Talk:Stavern

Proposed Merge
As the originator of both articles, I’d suggest there is merit to retaining both because: Best regards - Williamborg 01:41, 14 April 2006 (UTC)
 * 1) Combination of articles frequently submerges important minor topics in a welter of confusing, and for the average reader useless, data. One example of this can be found by looking for seter; you’ll discover it merged into the article on transhumance. I challenge the casual reader who is trying to figure out what a traditional Scandinavian seter is to know what the heck this article is about (& I spent some effort cleaning it up).
 * 2) The Wikipedia is often mirrored on other sites (& Wikipedia encourages mirrors). When we delete an entry it does not get mirrored. Hence folks looking up words like seter, which will get you to transhumance on the Wikipedia by redirection, are less likely to be found when you Google it.
 * 3) There is merit having a number of shorter articles on specific persons, places, things & ideas&mdash; all written in a short & easily accessible style. Both these articles fall mostly in this category.
 * 4) But there is also merit to having thoughtful, scholarly articles that address the more subtle & obscure issues which may interest a more academically inclined reader. This would be an article that links the two into a well developed history of the area.
 * 5) The dichotomy resulting from an encyclopedia’s objective to serve both audiences who are quickly looking a word or topic up as well as those want a scholarly discussion is not new. Encyclopædia Britannica attempted to address this issue by introducing the Micropedia (short accessible articles) in the first eight volumes and Macropedia (longer scholarly articles referenced from the short accessible articles) in the next 17 volumes.  Although the timing was poor since internet sources (including the Wikipedia) have virtually destroyed hard-copy encyclopedia sales, the concept was recognition of a longstanding need; the concept still has value.


 * I am against a merger. See Talk:Fredriksvern. Inge 08:17, 4 October 2006 (UTC)