[Wikipedia-l] Potential forking of Wikipedia

[Magnus Manske]

Let me try to summarize:
1. Articles are written by experts, or are copied from "free 
encyclopedia sources"
2. They get checked and maybe expanded by experts
3. They are stored in a "safe" place where every change, if any, is 
controlled
4. These modified articles are a "free encyclopedia source" again
5. As a result, these articles (or parts of them) can be integrated into 
the "free encyclopedia sources" from #1

So, Wikipedia could be the basis for Nupedia (which is no problem in 
itself; I could open up "Magnuspedia" today, based on Wikipedia, and 
declare it expert-edits only, and noone could stop me). But, whatever 
the experts at Nupedia will come up with, it will probably be better 
than the corresponding Wikipedia article it is based on. Wikipedia can 
only profit from such edits, as they can be used in turn.
There's one thing Wikipedia will always beat Nupedia in: Growth. At the 
moment, that is growth in the number of articles. Bu, at some point, it 
will be growth of individual articles. Many articles I originally 
submitted to Nupedia have been growing enormously on the fertile soil of 
Wikipedia. Articles can grow on Wikipedia, be proof-read in Nupedia, and 
gan then grow further on Wikipedia again.
What I'm trying to say is Wikipedia and Nupedia won't be a fork, because 
they're not really competition; they could both benefit from a symbiosis.

Magnus