"Anonymous calling: The WikiScanner scandals and anonymity on the
Japanese Wikipedia" from yesterday's call for reviews was very good; I
like this quote:
“If there is a user ID attached to a user, discussion
tends to become a criticizing game. On the other hand, under an anonymous system, even
though your opinion/information is criticized, you don’t know with whom to be upset. Also,
with a user ID, those who participate in the site for a long time end to have authority,
and it becomes difficult for a user to disagree with them. Under a perfectly anonymous
system, you can say ‘it’s boring’, if it is actually boring. All information is treated
equally; only an accurate argument will work.” [Andrew Lih. The Wikipedia revolution: How
a bunch of nobodies created the world’s greatest encyclopedia. New York: Hyperion, 2009,
p. 145.]
Most of the research on the ways anonymity helps productivity went on
during the design of double-blind experiments, and I hope more of that
is done in the context of Wikipedia.
I am too busy this month to do any reviews, and will be disappointed
if someone else doesn't:
https://firstmonday.org/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/9184/7694
Thanks!
Best regards,
Jim