[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia's destiny

[Steve Bennett]

On 2/23/06, John Lee <johnleemk at gawab.com> wrote:
> If people refused to AfD anything they didn't know anything about (who
> can really say they know anything about my local garage band?), we would
> be deleting a lot less crap, if less good articles. It's all a question
> of trading off false positives for false negatives. I have rarely seen
> an ignorance-based debate that didn't end up getting closed as a keep,
> or being overturned by DRV.

An excellent argument for why AfD should never be democracy-based (or
believed to be that way). In these situations, you almost need someone
to step up, say, "Look, I actually know something about entomology. I
believe this insect is notable", wipe all the existing votes, and say
"now, does anyone actually disagree?"

It also seems to me that "ignorance-based debates" are not in
themselves harmful, provided that there are mechanisms such that they
don't drown out the informed. Everyone's worst nightmare is the 10
pokemon fans drowning out the tenured professor in his own field. But
does it actually happen?

(PS if anyone here is a pokémon fan, just let me know and give me a
different demographic to pick on instead...)

Steve