On Thu, Feb 26, 2009 at 6:24 AM, Carcharoth <[email protected]>wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 1:09 PM, Anthony <[email protected]> wrote: > > On Tue, Feb 24, 2009 at 3:15 AM, Ray Saintonge <[email protected]> > wrote > > > >> > 2009/2/23 Carcharoth <[email protected]>: > >> >> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ben_Bowen > >> It's a great example of maudlinism run rampant. Why this 2-year old, > >> and not another who died of cancer? > > > > Just pure random luck. > > "luck" was probably not the right word there, in this context. > I was being sarcastic. Obviously there are reasons that there's an article about Ben Bowen and not about every 2-year old that died of cancer. In fact, there's at least one good one: There are not verifiable sources for every 2-year old that died of cancer. I was listening to Wikipedia Weekly from a short while ago when they were discussing what should be in Wikinews vs. what should be in Wikipedia vs. what should be in both, and I think a case could be made that the story of Ben Bowen is a good candidate for Wikinews instead of Wikipedia. I think it's a useful story, and belongs somewhere (along with, in my opinion, stories about even less publicized 2-year-olds so long as they can be derived from verifiable sources). But it does seem out of place in an encyclopedia - the impact of this particular child will likely not be historically significant 20 years from now, though I think it will provide a glimpse into the culture in which we live. Newspaper archives are a good source for such cultural information, I'd think. The [[StoryCorps]] project is also archiving this "slice of life" type information, although they're doing it in a way which doesn't enforce verifiability. That said, I don't think Wikinews is currently in a state where it can handle this type of content, and I have no problems with it living in Wikipedia until there's a more suitable home (I know, this notion is blasphemous, but I'm an outsider so I can make such blasphemous statements). A Wikinews article on Ben Bowen would likely look completely different from the Wikipedia article on him, and I think it'd necessarily be worse instead of better or even just different. _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
