Editing Encyc:Community portal/Archive 1 (section)

==Can Wikipedia be competed with?==
I noticed a thread over on WR about whether any competitors to Wikipedia are viable.  Here is why I think Wikipedia is vulnerable:
#Reading level is way too high
#Large number of contributors has homogenized the writing
#Articles have been affected by the opinions of the writers at Wikipedia in a bad way.
#Much of the readership of Wikipedia comes to read the popular articles

How Encyc can beat Wikipedia
#Write better - gear articles towards average people with average reading levels and give them what they might be looking for in a Google search
#Focus on the top 20 articles, then the top 100, then the top 1000

===Goal===
I want to take the top 20 articles on Wikipedia, import them, improve them, and make Encyc have better top 20 articles by 1/1/12.  Then, by 3/1/12 I would like to have the top 50 complete and by 6/1/12 have the top 100.
: This is putting the cart before the horse.  You won't get anywhere unless you have high quality contributors who could realistically improve a top 20 article.  And of course someone who could do that on say history might flounder if he/she took on something in chemistry.  So firstly approach some potential editors, or persuade former editors to return.  Then once you've done that, work out what subjects are their strengths and find some articles on those subjects.--[[User:Oxonian|Oxonian]] 07:40, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

===Note===
There is nothing anti-Wikipedia in any of this.  It is the wiki way to try to make better articles, and Wikipedia encourages the sharing of its content.  If we are good enough, Wikipedia may copy our articles back. [[User:Auggie|Auggie]] 19:08, 19 September 2011 (UTC)

: Link to the top/most viewed WP articles? [[User:Wikademia|Wikademia]] 03:29, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

::Something like [http://stats.grok.se/en/top this], though I think I saw a better list somewhere else.  We could probably skip the pop culture stuff that we know will be forgotten in a few months. [[User:Auggie|Auggie]] 03:37, 21 September 2011 (UTC)

===Criticism of... ===
What's the deal with these Criticism of articles?  On Wikipedia they have them for the United States, Israel, Apple, and Microsoft, but curiously not for any other countries that I can find including France, Russia, and China or even for Wikipedia itself.  How do encyclopedia writers decide which institutions deserve criticism articles and which don't?  And please don't say "reliable sources", because clearly that's not what Wikipedia is doing.  I could find reliable sources criticizing China in about three seconds. (not to pick on China, but you know what I mean) [[User:Auggie|Auggie]] 13:37, 4 October 2011 (UTC)