Steven Walling wrote:
This brings up an interesting point about Wikipedia that I was discussing at length with some non-wiki literate friends of mine. One person complained that we "don't like trivia anymore", and that it pissed them off because they enjoyed it so much.
That should tell you something about what interests the public. He's right to be pissed off.
My response was that the popular conception of trivia isn't in line with Wikipedians generally see trivia. Of course, the funny part is that Wikipedians have a more precise understanding of the correct definition of trivia.
Only the self-righteous ones. If Wikipedians generally had that precise understanding we wouldn't be having this discussion now.
Most people think of sitcom synopsis and sports records as being trivia. But that's confusing the definitions of important and trivia. Trivia is not just about how important something is, the key word is "*pieces* of information of little importance or value". Trivia is independent details cobbled together in a list. In other words, the bulleted "Trivia" or "Popular culture" sections.
How about the kind of things that make the Guinness Book of Records such a best seller. They don't lack for people trying to put the stupidest imaginable records in there. A trivia section is good in and for an article because it keeps this information separate from the rest of the article. The importance or value of the information depends more on the reader than the editor. Sure a lot of crap gets into these sections, but that's a reason for getting rid of the crap, not the whole section.
Wikipedia might contain a lengthy article on an unimportant subject. But that doesn't make it trivia.
I didn't think we were talking about whole articles, only about a specific section in some articles.
Ec