[WikiEN-l] Rating the English wikipedia

[Ian Woollard]

I think not. There's a difference between a stub (which may not have
many or even any references at all) and a very short article.
Something can be a valid C-class, and still only be 2 or 3 paragraphs.

On 14/02/2011, Newyorkbrad <newyorkbrad at gmail.com> wrote:
> I think Charles is right about this.  There is a common conception, or
> misconception, that stubship or start-class-ship is just a way station on
> the way to articlehood.  But some articles are probably destined to remain
> short, or at least, can remain short without their
> shortness reflecting poorly on the project.  I don't know if there are any
> statistics, but I am sure that the Britannica (for example) has at least as
> many one- or two- or three-paragraph articles as lengthier ones.
>
> It may be that the wording of the stub template fosters this reading.  "This
> article is a stub.  You can help Wikipedia by expanding it."  Often, of
> course, but perhaps not always.
>
> Newyorkbrad
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 4:23 AM, Charles Matthews <
> charles.r.matthews at ntlworld.com> wrote:
>
>> On 14/02/2011 03:35, Ian Woollard wrote:
>> > I think you can't take the simple percentages of articles, a lot of
>> > the most important and well visited articles are pretty well sorted,
>> > whereas the stubs are mostly articles few people go to.
>> While this discussion is worth having, I wish to record a view, now long
>> held, by means of a metaphor. Wikipedia is an omelette, not scrambled
>> eggs. Because of the intrinsic use of of hypertext, taking WP to be (in
>> the large) a collection of articles is always a distortion. If the "few
>> people" who go to a stub are just those who would refer to a
>> corresponding footnote in a book, the system as a whole is functioning
>> as it should.
>>
>> Charles
>>
>>
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-- 
-Ian Woollard