On Mon, Dec 22, 2008 at 1:12 PM, Oldak Quill oldakquill@gmail.com wrote:
From the article:
"Wikipedia's founding belief is that everyone has one subject (dropping the gearbox out of a Ford Ghia, the life and works of Morton Harket of A-Ha, making wild-berry chutney), on which they are an expert - and could, therefore, then contribute an entry on said subject to Wikipedia. "
I've never considered this to be Wikipedia's founding belief. Wikipedia culture is far more geared toward referencing than expertise, and toward generalism rather than specificism. Expertise can certainly mean that someone is more dexterous with concepts and handling references relating to a subject, but knowing something in your head is useless for Wikipedia unless you can point out where this fact is written. Expertise is certainly welcome, but has never been an assumption.
There's enough single-minded crusaders around to give a casual observer the impression that Wikipedia has nobody else.