10
TIL that readability tests suggest most Wikipedia articles are too sophisticated for their readers.
(lemmy.perthchat.org)
this post was submitted on 28 Feb 2023
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https://simple.wikipedia.org/ is a good alternative sometimes and I'm glad it exists, but that's almost the opposite problem.
It does seem like they make an effort, their style guide starts out with "Probably the hardest part of writing a Wikipedia article on a mathematical topic, and generally any Wikipedia article, is addressing a reader's level of knowledge." https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Mathematics
For a complex topic, what would be a better alternative?
Having a 1000000000 word article that contains all the alien language (jargon) and basic education needed to build up to the explanation?
A short, simple, and completely wrong explanation?
Thats what makes the wiki format so great. When I have no clue what a word means, it's probably blue and I can just follow the link to find out. The problem arises when I'm 20 links in and realize "yeah maybe there's a reason people have phd's in this topic".
That's why they made Simple Wikipedia.
Fuck em