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List:       wikien-l
Subject:    Re: [WikiEN-l] Anonymous page creation will be reenabled on	English
From:       Ray Saintonge <saintonge () telus ! net>
Date:       2007-10-31 19:02:59
Message-ID: 4728D163.6040501 () telus ! net
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Brian Salter-Duke wrote:
> On Mon, Oct 29, 2007 at 01:11:17AM -0600, Todd Allen wrote:
>   
>> Philip Sandifer wrote:
>>     
>>> On Oct 28, 2007, at 3:14 PM, Todd Allen wrote:
>>>       
>>>>> Those "Hey, I'll start a one-para article on something I know" are
>>>>>           
>>>> generally just as bad or worse, and harder to remove. 
>>>>         
>>> I'm missing, I think, why this is bad.
>>> -Phil
>>>       
>> No sources, half the time ("half" being probably an underestimation) on
>> very, very borderline subjects that -just- duck speedy to start with,
>> usually most of what's there is wrong (because it's pulled from memory,
>> not sources), etc.
>>     
> I think that the majority of articles were probably pulled from memory
> and then later the author or others added sources and modified the
> article to match the sources. One reason why wikipedia is so successfull
> is that the collective memory of people is massive. Do not knock it? If
> we relied on people going to sources first all the time, the place would
> be much less successful, much less interesting and much smaller. The
> collective knowledge of people is what WP has tapped into.
Exactly.  That's why lack of sources by itself should never be a basis 
for speedy deletion.  If Todd wants to make this about "borderline 
subjects" that's a completely different criterion that needs to be 
investigated separately.  "Borderline" suggests uncertainty, and that 
too makes speedy inapplicable.

"Collective memory" is a tough idea for some people out there at the 
triple point of knowledge.  Those standing on solids still need the 
wisdom to distinguish between the gas and liquid states.

Ec

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