[WikiEN-l] Talking to Jimmy Wales about discussion

[Will L <Nabble>]

Nathan, and everyone,

Thanks for the responses. Let me make the idea more concrete.

Here is the wiki article on what is Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia
Here is the wikien-l mailing list discussions:
http://www.nabble.com/English-Wikipedia-f14021.html

I use Nabble's wikien-l archive because it's easy to browse the topics and
to SEE the tight relationship between the discussions and the wiki article.

They complement each other. Why should they be separated?

Regards,
Will


Nathan Awrich wrote:
> 
> Hi Will,
> 
> Thanks for your interest. I think Jimmy and Thomas have made the standard
> points above - that our aim is to provide a source of accessible and
> comprehensive information. It isn't a primary teaching tool. We aim to,
> for
> instance, contain all the material you might find in a standard general
> chemistry textbook (as an example). What we do not do, though, is provide
> this material in a manner suitable for actually learning general
> chemistry.
> We also, obviously, don't provide an instructor.
> 
> One of the key benefits of the Wikipedia development model is that it
> allows
> for improvements by people who are not terribly well informed, on the
> assumption that in time enough people will have enough aggregate knowledge
> that the general quality of our articles will be high. The editors who
> might
> respond about a subject on the talkpage of a random article can't be
> assumed
> to have complete knowledge, or even to know much of anything at all. They
> might still make valuable contributions to the article, but you wouldn't
> want to ask a question (say, about breast cancer) where an accurate answer
> would require a broad depth of knowledge on related subjects.
> 
> On the other hand, we do have the reference desk. General subject
> questions
> are often answered there, and perhaps that is a form of the tool you're
> looking for? Kind of a Wikipedia-style Google Answers?
> 
> Nathan
> 
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