[Wikipedia-l] Re: Educating newcomers

[Magnus Manske]

Christopher Mahan wrote:

>--- Jason Williams <jason at jasonandali.org.uk> wrote:
>  
>
>Unfortunately that is not the case if Wikipedia still clings to the
>notion that it would cover human knowledge. The only requirement for
>that is to be humans. Tigers and whales can set up their "Tigers and
>Whales" encyclopedia.
>
Try putting some emphasis on *knowledge* as well...

>To deny access to wikipedia who do not conform to 20th century
>western academic standards would deny, oh, roughly, 90% of the human
>race from participating. In which case, it would not be an
>encyclopedia of the human knowledge, but rather a wanna-be
>encyclopedia with only 10% of human knowledge.
>
"The earth is flat" is not human knowledge. "Some people believe the 
earth is flat" is.
If 90% of the human race don't know the diameter of earth, it will 
suffice to write down that knowledge of the 10% remaining. It could also 
be mentioned that most people don't know the diameter of earth, but 
their not-knowing (or assuming something wrong) is *not* knowledge in 
itself, and can therefore not be counted.

>It's sort of like saying: all persons have inalieanble rights yet
>only citizens have access to lawyers free of charge. Pretty silly
>huh?
>
Your comparison, yes.

Magnus