[Wikipedia-l] Wikipedia is an encyclopedia

[Ray Saintonge]

Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales wrote:

>The community does not come before our task, the community is
>organized *around* our task.  The difference is simply that decisions
>ought to always be made not on the grounds of social expediency or
>popular majority, but in light of the requirements of the job we have
>set for ourselves.
>
Similarly, the sister projects too are organized around their own tasks, 
though even there they maintain a more distant relationship to the idea 
of an encyclopedia.

>I do not endorse the view, a view held as far as I know only by a very
>tiny minority, that Wikipedia is anti-elitist or anti-expert in any
>way.  If anything, we are *extremely* elitist but anti-credentialist.
>That is, we seek thoughtful intelligent people willing to do the very
>hard work of getting it right, and we don't accept anything less than
>that.  PhDs are valuable evidence of that, and attracting and
>retraining academic specialists is a valid goal.
>
I think that where Larry Sanger missed the point is in confounding the 
experts with their expertise.  Many of the more stable editors among us 
deeply appreciate expertise, while being highly intolerant of experts 
who expect their status to give them a free ride. The editors from 
academia who lasted understand that, and have learned to live with it.  
They understand that the dues that they paid elsewhere are not 
recognized as dues here.

>I'm 100% committed to a goal of "Britannica or better" quality for
>Wikipedia, and all of our social rules should revolve around that.
>Openness is indispensible for us, but it is our *radical* means to our
>radical *ends*.
>  
>
You're too modest.  Why not simply say, "Better than Britannica"?

Ec