[WikiEN-l] Interesting remark in Guardian blog

[Carcharoth]

On Mon, Mar 16, 2009 at 3:48 PM, Sam Blacketer
<sam.blacketer at googlemail.com> wrote:

<snip>

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/apr/10/wikipedia.internet

Thanks for bringing up that old article from 2008. Some lovely bits there:

"It was like a giant community leaf-raking project in which everyone
was called a groundsman. Some brought very fancy professional metal
rakes, or even back-mounted leaf-blowing systems, and some were just
kids thrashing away with the sides of their feet or stuffing handfuls
in the pockets of their sweatshirts, but all the leaves they brought
to the pile were appreciated.

And the pile grew and everyone jumped up and down in it, having a
wonderful time. And it grew some more, and it became the biggest leaf
pile anyone had ever seen, a world wonder.

And then self-promoted leaf-pile guards appeared, doubters and
deprecators who would look askance at your proffered handful and shake
their heads, saying that your leaves were too crumpled or too slimy or
too common, throwing them to the side. And that was too bad. The
people who guarded the leaf pile this way were called "deletionists".

But that came later. First it was just fun. "

Rather a nice analogy, I think.

Carcharoth