I am fascinated with Wikipedia and its
free and
open nature. I see it as profoundly revolutionary.
I am a moderate
inclusionist, and so I see excessive
exclusionism and
deletionism as a problem. I see the value in both
eventualism and
immediatism. However, I do not believe that immediatists should unilaterally delete articles or exclude information—they should immediately improve them. From what I have seen so far, exclusionists and deletionists hold the upper hand here at Wikipedia because it is easier to remove information or delete articles than it is to invest time and effort in improving them.
One problem I have noticed regarding
mergism is that as the information under a subtopic grows, there is a tendency to trim that information down because it overshadows the rest of the article. The problem then is not that the subtopic is too long, but that the main article is too short—not voluminous enough to balance out the particular subtopic. To counteract this editorial trimming, in some cases I would advocate the creation of a new article, in which such editorial trimming is unnecessary and new information can be added without hesitation.
I will try to compile a list over time of articles which I deem acceptable, but which others regard as borderline. I may not personally find some articles interesting or of value, but I respect the curiosity of others and their faith that Wikipedia can inform them.
Ectophasia crassipennis is a species of fly in the family
Tachinidae and the subfamily
Phasiinae. It is present in southern Europe and warmer parts of central Europe. Adults can reach a length of about 5 to 9 millimetres (0.20 to 0.35 inches). Their large compound eyes are red, while the body varies between black and orange-brown, with large wings featuring wide brown or grey dots. The broad abdomen is flattened and
sternite 7 is ventrally folded. This male E. crassipennis fly was photographed in
Keila, Estonia.Photograph credit:
Ivar Leidus
I am fascinated with Wikipedia and its
free and
open nature. I see it as profoundly revolutionary.
I am a moderate
inclusionist, and so I see excessive
exclusionism and
deletionism as a problem. I see the value in both
eventualism and
immediatism. However, I do not believe that immediatists should unilaterally delete articles or exclude information—they should immediately improve them. From what I have seen so far, exclusionists and deletionists hold the upper hand here at Wikipedia because it is easier to remove information or delete articles than it is to invest time and effort in improving them.
One problem I have noticed regarding
mergism is that as the information under a subtopic grows, there is a tendency to trim that information down because it overshadows the rest of the article. The problem then is not that the subtopic is too long, but that the main article is too short—not voluminous enough to balance out the particular subtopic. To counteract this editorial trimming, in some cases I would advocate the creation of a new article, in which such editorial trimming is unnecessary and new information can be added without hesitation.
I will try to compile a list over time of articles which I deem acceptable, but which others regard as borderline. I may not personally find some articles interesting or of value, but I respect the curiosity of others and their faith that Wikipedia can inform them.
Ectophasia crassipennis is a species of fly in the family
Tachinidae and the subfamily
Phasiinae. It is present in southern Europe and warmer parts of central Europe. Adults can reach a length of about 5 to 9 millimetres (0.20 to 0.35 inches). Their large compound eyes are red, while the body varies between black and orange-brown, with large wings featuring wide brown or grey dots. The broad abdomen is flattened and
sternite 7 is ventrally folded. This male E. crassipennis fly was photographed in
Keila, Estonia.Photograph credit:
Ivar Leidus