Klarinet Archive - Posting 000111.txt from 2010/05

From: Joseph Wakeling <joseph.wakeling@-----.net>
Subj: Re: [kl] Wikipedia Clarinet Page
Date: Mon, 10 May 2010 12:46:14 -0400

On 05/10/2010 06:36 PM, Curtis Bennett wrote:
> I don't have any stats on it, but my guess is that, by and large, most
> of wikipedia is made up of 1 or 2 line edits by millions of people.
> The minority contributors are the ones actually creating entire pages
> of content. Most pages start small, and then grow slowly by hundreds
> of people making small corrective changes and additions.

Oh, I would never disparage people making 1 or 2 line edits in the
general sense. In fact there is research out there showing that some of
the most important contributions are by "good Samaritans" who make one
and only one edit to a document -- it's the kind of thing I've done
myself on plenty of occasions.

I'm also very much in favour of writing new articles "in the open" so
that people can see what is happening and join in, rather than just
dumping a fully-written article. (I've had arguments about this with
some Wikipedians who take a different view...)

My point is that there is a definite benefit to combining that with some
kind of long-term maintenance to incorporate those small edits in an
effective way. If the small contributor makes their contribution well,
that's not necessary -- but there are plenty of articles where that
doesn't happen.

Whatever kind of edits are being made, it helps if there's a community
of dedicated people around an article, and the Klarinet list could
potentially provide this.
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