On 4/4/03 3:01 PM, "Lee Daniel Crocker" lee@piclab.com wrote:
(Karl Eichwalder ke@gnu.franken.de):
To put it different: the more you try to make wikipedia a paradise or an ivory tower the more it's an interesting object for, ehm, interested parties.
What we're trying to make Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. It is simply a fact of reality that there will be people who disagree with /that/ goal, and who want to make Wikipedia something else, like a community, or a news medium, or their personal playground. It's our job to make sure that it becomes an encyclopedia. That goal will not change, and anyone who actively interferes with that goal will be invited to pursue his interests elsewhere.
However, noone, not even LDC, is the Keeper of the Encyclopedia Ideal.
That is to say, while there are some things that Wikipedia is obviously not, noone should be able to aver with definitude what Wikipedia will be.
An encyclopedia is, at its core, a repository of *all* human knowledge. That goes far beyond the traditional paper documents that dared claim the title "encyclopedia".
So, while it's true that anyone who interferes with the goal of building an encyclopedia shouldn't be part of Wikipedia, we all should be a little humble about believing we know exactly how that goal should be realized.