Just a lesson there for Wikipediocracy, which has trod a very different path.
To wit, the making Wikipedia look bad.....
As everyone knows, Larry Sanger co-founded Wikipedia and was by all accounts their first general manager as it were. He drafted many of their rules and laid important groundwork such as establishing the culture of Wikipedia.
When he left in 2002, he posted a message on his Wikipedia user page, a love letter to the Wikipedians, a list of all the things he thought they had done well and should keep doing.
Twenty years later, the list makes one hell of a good basis for a report card......All the best to Wikipedia and Wikipedians. May you continue.....
I'm gonna say D plus. You can still technically just turn up and edit, as long as you pick an obscure topic nobody cares about. And of course, Wikipedians are famously hostile precisely because they are now very, very, insular.to be open and warmly welcoming, not insular,
C minus. They talk a good game about their focus on the mission, but in reality, the Wikipedia community is second to none for its capacity to waste a trillion electrons on trifling matters. And I'm too young for Usenet, but if it was angry and pointless, then check.to be focused singlemindedly on writing an encyclopedia, not on Usenet-style debate,
That's an F. The Wikipedia community long ago abandoned the goal of getting every topic up to Featured standard where possible. Featured is Wikipedia speak for their best work, certified comprehensive, accurate and neutral. Truth be told, even the basics like ensuring every sentence on Wikipedia that would need an in line reference has one, has been rather neglected.to recognize and praise the best work, work that is detailed, factual, well-informed, and well-referenced,
D minus. They're publicly committed to neutrality for sure. But Larry has been the first to say that in his absence, the Wikipedians have grossly distorted the neutrality policy he gifted them. For years there was a lack of understanding that their perversion of Larry's NPOV meant Wikipedia was merely baking in the biases of the world and Wikipedia's editors. And now they understand it, their mitigation is woeful.to work to understand what neutrality requires and why it is so essential to and good for this project,
U (ungraded). The Wikipedians essentially just skipped this class entirely.to treat your fellow productive, well-meaning members of Wikipedia with respect and good will,
F. Wikipedia is actively hostile to experts. That wasn't Larry's vision. And the community absolutely sucks at writing well, as studies have shown. Wikipedia was meant to be written as an entry level resource, avoiding jargon, taking readers on a journey of discovery, whereas it has actually been written in the style of a graduate textbook.to attract and honor good people who know a lot and can write about it well
C minus. Very little success in dealing with the Vested Contributor problem. Studies have shown much of the poisonous atmosphere is down to a handful of editors who have been around long enough to know better.to show the door to trolls, vandals, and wiki-anarchists, who if permitted would waste your time and create a poisonous atmosphere here.
No wonder Larry is so thoroughly disgusted with what Wikipedia has become, to the point he has completely disavowed it.
If Larry still felt able to post Wikipedia criticism on the Wikipedia criticism forum he once co-founded but was also taken over by the Wikipedians eventually, maybe you might have heard about this stuff years ago.
