[Wikipedia-l] How would you deal with this problem?

[tarquin]

Ray Saintonge wrote:

> Larry Sanger wrote:
>
>> Suppose I were to have written an article on something I know a little
>> about, but which I am very far from being an expert--digital cameras, 
>> say.
>> Then someone who were more of an expert were to came along and said,
>> "Look, this article is totally garbage.  You didn't get half of the 
>> stuff
>> right," and then replaced it with something that was better-informed, 
>> I'd
>> like to think that I would totally understand.  Moreover, if the person
>> took the time to go through, line by line, what was wrong with my 
>> article,
>> I would probably be abjectly apologetic.
>>
> This is an interesting example.  In the main it expresses a logical 
> approach to a situation, but it gets off the track in two respects.  
> The phrase "totally garbage" is unnecesary to the expert's critical 
> comments even if he finds little of value in your contributions; there 
> are many people whose sensitivities are such that they would see none 
> of the posting after that phrase.  The second problem would lie in 
> your feeling that you need to be "abjectly apologetic".  When you 
> wrote about digital cameras in the first place, you, in good faith, 
> produced the best article that you could under the circumstances; 
> there's no cause for apology in that. 

Larry does have a point.
As a classically-trained musician, I know a lot about music theory. But 
Camembert knows more than me. In the past week I've made a couple of 
suggestions which s/he has disagreed with, and I've (graciously, I hope) 
given way.
Rational, intelligent wikipedians ought to be expected to recognize when 
someone has more expertise in a given field than they do.

The problem with the "reality" article is somewhat the same as I found 
on something like "key signature" a long time ago.
It's quite a complex subject, everyone thinks they understand it, and 
most are mistaken. (in the case of "key sig", because they were shoved 
in front of the piano at the tender age of 6 and barked at by wizened 
spinster piano teachers... but I digress)