On 03/07/2012 7:04 PM, Andreas Kolbe wrote:
What would a Wikipedia look like that did not make use
of press sources? It
would look a hell of a lot more like an encyclopedia. Thousands of silly
arguments would never arise. Thousands of apposite criticisms of Wikipedia
would never arise. These are good things.
Unfortunately, such a Wikipedia would also have vastly impoverished
coverage of popular culture and current affairs. The articles on Lady Gaga
and Barack Obama would be years behind events; the articles on the Japan
earthquakes, which I believe Wikipedia was widely praised for, would only
now begin to be written, articles on many towns and villages would lack
colour and detail.
Well, if I were suddenly named dictator of Wikipedia, I'd probably
suggest that a "recent event" namespace be created, where popular media
were acceptable sources, and make them verbotten in mainspace.
Mainspace articles might have a hatnote with a link to the other
namespace along the lines of "for recent, less authoritative coverage".
We'd have our cake and eat it too.
-- Coren / Marc