The election season is a great excuse for people to be writing essays about the projects. This isn't limited to those running in the elections (though I wish more of the candidates would write actively about their thoughts and ideas).
Aaron Swartz has started a series of such essays. The latest one suggests something I have long suspected, that the huge body of new and anonymous contributors, who often make the first serious stab at an article or provide a needed injection of expertise, are as important to the 'pedias development (if not more so) than the core of dedicated editors.
http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/wikiroads http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia
Is anyone else writing long essays these days? Where are they kept, and how categorized?
++SJ
On 05/09/06, SJ 2.718281828@gmail.com wrote:
Aaron Swartz has started a series of such essays. The latest one suggests something I have long suspected, that the huge body of new and anonymous contributors, who often make the first serious stab at an article or provide a needed injection of expertise, are as important to the 'pedias development (if not more so) than the core of dedicated editors. http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/wikiroads http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia
Greg Maxwell is sceptical of the numbers (since Aaron doesn't give methodology); since Greg is very good at running interesting numbers on the database, I've suggested to each that they contact the other.
Is anyone else writing long essays these days? Where are they kept, and how categorized?
Probably and nowhere I can think of, but they should!
- d.
On 9/5/06, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 05/09/06, SJ 2.718281828@gmail.com wrote:
Aaron Swartz has started a series of such essays. The latest one suggests something I have long suspected, that the huge body of new and anonymous contributors, who often make the first serious stab at an article or provide a needed injection of expertise, are as important to the 'pedias development (if not more so) than the core of dedicated editors. http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/wikiroads http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/whowriteswikipedia
Greg Maxwell is sceptical of the numbers (since Aaron doesn't give methodology); since Greg is very good at running interesting numbers on the database, I've suggested to each that they contact the other.
It's been a long-standing debate without numbers; hopefully we can throw data into the mix now. I know Greg and Aaron were
Is anyone else writing long essays these days? Where are they kept, and how categorized?
Probably and nowhere I can think of, but they should!
Indeed. It's a shame that some of the good long essays in recent memory are written off-wiki, in places where they can't be improved over time (even if it is a public mailing list). This is an interesting twist on wikification: http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Talk:Who_Writes_Wikipedia%3F
I hope the text itself goes up there soon. Likewise, for anyone who has posted a great rant to mailing lists lately. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Essays is surprisingly sparse.
SJ
On 05/09/06, SJ 2.718281828@gmail.com wrote:
I hope the text itself goes up there soon. Likewise, for anyone who has posted a great rant to mailing lists lately. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Essays is surprisingly sparse.
There's a lot of them on en:. [[Wikipedia:Process is Important]] is a notable one.
- d.
The essay was slashdotted; if the numbers are to be challenged, now would be a good time. http://slashdot.org/articles/06/09/05/1210241.shtml
On 9/5/06, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
On 05/09/06, SJ 2.718281828@gmail.com wrote:
I hope the text itself goes up there soon. Likewise, for anyone who has posted a great rant to mailing lists lately. http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Essays is surprisingly sparse.
There's a lot of them on en:. [[Wikipedia:Process is Important]] is a notable one.
Thanks. Yes, around 250; that's a good example. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_essays
I hope we can use the context of a serious discussion of WP's future to draw these discussions together into more than just a series of philosophical chats.
One useful thing about the elections is that it gets a few dozen people to think about and articulate their thoughts and fears about the projects, and encourages them to think three and ten years down the line -- something we as a community don't do often enough.
++SJ
On 05/09/06, SJ 2.718281828@gmail.com wrote:
On 9/5/06, David Gerard dgerard@gmail.com wrote:
There's a lot of them on en:. [[Wikipedia:Process is Important]] is a notable one.
Thanks. Yes, around 250; that's a good example. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Wikipedia_essays
I should note that that category is also a dumping ground for things that didn't make it to official guideline or policy. The most notable example I can think of is [[Wikipedia:Requests for arbitration/How to present a case]] - which is a guideline anyone not following could be presumed to be too stupid to breathe and write at the same time, but is an "essay" because it deliberately has no official status.
- d.
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