On 15/02/2011, geni geniice@gmail.com wrote:
On 15 February 2011 16:19, Ian Woollard ian.woollard@gmail.com wrote:
Yeah, really. That page claims we only have 3% of notable Poles. Are you really, seriously, telling me we only have 3% of ALL notable biographies??? Because that's what that page is assuming to calculate that 40 million.
It's possible. Our coverage of say British MPs starts to fall apart pre-20th century.
But should each MP necessarily have his own biography?
It's not impossible to calculate, you look at the counts from an encyclopedias of famous people. And they very typically list historical people as well as living people.
But they all hit dead tree limitations.
Then they're not capable of being reliably sourced.
Sure you can chose a very narrow focus book like the alphabet of the saints. So it seem pretty likely that up until 1992 Southampton FC had a bit over 700 players about which it would be possible to write something about. But such books don't really exist for far areas.
Then there's no sources, and no biography.
Still assuming players play for an average of 2 clubs (remember players didn't used to move around as much) you are looking at about 28 000 english male football bios up until 1992.
Only if they're notable, and reliably sourced. I don't think they're notable enough to have their own article simply for having played.
But how many captains of the royal navy are notable? How many knights? Mayors?
Indeed.
So while yes it may be possible for some individual areas as to how many bios there could be more generally I don't think can be done.
So you're saying that you don't know; and it's not a lot of use is it?
-- geni