User:Kaustuv/phil
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Notability and deletion
- Speedy deletion is a model of precision and clarity that AfD should aim for.
- When contributing a new article, I believe an editor should explain in the talk page why the subject is notable; why the treatment of it is comprehensive, neutral, and encyclopedic; and what steps the editor has taken to find reliable secondary sources to substantiate all possibly controversial statements. This explanation need not be NPOV itself, of course, but the intention is that a well justified article should require exceptional effort to even write a good faith AfD.
- The notability threshold for bloggers, entertainers, fictional entities and popular culture should be raised. Contrariwise, the threshold for academics, financial and industrial leaders, and politicians should be lowered.
Interactions between editors
I disagree significantly with the official policy of civility and find the etiquette guidelines entirely superfluous. I believe that positive reinforcement in serious projects inevitably leads to charisma dominating over substance. In a virtual setting where we are freed of the tedium of tolerating each other's presence, we ought to be more open and honest with our disagreements. I do not mean by this that editors should feel free to attack each other as that comes under the jurisdiction of NPA, which is inviolable; nor do I think editors should be rude or unnecessarily negative. Rather, I hold that neutral treatment of fellow editors is the sine qua non of NPOV.
Caring about articles
The nature of Wikipedia is that article quality is not monotonic. I have seen dozens of articles fall from exceptional clarity to little more than battlegrounds of endless war. I used to believe that credentialled experts should contribute more in their areas of expertise, but now I think that Wikipedia contributors should not restrict their focus to specific domains of specialist knowledge. In fact, I would urge experts to avoid articles in their areas of expertise entirely. It is difficult to train oneself not to care about the articles one has made significant contributions to, but that is the only mindset that can thrive in a wiki. Certainly other contributors—and Wikipedia itself—will not care about you or your contributions.
If you are an expert and want to write brilliant prose in your area of expertise intended for a general audience, don't contribute it here. Make your own blog or website.
