Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia is not a dictionary/Archive 2
slang and idiom guide (moved from Wikipedia_talk:What Wikipedia is not)Rule #5 suck. I like articles about interesting expressions like Read my lips, no more taxes. Especially those that has an interesting etymology behind them. #5 seems to forbid them. BL 04:14, 23 Aug 2003 (UTC) I put rule 5 back as there is no consensus to remove it yet. Angela 05:02, 23 Aug 2003 (UTC) OK! Vote to abolish rule #5 (or drastically change it to allow expressions)
You aren't allowed to set a deadline for my vote! BL 07:46, 23 Aug 2003 (UTC) Vote over: One in favour. Five against. Rule 5 remains. Angela 16:25, 30 Aug 2003 (UTC)
I think the trouble is some people try to create a link for almost every term used when the article is being written and it sometimes results in completely new pages being created for topics that, unfortunately, can only be explained briefly. Jam2k
Wikidictionary or Pedia?I have in mind a series of concepts related to each other, and while some of them are pretty short, they have the potential to become much longer. So my question is whether to just go ahead and make stub articles (which are easier to look for), put them in the Wikidictionary or just use one main Pedia article to summarize. One example is: Principle I: Long vowels rise. Principle II: Short nuclei fall. Principle III: Back vowels move to the front. These principles are defined by William Labov for chain shifting, something found in language change. For this example, I would like to make 4 pages (William Labov already has a page). Is that making an excess of short articles? TIA bab
Wikipedia can be something better than a dictionary and an encyclopediaThe phrase "Wikipedia is not a dictionary" has been bothering me since I started using Wikipedia. I've read the arguments pro and con, and the more I think of it, the more I think Wikipedia needs to be better integrated with the other wikimedia. It seems just silly to me to not be able to find the definition of any word that I don't understand in an article by simply clicking on it. One of the best way to come up with a creative solution to a problem is to come up with a good set of criteria that clearly define the problem you are trying to solve. The discussions about "is it or is it not a dictionary" are the wrong discussion. The discussion should be what is it that people want to do, and what defines the best way to do it. Along those lines I'll try to start a list of what I think we are all looking for:
There is a pattern here. The obvious missing next step is...
Several people have mentioned that it is often unclear whether an entry is the definition of a word or an encyclopedia article, something in the middle, or a combination of all of those things. Rather than have people spending lots of time trying to shoehorn ideas into these categories and decide if something belongs in Wikipedia or Wiktionary, why not leave it all flexible, changeable and undefined. An article could start as a simple definition, and gradually expand to a full article. This comes up over and over in discussions at Wikipedia:Votes for deletion. Someone will say, "Delete it because it is simply a definition", and then someone else will say "But it can turn into a good article". Isn't this the natural evolution? So here is my proposal:
but also, and this is the new part...
Wouldn't this be practical and more useable? Does it not address the criteria I've stated? I'd like to see wikipedia be the place for one-stop information exploring. I think in the past people put a lot of thought into how to break knowledge into pieces so that it could be written about in a volume of limited size. The encyclopedia didn't have dictionary entries because it would be too cumbersome to find a single word. The dictionary didn't have long entries because it would make the book too big. In between is the OED, which is a wonderful encyclopedia about words. These differences are only because of the limitations of paper. We are not limited. --Samuel Wantman 09:35, 4 Jul 2004 (UTC)
What content should we have here?Regularly, items appear on VfD or QD with a reason of "DicDef"; that the article is nothing more than a dictionary-style definition of the word. Lately though I've been watching the <300 byte rash of 'articles' which could be "GazDef" as they are like gazeteer listings: "XXX is a town in YYYY area of ZZZZ county" with no added value. Is it time therefore to either relax the existence of DicDefs in the hope that they will get expanded, or should we start removing entries that are solely a GazDef and have nothing else in their favour? I'm not sure either type of entry presently supply the general reader with useful information --VampWillow 10:53, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)
....mmm wouldn't it be nice if media wiki automatically created a link? 'you are are on a page that doesn't exist yet, but here is the dictdef, feel free to add an encyclopedia entry or expand the dictionary entry' or something like that... Erich 19:28, 1 Jul 2004 (UTC)
