Work on the forthcoming Comipedia webcomics directory is rolling along. I just discovered tonight, however, that former Comixpedia contributor and all-around webcomics genius John Barber does not have a wikipedia entry.
If anyone can fix this please post an entry for Mr. Barber at the wikipedia and at our own Webcomics Encyclopedia. Barber’s entry should go here.
No Daniel “Merlin” Goodbrey entry either! Aspiring fans and scholars put that one here.
UPDATE: As it happens, Eric Burns was snarking about non-experts’ campaign of deletion on webcomics in the wikipedia this morning.
UPDATE #2: C’mon on! No Lea Hernandez entry? I threw up a stub on the Webcomics Encyclopedia but you could write pages about Ms. Hernandez.
UPDATE #3: A thread at Digital Strips has an apparent reply from the main non-expert nominating webcomics for deletion. I also had the impression, like T Campbell, that Wikipedia was more akin to a HHGTG than a much more selective, limited document. More troubling to me, however, is that this whole episode brings into stark relief the issue of generalists versus specialists that often plagues such projects. This is a particularly egregious example of (at best) a generalist making decisions without sufficient input from specialists (people who actually have any knowledge about webcomics). Not saying people can’t talk about things they aren’t expert on. but they sure as hell ought to at least listen to the experts a little.
Bad time to be rallying readers to put cartoonists into Wikipedia. Their webcomics coverage is undergoing a steep decline.
Webcomics Encyclopedia’s cred is going up considering the alternative.
Good point!