--- "Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales" jwales@wikia.com wrote:
... To further illustrate the difference, compare:
http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.cfm?genusname=Carcharodon&...
with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_White_Shark
Notice that our article (quite properly) discusses the movie Jaws, and links to Steven Spielberg. Fishbase does not, and again, quite properly.
I see a species directory as a significantly different *kind* of resource than a general encyclopedia. They can be mutually reinforcing and supporting, as with wikitnary and wikipedia. But they are not the same thing.
Jimbo - *all* the info at http://www.fishbase.org/Summary/SpeciesSummary.cfm?genusname=Carcharodon&... should be in our corresponding Wikipedia article (along with the other stuff you mention). *Why* in the world would we want to 1) Not have that info in Wikipedia but have it it a separate project 2) Have it in both places and thus have to maintain it in both places
The "general purpose" aspect of Wikipedia in reality means that we have a great deal of info on various different aspects of a single topic. There is zero reason to have a specialized project when specialized info is already most welcome in Wikipedia (usually in the form of summaries that lead to more detailed treatments on separate articles).
Every example I've seen about what the entries in this proposed fork will consist of could be incorporated into one of more current (or in the case of Wikimedia Commons) planned Wikimedia projects.
-- mav
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