On 6/25/06, Steve Bennett <stevagewp(a)gmail.com> wrote:
How about "New editors always welcome!" -
then, the assumption is that
we will give *anyone* a *chance* (as opposed to implying that we will
let anyone edit, no matter how destructive they are).
I agree in principle that the slogan "the free encyclopedia that
anyone can edit" is overly simplistic. It reminds me of the famous
saying, "I would never want to belong to any club that would have
someone like me for a member." It's more of a technical definition
than one of principles and goals -- and can easily be confused with
the latter.
I believe that we need to highlight the mission of providing a great,
free encyclopedia, along with the core principle _how_ we want to
accomplish it. And the single most important principle I can think of
here is not "anyone can edit". It's not even NPOV or any other policy.
It's "WikiLove" -- of which our commitment to openness is only an
expression. We share a love of knowledge, and we treat everyone who
shares the same love with respect and goodwill. (That's the idea, at
least.)
If I wanted a three word slogan for Wikipedia, it would be something
like "Love in Knowledge": emphasizing the core principle of WikiLove
as well as the overarching goal to collect the sum of all human
knowledge. Come to think of it, "Love in Knowledge" might be a nice
slogan for the Wikimedia Foundation. Or is it too kitschy?
We're not elitist at all. The tone of most of our
articles is very
folksy and approachable
I'm not sure about "folksy," but of course an encyclopedia should be
approachable. My idea of the perfect Wikipedia article is one which
presupposes very little, and allows me to zoom into any level of
detail which I require (following links and references to primary and
secondary sources if Wikipedia itself is exhausted). Naturally, by
"presupposing little", I don't mean that every concept needs to be
explained in every article: that's what links are for.
"Elitism of results", as Jimmy put it, doesn't mean to me that we
already believe that we've created the best encyclopedia in history.
It only means that we believe that we should, and more importantly,
that we can. And I think that these beliefs are firmly rooted in
Wikipedia's culture.
Erik