[WikiEN-l] Destructionism

[David Gerard]

On 7 August 2010 01:25, stevertigo <stvrtg at gmail.com> wrote:

> Destructionism: The tendency for Wikipedia articles which have reached
> an advanced degree of completeness and encyclopedic value to be edited
> in increasingly destructive ways, simply because perfection has
> already been achieved or nearly achieved, yet articles remain open to
> editing.


You have an erroneous assumption: that there is perfection or that
even a high quality article says all that anyone would ever want to
know on the topic.

It tends to proceed in a cycle. Well-written, someone adds more stuff
they think is missing, someone polishes the writing once more, someone
adds more stuff.

Those who did the polishing get *really annoyed* at the people adding
more *stuff*, but it probably benefits the reader. People come to
Wikipedia for its breadth of coverage, not its polished writing.

Indeed, some articles decay into mush. I didn't say polishing was easy
- it isn't, which is why the people who do it get so resentful.


- d.