Wiki draft proposal

Roy C. Lackey · 10 May 2006, 06:58 · from 2006-May.txt.gz

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From: rclackey at stic.net (Roy C. Lackey)
Date: Wed, 10 May 2006 01:58:24 -0500
Subject: (urth) Wiki draft proposal
Message-ID: <000a01c673ff$251dc300$433ec6d8 at rclackey.stic.net>

Jesper wrote:
>  - Theories and facts should be clearly separated. If there are
>theories about a subject, there should be a "Theories" section in the
>article with short descriptions of the theories and links to the
>separate articles.

What is fictive fact and what is theory -- and who decides? Is it a fact
that Weer is dead, or that Dorcas is Severian's grandmother? These two cases
are not that controversial; consensus is that they are facts, but that is
only a consensus. Did Weer really have constructed such an edifice as his
Memory House, or did it exist only in his head? It's been argued both ways.
Fact or theory?

[snip]
>  - One thing that must be discussed is the problem of the sender. In
>Wikipedia, the articles are presented as facts and the sender is
>considered secondary, but if someone writes an article theorizing about
>a subject in the WolfeWiki, then it might be wise to clearly mark out
>who the writer/sender is.

At the very least. I've seen some theories on this List better aired in an
outhouse. I've made posts I wish I could take back -- but I can't. It's one
thing to think out loud in public in a relatively small forum such as this,
but it's a very different thing to have such thoughts presented with a
presumption of authority or even credibility to a larger audience. I don't
know that much about Wikipedia, but if Whomever's opinions are presented
there as facts, then it is useless as an authority, and I could never in
good conscience cite it as such. Democracy is a wonderful ideal, but not all
opinions are equal.

-Roy

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