On Mon, Dec 09, 2002 at 10:55:35AM -0800, Jimmy Wales wrote:
If I start an article about something controversial and I stick to a bland NPOV stub, chances are it'll get ignored or only get minor corrections and additions. If I start with a blatantly biased stub which makes outrageous claims, you can almost guarantee one or more gangs of people will become very interested in expanding the article.
I don't agree. This is a tempting idea, but I don't think the empirical evidence supports it. What actually happens is that contentious beginnings delay the proper expanasion of an article because tempers are high.
Fair enough; you certainly have vastly more experience than me, and I'm prepared to defer to that. I'd offer [[UK Firefighter strike 2002]] as the most recent example of my point (although not a particularly striking example), though.