On 9/9/07, Anthony wikimail@inbox.org wrote:
But surely the text surrounding the link tells you why the person is notable.
Oh yeah. "Walter had close connections with many 18th century notables including [[Fred Johnson]], [[Pierre de Bonsang]]...".
There are all sorts of reasons you'd end up on a Wikipedia article - not necessarily because you're searching for more information on that specific subject.
Well, yeah, if you're new page patrolling, for instance, and searching around for stuff to delete. But I would think the times "normal people" go to an article for a reason other than to find more information about that subject are extremely rare.
I was a bit imprecise. I mean you often end up reading an article that was not the specific focus of your research as a whole. Hell, much of the time I end up on Wikipedia because I've googled an unfamiliar term that someone dropped into a conversation - I know no context whatsoever.
Steve