Steve Bennett wrote:
On 1/27/07, Rich Holton richholton@gmail.com wrote:
Wikipedia is not a web directory. There are (or were, at least) people who condense Wikipedia on CD/DVDs for use by those who don't have (reliable) internet access. This sort of distribution is a fundamental objective of the project. Suggesting that we don't need to include information because it's available elsewhere on the web suggests a misunderstanding of the project.
"Don't need to" is terribly simplistic. We don't have infinite resources, or infinite time. If we did, everything would be simple. But given that I can spend only finite per time working on Wikipedia, where would you, the hypothetical pointy-haired boss of Wikipedia want me to spend my time? Creating 10 stubs with 1 external link each, or creating 1 article with 10 lines of text?
There are endless ways of contributing to Wikipedia. Just because one chooses not to take up one of them doesn't mean one isn't contributing...
I don't care whether you add stubs, "micro-stubs", or featured-article quality articles. This isn't about what _you_ decide to work on.
Going back to your post that I was replying to:
<quoted text> Have a look at [[Club skifield]] (which I wrote). Follow the external link. Is it really worth our (my) while attempting to write something that surpasses the link in terms of quality, depth, comprehensiveness of coverage? Practically speaking, who is going to be reading Wikipedia that doesn't have access to the net, but needs that information? </quoted text>
I took this to be a suggestion that it isn't worth your (our) effort to include or better content that is found elsewhere on the net. And I wanted to make sure that you (we) understood that there _are_ people who will use Wikipedia without having access to the web.
And I don't appreciate your painting me as some sort of self-appointed Wikipedia manager. There was nothing in my post to suggest that I objected to your efforts. What I objected to was what I perceived as your limited understanding of the nature of the project.
-Rich