[Wikipedia-l] Entries for deletion.... issues from the Third World

[Ray Saintonge]

Steve wrote:

>Maybe this is a rookie opinion, but I think that the AFD process tends to
>attract people who are focused on keeping wikipedia "uncluttered" and
>"relevant". They're always going to "err on the side of delete" and that's
>that. You can present anything to the people at AFD, but its a systemic
>habit. Those aren't just going to undo because of one person's polite
>suggestion.
>
Congenital neat-freaks!  An interesting study would be to try to 
correlate the level of neatness around one's computer workspace with 
one's place on the deletionis/inclusionist spectrum. :-)

>While I happen to think deletionists could be restrained greatly without
>loss to Wikipedia (since the articles they're deleting are hardly well
>connected and widely viewed), I'm just one opinion. Over the years I've
>noticed a kind of institutional insecurity grow in Wikipedia, over fears our
>pedia is being perceived as full of unverified internet rabble.
>
This kind of sclerosis strikes me as common in the growth of 
institutions.  Sometimes I wonder whether we have enough excape velocity 
to escape that cycle.  Someone starts with a great idea, and has access 
to enough resources to get it off the ground.  When it succeeds more 
than he ever would have dreamed it takes on a life of its own.  More and 
more people become involved at a point further removed in time from the 
original idea.  They can see the project as an excellent one, and their 
instinct is to protect it.  This kind of smothering risks suffocating 
the baby.

Ec