On 9/9/07, Brock Weller brock.weller@gmail.com wrote:
Because being useful is not nor has ever been a valid argument for keeping things. WP:USEFUL is the piece that better explains it i believe.
1. To quote the tag on the top: "This is an essayhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_essays. It is not a policy or guidelinehttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Policies_and_guidelinesand editors are not bound by its advice." Also, it's only about deletion of articles; not about the style of writing articles.
2. Please note that particular page has only existed since August 2006; certainly people argued against "usefulness" as a valid 'keep' criteria before then, but I can't say how widespread that was. Personally, I dislike the section you cite; I think usefulness is a fine argument, and should be considered as part of a wholistic conversation on what to keep. If we aren't building an encyclopedia because it's useful to people (who need to look stuff up) then what the heck are we doing?
-- phoebe