[Foundation-l] Essay

[George Herbert]

On Wed, Apr 21, 2010 at 11:25 AM, Amir E. Aharoni
<amir.aharoni at mail.huji.ac.il> wrote:
> 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."


I disagree with even going that far.

It's possible and desirable to have encyclopedic coverage of popular
culture topics, which have criticism and analysis and so forth.
Relativity is not "better" than South Park; the universe would stop
without one, but the other has more people who follow along and
understand it.

What any individual person chooses to focus on in working on Wikipedia
depends on their own personal interests, and their personal judgment
on what's worth their time in their own value system.  I don't find
any value in devaluing other people's priorities or value system.


-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com