On 1/5/06, Peter Mackay <peter.mackay(a)bigpond.com> wrote:
From: wikien-l-bounces(a)Wikipedia.org
[mailto:wikien-l-bounces@Wikipedia.org] On Behalf Of Garion1000
On 1/5/06, Geoff Burling <llywrch(a)agora.rdrop.com> wrote:
. People of the same POV have always found each
other on
Wikipedia, &
Userboxes are hardly a powerful new tool to
accomplish this.
But userboxes makes it a lot easier to do so. Look it two
AFD's. The one for
some catholic encyclopedians and the gay rights in iraq article.
So what are you saying? It should be *hard* for Wikipedians to find others
with similar interests?
No, but to find others with a simular POV is different. A userbox stating
one person is an expert or has much knowledge on gay rights I don't mind.
(Whether that user is pro or against them). A userbox stating that person
is against gay rights is different. The same counts for userboxes for "I am
a republican" vs "I am a republican party expert", creationism/evolution
vs
...., I hate Bush etc etc.
The community aspect of Wikipedia is vitally
important. In fact it's one
of
the marvels of the Internet, to see such a grand project being constructed
as a co-operative effort. To my mind, anything that increases community
bonds without detracting from the main objective is something that should
be
encouraged.
Maybe it's because I don't see it as creating a community bond but more like
creating POV groups withing the community. At least userboxes make that much
easier. Therein lies the danger. IMO of course.
Garion