[WikiEN-l] election fraud article

[Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales]

Nathan Russell wrote:
> I am one of those who returned the article in question to the main page.  

Other than the fact that it is currently quite a poor article, I don't
think many seriously objects to the need for such an article.  The VfD
is currently 50-5 in favor of keeping it.

The problem with it being listed on the main page is that a listing
there under "In the news..." is a statement *itself*, one that needs
to be neutral.  If we say that something is "In the news..." when it
is actually a tiny side story that doesn't seem to be going anywhere,
then we are inappropriately pushing an agenda.

For me, when I saw it on the home page of Wikipedia, I thought: wow,
is there some big news?  Because the front page of Wikipedia *means
something*.  It's an incredibly *credible* source of information.

So I quickly went to several of the major news organizations, CNN,
BBC, the Guardian, etc.  And none of them were treating it as a major
story.

I think our credibility takes a hit if we treat things as major
stories, when it's really just the rumblings of blogs, and fairly
routine stuff about voting irregularities that comes after every
election.

It'll be interesting to see how this might vary for WikiNews, I think.
WikiNews is to be neutral as well, but even so a *news* wiki is
different from an *encyclopedia* wiki.  Perhaps we'll end up more
comfortable at some point (not in the early days, I think, because
credibility is crucial) leading the rest of the media on some
important story.

But not Wikipedia.

--Jimbo