[WikiEN-l] Destructionism

[stevertigo]

David Gerard <dgerard at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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.

I do work hard at polishing ledes, and Im not unhappy when something
Ive written stands the test of time. But there are times when it seems
that open editing model itself was nothing more a bad idea. I guess
this idea reflects a bit of that pessimism. :-)

The 'decay into mush' point is well made. Its difficult sometimes for
one to justify to oneself the effort required to overcome mush-ism -
particularly when its an adversarial system (WP:BRD). Its the
adversarial systems which seem to be paradoxically constructive and
destructive at the same time.

-SC