Wikipedia (from 142 perspective): Difference between revisions

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(it's more a loyalty issue: the cabal reinforces the cabal, and excludes others. It's that simple)
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Correctly citing Wikipedia as a bad example, many insiders are decrying its uniquely destructive and abusive culture.  The Cunctator refers to its "vile mailing list", Robert Kaiser called it the "Nazipedia" because he believes there is viciously anti-semitic bias (though he continues to contribute), and there are many debates about [[outing]] that seem to focus on whether a [[GodKing]] or [[sysop power structure]] pronouncement regarding the truth can or must be accepted as truth within the [[w:Wikipedia:Itself]].
Correctly citing Wikipedia as a bad example, many insiders are decrying its uniquely destructive and abusive culture.  The Cunctator refers to its "vile mailing list", Robert Kaiser called it the "Nazipedia" because he believes there is viciously anti-semitic bias (though he continues to contribute), and there are many debates about [[outing]] that seem to focus on whether a [[GodKing]] or [[sysop power structure]] pronouncement regarding the truth can or must be accepted as truth within the [[w:Wikipedia:Itself]].
In discussions of both policy and content, the loudest voices who attract the most supporters during the pendency of a discussion often dominate direction. Users critical of the project are sometimes blocked from discussions. A review of user-histories at Wikipedia suggests power users who spend several hours a day making small edits to numerous pages often dominate discussions, and comprise the most active elements of the administrative ranks.


Wikipedia also has serious failings as an encyclopedia.  There is no special process or mechanism to deal with a [[political dispute]], with [[faction]]s that can't or won't reconcile their terms to each other, and it explicitly has refused to work out any separate policy for [[terminology dispute]] or for an [[identity dispute]], despite these being quite clearly all different things with different paths to resolution - or not.  There are no designated editors to make final decisions, in any language, instead this is a power struggle of sorts, with a [[GodKing]] who speaks only English and can't possibly read all the disputed articles or judge their content.  He works on "reputation" alone ultimately, which means the [[power structure]] is strictly hierarchical etc..
Wikipedia also has serious failings as an encyclopedia.  There is no special process or mechanism to deal with a [[political dispute]], with [[faction]]s that can't or won't reconcile their terms to each other, and it explicitly has refused to work out any separate policy for [[terminology dispute]] or for an [[identity dispute]], despite these being quite clearly all different things with different paths to resolution - or not.  There are no designated editors to make final decisions, in any language, instead this is a power struggle of sorts, with a [[GodKing]] who speaks only English and can't possibly read all the disputed articles or judge their content.  He works on "reputation" alone ultimately, which means the [[power structure]] is strictly hierarchical etc..