Talk:Wikipedia's first press release--draft for comment

Add topic
From Meta, a Wikimedia project coordination wiki

I think you should send this press release (via e-mail) to worldwide publications (via e-mail, of course- save paper). People who live around the world, should list computer (and newspaper) publications that they think might give Wikipedia a few lines, or even an article. I've started the list with some publications from Australia - Mark Ryan

  • Australian PC User Magazine (http://www.pcuser.com.au) Circulation ~55,000 people Mailing Address: G.P.O. Box 4088, Sydney, N.S.W., 1028, AUSTRALIA.

I think we should mention Clifford Adams and UseModWiki. I know we're switching over to new software (anytime now, right? ;) but I think Clifford and his software deserve some credit for Wikipedia's success. --Stephen Gilbert

I agree with the above. I think that the "NPOV" policy is totally misguided, as presented: I don't think it's necessary at all for people to try to present all sides of a story, but only to present statements which can be (or are) backed up. I think that the "present all sides of the debate" attitude makes too many articles become "people debating about topic x" instead of "topic x".

In addition to mentioning 200 core editors, you should also mention how many total people have edited, and what the visitor traffic is and at what rate its grown. Add more numbers and percentages.

You should also mention what you consider to be an article, to note that the 20,000 refers only to "quality" entries.

The GFDL should also be prominently mentioned. --The Cunctator

I agree, the license issue deserves its own paragraph, mentioning the relation to the free software development model and licenses. For instance:

All Wikipedia content can be freely modified and distributed under the GNU Free Documentation License, a license which shares many features with the license used by popular free software projects such as Linux. Wikipedia's wide open development model is also rather similar to that of open source software.

I would not refer to the 20,000 articles as "quality" entries, because of the many counterexamples.

The article talks about "Wikipedia's modest success". I think the term "modest success" is sometimes taken to mean "limited success" or "not very much success". I'd just say "Wikipedia's success" and be done with it. This is a press release after all; some exaggeration is allowed. If you had asked any pundit in January 2001 "What would you define as critera for <<success>> of Wikipedia in one year?" I think those criteria would have been met.

As to what motivates me to contribute: the same that motivates me to work in academia: it's fun to teach, it's fun to learn, it's fun to interact with intelligent people. --AxelBoldt

Well, it looks like you just got your quote from a scholar, Larry! And I agree with all of the above. Except that I think perhaps the first sentence could be rephrased to pack a little more punch. How, I don't know. --Seb

Thanks for the comments. Keep 'em coming. Bear in mind that the purpose of the press release is to get people in the press to write about Wikipedia, not to write a complete article introducing Wikipedia. --Larry_Sanger

I changed Jimmy Wales and philosopher Larry Sanger co-founded Wikipedia. to "The founders of Wikipedia are Internet entrepreneur Jimmy Wales and philosopher Larry Sanger." I think that sounds better than before, but it changed the meaning a little bit. Change it back if you want :)

I second the applause for Alex's quote, as I chuckle at the thought of the word "scholar" having been indirectly associated with me, a professional dilettante and dropout of three different colleges. :-) Lee Daniel Crocker

You might want to mention that even this press release has been through the wiki process... I don't know how or where you'd put that though... --Chuck Smith

I suppose any hack worth their paycheck would know how to find Slashdot and Kuro5hin, but it might be worth assuming that they know nothing...

A press release should pretend it's not a pess release. Maybe the sentence "Even this press release has been through the wiki project, editing by the community." should be deleted. user:joao

Is this better? It's a bit more ambiguous about whether this is a press release. w:Dreamyshade

Retrieved from "https://meta.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?title=Talk:Wikipedia%27s_first_press_release--draft_for_comment&oldid=153017"