[WikiEN-l] What makes a good article?

[T P]

On 2/26/07, Jeff Raymond <jeff.raymond at internationalhouseofbacon.com> wrote:
>
> T P wrote:
> > 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.


This was a featured article.  Which passed.

One of the unusual characteristics of Wikipedia is that, as a volunteer
effort, articles are primarily written to satisfy the needs of the writers,
not the readers.  Where those needs overlap (and usually they do) everything
is fine.  But a lot of problems come up when they don't.

Adam