On Tue, Feb 10, 2009 at 18:13, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
Q. How much of a problem is the popularity of Wikipedia? A. I think the comparison is a non-debate, because we offer something very different.
Translation: We tried ignoring and slandering them and kept losing.
I once chatted to this guy in RL and he said exactly the same thing. I replied "this is irrelevant as no encyclopedia should be cited as a primary source. More importantly Wikipedia is a very good place to start research and offers a good overview of topics." His reply? "I don't think that's true." I can't remember what we talked about after that. Him and I were the only ones left in the auditorium and my friends were wondering where I'd gone so I don't think I grilled him too much.
Britannica was sponsoring a debating competition I was in; I ended up with a free year's subscription but frankly their site is awful so I wouldn't even want to use it (not that I would really, being a Wikipedian).
S