[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia is not a dictionary (was: Re: Old Wikipedia backups discovered)

[Anthony]

>>> What counts as "beyond a dictionary entry".  Are you talking about
>>> length, or content?
>>
>> The latter.  The aforementioned "Nigger" article contains a great deal
>> of material that one would not find in any dictionary with which I'm
>> familiar.
>
> It also contains a great deal of material that one would not find in
> any encyclopedia with which I'm familiar.

And most of the material I think would be *more likely* to be in a
dictionary than an encyclopedia.  Meaning, etymology, usage,
derivatives.  These are all things more likely to be found in a
dictionary than an encyclopedia.

Basically, if you took a dictionary, and removed the space
requirements, and then took an encyclopedia, and removed the space
requirements, the content of http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nigger would
likely be in the former, and not the latter.