[WikiEN-l] I'm disappointed in Wikipedia.

[John Lee]

On 6/17/07, Todd Allen <toddmallen at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> I wouldn't go so far as to say it would kill off the project, but I
> believe it would be bad for it. We're not attempting to create "Who's
> Who in Academia", we're attempting to create an encyclopedia. By
> covering subjects which are barely of note, very little information
> exists for, and will be forgotten completely ten years from now, we are
> giving them undue weight simply by inclusion. That violates NPOV, which
> -is- a core principle.


Actually, IIRC we're supposed to be *the* encyclopaedia for any field, be it
sadomasochism, zoology, and yes, academia. The standard for inclusion if you
want to benchmark us against other encyclopaedias should not be "Would this
be published in a general encyclopaedia?" but "Would this be published in
any encyclopaedia, including one focused on the field of the subject?" I can
imagine many of these subjects who are barely of note being published in an
encyclopaedia of academia.

Johnleemk