"Treme" vs. "Treme (TV series)"
In more than one post on this blog I've written skeptically about the concept of "Wikigroaning" -- the notion that important subjects sometimes have shorter articles than arguably less-important subjects that appeal to geek sensibilities. In the case of Raphael (archangel, artist or ninja turtle) and lightsaber vs. modern warfare, the complaint did not quite hold up. But I don't mean to indicate the charge is never without basis.


With the second episode of HBO's latest dramatic series, "Treme," set to air this evening, I decided to compare two related Wikipedia articles -- one about the New Orleans neighborhood, and the new TV drama from David Simon. What did I find?
In the first place, Treme is currently 10 Kb long while Treme (TV series) is closer to 17 Kb. On the face of it, the article about the series is substantially longer at present. And this is the case even though the former article has existed since April 2004 whereas the latter was created in March 2009.
It's fair to say that both articles are in decent shape. The article about the neighborhood has a quality infobox featuring geographic and demographic information, and a concise History section is informative, if perhaps too concise. I compare this to the article about my neighborhood of Adams Morgan in Washington, DC, which has much more information (though fewer references to support them) and no comparable infobox of data. Each article could stand to learn something from the other.
But there is no use arguing that Treme (TV series) is not the better article. It is simply more carefully and completely written, with a more sophisticated article structure utilizing subsections for more in-depth coverage of certain aspects of the show. Plus, it has already spawned a secondary page, List of Treme episodes.
Is there a silver lining here? I think there may be. If the show becomes popular -- at least popular enough to inspire a following similar to Simon's earlier work -- then it may well inspire someone or a few someones to become more interested in the neighborhood itself. To be sure, the series itself has already caused a spike of interest in the subject. And all it takes is one person to make it a personal project. If "Treme (TV series)" can do that, "Treme" will be the better for it.
Images via Wikipedia. Neighborhood photograph licensed under Creative Commons by Wikipedia contributor Infrogmation.