The need for some form of Wikipedia Yearbook

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This is an archived version of this page, as edited by Rednblu (talk | contribs) at 14:15, 21 July 2003 (Removed self-link in first line See also: and extra See also:). It may differ significantly from the current version.

See also: Dealing with September 11 pages, The need for some form of Wikipedia Yearbook, Please help build 911 Attack memorial, What to do with entries related to September 11 casualties

Some comments on the Talk page for w:September 11 2001, Terrorist Attack got me thinking. A number of people rightly say that much of the Sept. 11 material, especially the individual 'memorials', though they are laudable in themselves, really have no place in a true encyclopedia. I basically agree. Then it occurred to me that both Britannica and World Book have for many years issued 'Yearbook' editions with the distributions of their new encyc. sets. These Yearbooks are devoted to the major events, scientific achievements, etc. for each individual year, allowing the editors to expand somewhat on issues that will only end up with a passing reference in the main encyc. I think Wikipedia stands much in need of something like this. No amount of cajoling will keep people from posting detailed stuff that seems important today but will only merit a few blanket sentences in the ongoing encyc. Much of this stuff would be just right for a Yearbook, as would material like the Sept. 11 memorials. What say you to a WikiYearbook side project? JDG Oct. 9, 2002

If you want to, go for it! Jimmy has said in the past that he'll host just about any wiki, so I'm sure he'd be glad to host a project somewhat related to Wikipedia.

Personally, however, I can't say I'm very enthusiastic about the idea. Encyclopedia yearbooks are a relic of the past. They were designed to keep a printed encyclopedia set from becoming hopelessly outdated, and they didn't even do a good job at that. World Book would send me a $50 yearbook every year, complete with stickers to put in my encyclopedia volumes saying , "This article has been updated", with a yearbook cross-reference.

If something no longer fits in an encyclopedia article, it can either be moved into its own article, or even moved to the meta. --Stephen Gilbert 11:01 Oct 10, 2002 (UTC)


But we're not limited by paper. Granted, that means that recent years will get way more material compared to past events. If we one day come to produce a paper version of Wikipedia, we'll have to do some trimming then. The point about the September 11 2001 stufff is that much of it isn't encyclopedic.

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