Excuse me, I'm obviously feeling spammy
Mar. 28th, 2008 01:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
phoenix64Some days I miss what the internet was like before Wikipedia. Don't get me wrong, Wikipedia's great for several reasons and I'm glad it exists, but ...
It's like you're in a library, and Wikipedia is the set of encyclopedias. Sure, they're full of information, but it all looks the same. Same typeface, same editorial standards, same same same. Dull. The rest of the library is the rest of the internet, and it might range quite a bit in quality and aesthetics (among other things), but each book is unique. An individual creation combining the ideas of the author and the editor and the design department and who knows what else. Potentially chaotic, especially as a group, but not nearly as dull.
For the most part, the other books are still out there in the stacks, somewhere. But those encyclopedias, they're right there at the front of the library. They're easy and we go to them first and more often. And maybe some of those books, they might have not much more information than could be found in the encyclopedias, so maybe they don't get included in the book buying budget next year, or maybe they end up being one of those books that sits neglected on the shelf until it's taken off for the next library sale to make room for more popular books. Because character isn't a recognized value on par with ease of use. And that's a shame.
It's like you're in a library, and Wikipedia is the set of encyclopedias. Sure, they're full of information, but it all looks the same. Same typeface, same editorial standards, same same same. Dull. The rest of the library is the rest of the internet, and it might range quite a bit in quality and aesthetics (among other things), but each book is unique. An individual creation combining the ideas of the author and the editor and the design department and who knows what else. Potentially chaotic, especially as a group, but not nearly as dull.
For the most part, the other books are still out there in the stacks, somewhere. But those encyclopedias, they're right there at the front of the library. They're easy and we go to them first and more often. And maybe some of those books, they might have not much more information than could be found in the encyclopedias, so maybe they don't get included in the book buying budget next year, or maybe they end up being one of those books that sits neglected on the shelf until it's taken off for the next library sale to make room for more popular books. Because character isn't a recognized value on par with ease of use. And that's a shame.