{"id":936,"date":"2006-06-17T12:21:24","date_gmt":"2006-06-17T16:21:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/?p=936"},"modified":"2006-06-21T23:26:54","modified_gmt":"2006-06-22T03:26:54","slug":"wikipedia-mob-rules-cnets-puppet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/?p=936","title":{"rendered":"Wikipedia Mob Rules C|Net’s Puppet"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’ve missed so much news it’s not even funny. So having caught up a bit on sleep, I’m taking a few moments to see what’s up in the world (no nuclear war? – check; no global killer virus? – check). What I have to point out here, however, is {a NY Times} article on C|Net discussing Wikipedia (Link)<\/a>. After reading the article, I wonder how many people are out there who have received no<\/em> publicity for the problems they’ve encountered (my “kirkyan” blog entry – reLink<\/a> – was picked up in a couple of places but largely passed over). From the article:<\/p>\n

At its core, Wikipedia is not just a reference work but also an online community that has built itself a bureaucracy of sorts–one that, in response to well-publicized problems with some entries, has recently grown more elaborate. It has a clear power structure that gives volunteer administrators the authority to exercise editorial control, delete unsuitable articles and protect those that are vulnerable to vandalism.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The piece on C|Net seems to miss that in a Long-Tail World, it’s more than just what’s highly-publicized that matters; there’s more to the world than what’s in C|Net’s or the NY Times’ viewfinder.
\n
\nThe article also seems to suggest that, in the end, the “power structure” is a good thing. They allocate a significant amount of time, in my opinion, to their example of some recent college graduate becoming a budding, reliable administrator. Apparently they didn’t dig down far enough to see what I saw: some potentially bitter people with serious chips on their shoulder using the Wikipedia as a means to bolster their ego.<\/p>\n

When the writer says, “But beyond the world of reference works, Wikipedia has become a symbol of the potential of the Web”, I can’t help but think that “potential” is a two-edged sword. Their article left me thinking the writer didn’t fully grok the potential problems – the one’s that don’t get write-ups in USA Today.<\/p>\n

Go read about my little experience, then go read the article and then ask yourself if unbridled social justice is what we really want. If so, keep a pair of scissors handy for the time when some rabid, unreasonable lynch mob strings you up without a fair hearing – like the guy in Korea I mentioned earlier (reLink<\/a>).<\/p>\n

I’d also again recommend (reLink<\/a>) Jaron Lanier’s essay dealing with the kinds of things Wikipedia presents. Worth your time, in my opinion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’ve missed so much news it’s not even funny. So having caught up a bit on sleep, I’m taking a few moments to see what’s up in the world (no nuclear war? – check; no global killer virus? – check). … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-936","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-administrative"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/936\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.rebang.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}