"But there would be an enormous problem if we instantly added a stub for every village on the planet"
There is no "we" -- most of wikipedia is written by people who are not regular contributors. If someone is motivated enough to write an article about their local eatery, they're motivated enough to maintain it.
On 9/18/07, quiddity blanketfort@gmail.com wrote:
Are stub articles choking the encyclopedia?
There was a mention (in some essay/guideline that I cannot currently find) about how our Notability criteria has gradually relaxed over time. I think it said something like: A topic that is not considered notable/acceptable in a 10,000-articles Wikipedia, will be more likely to be notable/acceptable in a 1,000,000-articles Wikipedia.
The closest I can find is http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wiki_is_not_paper#No_size_limits
We seem to be essentially trying to limit the size of the individual projects to whatever each volunteer-base is able to somewhat-effectively manage.
The pages on Deletionism vs Inclusionism, and Immediatism vs Eventualism are also very relevant (http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Template:Philosophy).
I'd say that Deletionism is generally [[considered harmful]], but it is (sadly) tolerated, because otherwise our average article quality would plummet. We simply don't have enough people (in any language) to coordinate the 50,000,000+ articles that some Inclusionists envisage eventually existing.
e.g. [[Wikipedia:Articles for deletion/Common outcomes]] says "Cities and villages are notable, regardless of size". But there would be an enormous problem if we instantly added a stub for every village on the planet. (or every notable song/book/film/company/etc)
We can only grow as fast as we are growing (which is either too fast, or not fast enough, depending on your POV and on how you interpret the statement).
I'm just a (persistent) dabbler though, so please allow for the oversimplifications/tangents, and correct any mistakes :)
Quiddity
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