- The job of the current Wikipedia is not to be a perfect
encyclopedia,
but to be a source for the great "1.0" version. That version will
weed
out everything that doesn't belong in an encyclopedia.
I find this argument disturbing and wrong. I certainly hope this is
not the
consensus understanding of the role of Wikipedia. Have I missed some official position statements?
Hmm, I think I played a little fast and loose in attributing this stance to Jimbo. Here's where I got it from:
http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2003-October/008012.html
What he's really saying that a paper 1.0 will weed out everything that doesn't fit into a paper encyclopedia, which is different. Whoops.
I still like the idea though. I think it's unrealistic that the wiki model will produce a professional quality encyclopedia. Wiki is great for getting a lot of not-bad content, but terrible at getting consistently very good content.
But, maybe James's suggestions can achieve that! http://mail.wikipedia.org/pipermail/wikien-l/2003-November/008272.html
Alex