[Wikipedia-l] Biographies of unimportant people (was: "In memoriam")

[Toby Bartels]

Lars Aronsson wrote:

>I thought that Wikipedia would be self-regulatory in this liberal
>manner, but the flood of messages on this list in the last month has
>focused on what should *not* be in the Wikipedia (stubs etc.).  I
>think this is sad and destructive.  I wanted the liberal approach,
>where anybody could write what they liked as long as Jimmy could
>afford the disk space.

Do you doubt that Wikipedia will end up like this?  I do not.
For myself, I only want to control the growth, keep it centred.
Those that would keep Wikipedia forever within traditional bounds
are doomed to failure in the end.  Yet Wikipedia is still small,
and in that respect still like the Encyclopaedia Britannica,
and we can learn from them how to keep such a small reference work
focused and balanced.  By 2005, we will be far beyond this, however.


-- Toby