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

[james duffy]

>Oliver wrote If the majority of experts on fauna call an animal the 
>"Aardvark", and the
>majority of non-experts call it the "aardvark", then the majority of our
>potential *readership* call it the "aardvark". So that's what our usual
>naming convention says that *we* should call it, too. We shouldn't make
>special cases just for one particular group of people without a better
>reason than just because that's how they do it themselves.

The thing is, we are an ENCYCLOPÆDIA. (BTW, I am not shouting. I just can't 
do italics here!!!) As such we should strive as much as possible for 
accuracy and that includes accuracy in capitalisation. We can use redirects 
to deal with commonly understood names/titles/use of capitalisation, etc. 
But we should as an encyclopædia aim to be an accurate factual source of 
information, not aim simply to produce commonly understood but inaccurate 
information. For example,  millions of people think Queen Elizabeth II is 
'queen of England'. In fact she isn't and couldn't be as England ceased to 
exist as a separate kingdom in 1707. So we have a redirect page based on the 
wrong but commonly understood title, but the actual page is on the correctly 
titled page. So someone coming to the page is able to go away knowing the 
'correct' facts, including the correct title, knowing more when they leave 
than when they came to it.

That is what an encyclopædia is, a source of factual information that 
educates people looking for information. If the grey-haired longtail buzzard 
is correctly called the Grey Haired, Longtail Buzzard of Ohio, then a person 
coming to wiki should be able to find that out and know that leaving wiki. 
We aren't a tabloid newspaper that can aim for a general low-brow standard. 
Encyclopædias have to aim to produce the highest standard of educational 
information. People should come to wiki to get more information than they 
possess, not simply to reflect the standard they came with. The very fact 
that they are searching for more information means they are not satisfied 
they have enough and need more. If wiki gets a reputation for not being 
accurate, just being there, what is the point of wiki? Accuracy involves 
such basic facts as correct spelling and correct capitalisation. So Tannin 
is correct to try to get things as accurate as possible in the area of 
capitalisation.

JT

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