[WikiEN-l] Is Wikipedia a News Portal (among other things)?

[charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com]

 "David Gerard" wrote
> Date: 2006/09/21 Thu AM 10:40:52 BST
> To: "English Wikipedia" <wikien-l at wikipedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Is Wikipedia a News Portal (among other things)?
> 
> Peter Jacobi wrote

> > If a Wikipedia article is "the best source available", it has
> > become original research.
 
> Or just the best-researched. Your assertion appears trivially false.

No, you are both right, with slightly different senses of the word 'research'. This is where it gets to be an interesting discussion. Wikipedians are para-academic para-journalists with the completely wild idea that 'policy' can adequately constrain and define a 'generic' research method, to the point that it produces material of actual value. Our idea of 'value' is not however a _market_ value or a _career_ value or a personal _prestige_ value  (well, qualify that perhaps). It is not perhaps surprising that the outside world has fairly systematically misunderstood all this.

Charles

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