True, but how well is the distinction understood by people who apply the templates or rate the articles?
Newyorkbrad On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 11:30 AM, Ian Woollard <[email protected]>wrote: > I think not. There's a difference between a stub (which may not have > many or even any references at all) and a very short article. > Something can be a valid C-class, and still only be 2 or 3 paragraphs. > > On 14/02/2011, Newyorkbrad <[email protected]> wrote: > > I think Charles is right about this. There is a common conception, or > > misconception, that stubship or start-class-ship is just a way station on > > the way to articlehood. But some articles are probably destined to > remain > > short, or at least, can remain short without their > > shortness reflecting poorly on the project. I don't know if there are > any > > statistics, but I am sure that the Britannica (for example) has at least > as > > many one- or two- or three-paragraph articles as lengthier ones. > > > > It may be that the wording of the stub template fosters this reading. > "This > > article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it." Often, of > > course, but perhaps not always. > > > > Newyorkbrad > > > > > > > > > > > > > > On Mon, Feb 14, 2011 at 4:23 AM, Charles Matthews < > > [email protected]> wrote: > > > >> On 14/02/2011 03:35, Ian Woollard wrote: > >> > I think you can't take the simple percentages of articles, a lot of > >> > the most important and well visited articles are pretty well sorted, > >> > whereas the stubs are mostly articles few people go to. > >> While this discussion is worth having, I wish to record a view, now long > >> held, by means of a metaphor. Wikipedia is an omelette, not scrambled > >> eggs. Because of the intrinsic use of of hypertext, taking WP to be (in > >> the large) a collection of articles is always a distortion. If the "few > >> people" who go to a stub are just those who would refer to a > >> corresponding footnote in a book, the system as a whole is functioning > >> as it should. > >> > >> Charles > >> > >> > >> _______________________________________________ > >> WikiEN-l mailing list > >> [email protected] > >> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: > >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l > >> > > _______________________________________________ > > WikiEN-l mailing list > > [email protected] > > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: > > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l > > > > > -- > -Ian Woollard > > _______________________________________________ > WikiEN-l mailing list > [email protected] > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: > https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l > _______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
