[WikiEN-l] "Exclusion" essay

[Ray Saintonge]

Bryan Derksen wrote:

>I don't see how the "fancruft" we include is any more a "random
>collection of information" than the vast amounts of sportscruft,
>militarycruft, politiciancruft, and other sorts of subjectcruft that for
>some reason have an air of respectability about it that recent popular
>culture alone seems to lack. Who ever complains about how Wikipedia has
>articles for almost every ship that happened to participate in WWII, no
>matter how trivial its role? Or how there are articles about people
>whose sole claim to fame is an unspectacular one-year Senate position in
>Smallcounty, Iowa back in the 1820s?
>
Right!  Considering that Iowa did not become a state until 1846 ....  :-)

>I think the massive inclusiveness of Wikipedia is one of its best
>traits. Wikipedia is like a specialist encyclopedia that specializes in
>_everything_. When I see an article about an obscure topic I don't ask
>myself "should there be an article about this in a general
>encyclopedia?", I ask myself "should there be an article about this in
>an Encyclopedia of Stamp Collecting, or Encyclopedia of Star Trek, or
>Encyclopedia of 18th Century Railroading, or Encyclopedia of
>Agriculture, etc.?"
>
Absolutely.  It's just a matter of time before we have people dedicated 
enough to develop all these areas.

Ec