Wiki governance

Revision as of 17:58, 8 June 2004 by 142.177.97.145 (talk)

Wiki governance seems to pass through a few stages in a large public wiki:

1. chaos as basic wiki management problems slowly become understood

2. fascism as a sysop power structure and perhaps GodKing take root - some sysop vigilantiism mostly dealt with informally; some malcontents but mostly tolerated

3. stagnation based on worship of the GodKing and usurpers who have managed to get close to the GodKing personally, and use his approval as a mask to push their own agendas - labelling everyone who asks for change a troll; sysop vandalism occurs as sysops put their own beliefs above the truth - echo chamber begins

4. trolls realize that regime change is necessary and form factions, e.g. Wikipedia Red Faction, and start to develop appropriate rhetoric to justify trolling, and target bad sysops to be driven off by trolls etc.; sysops begin to justify ontological distinction using operational distinction, e.g. "that person was blocked thus they must not be saying any thing of value" - all dialogue becomes impossible, and echo chamber becomes basis of harassment

5. war breaks out on interwiki level as desperate sysops use technical means to conceal the truth, including denial of service attack by vandalbot on troll-friendly wikis, IP range blocks by sysops who control the technology - developer vigilantiism! Also state violence is initiated by the most pathetic usurpers: false crime reports, false claims of terrorism

6. beginnings of peace talks as everyone begins to realize trolls are more right than wrong, and that following usurpers and reactionaries is going to kill all cooperation with the project; some shallow board activity, formation of formal mechanisms, e.g. Wikimedia arbitration, etc.

7. rejection of these bourgeois false democracy elements by revolutionary troll factions, and continuation of the struggle to anarchize or to democratize more deeply

8. abdication of GodKing, major reform, eradication of Wikimedia corruption, etc., i.e. Ragnarok the total troll victory.

9. a Lowest Troll emerges to moderate the new more democratic structure

Apparently no wiki has ever emerged from these transitions, as even the most advanced large public wikis are probably only at about stage 5 or 6 right now