[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia's destiny

Tue Feb 28 15:07:30 UTC 2006

The Cunctator wrote:

>On 2/28/06, Steve Bennett <stevage at gmail.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>On 2/28/06, The Cunctator <cunctator at gmail.com> wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>On 2/21/06, Mark Gallagher <m.g.gallagher at student.canberra.edu.au>
>>>wrote:
>>>      
>>>
>>>>We were just discussing that ... Wikipedia *doesn't* want to be
>>>>"the free encyclopaedia that anyone can edit".  There's too much
>>>>abuse, too much ranting from trolls with a sense of
>>>>self-entitlement, encouraged by that tagline.
>>>>
>>>>I quite like the idea of "Welcome to Wikipedia, where good authors
>>>>are always welcome".
>>>>        
>>>>
>>>Funny, I never realized you were the One True Prophet through whom
>>>Wikipedia speaks.
>>>
>>>(Because you're not.)
>>>      
>>>
>>That was uncalled for, you know. We're all entitled to express our
>>view of what Wikipedia is or should become, and all entitled to
>>attempt to interpret the will of "the community".
>>    
>>
>
>You're right. I'm sorry.
>
>But I think that Mark Gallagher's approach is dangerously wrong.
>Restricting Wikipedia to "good" people smacks of Animal-Farm-esque
>groupthink.
>
>That attitude gives "our enemies" way too much attention and credit.
>
>It creates way too much of an us-vs.-them paradigm which I've fought
>against from day one.
>
>And Wikipedia doesn't like that.
>  
>
[[WP:NOT]] a social experiment. We're not here to see if trolls or "bad" 
people can be rehabilitated. We're here to write an encyclopedia, and 
anyone more interested in doing "bad" things can go busy themselves on 
any of the millions of other websites on the internet. While I dislike 
us vs them dichotomies as much as the next fellow, I can certainly bear 
those acting in good faith vs those acting in bad faith.

John