From: Erik Moeller on Friday, December 12, 2003 4:45
PM
Daniel-
Why not call it [[Wikipedia:Candidates for
inclusion
in Nupedia]]?
Please don't. Nupedia is dead as far as I am concerned, and the only
thing
it lacks is a proper burial. Maybe we should create a
page for it as
soon
as the Wiki memorial site is up.
Doing the certification within Wikipedia is the Right Thing:
<snip>
The basic difference of philosophy is whether one believes that the
certification process is entirely compatible with the goals of
constructing Wikipedia.
I don't believe that it is; I'm really not convinced that the goals of
constructing a dead-tree encyclopedia are entirely compatible with the
goals of constructing Wikipedia. In fact, I'm rather skeptical, and
believe that I've seen signs of how having people thinking about that
goal has led to deleterious effects on Wikipedia. That's why I think
that it should be a distinct project, with a distinct name. I think
"Nupedia" is a great name, but I'm not averse to a name with Wikipedia
in it. "Wikipedia 1.0", however, has implications that I dislike. A core
value of Wikipedia is its constant state of incompletion and lack of
hierarchical, rigid control; certififying versions goes against that
value.
You believe that it (the certification process) is compatible and
beneficial to the larger goals of Wikipedia. If that is the case, then
keeping it separate would not be the right choice.
Neither of us really knows, and there are plausible cases to be made on
either side. The only way to find out is to run the experiment.
*However*, when running concurrent experiments, it's good practice to
keep them apart. Integration is usually more complex than keeping
things separate, not the other way around.
That said, I *do* think that we should do a better job of providing a
common meeting space for everything that already exists under the
Wikipedia umbrella.
For example, I think that you should only have to sign in once to the
system to be able to contribute to any of the separate parts. I think
that people should be able to integrate Recent Changes pages if they
wish. I think people should be able to integrate watchlists if they
wish.
Yes, we're talking a lot of coding that I'm not exactly jumping up to
offer to do, so I know how much my advice is worth. And I know we are
basically living in a codocracy (rule by those who write the software)
so if you go forward there's little I can do but carp. My advice is
meant in good faith.
Yours,
tc