[Wikipedia-l] Inquiry

[Fred Bauder]

I notice a couple of things: "While an old-style encyclopedia has a minimum
standard of grammar, readability and fact-checking, Wikipedia has none"

We do expect all of those and there are written Wikipedia policies about
them.

Another: "Assuming four hours per article and a three-hour work day, two
thousand hardcore Wikipedians could paraphrase Britannica's entire content
in eighty days"

I have an almost new set of Britannica, but I seldom refer to it or use
facts from it. Paraphrasing a Britannica article would be a very dull thing.
On articles I have a serious interest about I often buy read and then sell
books on the subject (but then I sell used books for a living). I don't
think very many other editors would bother to paraphrase an encyclopedia
article. If they did it ought to be listed as one of the references. Many of
my edits are derived from newspaper articles, especially the New York Times.

Fred

> From: Lawrence Nyveen <nyveen at videotron.ca>
> Reply-To: wikipedia-l at Wikimedia.org
> Date: Tue, 03 May 2005 11:55:05 -0400
> To: wikipedia-l at Wikimedia.org
> Subject: [Wikipedia-l] Inquiry
> 
> Hey, all -
> 
> Reader's Digest (Canada) plans to reprint a version of this article:
> http://legadoassociates.com/wikipedi.htm
> 
> My job is to fact-check the article before it goes into the magazine,
> and to do that, I would like to talk with some Wikipedia
> contributors.  Anyone interested in helping me fact-check the article
> should contact me through e-mail.  A lot of the article is not base
> so much on strict facts but is rather the author's opinion on
> WIkipedia's place in the encyclopedia ecosystem, yet I still have to
> check that.  I need to report to my editors whether the author has
> defensible ideas.
> 
> To do his, I wouldn't mind speaking to both avid contributors and
> those with criticisms.  Thanks in advance, all.
> 
> (Jimmy - I would like to get in touch with you about this, since
> you're mentioned by name.  I left voicemail for Terry Foote on
> Friday, but I haven't heard back.)
> 
> -- 
> 
> Laurie Nyveen                                  nyveen at videotron.ca
> __________________________________________________________________
> Editor, Netsurfer Digest -   http://www.netsurf.com/nsd/index.html
> "All we are, basically, are monkeys with car keys."
> - Grandma Woody (Northern Exposure)
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