[WikiEN-l] Attack Site Wars, Episode VII... The Return of the Essjay

[The Cunctator]

On 6/28/07, Blu Aardvark <jeffrey.latham at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Why does Wikipedia have to have an entry on everything that is reported
> by some media source or other?


Gah.


Yes, the event was covered by a few reliable sources, but it didn't take
> long for the media to forget all about it. And nobody will even give a
> rat's behind about the Essjay Controversy in five, ten years, except for
> maybe a few Wikipedia users who were affected by it.


Oh great Kreskin, please tell me the price of Google stock in 10 years.



Just because a
> person or event made some headlines doesn't necessarily mean that that
> person or event is notable.


Well, yes, it does. It was noted. Remember that "notable" is even a lower
bar than "noted".


Oh, it's *verifiable*, to be sure, but
> verifiability is not the same as notability, or else Wikipedia would
> have articles on anyone who has ever made their local rag. (Nobody is
> arguing for that. At least, I hope nobody is...)


Oh, I have argued for that. Also, that's a straw man. The Essjay controversy
was noted in several national papers and on national television.


Do real encyclopedias devote space to discussing singular events that
> happened to be reported by some random notable media source? Not
> generally. Now, granted, real encyclopedias generally don't have lists
> of episodes in television series as well (and some would argue that
> having those lists is one of Wikipedia's strong points), and there are
> quite a few other things that might not be found in traditional
> encyclopedias due to the fact that Wikipedia is an entirely different
> medium. However, as for events that just happened to get a flurry of
> media attention that then died down, isn't that what Wikinews is for?


By "real encyclopedias" I assume you mean "dead-tree for-profit
closed-development encyclopedias", since a real encyclopedia in the sense of
satisfying the meaning of the wor "encyclopedia" would contain all human
knowledge in it.

And Wikinews has more in-depth coverage of the Essjay controversy.