On 8/31/06, Erik Moeller eloquence@gmail.com wrote:
Well, I don't think the problem is specific to TS.
It's not, in fact.. last night was the first time I've run what-links-here on the simpsons.. Prior to that my favorite target was Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
The problem is largely that once an article gets a bullet point list with random crap, everyone feels justified to add their own random crap.
Yes. But it is worse than that... we have a social aversion to removing material which isn't *clearly* wrong or forbidden. Although there are a number of loud users, most users really don't want to get into edit wars... Especially over stuff like this, even if the result is feeling ashamed of their own articles.
(Sometimes the crap also creeps into the main prose, but there it is easier to remove as such -- trivia sections are tolerated and perhaps seen by many Wikipedians as charming additions to articles.)
Yes. Some Wikipedians see them as an example of how we're more complete than other encyclopedias.
Perhaps the solution is to build a single big RCA (Random Crap Aggregator) to prevent Wikipedia articles from turning into mini-RCAs. Each page would essentially be a set of bullet point lists about a topic where anyone can add their random facts. Some of those might be Wikipedia-worthy and find their way back into the article.
But who would move content to the RCA? I'm just not convinced.. We do see some success with creating "List of Foo in fiction" articles, but if people would be happy to place their Simpsons subtrivia into RCAs then why are they adding it to academic subjects rather than [[The Simpsons]]?