From: Gregory Maxwell <gmaxwell(a)gmail.com>
On 7/3/05, JAY JG <jayjg(a)hotmail.com> wrote:
Wikipedia is about creating an encyclopedia, not
promulgating an
ideology.
I agree with your point about not focusing on admins, although I think
that end is best served by making many people admins as it dillutes
any unintended power of adminship.
I agree with this to an extent as well. I just (continually argue) that 500
existing admins, with hundreds more coming on board each year, effectively
does that, moreso than in any other online community I have heard of.
There were already a number of good encyclopedias
before Wikipedia
came about. You can not separate Wikipedia the encyclopedia from
Wikipedia the ideology. I do not think this is a bad idea.
Even as a non-editor you can not be completely ignorant of the
Wikipedia ideology if you are to effectively use our resources, since
the results of vandalism and POV pushers will always end up visible
once in a while and because the inner workings of the project are so
useful by themselves (it's very handy to have some ability to ask
questions of the person who wrote the text you are reading).
There are lots of great things about the ideology, which are useful in
creating a great encyclopedia. There are also inherent problems with the
ideology, which mitigate against that (particularly the issue of assuring
high standards, which we are struggling with). To the extent that the
promoting ideology supports the goal, I'm all for it. In areas where
promoting the ideology works against supporting the goal, I think the latter
must take priority.
Jay.