[Wikipedia-l] policy content and its navigation

[Larry Sanger]

From: "Rybo" <rybox at wtal.de>
>  is there a wiki policy about content and navigation into it?
>
>  What I have in mind is that I feel this huge link lists a little bit
> disturbing. Often they are intermixed with text (content).

I find this delightful, myself.  In any event, the whole thing is supposed
to be maximally useful to someone who is surfing Wikipedia.

Also, remember--sometimes, a list of links *is* content.  Personally, I
prefer it when people add some "content" (i.e., descriptive prose) to a list
of links (e.g., the [[actresses]] article would be a grand place to give
some general discussion about actresses, the first female actors
(actpeople?), some of the greatest Hollywood actresses, the "starlet"
syndrome, the sex symbol phenomenon, etc.

> How can someone print this? A few lines and then pages full of links?

We aren't writing Wikipedia to be printed out yet.  We're writing it to have
fun making an encyclopedia.  If someone wants to print something out, he
could simply copy and paste what he wants to print.  Eventually, when
there's a lot more content, we might make systematic, community-agreed-upon
changes to format--but, I imagine, only after we have experienced the
enormous benefits of *self-organizing* content-creation.

> Shouldn't there be a separation of content and navigation items?

But Wikipedia is hypertext!  See http://www.wikipedia.com/wiki/Hypertext .

Larry Sanger