Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Compendium
So, to try to avoid the constant posturing for a while, how does this help us to navigate the different understandings of what should and should not go in? Are you in favour or against schools, for example? I can't really tell from your message.
1) That wasn't the purpose of the message. Someone had used the phrase "compendium of human knowledge" as if it meant "everything." I was pointing out that the word "compedium" implies _selection._ And I was pointing out that, while acknowledging Wikipedia is _different_ from other encyclopedias, the word _encyclopedia_ does imply an emphasis on certain kinds of "knowledge" over others.
2) If you frame the question in the form "are you in favor of or against schools" you would not be able to understand any answer I could give. Watch my behavior in VfD and make your own deductions.
It would seem that your definition would exclude many RamBot articles?
I'm a pragmatist. I don't think the Rambot articles on towns were a good idea, but I accept them as a fait accompli. No, I do not think they fall within even a loose definition of an encyclopedia. They are database tabular data that's been gussied up into pseudo-English. They're here. I'm not going to use any of my own psychic energy on a crusade to get rid of them. If someone else tries to get rid of them, I won't waste any of my own psychic energy trying to stop them. I believe these feelings of mine are fairly widely shared, by the way.
The thing I hate most about the Rambot articles is people citing them as precedent for putting in other stuff that shouldn't go into Wikipedia.
-- Daniel P. B. Smith, dpbsmith@verizon.net "Elinor Goulding Smith's Great Big Messy Book" is now back in print! Sample chapter at http://world.std.com/~dpbsmith/messy.html Buy it at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403314063/
Your comments are fascinating, and I think they bring into relief a very different vision of what wp should be from mine. That is why I ask the question about schools, to try to see what we can agree on in terms of what the content of our 'ideal' wp would be.
I think the Rambot articles are a great start, and a place to build from, yes, the tabular data is not enough, but it is a springboard.
The same with schools - perhaps we need a schoolbot to make all the schools with tabular data, then fill in the rest by hand?
Mark
--- "Daniel P.B.Smith" dpbsmith@verizon.net wrote:
Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Compendium
So, to try to avoid the constant posturing for a while, how does this help us to navigate the
different
understandings of what should and should not go
in?
Are you in favour or against schools, for example?
I
can't really tell from your message.
- That wasn't the purpose of the message. Someone
had used the phrase "compendium of human knowledge" as if it meant "everything." I was pointing out that the word "compedium" implies _selection._ And I was pointing out that, while acknowledging Wikipedia is _different_ from other encyclopedias, the word _encyclopedia_ does imply an emphasis on certain kinds of "knowledge" over others.
- If you frame the question in the form "are you in
favor of or against schools" you would not be able to understand any answer I could give. Watch my behavior in VfD and make your own deductions.
It would seem that your definition would exclude
many
RamBot articles?
I'm a pragmatist. I don't think the Rambot articles on towns were a good idea, but I accept them as a fait accompli. No, I do not think they fall within even a loose definition of an encyclopedia. They are database tabular data that's been gussied up into pseudo-English. They're here. I'm not going to use any of my own psychic energy on a crusade to get rid of them. If someone else tries to get rid of them, I won't waste any of my own psychic energy trying to stop them. I believe these feelings of mine are fairly widely shared, by the way.
The thing I hate most about the Rambot articles is people citing them as precedent for putting in other stuff that shouldn't go into Wikipedia.
-- Daniel P. B. Smith, dpbsmith@verizon.net "Elinor Goulding Smith's Great Big Messy Book" is now back in print! Sample chapter at http://world.std.com/~dpbsmith/messy.html Buy it at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/1403314063/
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