[WikiEN-l] Here's an interesting one

[MacGyverMagic/Mgm]

>
> To get really picky though, I thought the official line was that
> Wikipedia is a *project* to *build* an encyclopedia. Or maybe
> "Wikipedia" is the name of the encyclopaedia being built by "The
> Wikipedia Project". In that case, half of the entries at WP:NOT refer
> to the project (wikipedia is not therapy, a game, myspace, a chat
> site) and half refer to the actual encyclopaedia (not an
> indiscriminate collection of information, not a jargon file etc).
>
> To answer your original point though, "why expand WP:NOT"? Basically
> because the nature of Wiki means that people can endlessly expand the
> project in new directions. Saying "WP is X and nothing but X" doesn't
> really pose any limits on this expansion. Saying "WP is X, but
> definitely not Y or Z" does.
>
> Steve


There's at least 2 sections in WP:NOT. One which explains what the project
is not, one which explains what the articles are not. BTW, I do agree with
that last paragraph. You can say Wikipedia is a free encyclopedia anyone can
edit, but some people don't seem to grasp the idea of what an encyclopedia
is, so while it's unfortunate we have to use negative language "Wikipedia is
not a vehicle for promotion" is something we need to have in there. Even if
it's just so we can point people there. It's easier than explaining what
type of content is encyclopedic and what isn't.

Mgm