Harry Veeder <hveeder...@gmail.com> wrote: Perhaps all the very controversial subjects from the current wikipedia > should be removed and placed in a distinct wikipedia dedicated to very > controversial subjects. >
I do not think that will happen. The Wikipedia management would not agree. I do not see any need for that. Here is how I imagine it might work: Someone else starts an on-line encyclopedia of science, based on traditional academic standards. Maybe the APS or a university could do this. Gradually, more readers turn to the academic website. Wikipedia articles on science are read less often. They are not updated as much. Some are revised with information from the academic site, and links to it. (I don't like the APS policies toward cold fusion but I suppose they can handle other subjects better than Wikipedia does.) Getting back to my analogy, the Model T was not replaced overnight. It was replaced gradually over many years as competition heated up. Sales at GM overtook Ford in 1927. That was the year Ford finally stopped producing the model T. The car was improved over the production run. It wasn't the exact same machine from 1908 to 1927. Wikipedia has also been improved. It might be improved again, with a better structure, to address the weaknesses that I and others have pointed out. - Jed
