[Foundation-l] Is random article truly random

Arlen Beiler arlenbee at gmail.com
Thu Oct 20 16:13:38 UTC 2011


Ok, this discussion has 60 arguments and we are getting nowhere. Why don't
we follow Google's example (what that is is for you to figure out)?

On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 12:05 PM, Andreas K. <jayen466 at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Thu, Oct 20, 2011 at 4:13 PM, David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > On 20 October 2011 16:02, Andreas K. <jayen466 at gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > > Not everybody uses the Internet in the same way. Many younger users are
> > > fairly inured to porn and gore, having seen it all before. But a lot of
> > the
> > > people who have something to offer Wikipedia in the, you know,
> > *educational*
> > > field, are turned off by it, finding it crass and juvenile.
> >
> >
> > This is the first I've seen a filter advocated as the solution to the
> > expert problem. Which was always previously put in terms of not being
> > able to keep idiots out of experts' faces.
> >
> > But you're late - the expert problem turns out to be dissolving in a
> > surprising manner, i.e. they're coming to us anyway, because they want
> > their fields properly represented in the biggest encyclopedia. Which
> > is not a reason for complacency, but it *is* a reason to think twice
> > about using claims of the expert problem as justification for bending
> > the encyclopedia all out of shape for any other reason.
>
>
>
> I wasn't actually saying that à propos the image filter, more in relation
> to
> the general point about editorial judgment.
>
> Cultures differ, and like attracts like. You know our demographics. They're
> still far from ideal.
>
> * Half of our editors are 21 or younger.
>
> * Only a quarter are 30 or older, yet this is the demographic with the most
> expertise.
>
> * 87.5 per cent are male.
>
> * Only about 1 in 50 is a mother.
>
> The more we adhere to professional standards, the more professionals we
> will
> be able to attract. You may view abandoning the standards of the male
> teenage/early twenties age group as bending the encyclopedia out of shape;
> I
> view it as Wikipedia growing up. The sooner, the better.
>
> Andreas
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