[WikiEN-l] Ya can talk all ya wanna but its differn't than it was

[Daniel P. B. Smith]

> From: Phil Sandifer <Snowspinner at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Scott McCloud on Wikipedia
>
>> No they are written with the objective of avoiding an extremely bad
>> encyclopedia.
>
> Strange. Because we were doing a fine job of writing a good
> encyclopedia before we had them, so I'm not exactly sure what we
> accomplished there.

Wikipedia is not an encyclopedia yet. It was _certainly_ not an  
encyclopedia _then._ I've always assumed that calling it "the free  
encyclopedia that anyone can edit" was a deliberate attempt to keep  
the _goal_ clear and always in front of everyone.

>> Various articles with fridge fanatics would be an example.
>
> I must be remembering the two years I spent editing Wikipedia before
> [[WP:N]] and [[WP:RS]] were codified wrong, because I'm pretty sure
> we were capable of dealing with such groups before we had them.

Sounds like the classic dispute between the entrepreneurs and  
innovators who start things and the more pedestrian, less imaginative  
types that make them work and maintain them.

Things change.

It's not like it was back then. When a dollar was a dollar. And the  
girls were prettier. And we had _real_ music then, wonderful music,  
not this modern stuff, noise, it's just noise, I tell you.

Ya can talk, ya can talk,
ya can bicker, ya can talk,
ya can bicker, bicker, bicker,
ya can talk, ya can talk,
ya can talk, talk, talk, talk,
bicker, bicker, bicker,
ya can talk all ya wanna
but it's differnt than it was.