Re: Wikipedia entry on XyWrite

["Patricia M. Godfrey" priscamg@xxxxxxxx]

J R FOX wrote:
> A problem with Wikipedia is that you can get opinions
> masquerading as fact. Fact checking and peer review
> is hardly a given.
Yes. As someone who worked for 17 years on _real_ encyclopedias,
and did several projects for serious scholarly and reference
publishers, I have very mixed feelings about the whole Wiki
project. On the one hand, as the holder of certain very unpopular
and "out-of-the-mainstream" convictions, I quite approve of
challenging the received opinion; on the other hand, I have very
low tolerance for uninformed and irrational balderdash.
The problem is how to distinguish between views that may be (n
one's own opinion) erroneous, but are still reasonable, and those
that are not. Especially when there are no longer, it would
appear, any bedrock convictions (e.g., the validity of sense
perception, the principles of contradiction and identity) that
are agreed upon by all.
--
Patricia M. Godfrey
priscamg@xxxxxxxx