On 2/27/07, T P <t0m0p0(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 2/27/07, Gwern Branwen <gwern0(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Every one of those links had to be clicked on.
Adam
True, but when I go on one of my reading sprees (and the three hours
referenced in the comic isn't exactly unusual...) I'm not specifically
looking for say, [[Taylor Hanson]]. If I get there from [[Tacoma Narrows
Bridge]], there's a good chance I've never heard of Taylor Hanson before and
followed a trail of "loosely related material" because I found connections
interesting. I have, in fact, gotten to [[Taylor Hanson]] fairly randomly
(and even that's assuming I haven't been using the oh-so-wonderful random
page button).
If an article's lead isn't interesting, I'll close that browser tab and go
on to the next one. If it is interesting, I'll read the article and
probably open a few new links. In other words, I'll tend to go to whatever
the article links to in much the same way that when reading a magazine I'll
flip to whatever the magazine gives me.
This is obviously merely my approach as a reader. Does every reader take
this approach? Probably not. Would I do this with the Encyclopaedia
Britannica? Heck no. But without this aspect of Wikipedia, I'd probably
use Wikipedia about as much as I do Britannica.
-- Jonel