[WikiEN-l] Tannin, it seems, has changed lots of articles

[The Cunctator]

On 6/4/03 2:03 PM, "JFrost8401 at aol.com" <JFrost8401 at aol.com> wrote:

> In a message dated 04/06/03 18:14:49 GMT Daylight Time, fredbaud at ctelco.net
> writes:
> 
> 
>> Good work, but that still doesn't give you the final word.
>> 
>> Fred
>> 
> So who decides?
> I assumed there was intended to be some sort of consensus, as when the present
> policy was agreed by all who participated. At present, the lineup appears to
> be a few people who, pace Vicki, do not make significant contribution to the
> fauna articles, whereas Kingturtle, Tannin, Steve Nova and myself are fairly
> happy with the present situation. This hardly seems a clear mandate for
> changing the current policy.
> 
> Personally, I think it will be a sad day if style triumphs over substance, and
> I can't help thinking we could all be better occupied creating and improving
> articles instead of revisiting a previously agreed policy, with the inevitable
> acrimony that tends to creep in.
> 
> There are huge numbers of American bird species that have no articles at all.
> Wouldn't it be better to write some instead of wasting time on the umpteenth
> regurgitation of  this topic?
> 
Yes. I also am one who believes that Wikipedia policies should follow a
variant of Occam's Razor--given two reasonable policies, choose the one less
likely to instigate conflict.

For example, instead of asserting that There Exists One Correct
Capitalization For Bird Names, admit that there is clearly dispute in the
outside world as to what is preferable, and let people do what they see fit.
It's the same rule we've followed with American/British spelling, and it
works fine. I'm driven crazy every time I see the [[humour]] article, but I
recognize that it actually isn't important.