[WikiEN-l] "Gift of knowledge:" having it both ways

Sat Dec 31 22:45:27 UTC 2005

> We do not. We say "give the gift of knowledge."
> 
> Small wonder that we're starting to see some hostility from 
> the outside. We're trying to have it both ways. We set 
> expectations ("give the gift of knowledge") and then are 
> surprised when people have the expections we set.

I agree with this. Similarly, we say "From Wikipedia, the free
Encyclopedia", not "From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia that anyone
can edit". Why? Because the community (ok, a very small part of it)
deemed that the latter was "ugly".  Apparently it's ugly to state the
fallibility of Wikipedia in a public way, but it's great to rely on it
to avoid responsibility.

Ok, I'm being harsh. But WP really *does* present itself to the layman
(ie, the casual websurfer) as being an authority, and it's only when you
delve deeper, by reading this mailing list, reading interviews with
Jimbo or clicking on the "disclaimer" link, does WP explicitly disclaim
authoritativeness.  This is, IMHO, a problem.  One that would very
easily be resolved with some sort of relatively prominent link labelled
"Researchers: What you need to know about WP" or whatever.

Steve

(Happy new year here in 15 minutes btw :))