Wikipedia: World Wide Web/Talk

The word "abstract" was added to the first sentence (...an abstract network...), with the comment "Clarifying that the world wide web is a logical network rather than a single physical". That doesn't "clarify" anything, and I disagree that it's even true. What people mean when they say "World Wide Web" is specifically the one to which Yahoo and every other site they know about is attached, and that's a large network of physical computers connected by real wires and fiber and other means. When I type "http://www.yahoo.com" into my browser, I am sending messages to routers to locate a specific piece of hardware owned by a specific company. What's "abstract" about that? --Lee Daniel Crocker

I have one problem with this page, but I wasn't certain how to correct it in a fashion you would find acceptable. The phrase "the Web encompasses the entire Internet." seems to perpetuate the idea that The Web == The Internet. I realize this is representative of the views of many, but not exactly accurate. Perhaps "the Web exists on the Internet" would convey the intended thought without perpetuating the media's myth that The Web == The Internet == AOL.--RDP

What a large number of mis-informed people mean when they say "World Wide Web" is not accurate, and an encyclopedia article should correct misperceptions. The World Wide Web is not what Yahoo et al are attached to, it is what they implement. The Internet is what they are attached to. I wouldn't call the Web abstract either, but it sure isn't the routers and wires. --Alan Millar

Perhaps "...the entire hypertext portion of the Internet"? We wouldn't want to leave out Usenet, or e-mail, for instance. -- Xaonon

I think its hard to precisely define the WWW. Is it just HTTP, or should FTP count as well? What about Whiz-Bang-New-Transport-Protocol-To-Replace-HTTP that the IETF and W3C will be releasing next week? And if they are included, why not also include SMTP and NNTP and IRC and ICQ and TELNET even? Is it just HTML, or should we also count PDF or Microsoft Word files on webservers? Even the "Internet" is largely undefinable -- it is a very large set of computers all connected to each other using TCP/IP protocols, but which set? We could never list all its members, and unlike a classic centralised network, there is no single computer that could not be removed from the Internet without destroying its status as the "Internet". In summary, the WWW is a term with very fuzzy boundaries. -- SJK

These bullet items I removed from Internet, where they don't belong. They do need to be covered here somewhere.

Authoring?