[Wikipedia-l] Re: why an average person would wish to ruin a good article?

[Michael Snow]

Fred Bauder wrote:

> You're changing the subject. Which is that an excellent article 
> written by a
>
>knowledgable person which CONFORMS TO THE ACCEPTED CANON OF KNOWLEDGE can be
>trashed back to the level of what the average users remember from their
>undergraduate courses.
>  
>
There's an ACCEPTED CANON OF KNOWLEDGE? Wow, I had no idea! Where is it, 
and how can I get my hands on it? Why hasn't anybody deleted everything 
in Wikipedia yet and replaced it with this CANON? (sarcasm alert)

Seriously, Fred raises a valid concern that the survey material taught 
to undergraduates is frequently incorrect or dated. But the idea of a 
canon of knowledge veers dangerously to POV. And suggesting that more 
advanced education is the cure is arrogant; Ph.D.s aren't required here 
(caveat - Fred's statement doesn't mean he's arguing for this, I'm just 
drawing one possible conclusion from it). Anyway, if such a canon is 
possible, Wikipedia seems like the best way to get it accepted, but it 
will take literally forever to reach that point.

--Michael Snow