User blog comment:Xydux/Summer 2014 Status Report/@comment-5290974-20140615052513/@comment-3242362-20140615062853

Xydux presents: A Poem about Wiki Perfection

"And lo, the editors looked around And saw what they had wrought; A bounty of knowledge upon one subject graced the web And visitors aplenty could find basic knowledge about the subject And more besides! For the wiki Had numerous pages on extraneous detail And detail aplenty to expound upon For the editors, not merely satisfied with a basic summary Of plots, delved into pictures, quotes, trivia, And expounded upon the trivia, creating pages filled with what they knew Many of these pages introduced poorly written But then refined by the others, taking form, Coming into their own, eventually becoming An intertwined part of knowledge Part of the tapestry that made up the wiki Part of the cherished database of information And so did the wiki flourish, expand, become more and more whole And so was the wiki refined into a fountainhead of knowledge And so did the fanbase rejoice at having the usage of it And so was the wiki made nearer and nearer to completion But lo! one editor spoke up as it approached completion And suggested that, like infinity, completion could only be approached asymptotically And that it could never be achieved. That there would always be one lost, left out tidbit of trivia. One uncatalogued piece of data. One tiny smudge of information left unrevealed. And at this, some editors felt sad, for they knew that work would never end Until another editor spoke up, saying "But friends, fans, editors Wiki completion will never be achieved But that is no reason to be sad. For we are not here to complete a project. We are not here to simply add information robotically. We came to share information with the fanbase, To inform others of some of the hidden aspects in our favorite work, To share our love of the show by sharing our knowledge. A wiki may exist to dispense knowledge, But just because all that is known about it may well never be learned So it is with life. For who amongst us knows all about science? Philosophy? Mathematics? Linguistics? History? All of these subjects are passions of others And this subject is a passion of ours. We do not edit in the belief that we will reveal all the knowledge But rather, that we may share our knowledge, and enlighten others; Not in the belief that this wiki is merely a project But more a tool, so that others may learn; Not in an attempt to pretend we know everything But so that both ourselves and others may be educated. My fellow editors, a wiki is not a project to complete. A wiki is never truly completed, never truly done. Nay, it is never done until the spark dies; Never done until the editing stops; Never done until nobody visits; Never done until the domain expires; Never done until the moment that all forget the subject. And even then, even then it may be rediscovered; So until the day that we all give up on the wiki, Until the day the fandom dies, Until the day that this is all forgotten The wiki lives on, never completed, never perfect, But still pretty godd*** f***ing good." And at these words, the editors cheered up And remembered why they had come in the first place. And accepted that completion and perfection would never come But it was worth going for it anyway. Because that is what must be happen if a wiki is to be great."

- Xydux, on what wiki perfection really is.

tl;dr: I wrote a poem! Basically, a wiki can never really be completed, but that doesn't mean nobody should try.