If Wikipedia were a paper-based encyclopedia, then I think there is no doubt that there would be certain selection criteria. Wikipedia is not paper, and consequently has decided that if it is (a) Verifiable (b) (non-trivial) Reliable sources, (c) written neutrally, then it is acceptable.
I would agree, but in every case your examples failed on (c). The article on Pensée failed to make any sort of effort to describe the magazine _before_ it was radically re-imaged to become a mouthpiece for Velikovsky, and I consider it deletable for that reason alone. Nor did it make any reasonable attempt to describe the fact that the topic is utter rubish, except by including a quote that suggested it was a hissy fit by "mainstream" scientists. Pensée existed before the events described in the article, yet zero effort was made to describe them. This was nothing more than a roundabout promotion for Velikovsky-ism. DELETE!
The article on the Electric Universe so obviously fails (c) that I'm astonished you would even bring it up as an example!
Likewise, I see no problem Wikipedia summarising every book that was ever published. It already summarised every episode of many obscure TV programmes.
Yes, but lots of people actually watch The Simpsons. Very few read about the Electric Universe.
By point is not to specifically argue for the inclusion of these articles
Oh geez, yes it is. I can conclude this as easy as looking at your sig...
Ian Tresman www.plasma-universe.com
I find it interesting that you don't even seem to argue that these topics are "real', only that they are "verifyable". This is why we don't just accept V. I can, for instance, verify that the homeless guy on the corner talks to himself, but that doesn't deserve an article on the wiki either. We have rules like V, OR and NPOV to act as an interlinked set of guidelines in order to filter out articles like these.
Again, if any of the articles in question made any serious effort to be balanced, they would have stayed up. But they didn't.
Maury
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