[Cz-editcouncil] Change of language about stubs

[Jérôme Delacroix]

I think it's a good move.

Jerome

--


Jérôme Delacroix

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www.cooperatique.com

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jerome at cooperatique.com



Le 11 août 07 à 17:04, David Goodman a écrit :

> 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.
> _______________________________________________
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