The Battle For Wikipedia's Soul

njondet recommends an article at The Economist that sheds light on the identity crisis faced by Wikipedia as it is torn between two alternative futures. "'It can either strive to encompass every aspect of human knowledge, no matter how trivial; or it can adopt a more stringent editorial policy and ban articles on trivial subjects, in the hope that this will enhance its reputation as a trustworthy and credible reference source. These two conflicting visions are at the heart of a bitter struggle inside Wikipedia between 'inclusionists,' who believe that applying strict editorial criteria will dampen contributors' enthusiasm for the project, and 'deletionists' who argue that Wikipedia should be more cautious and selective about its entries."

Comments

Re:They should fix their own

[TapeCutter]

A software package that rates 3 google hits? And you say your not just doing it for free adverstising?

Wikipedia lost it's "soul" a while back

[Mycroft_514]

It has been taken over by liberals, who are spreading the gospel of liberalism. I mean really, when I have to jump thru hoops to prove such a trivial error as John Kerry only ending as a LTjg, rather than a full LT, you know that bias has creep in. (And yes, I did manage to "prove it" to Wikipedia's satisfaction - I used John Kerry's own published records from John Kerry's website.)

Too bad the other documents were removed from his website, which coupled with facts about the Navy promotion system prove that John Kerry was given a dishonorable discharge - that's why JK pulled those documents from his website, and from the wayback machine.

But, try and get the garbage about George Bush being AWOL pulled from the Bush entry. No facts and it stays there, because "everyone knows" it is true.

Talk about a double standard.

And yes, I do have Karma to burn here, so go ahead and flame away, you know you want to, because the same thing is true here too. (By that, I mean that liberals rule here too. And this post, true as it is, will get flamed away. It is why I don't post that much anymore.)

Re:Deletionists are conservative

[jollyreaper]

Basically deletionists view with bad eyes everything that is fiction related, and dismiss it. Good. If someone wants to start a 'fictionpedia' they should go right ahead, but it's actually a little embarrassing when there's more written about Scooby-Doo than the Napoleonic Wars. Then do something about it, asshole. And by "something" I don't mean delete the Scooby entry.