[WikiEN-l] Re: Jacques Delson and Helga-ism

[Julie Kemp]

Stan said 

you've fallen into the "I'm a
professional" trap

**You are right - on the other hand, when I first started working on the
'pedia (I am testing the waters after a hiatus of about 8 months, but
contributed regularly for a long period before that, and also
collaborated on many of the initial discussions on standards, etc.),
people tended to trust each other's areas of expertise - whether
professional or amateur.  The thing I have found is that people who are
interested in good articles can usually tell good work, and a good
professional will often bow to a better informed amateur -- or vice
versa.  In the case of these particular articles, I really do suggest
that you read the discussion that's been taking place.  You seem to have
gathered that I am in a very small minority, but if you read the
discussions, you will see that I have qualified my discussion, been very
inclusive of other viewpoints, and have provided reasons for my edits.  

Stan said:

But it would take some adroit writing and citing to
produce something that wouldn't be mangled by the semi-educated eager
to promulgate the wrong things they were told by incompetent and
biased CS professors, so I don't tend to work on those articles very
much. It's an unfortunate weakness of Wikipedia, but no amount of
fulminating about it is going to change things; what you and I
experience in our respective fields is a predictable consequence of
the rules under which Wikipedia operates.  It's motivating me to
ponder ideas for new rules that would address your complaints
better, but it's tricky and I don't have any good ideas yet.

**That's true to some extent, but remember, Wikipedia isn't paper.  It
isn't the place for original research, but there are tons of examples
where we make statements that mention growing trends and new approaches.
And if we know more on a subject, don't we have some sort of obligation
to share that knowledge and make wikipedia better than other online
encyclopedias?  After all, even the famous Helga did a great deal of
eventual good in that she managed to get articles on issues like the
Heimatvertriebene included and to shake several of us into checking
facts and neutralizing the Polish-German borders. THOSE articles
certainly contain lots of stuff you might not see all in the same place.


Cheers -- JHK

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