Systemic bias

Revision as of 20:25, 25 December 2003 by 142.177.103.52 (talk) (what it is, what it isn't)
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A systemic bias is the shared beliefs of those who participate. For instance, in a project run and used mostly by Americans, there will be a systemic bias towards w:American Exceptionalism and w:scientism. In a project run and used mostly by Internet users (like any large public wiki) there will be a systemic bias towards technological solutions as being "good".

This is different from a systematic bias which arises not from who participates, but from how they work together. This is not the same thing.

The so-called community point of view is an attempt to at least define the systemic bias of those who participate. It is almost always resisted by those who gain power via this bias alone, e.g. the Wikipedia Liars Club. If you look for m:community point of view, you will not find it, as the liars are engaged in deleting it, to make sure no one realizes they ARE in fact pushing a point of view - which would require in the neutral point of view ideal that it be neutralized by engagement with some opposition, e.g. "trolls".