Steve Bennett wrote:
On 2/20/07, MacGyverMagic/Mgm macgyvermagic@gmail.com wrote:
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia. Not everything belongs in here. Travel info belongs in Wikitravel. Dictionary stuff belongs in Wiktionary and so on.
The first problem with this simplistic view is that there is a huge amount of overlap. For example: "Lyon is a city in France with 1 million inhabitants" - WikiTravel, Wikipedia, or both? Its main visitor attractions are its churches, renowned gastronomic restaurants and art galleries - Wiki travel, Wikipedia or both? It is served by two airports and is a major stop on the Paris-Marseille TGV line - same question.
The way I look at it is that WP is a "compendium" of knowledge, that is to say a condensed summary. There is a 400-page biography of Charles Lindbergh, but I don't expect WP's Lindbergh article to be 400 pages long. Similarly for scientific papers - we often mention papers' results, but don't normally include every data table and experimental setup. My ideal for the Lyon article would be to say only "Lyon has 30 3-star restaurants, including the historic [[Lying Lion]]" :-), while the Wikitravel version lists all 30, their addresses, specialties, etc, just like a travel book does.
Stan