[WikiEN-l] Making Wikipedia a multi-cultural encyclopedia

Mon Apr 14 16:02:43 UTC 2003

Jason Williams wrote:

>
>Linking is the right answer here, in my opinion. You shouldn't 
>have to wade through a thorough grounding in computer science
>before reading about how LL parsers work. Instead, [[Computer
>science]] and [[Compilers]] should be prominently linked,
>along with each technical term used. 
>
>I think -
> * Everybody should be able to understand broadly what an article
>   is describing (LL Parsers are a technique used in computer
>   science to interpret text, or something. You get the idea,
>   I'm sure)
>
>  
>
Yes, absolutely.
Articles should begin with a clear overview.
"LL Parsers are a technique used in computer science to interpret text" 
is a great begininng. The article can get very technically dense 
straight away after that -- the layperson already has a quick idea of 
*what* this thing is, and what they need to learn about before they can 
tackle the detail.

On the matter of cultural bias, I  have mentioned this somewhere in our 
policy pages. Don't for instance assume the reader has any idea what 
"Thanksgiving" is -- things like that are important to bear in mind.

I always think: "write for an intelligent Martian, who is capable of 
following links" ;-)