From: NSK nsk2@wikinerds.org
There is absolutely no reason why WP should try to become an encyclopedia. In my site wikinerds.org I use the term "knowledge base" to describe my wikis, meaning that any kind of knowledge is accepted there.
Wikipedia is not a knowledge base. Wikipedia _is_ an encyclopedia.
Jimbo has said that Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia and that it must be free and that it must be an encyclopedia. I think he means it, too.
Most of us--a consensus, in fact--are committed to that idea.
Wikipedia is specifically a means to an end, and the end is the production of a free encyclopedia.
If we wanted to contribute to "a knowledge base where any kind of knowledge is accepted, we wouldn't be contributing to Wikipedia, because that's not what Wikipedia is."
-- Daniel P. B. Smith, dpbsmith@verizon.net "Elinor Goulding Smith's Great Big Messy Book" is now back in print! Sample chapter at http://world.std.com/~dpbsmith/messy.html Buy it at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403314063/