[WikiEN-l] a valid criticism

[Justin Cormack]

On 7 Oct 2005, at 12:25, Jack Lynch wrote:

> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ 
> Wikipedia:List_of_articles_all_languages_should_have
>
> I created the above page for this specific purpose - en: has all these
> articles (or something like them), but very few are up to featured
> quality.
>
> One problem I see with the FA process is that a lot of the articles
> are incredibly esoteric. If you're a specialist in a field, you're
> highly motivated to write a REALLY GOOD article about something you
> know well. There seems to be less motivation to get the *really
> general* articles up to featured status. God help the person who tries
> to get [[Earth]] past the present FAC process and keep it under 200KB.

But who looks up "Earth" in an encyclopaedia? I would expect more  
people to
read [[Brutalist architecture]] than [[Architecture]], although might  
use
the general article as a navigation aid, just because the big things  
are too
general. The list of articles all languages should have is a bit  
mixed on
this - it doesnt have [[Art]], or even [[Novel]] (a rather good article
based on a quick skim). Mind you it doesnt have [[Agriculture]], only  
the
most important invention the history of the human race (which needs  
work).

Justinc