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

[Ray Saintonge]

Frederick Noronha wrote:

>Hmmm... some interesting issues being raised below. Just for argument
>sake: what happens if an "un-notable" entry makes it to Wikipedia?
>Would it be a grave error? Notability, after all, is mostly related to
>context. Would Shakespeare have been as "noted" a writer, if he had to
>be born in, say, Upper Egypt?
>
Quick!  Without looking at any references, how many Egyptian authors can 
you name?

>I think the problem lies elsewhere. The trouble is: people or
>institutions being packaged to be what they are not. Or bloated claims
>about institutions or organisations or individuals.
>
In other words marketting.  For the institutions selling these ideas, or 
packaging content with software, the per unit cost of a package goes 
down as more packages are sold.  There is no profit in a package that 
only a small number of people around the world will even consider buying 
at a price which they feel is right.  The real costs of the package 
would make pricing on a cost recovery basis unreasonably high. 

>Rather than just delete entries for being un-notable, perhaps we need
>to find ways to ensure that what's written is both accurate and
>tallies with the reality. --FN
>
Notability has bean a contentios issue ever sincee I became involved.  
During that time I've seen both No Original Research and Verifiability 
developed as ways of dealing with the notability problem.  Neither 
solution has succeeded as well as might have been anticipated at the time.

Ec