[WikiEN-l] Scott McCloud on Wikipedia

[Ray Saintonge]

geni wrote:

>On 2/25/07, Sage Ross <sage.ross at yale.edu> wrote:
>  
>
>>>Given that old enough census data is published with can confirm rather
>>>a lot of people exist as well. Confirming somthing exists doesn't mean
>>>much.
>>>      
>>>
>>I said "be more accommodating"; I don't mean to imply that existence
>>is sufficient.  A measure of common sense
>>    
>>
>
>[[Wikipedia:There is no common sense]]
>
A questionable essay, but just an essay.

>Common sense has no requirement to be logical or to be based on
>evidence and thus has no place in a rational system.
>
I suppose that that is technically correct, but such a strictly rational 
system exists only in theory.  The logical extension of your rational 
system is personified in Mr. Bean.

>Of course we live in a world where there are huge social pressures to
>accept <s>bellyfeel</s> common sense
>
There are even more pressures to conform to established structures such 
as government bureaucracies and an endless flow of useless forms.

>If you want a system that outsides have a hope of figuring out you
>will set up system that includes as little common sense as possible.
>
This has got to be one of your more idiosyncratic pieces of sophistry.  
Imagine!  Purporting to logicaly disprove the existence of common 
sense.  There's a famous scene from a Jack Nicholson movie ("Five Easy 
Pieces"?) where he orders something slightly different from what is on 
the restaurant menu.  The waitress cannot comply because it's not 
written on the menu.  I've had a similar experience at breakfast in a 
restaurant.  My then wife wanted one egg, but the menu only specified 
two eggs.  In the establishment's mind serving only one egg was impossible.

Common sense is what keeps things from being stupid.

>>when assessing an article's
>>reliability  combined with a little looser official standards for
>>notability is the main thing (i.e., accepting that some topics that
>>people want to see in Wikipedia will have few good sources but keeping
>>rather than deleting them is still a plus to the overall quality of
>>Wikipedia).
>>    
>>
>
>[[WP:NOR]]
>
Taking refuge in rules doesn't solve very much.

Ec