--- "Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales" jwales@wikia.com wrote:
I would put it a different way. "The needs of a general purpose, general audience encyclopedia differ from the needs of a professional reference work, so we should move forward in exploring solutions that meet the needs of both users while minimizing duplication of efforts."
That could still be interpreted as meaning that [[biology of ...]] and [[geology of ...]] articles should not be hosted on Wikipedia and instead on separate projects. I am *very* much against that and don't agree with usage of the term 'general audience' since that implies (to me at least) a forking of content based on detail alone. Sidenote: A general encyclopedia is one that is not specialized; since we don't have size limits that is a statement without much distinction since we can - and do - go into detail on a great many topics - just not all on the same page (and with summaries in appropriate places).
I consider some of my detailed geology articles to be good enough to be considered professional reference material for geologists while at the same time being accessible to any reasonably educated (high school or higher) and interested layperson. But the point that *should* be made is that they are *encyclopedia articles* - not books, not definitions, not source material and not quotes. They are also not part of a relational database (ala what Wikispecies wants to be), which is where I think you were going (and the role I would like the Commons to perform in a general capacity - just as Wikipedia performs the function of being an encyclopedia in a general capacity).
-- mav
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