[Wikipedia-l] Re: Do we really need a Sifter project?

[Erik Zachte]

In my opinion, university degrees are no guarantee for quality. I've
seen so many uninspiring mediocre academics (not all of them are like
that of course) that it makes me question todays education system. So
let's play safe and limit editorship to Nobel laureates.  

Another point: let us say several tens of thousands of articles qualify
for  "Wikipedia Professional". The screening will be a huge undertaking,
but it can be done. But after that, how often will people be willing to
go through the whole certification process again and again in order to
approve possibly small additions and corrections? Probably not too
often. This will lower the movation of wikipedians to contribute to the
"Wikipedia for Dummies". Their efforts will be unseen and not
appreciated by the general public once the Pro Edition is a fact. 

I am not against freezing articles to deal with random troll droppings.
I am vehemently against an elitist approach. It blows the whole concept.
How many wikipedians have university degrees right now? Probably quite a
few. How many of those concentrate on their field of expertise? My guess
is: a lot less. Wikipedia is a hobby, even experts want to take a break
from their daily work every now and then, and Wikipedia provides this.
So many of these experts will be in fact amateurs when working on
Wikipedia. This is guesswork of course. My point: if amateurs have
accomplished so much already, it would be a disgrace to make them second
rank members.

Erik Zachte