User:Takethemud/Inclusion

Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes said: "It would be dangerous for persons trained only to the law to constitute themselves final judges of the worth of illustrations, outside of the narrowest and most obvious limits. . . If they command the interest of any public, they have value and the taste of any public is not to be greeted with contempt." (paraphrased)

Much as Mr Holmes urged the judiciary to act with restraint when judging the value of artistic works, Wikipedia editors should also act with restraint when judging whether something should be excluded from Wikipedia's pages. If something is included on Wikipedia, it's safe to say that at least one person finds something notable enough to be included. And if one person finds it notable enough to add it to Wikipedia, how many more readers who go uncounted find that same bit of knowledge to be interesting and worthy of inclusion on Wikipedia? I dare say that many do. And if many find something worthy of inclusion, why should it be excluded from Wikipedia because others disagree? By deleting information some deem to be irrelevant, we are taking information away from those who believe it to be relevant.

Outside of the "narrowest and obviously limits" of relevance (vandalism, falsities, and the like) would it not be wise to opt to include information in Wikipedia and not destroy its content? Is it not preferable to organize seemingly erroneous information (through redirects, new articles, lists, etc.) and give it a rightful place among the other articles of Wikipedia, rather than to delete it and deprive the world of the benefit of having the information at its disposal?

I do think so, and that is why I always err on the side of inclusion.