Soft redirectsAs of September 2, 2004, there's an ongoing discussion at Wikipedia talk:Deletion policy#Policy proposal for dicdefs: soft redirects that's very relevant to this page. Just thought I'd drop a note here for anyone who has this page on their watchlist but not WP:DP. • Benc • 05:14, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)
I have a very useful Collins 1 volume dict / encyclopediaWhy the hell not? A definition for a word certainly won't do any harm, and it's entirely reasonable that someone might come here looking for what a word means, then be drawn into that, or other, articles. This seems like stupid pedantry. [comment originally unsigned by 195.158.6.178, 05:22, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)] Also - separating the Wiktionary / wikipedia namespace is counterproductiveWhy not merge them, with Dictionary:prefixes or tags for dict defs? The added value of the two communities working with crossover and synergies wqould be great! [comment originally unsigned by 195.158.6.178, 05:24, 2 Sep 2004 (UTC)]
I like the idea of different namespaces - that should satisfy the critics - you could have an option to turn off all the dictionary stuff if you hated it. 213.206.33.82 06:02, 3 Sep 2004 (UTC) What a thought -- making Wiktionary and Wikipedia the same would mean that people would start linking every single word in their articles. RickK 06:27, Sep 3, 2004 (UTC)
Dictionaries and encyclopediasThis subject was brought to my attention when I saw people talking about Wiktionary being the proper location for numerical prefix articles: Is a dictionary a kind of encyclopedia?? We human beings think of dictionaries and encyclopedias as 2 disjoint kinds of books. Now, what is a dictionary?? A dictionary is a book that lists words alphabetically, including their meanings, pronunciations, and, if appropriate, any usage notes or word histories. An encyclopedia is a set of books that talks about notable, non-fictional info on a variety of subjects. An encyclopedia is obviously not a kind of dictionary, but based on what I have heard frequently in Wikipedia but never anywhere else, a dictionary naturally is a kind of encyclopedia, namely, one on words. Any info relating to the classification of a dictionary as a kind of encyclopedia when it comes to defining how it is used?? Please explain with whatever detail you can. Georgia guy 01:21, 20 Mar 2005 (UTC) If I am looking for the meaning of a word or phrase, I want to go to one place for that information. I don't want to have to know that foo is over in Wiktionary because no one had written a long enough article on it. Dictionary definitions can be stubs and grow into articles when the knowledgeable person comes along. Shoaler 15:07, 11 May 2005 (UTC) Order of definitionsI asked this at the Village Pump, but asking here is relevant as well: If an article needs to discuss or list multiple definitions for the same word what order is to be used: chronological (some dictionaries follow this), reverse chronological, or contemporary relevance, or something else? patsw 21:12, 3 Jun 2005 (UTC) In cases where alphabetical order is unworkable I think in order of relevance at the time of writing is best Pedant 15:08, 16 October 2005 (UTC) Wikipedia is a biographical dictionary (among other things)I don't know who wrote the definition of biographical dictionary on this page, but it disagrees with Wikipedias own definition in the article on the topic. Is there any factual support for the notion that biographical dictionaries "focus primarily on the immediate family connections" rather than "on the actions and contributions of an article subject". I think the opposite is more true. What I think of, and what I assume most people think of, when hearing the term "biographical dictionary" is the Dictionary of National Biography and similar works. up◦land 06:39, 14 October 2005 (UTC) There are dozens, probably hundreds, of articles in Wikipedia about little known U.S. Congressman. I want to make three points about that: (a) this is a good thing; (b) isn't doing this thing exactly what a biographical dictionary is; and therefore (c) I think it'd be great if Wikipedia were also a biographical dictionary. (As for the negative thoughts about genealogical data, I also disagree? What's wrong with that? See, e.g., Delano family. Summary: Wikipedia already is, and should continue to encompass, a biographical dictionary. Thoughts anyone? -- Sholom 13:36, 27 March 2006 (UTC)
Proposal for policy implementationSome substubs about potentially encyclopedic articles that only appear to be a dicdef causing it to be substandard to article criteria should just be marked as a stub, even if it has a template indicating it should be copied to Wiktionary. The Bedpan article is a recent example of this. --SuperDude 08:18, 16 October 2005 (UTC) Wikipedia is a dictionary of meaningI am not alone in thinking that there are no valid reasons for having short "dicdefs". The reasons given for not doing this are:
