[WikiEN-l] Fwd: [Foundation-l] Rewarding volunteers

Sun Sep 12 19:04:28 UTC 2004

I'm taking the liberty of also forwarding John's below crucial and 
spot-on observation to the WikiEN-l mailing list -- I would hope that 
that's ok.

-- Jens

Begin forwarded message:

> From: John Collison <john at collison.ie>
> Date: 12 September 2004 18:51:12 GMT+02:00
> To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l at wikimedia.org>
> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Rewarding volunteers
> Reply-To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List 
> <foundation-l at wikimedia.org>
>
> I have to say I agree with Jimbo on this one. I was thinking about 
> Wikipedia in the future for a while and I think we have to be careful 
> where we go from here. Think about it, Wikipedia started out with a 
> simple vision: a free encyclopedia where anyone could edit anything. 
> Now, sysops, developers etc are getting more power, anons less 
> trusted, and there is talk of paying developers. If we're not 
> cautious, we could end up just like a conventional online 
> encyclopedia. Sort of like the way animal farm went :-/.
> I think we should try and preserve the original idea of Wikipedia (and 
> Wikimedia projects in general).
>
>  -- John Collison (Ludraman)
>         P.S. Sorry if I've made some mistake here it's my first time 
> posting on the mailing list!
>
> On 12 Sep 2004, at 15:21, Jimmy (Jimbo) Wales wrote:
>
>> Just to say my usual bit about this, I'm all for rewarding volunteers,
>> and the best way to do that is with kind words, mutual respect, and
>> admiration for good deeds.  Mathematical formulas can never replace
>> taking the time to say "thank you" or "I am a fan of your work" when
>> you see an article that you like.
>>
>> Algorithmic reputation systems are always a temptation, just because
>> they are possible.  But human reputation systems are much more nuanced
>> and powerful.
>>
>> --Jimbo
>>
>>
>> -- 
>> "La nÃ¨fle est un fruit." - first words of 50,000th article on 
>> fr.wikipedia.org
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>
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