On 11/30/06, Tony Jacobs gtjacobs@hotmail.com wrote:
From: "The Cunctator" cunctator@gmail.com Reply-To: English Wikipedia wikien-l@Wikipedia.org To: "English Wikipedia" wikien-l@wikipedia.org Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] GNAA Deleted! Date: Thu, 30 Nov 2006 11:32:21 -0500
I for one think it's pathetic that Wikipedia is giving up on the mission of being a complete encyclopedia because there exist specialty sites on particular areas of knowledge.
I disagree. Wikipedia can't be all things to all people, and I think it's silly to try. Wikipedia should consider itself one of a community of wikis, specifically, the encyclopedic one, with academic standards. Why not allow for there to be multiple sources of information, and let the different ones specialize in different things and get good at what they do?
Well, the biggest problem with that is that the other sources invariably don't hold themselves to as high a standard as Wikipedia. Is the content free? Is it written from a neutral point of view? Is it verifiable? Is the project controlled by a non-profit charity? Are there ads plastered all over the place?
Wikipedia can't be all things to all people, but it should strive to be a complete encyclopedia.
Anthony