From: "James D. Forrester" james@jdforrester.org
JAY JG wrote:
From: Dan Grey dangrey@gmail.com
On 13/09/05, MacGyverMagic/Mgm macgyvermagic@gmail.com wrote:
But keeping unencyclopedic ones hurts Wikipedia too.
Does it? How?
It reduces the credibility of the project.
In whose eyes? And why should we care what other people think of how credible our project is in the short term? We're going to be here for centuries hence.
One of Wikipedia's biggest issues has always been getting taken seriously as an encyclopedia, or being accepted by educators as a reliable (or even acceptable) source. Credibility is also the thing other encyclopedias (i.e. Britannica) harp on. Credibility also brings donations and other kinds of support and funding.
We can pretend it doesn't matter what people think of us, but if we do I think we're sticking our heads in the sand.
Jay.