User:Samuel Blanning/Scribblings

This is a dumping ground for various thoughts that I felt like writing down, but aren't yet able to be fleshed out into actual essays. As with all essays, this page attempts to explain and understand existing Wikipedia policies and guidelines, but in the end is purely the opinion of its author(s). Feel free to edit this page as any other, or use the talk page to discuss major changes.

1. Wikipedia is not the entire Internet. Should we contain game guide articles repeating all the units in Command and Conquer from the game manual? No, because there is GameFAQs. Should we relax the disputed concept of 'notability' so long as the existence of a subject is verifiable, even from obscure trade journals and local school rags? No, because there is the Yellow Pages, and there is Myspace. "This is useful" is an all-too-often seen argument on AfD, and not a very good one. "This is useful" is an argument for someone hosting this information somewhere on the Internet, which thanks to the wonders of the GFDL, they can do without asking anyone. Why should it be hosted here?

In a similar vein, many things in this world are interesting, funny, shocking, curious, etc. Some may even be considered as such by numerous people. That doesn't mean we should have an article on it, even when you call it a 'meme'. Google still exists.

2. I get quite enough Wikipedia on Wikipedia, thank you. Apart from when someone points to specific posts, I don't read the mailing lists or enter the IRC channels. From what I've seen and heard such forums suffer from a detachment problem, that is, the fact that people aren't on wiki appears to loosen their restraint, making them more likely to engage in amateur dramatics. Coupled with the fact that, thankfully, off-wiki discussion can rarely be used to back up controversial on-wiki actions (when they do it tends to go horribly wrong), the mailing lists generate an enormous amount of light and very little heat.

3. The Second Law of Trade Awards: Adam Smith said that "people of the same trade seldom meet together, even for merriment and diversion, but the conversation ends in a conspiracy against the public". In the "all must have prizes" era, people of the same trade seldom meet together, but they start giving each other awards. They will also probably start publishing a trade magazine.

Corollary: the fact that something has received an award does not make it notable; to confer notability, the award must be notable itself. Just like anything, the acid test of notability is whether anyone other than the awarding body and its associated trade publication covers it. If the award ceremony for the Slough Telephone Sanitiser of the Year is only covered by Germ-Free Communication Monthly, and inexplicably ignored by The Times, The Guardian et al, those who win it probably do not justify historical record just yet.