[WikiEN-l] The boundaries of OR (contd)

Thu Dec 28 02:16:22 UTC 2006

On 12/27/06, Marc Riddell <michaeldavid86 at comcast.net> wrote:
>
>
>
> > From: Stan Shebs <stanshebs at earthlink.net>
> > Reply-To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at Wikipedia.org>
> > Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2006 17:46:56 -0800
> > To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at Wikipedia.org>
> > Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] The boundaries of OR (contd)
> >
> > Marc Riddell wrote:
> >>
> >>> From: Stan Shebs <stanshebs at earthlink.net>
> >>> Reply-To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at Wikipedia.org>
> >>> Date: Wed, 27 Dec 2006 13:54:50 -0800
> >>> To: English Wikipedia <wikien-l at Wikipedia.org>
> >>> Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] The boundaries of OR (contd)
> >>>
> >>> Marc Riddell wrote:
> >>>
> >>>> Back to some basics of my argument, or proposal, or whatever it has
> become:
> >>>> I am not talking about 'experts'. If I see an edit has been made to
> an
> >>>> Article in WP I would like to be able go to that Article's History
> Page and
> >>>> see the 'source' (person) of that edit, with a User Name in Blue.
> Then, if
> >>>> I
> >>>> choose, I can go to that corresponding User Page and learn something
> about
> >>>> that editor - it really is that simple!
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>> Well, if you just want a "it would be nice if", we already encourage
> >>> people to create accounts and to tell us a little about themselves. So
> >>> now I don't know why you're even bringing this up.
> >>>
> >>> Stan
> >>>
> >>
> >> Stan,
> >>
> >> I didn't & don't use the phrase "it would be nice if". "Encourage"
> should
> >> become "insist" - that's why I brought it up.
> >>
> > OK then, you want to "insist" that they supply information about
> > themselves - that means you're talking policy that we enforce, not just
> > a guideline or a general recommendation. How much information? Can a
> > person be banned because of a user page that doesn't list every degree
> > earned? If not, then how do you enforce your insistence that they share
> > their personal details? What if the information is not true? How is
> > anybody going to tell anyway? There are a lot of "John Smith"s in the
> > world - you'd need a government ID to reliably determine which ones
> > actually graduated from MIT in 1982, and I don't think the Foundation
> > really wants to be in the business of user authentication, not least
> > because many countries have strict privacy laws that would require a
> > major rewrite of the wiki software in order to meet the legal
> requirements.
> >
> > WP oldtimers really have thought all this through already.
> >
> > Stan
>
> Stan,
>
> Every single thing you've said here is a reason not to act. Are you
> content
> with the way things are now as pertains to User Pages?
>
> Marc
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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I am not totally content, personally, but I see this as a question of the
type of organization we want to be.

Sure, in an ideal world, everyone's real name, and verifyable credentials,
are hanging out there for review and confirmation.

But it wouldn't be Wikipedia if we forced people to do that, and wouldn't
have nearly as much content.

Nupedia and Citizendum are experiments with other tradeoff optimizations
along these lines.  Nupedia pretty much failed, in the sense of delivering
enough content to be useful.  Citizendum is an open question.  Wikipedia has
grown like mad because it chose to be very open; the question of where truly
optimial "grown like mad" versus "somewhat better content" tradeoffs leave
us is not answered yet.

All of these are volunteer organizations.  Everyone brings to a volunteer
organization who and what they are, and the time that they can contribute.
How many people you will get to volunteer depends on the nature of the
restrictions and percieved benefits.

-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com