[Wikipedia-l] Collaborative, up-to-the-minute construction of current and ongoing events of historical significance

[The Cunctator]

On 8/12/02 9:05 AM, "Fred Bauder" <fredbaud at ctelco.net> wrote:
> "Current events is not a news page. We shouldn't be in the business of
> writing articles about breaking news stories, unless indeed we can be very
> confident, as in the case of the September 11 attacks, that in the future
> there will be a significant call for an encyclopedia article on that topic.
> One very significant danger is that news articles must be kept current in
> order to remain accurate. Wikipedians might begin a news article and then
> simply lose interest in the topic, whereupon the article becomes
> inaccurate. In short, we aren't set up to be an amateur news organization,
> and we shouldn't try to compete with professional news organizations."
> 
> In this case the significance of the stock market downturn is not yet
> determined; the invasion may not happen at all but is sure to be
> significant when it does. It is pretty clear that an article that does
> doesn't attract participation is a loser. If an article does attact
> significant participation it provides a record of contemporary views of the
> event.

That's one opinion. Mine is different.