From: Stan Shebs <stanshebs(a)earthlink.net>
Reply-To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)Wikipedia.org>
Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2006 11:18:36 -0800
To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l(a)Wikipedia.org>
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] The boundaries of OR (contd)
Marc Riddell wrote:
Quite seriously, though, I believe one of the
persistent flaws in Wikipedia
that is preventing it from having a wider, more professional acceptance is
its policy 'anyone can edit'.
Have you thought through what you would change it to, and what would be
the consequences? If only a chosen list of experts can edit article X,
what do you do about spelling errors (many experts being atrocious
spellers), and bad links to articles outside the experts' area? Do
spelling fixes have to wait for the experts to approve them? How long
would one have to wait, if the experts were all "too busy"? Would you
let experts edit articles outside of their areas, even in areas where
they might know less than a college student? What is an "expert", and an
"area", anyway? There have been no lack of proposals since WP's
creation, but so far no scheme has convinced very many people that it
would be an improvement.
I did not mean to suggest that only 'experts' should be able to edit in WP.
My suggestion is that those who are able to edit provide some clue as to
their background and areas of interest that could lead a reasonable (yes. I
used the word) person to accept what they have edited as credible.
Marc
I get a great
deal of satisfaction from contributing to Wikipedia. It is
what's right that makes us good; but it is what's still wrong that keeps us
from being great.
I believe one of the secret strengths of WP is that it doesn't actually
need every expert to participate. Empirically, many experts that have
worked here awhile tend to take on "editor-in-chief" roles in their
respective areas, not necessarily writing every word, but organizing,
setting standards, and cleaning up after the amateur hordes; 99% of the
amateur editors are happy and even eager to get expert guidance, and as
they learn, they contribute with more expertise themselves.
Since WP is now the largest single body of knowledge ever created,
perhaps this is as good it gets for a project of this magnitude -
nothing comparable to serve as a yardstick.
Stan
Again, the word 'expert' is your - not mine.
Marc
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