[WikiEN-l] Readers like infoboxes

[Peter Ansell]

On 21/01/2008, Bryan Derksen <bryan.derksen at shaw.ca> wrote:
> From: Peter Ansell <ansell.peter at gmail.com>
> > Wikipedia needs to assert control over its content once in a while.
> > The fact that the majority of most-frequented articles on wikipedia
> > are fiction means nothing to administrators who only care for the
> > project, as opposed to those readers who just use up bandwidth and
> > processing power on the server. It would be quite valuable to the
> > project to wipe out fiction articles as it would save heaps on monthly
> > bandwidth bills.
>
> I actually can't tell whether this is intended as a serious position statement or as an over-the-top parody of deletionism. If it's parody, good show. If it's serious... good lord. _Our readers are not our enemies_. We're not some sort of noble guardians of an ivory tower, trying to fight off hordes of yokels unworthy to read our precious works of pure academia. There's no "Us" and "Them" to insert a "versus" between. The more people that find value in our content the better, no matter who they are.
>
> If bandwidth reduction is so important, how about we require login to view our pages and bounce non-logged-in viewers to answers.com or one of our other mirrors? (Yes, it's a ridiculous idea. I'm doing the parody thing there).

A good parody has a certain amount of truth in it! Better to get
frustrations out with extreme parody than endless ramblings ;-)

The answers.com idea sounds like the kind of idea that fits a good parody!

Peter