On Thu, Feb 07, 2002 at 03:21:40AM +0000, Jo?o M?rio Miranda wrote: One interesting phenomenon, though, is that as the content broadens, people might tend to work more on existing articles and new article creation slow correspondingly. Not that that's a bad thing. It's better to have 50,000 excellent articles than 500,000 rambling, incoherent, or incorrect ones. Regardless, it seems almost a mathematical certainty that Wikipedia is going to be one of the best resources on the Net. Already is, really. :-) -- David C. Merrill http://www.lupercalia.net Linux Documentation Project david(a)lupercalia.net Collection Editor & Coordinator http://www.linuxdoc.org Some weeks it looks like Redmond feels entitled to capture not just part of what we save, but all of it. That just isn't going to fly with corporate America forever. When your margins are more sensitive to Bill Gates' pricing whims than they are the price of oil, that's an untenable position for a large company to be in. --John Chapman Sr., BP Amoco Technology Executive

On Wed, Feb 06, 2002 at 09:32:54PM -0800, Larry Sanger wrote: I could see that happening. Don't take this the wrong way, but it's also possible Wikipedia just can't ever be really "authoritative" in any field. And that is fine with me. Perhaps the big draw of Wikipedia will be that it contains much more accessible general information than anything else. I don't know if that will be the case or not, but I also really don't care. However, it finally shapes up, it will be (and is) great. :-) It's not the kind of thing you can force. It will become what Wikipedians want it to be. As a Wiki, it really can be all things to all people. One thing I already notice about Wikipedia is that the content is much broader than any other encyclopedia. Almost an Encyclopedia Galactica or H2G2. That's what I like most about it. In fact, once or twice I have been interested in finding out about something little-known, and started an article with nothing but a few questions I had. In each case, the information was forthcoming. What a cool thing that was! Anyway, enough meta-discussion on content. Oh? Can't wait. :-) Later, -- David C. Merrill http://www.lupercalia.net Linux Documentation Project david(a)lupercalia.net Collection Editor & Coordinator http://www.linuxdoc.org We came from Caladan -- a paradise world for our form of life. There existed no need on Caladan to build a physical paradise or a paradise of the mind -- we could see the actuality all around us. And the price we paid was the price men have always paid for achieving a paradise in this life -- we went soft, we lost our edge. -- from "Must'Dib: Conversations" by the Princess Irulan