[Wikipedia-l] On the uselessness of stubs

[Axel Boldt]

Lars wrote:

> I think you should add 200 articles that are not yet written to each
> 20 that you found. [...] there is also a great need to add more
> articles, and in my personal opinion it is better to add a stub than
> not.

I disagree. If you spend a weekend researching a topic on E2, EB,
Google or in a library and then write a well-rounded 4 paragraph
article on it, you will have improved the world and yourself. If you
spend the weekend creating 200 stubs instead, you will have
accomplished precisely nothing.

A stub does not tell the reader anything that they didn't know already
or that they couldn't have found out in 2 minutes on the internet. If
the stub ever shows up at the top of a Google result list, it will
actually waste the reader's time and lower the general perception of
Wikipedia's quality. I can't see any possible use for stubs.

Axel