On 7 August 2010 17:06, MuZemike muzemike@gmail.com wrote:
This brings us back to one of the original "standing orders" of Wikipedia way back in its early years (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Historical_archive/Rules_to_consider) of "Always leave something undone". Personally, I reject such principle as I believe users should contribute as much as they possibly can to an article. If others can contribute something different, great; if not, we have over 3.5 million other articles that need work or similar attention. There is more than enough work to go around for everyone.
I think such a principle misses the point that there's no such thing as a finished article. Rather, those who think an article can ever be finished are wrong. I would change it to the statement "There is always something that hasn't been done." Hence the difference between a featured article and "the perfect article."
There is always something to be done. Stopping people (including IPs) from even trying to do it, for any reason other than the editorial conflict reasons that articles are protected or semiprotected, is in denial of this.
- d.