[Cz-editcouncil] Change of language about stubs

[David Goodman]

An excellent change. In fact, I'd rather many newcomers started with
something small.

On 8/11/07, Larry Sanger <sanger at citizendium.org> wrote:
> All,
>
> The following falls under the category "items that might, but probably
> don't, need a vote."  If anyone would like the Editorial Council to
> debate and vote on this, please say so (on this list).  Otherwise, I'll
> just go ahead and make the change.  I'll give you until Tuesday
> afternoon (UTC) to object, without which I'll make the change.
>
> Essentially, this rewords the language about short articles ("stubs"),
> still ruling out *very* short stubs, but now slightly encouraging
> high-quality, longer (150-250 word) stubs.
>
> See below for the details.
>
> --Larry
>
>
> Here's the text (from
> http://en.citizendium.org/wiki/CZ:Policy_Outline#Stubs) I would replace:
>
> While it's all right to create a few stub articles (i.e., very short
> articles), particularly if you're committed to expanding them sometime
> soon, we would prefer that you focus on a smaller number of longer
> articles. It really does not do anyone good to have many very short
> articles. Stubs contain almost no information, and therefore not the
> information for which people might want to search; they "scratch the
> itch" of red links, when we would like that itch more fully scratched
> with a good article; they are a poor example to newer people, who follow
> the example by writing short articles of their own; and they arguably
> are a sign of vanity when used merely to add to the number of articles
> you've started.
>
> Here's what I would replace it with:
>
> You are welcome to contribute short entries, called "stubs," or articles
> that are approximately 150-250 words in length.  (Note: articles under
> 50 words may be deleted.)  Stubs should be self-contained, include an
> excellent [[CZ:Article_Mechanics#Definitions|definition or description]]
> of the topic, and in other respects serve as a good albeit very general
> overview of the topic.  In other words, it should be serviceable as an
> entry in a traditional desktop reference such as the
> ''[http://www.bartleby.com/65/ Columbia Encyclopedia.]''
>
> Some people believe that stubs actually encourage others to help "build
> the web."  Certainly there are many people who are capable of writing
> excellent shorter articles even when they are incapable of expanding
> them in a credible way.  We don't wish to discourage the creation of
> good content, and we bear in mind that we are still a very new project,
> and we must begin somewhere.  So if you feel tempted to "turn a red link
> blue" with a stub, feel free--just please do a good job, even if your
> entry is indeed brief.
>
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-- 
David Goodman, Ph.D, M.L.S.