Chad wrote:
Granted, we're not completed in some areas that we
should be, but there
is a very large signal-to-noise ratio in terms of articles. For every core
article there are 10 frivolous ones.
What's "frivolous" is in the eye of the beholder. Take a look at our top
100 most heavily trafficked pages:
<http://tools.wikimedia.de/~leon/stats/wikicharts/index.php?lang=en&wiki=enwiki&ns=articles&limit=100&month=11%2F2007&mode=view>
The non-pop-culture articles are the exception rather than the rule.
Most of the list consists of articles about works of fiction, computer
games, and entertainers. And also a bunch of articles about sex, of
course, this being the internet. People _want_ to read about that stuff,
they aren't winding up at those articles accidentally.
Wikipedia has a huge perceived signal-to-noise ratio because everybody
has different ideas about what's "signal" and what's "noise."
If
everyone pruned out what they weren't interested in there'd be nothing
at all left. Better to just ignore it.