"Stephen Bain" stephen.bain@gmail.com wrote in message news:f30e42de0510150615x4cf575d0ld1a888b4e65ecb59@mail.gmail.com... On 10/15/05, Anthony DiPierro wikispam@inbox.org wrote:
Is Wikipedia simply a general encyclopedia? I always thought it was more than that. I think the goal is really to include general information and specific information, and let the user navigate easily between the two. Maybe I'm wrong about this, though. It's an interesting question.
There's room for both. Since wiki is not paper (as we are so often told) there is plenty of room for general articles on general subjects, and specific articles on specific subjects. As a reader, I would probably expect (and want) to find the most general information first, and have the option of looking at specific information if I should so desire. Confronting readers with all available information at once just gets confusing.
I agree with the above, with the proviso (for the avoidance of doubt) that we should not avoid providing specific information in fear of confusing a reader who stumbles upon an article on some arcane subject. We should instead provide clear and obvious pointers to alternative articles which present a simplified view.
Sometimes, it might be suitable to combine the simplified and detailed views into one article, but often that merely makes it too long and complex for ease of navigation.
On the other hand there is the perennial problem of having an article on some abstruse subject nominated for deletion on the grounds that the person who stumbled upon it can't understand it, so it must be "non-notable". We'll just have to deal with that as it arises :-)