Mally wrote:

I have to add, that when I was looking through the Breton section of Wikipedia just yesterday, I didn't notice any "junk", just plenty of apparently well-written, relatively comprehensive, interesting and useful information, well supported by active contributors and with plenty of references (what sort of references are you referring to here anyway? Does traditional folk music require academic standards of reference?), plus of course very many links, both internal and external.

My immediate thought about this is that the Wikipedia model does not appear to be broken, so why fix it? Apparently the model can be improved, and I am sure there are some topic areas open to abuse, but is traditional folk music one of these. Is it really worth dividing what is already a coherent and comprehensive user-driven enclopedia simply because it can be 'improved'. Are peer review and real names (why???) that important that it is necessary to establish a different system?

I agree that there is lots of good info on Wikipedia, but my university still doesn't allow it to be referenced in academic work. If Folkopedia is to be used in education as intended and cited in essays, etc., it needs to be taken with some measure of guarantee as to its accuracy. This also extends to the identification of the contributors. If a teacher checks an entry on Wikipedia and finds it to have been submitted by 'FolkieFred' or 'KuddlyKate', knowledgeable though Fred and Kate may be, it doesn't inspire the sort of confidence to allow access and citing by students with lesser discriminatory skills. Therefore, Wikipedia doesn't meet the standard.

That said, contributors to Folkopedia can draw attention to Wikipedia entries and qualify them from within Folkopedia. Conversely, they can link from Wikipedia to corrected, qualified or enhanced content (or comment) in Folkopedia.

Your other constructive comments are welcome, but as I said above, I didn't intend this level of public debate this early in Folkopedia's life. The cat came out of the bag before I was ready and I have limited time each day to devote to refining the project. The proper job gets in the way.

Regards,

J