Stan has voiced a very important theoretical point that defines the whole
mechanism of Wikipedia. It also resolves (or rationalises) some of Larry's
concerns.
Articles develop Darwinistically. They emerge from primordial soup
(substubs, anon newbie edits) and evolve as more people add material.
From this point, there are two types of articles: those that attract
interest and those that do not. This is easily compared to evolutionary
selection pressures. Lifeforms that develop under extreme circumstances are
simply more adapted than those that have had free reign without being
predated upon.
Articles under scrutiny get better (vandalism to [[Jew]] or [[Holocaust]]
is reverted quicker than vandalism to [[Metabolic syndrome]] due to
Watchlist and "vested contributor" exposure). Articles out of the limelight
perform much worse - inaccuracies are not corrected, vandalism is removed
by other anons (yep, this happens), etc. These are the ones that are poorly
sourced, inundated with irrelevant external links, sometimes edit warred
over a bit, but generally don't reach anything close to featured article
quality.
Stan is completely right that effective contributors eventually carry the
day. There is so much to write about, to improve, to edit. He ignores the
big POV dinosaurs, who do eventually get blocked for personal attacks or
sockpuppetry, but that just proves the point.
I don't completely disagree with Larry on the accuracy issues for these
"underperforming articles". They are just not getting the attention they
deserve. There are a few solutions. Most involve automatic Vfd, but it can
be replaced with "cleanup" by inclusionists:
* Vfd an article that has not been edited for 6 months (or 12, or 18)
* Vfd an article that is on nobody's watchlist
* Vfd orphaned articles
* Vfd an article that has STILL not been put in a category (other than "stub")
The above is the pruning effort of unviable lifeforms on Wikipedia. Some
articles should be allowed to die gracefully. Others may be revived by
vigorous spring cleanup. Anyway, this amorphous mass of poorly edited
articles should get more attention that it is getting right now.
Jfdwolff