This is often plausible with EB 1911, where the main issue is the flowery prose. The other
problem, though, with using old encyclopaedia text as a base is the factual accuracy of
such texts. I've found so many horrible mistakes in them, usually on classical music
articles. And CE 1913 just contains outright lies.
Ergo, these things shouldn't really be used unless you have a modern RS with which to
check all the facts. But if you have that...why not use it instead?
CM
Odi profanum vulgus et arceo.
From: charles.r.matthews(a)ntlworld.com
To: wikien-l(a)lists.wikimedia.org
Date: Thu, 9 Oct 2008 10:47:29 +0100
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] semi-new essay
"David Goodman" wrote
My view is that it would be a good idea to find all such text and
remove it, replacing it by something modern.
It is actually more wiki-like to proceed piecemeal, editing old encyclopedia text into
shape in numerous passes. There is certainly a serious process of "digestion" to
be done. My experience of the typical old article - say a biography - is that the basic
steps are
- create sections and address logical flow;
- tighten up where verbose (a common issue for old material);
- correct obvious POV;
- use more contemporary language.
This gives a good base. Then, if possible, update quite lightly - a recent book as
reference, some links to contemporary scholarship. The combined effect is usually to give
an acceptable article.
For reasons of scale - there are thousands upon thousands of missing topics for which an
acceptable article is what is required first - I'm an eventualist about replacing the
old stuff. And as usual, one should remember that creating an article that is well linked
in to the rest of WP promotes people's interest, leading to others working on the
text.
Charles
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