On Feb 26, 2007, at 7:06 PM, T P wrote:
Comprehensiveness sounds good, but there is a lot of room for disagreement about what "should" be included. Articles also need to be focused and balanced, because on the Web they can't be very long. We have links so excessive detail and tangents can be linked to. And too many articles have long sections on one aspect while giving short shrift to other aspects.
I tend to think that, of the many things to worry about in an article, length is a secondary concern.
I'm not sure this is the same issue, but I had an argument with someone who wanted to include some loosely related material because it "related [the subject] to people's lives". Frankly I don't think we need to "sell" a topic to the audience. People look up articles in an encyclopedia because they are already interested in the subject, it's not like a magazine where you come across the topic randomly.
Most of what I've seen suggests that we have a pretty high number of people who browse around and learn new things. We should endeavor to teach things that are interesting.
-Phil