Add "or a thesaurus"Should the words "or a thesaurus" be added to the policy after "is not a dictionary"? This would make it clear that a list of words without definitions, such as a list of terms or a list of synonyms, is no more acceptable than a single word with a definition and nothing else. The Literate Engineer 17:35, 2 December 2005 (UTC) Suggest mergeThis page doesn't really add much to WP:NOT. Does it really deserve to exist in its own right? There is a perfectly good concise summary of everything that is said there on that page. See: WP:NOT#Wikipedia is not a dictionary Suggest we merge anything that is not already covered there, and delete this page. Having too many policy pages works directly against the goal of anyone actually reading them. Stevage 12:46, 15 January 2006 (UTC)
We can assume 'wiki' means 'fast', and 'pedia' implies encyclopedia, meaning general knowledge. When a page is deleted: Someones work is thrown away because someone else believes it isn't encyclopedic enough, meaning it must be something other than general knowledge. I no longer have quick access to that (poor quality) information with my URL appending shortcuts. I want quick access to whatever valid information is there, even if its not thorough. Which means, an admins cleanup job wasted the authors time and the potential readers time, all in the name of cleaning up Wikipedia to give a better impression to newcomers. This isn't a reasonable policy, I don't understand how a "consensus" of reasonable comes up with these policies. More and more I think editors like you and I have far less representation than we may believe. Ieopo 01:24, 24 January 2006 (UTC)
Paper Dictionaries and Encyclopedias contra wikipedia and wiktionaryPaper Dictionaries typically have ten times the number of words that Encyclopedias. Paper Dictionaries are traditionally a sort of micro-encyclopedia that is possible to take a along and easy to flip thru the pages to find a word. This practical distinction totally falls apart on the web. I have not before seen any point in keeping these two types of references apart on the web. The reasons why wikipedia is not a biographical dictionary nor a usage guide are clearly stated and understandable in this policy, and I accept that there is a consensus for it, but no reason. The only reason I can gauge for it from the policy, is that a few lonely encyclopedical articles should not be bogged down by a mass of short definitions but surely this has proven to be a fallacy now that wikipedia has ten times the number of articles compared to wiktionary instead of the other way around that one would expect from that premise. Naturally, I have accepted the policy and I follow it, but I could someone please tell me the purpose of this policy, since the only purposes that I can think of apply strictly to paper versions.DanielDemaret 17:18, 30 March 2006 (UTC)
Etymologies?I was just over on Snake, and I realised that the inclusion of (detailed) etymologies of words that refer to their subjects is entirely inappropriate. Since this is one of the dictionary-ish items that Wikipedia should probably avoid generally, should we mention that here? elvenscout742 22:40, 19 June 2006 (UTC)
GirlfriendFor the past several weeks, there have been 3 nominations for Girlfriend for Afd simply because the nominator looks at it as a dictionary definition. I want to know what some of the most common views of what to consider "dictionary definitions" on Wikipedia are. Georgia guy 23:33, 19 June 2006 (UTC) Out of syncThis policy is actually narrower than that of Wikipedia:What Wikipedia is not#Wikipedia is not a dictionary. Policymakers, please put them in sync, otherwise a broken telephone game sometimes happens. `'mikka (t) 00:51, 21 July 2006 (UTC) Proposed change to this policyThe policy as it currently reads only forbids/discourages articles which are merely definitions of terms. The problem with this is that this would allow one to cut and paste any decent quality wiktionary definition as a wikipedia article and then say, "See, it doesn't violate this policy because the article doesn't just DEFINE the word, it also gives the etymology, lists synonyms, explains the pronounciation". I find it difficult to believe that dictionary definitions are meant to be allowable as long as they also included the etymology and list some synonyms, since these things are commonly part of a good dictionary definition. If "Wikipedia is not a dictionary" actually means that Wikipedia is not a dictionary, then the policy should be amended to reflect this. --Xyzzyplugh 15:01, 20 September 2006 (UTC)
Some terms such as religion cannot be properly defined but are clearly useful in daily life. There is no agreed upon defintion of religion. I think this article should state this. (I am personally quite confused about this) Andries 01:38, 8 October 2006 (UTC) Maybe it should be a dictionary?Why not merge Wiktionary into Wikipedia? —Ashley Y 21:37, 14 October 2006 (UTC)
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