[WikiEN-l] What makes a good article?

[Jeff Raymond]

T P wrote:

> I despise the current FA practice that "everything needs an inline
> citation".  Basically all you need to pass FA is a lot of citations.

I was a history major, so that requirement doesn't really bother me 
except when people somehow think a statement isn't sourced even though 
there's a reference at the end of the topic.  Anyhow...

Can we slay this myth once and for all?  Sources are a quick and easy 
way to get junked or lose FA status, but it's not all you need.  My 
first real FA try ended up being twice as long as the article I was 
nominating because of the "brilliant prose" requirement - talk about 
subjective.  I have no hard numbers, but I bet a lot more struggle due 
to that then because of inadequate sourcing.

> 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.
> 

Yeah, but I have a feeling we're heading in a direction where we're 
going to begin failing at this.  Part of Wikipedia's awesomeness (and 
why I started contributing originally) was because...

a) Wikipedia probably has an article on what you're looking for.
b) If Wikipedia doesn't have an article on what you're looking for, you 
can probably make it.

If we lose that, we lose our audience.  Long tail, or something.

-Jeff


-- 
Name: Jeff Raymond
E-mail: jeff.raymond at internationalhouseofbacon.com
WWW: http://www.internationalhouseofbacon.com
IM: badlydrawnjeff
Quote: "As the hobbits are going up Mount Doom, the
	Eye of Mordor is being drawn somewhere else."
	- Sen. Rick Santorum on the war in Iraq.