Wikipedians are crazy addicts

[Jennsaurus]

As a journalist, the thing about that site which is mind boggling is that people will spend hours and hours meticulously writing (and sometimes researching) hundreds of articles, almost as if it were a full-time job, and of course do so for no pay whatsoever. If I spend a week writing a story, I expect to be paid for doing so and if I write a lengthy article, I will sell it to an online magazine before I ever post it on Wikipedia.

In my research of that site, I've also found a lot of the really disturbed Wikipedians appear to fit the criteria of single men who have problems with women, and I think this is also why we hear about stalkers who research our Wikipedia editors online (especially female ones), call their jobs, and even show up at their house. There are even some stories of this being done internationally, with some of the more disturbed crazy Wikipedia users actually traveling to other countries to seek out someone who wronged them on the website and enact some kind of revenge in real life. It's truly remarkable we haven't yet seen a murder as a result of what goes on with this website.

[Ognistysztorm]

As a journalist, the thing about that site which is mind boggling is that people will spend hours and hours meticulously writing (and sometimes researching) hundreds of articles, almost as if it were a full-time job, and of course do so for no pay whatsoever. If I spend a week writing a story, I expect to be paid for doing so and if I write a lengthy article, I will sell it to an online magazine before I ever post it on Wikipedia.

In my research of that site, I've also found a lot of the really disturbed Wikipedians appear to fit the criteria of single men who have problems with women, and I think this is also why we hear about stalkers who research our Wikipedia editors online (especially female ones), call their jobs, and even show up at their house. There are even some stories of this being done internationally, with some of the more disturbed crazy Wikipedia users actually traveling to other countries to seek out someone who wronged them on the website and enact some kind of revenge in real life. It's truly remarkable we haven't yet seen a murder as a result of what goes on with this website.

There is this essay on WIkimedia mailing list describing the internal processes and particularly the dynamics behind on-wiki conflicts.

in summary, Wikipedia is treated on an altar equivalent to history and the first stop of information itself and subjected to back-ups through spacecraft missions. It's no wonder that there's a strong allure that people want to keep coming back to edit at any cost for sake of free knowledge even if they themselves have been banned for bullshit reasons. For them they are either writing history so that they feel mattered, or in other words, "in the name of the service of mankind". Think of the lowest levels of the Maslow pyramid and the savior complex. Unless Elon Musk funds a viable alternative.


A journalist? Wow.

[Fyfe]

Sanger started Encyclosphere which is supposed to be a Wikipedia alternative which also encompasses Wikipedia.

[wexter]

Sanger started Encyclosphere which is supposed to be a Wikipedia alternative which also encompasses Wikipedia.

Looks like a vaporware "network" or "search engine" that scapes content from existing sources; say Wikipedia and Britannica.

To sort of quote Warren Buffett

the moat serves to protect those inside the fortress and their riches from outsiders.

The "fortress" is being manned by a small number of aging people, and a few participants drafted from the Wikipedia equivalent of the "hitler youth"

The Moat is there because Wikipedia provides lots of cheap content for Google