[Foundation-l] Essay

[Amir E. Aharoni]

Your email is a bit too black and white: There are important articles in
Humanities, not just in exact sciences, and a Bob Dylan album is arguably a
touch more important than a South Park episode.

But in general you make an important point. In the Hebrew Wikipedia several
prominent editors adopted an attitude they call "Wiki A / Wiki B", which
they define more or less like this:
* To "Wiki A" belong articles that are likely to be used by students to do
homework. They should be as good as possible.
* To "Wiki B" belong articles about articles about pop culture, video games
and sportsmen. It's a waste of time and mental health to try to get "Wiki B"
articles deleted, but it's also a waste of time to get them improved.

Also, "Wiki B"-style articles rarely get to FA status in he.wp.

On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 14:31, Bod Notbod <bodnotbod at gmail.com> wrote:

> "The primary function of the Wikipedias is to educate in the sciences,
> philosophy, technology and all that truly useful stuff. Nevertheless
> there's an argument for a Featured Article on South Park because it
> brings in new blood. Such an article can pique the interest of teens
> and twenties and get them involved. Discuss."
>
> My reply would be:
>
> There's a difficulty in that you get trapped. At the moment, the task
> I've set myself is to review Featured Article candidates. You might
> set yourself a task and find yourself dealing with stuff that,
> frankly, isn't very educational. I proofread an article on a Bob Dylan
> album because it came up for review. But should I really be
> proofreading articles on biology, chemistry and physics?
>
> I don't have expertise in those areas but I may at least change an
> "its" to an "it's" or vice versa.
>
> I think at the heart of the question is; do you find yourself sticking
> to a routine without questioning the relative value of what you're
> doing? Is fighting vandalism on a South Park article equal to fighting
> vandalism on science? We all only have a certain number of hours in
> the day.
>
> User:Bodnotbod
>
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-- 
אָמִיר אֱלִישָׁע אַהֲרוֹנִי
Amir Elisha Aharoni

http://aharoni.wordpress.com

"We're living in pieces,
I want to live in peace." - T. Moore