[Wikipedia-l] Years in review and the need for editorial judgement

[Stephen Gilbert]

--- Lars Aronsson <lars at aronsson.se> wrote:
> On Fri, 28 Jun 2002, Jimmy Wales wrote:
> > One of our "discoveries" is that people of very
> diverse opinions can
> > write encyclopedia articles together, using NPOV
> as a guideline to
> > mediate conflict.  It works remarkably well.  It
> would not work for
> > poetry, for political commentary, for fiction,
> etc.
> 
> Is this a discovery that is unique to Wikipedia?
> 
> Couldn't the same discovery be expressed: "it is
> possible (no matter who
> does it) to write articles (in an encyclopedia or
> newspaper), using NPOV
> as a guideline, so that no reader would care to
> protest against the
> wording of the text".
> 
> I think that this is the same approach that has been
> used by every
> encyclopedia and newspaper editor, ever.  Only they
> might have called it
> "factualism and objectivity" rather than NPOV.
> 
> Or is this wrong?

Such articles are usually written by one person and
edited by another. The editor is then roundly cursed
by the author.

Wikipedia articles often have no individual author,
but are worked on by people of (sometimes wildly)
differing views and opinions. I think what Jimmy is
getting at is that a project like this *can* work
without breaking down into flame wars. Since everyone
who has heard of the project has raised the flame war
criticism, it certainly *seems* like a discovery.

-- Stephen Gilbert


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