> We have no strictures against this exclusive practice, mainly because
> it was seen as obviously undesirable in the early days.  But
> communities inevitably acquire exclusive practices as they
> develop--it's seen as one way to identify yourself to other people as
> a member of the "in" group. And so now when I discuss matters on
> Wikipedia talk pages even I, an editor since 2004, find myself
> shuddering inwardly at the impact of all the alphabet soup. If the
> damage this practice does to the openness of the community were more
> widely recognised it would be possible for us to agree to scale it
> back, but it just isn't on the map.

Jargon and alphabet soup has always been undesirable. A more plausible 
explanation for its absence in the early days is that most of it didn't 
yet exist.  Those addicted to jargon are just plain lazy, just like 
those who find it easier to delete something instead of improving it.

Ec