[WikiEN-l] Norman Technologies AfD

[Rob]

On 8/9/06, Steve Bennett <stevagewp at gmail.com> wrote:
> On 8/9/06, Rob <gamaliel8 at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Well, there's a natural reaction to anything that looks like corporate
> > advertising, but I wouldn't call it a "bias against corporations".
> >
> > I don't see anything inherently wrong with MyWikiBiz, esp. since they
> > are pretty open about what they're doing.  But I also don't think
> > Wikipedia's mission is served by cluttering up the place with articles
> > on every small consulting firm in the US. This corporation has only 26
> > employees and the only citations are a local business journal.  Is
> > this really a significant enough company to make it into an
> > encyclopedia?
>
> That definitely depends on what your definition of "significant
> enough" is. If we had room for only 10 corporations, I would say no.
> But we're not pressed for space, and unlike pure vanity articles (my
> name is Jim and I have a dog called Nelly!), this type of article
> meets a genuine need.
>
> I think there is a valid viewpoint that says "Wikipedia is the sum of
> human knowledge, except for a bit of total dross that doesn't interest
> anyone". However, a genuine company with 26 full time employees that
> has been around for 5 years and does some interesting things at the
> global level is not such dross.
>
> Purely and simply, is Wikipedia better off *with* this information
> than *without* it? If the answer is "without", then why? Because we
> saved a couple of kilobytes?

A case could be made that this is just as much a vanity article as a
personal bio.  It's not just the number of employees that makes it
insignificant for encyclopedic purposes.  If it was indeed doing
things interesting enough to be of encyclopedic note, someone other
than the local Charlotte Business Journal would be writing about them.