[WikiEN-l] Don't remove a WP:OFFICE tag put there by Danny

[Anthony DiPierro]

On 3/11/06, Guy Chapman aka JzG <guy.chapman at spamcop.net> wrote:
> On Sat, 11 Mar 2006 15:21:03 -0500, you wrote:
>
> >Wikipedia isn't Microsoft.  There's a big difference between running a
> >non-profit organization and running a for-profit corporation.  Even
> >then, Wikipedia isn't really either.  Wikipedia, after all, has been
> >around before the foundation was even created.  It is in essence a
> >community of people, which can and will exist with or without the
> >foundation.  Lawsuits aren't going to tear apart Wikipedia, not unless
> >the community gives itself over to the foundation.
>
> How sure are you of this?  If the foundation and its assets were
> closed down tomorrow, how long would it take to rebuild Wikipedia from
> mirrors and rebuild the community?
>
Foundations with their assets don't close overnight.  Maybe the
website might go down, but that'd be a government action, a foundation
(board) action, or a computer glitch - a lawsuit would take at least a
few days before an injunction was issued.  That said, a replacement
site could be put up within hours.  The community might become
somewhat fragmented, though, although I could see some ways in which
that is actually a good thing.  In the long run a peer-to-peer system
is probably what's best for Wikipedia.

> The h2g2 project never really recovered from "Rupert", the enforced
> shutdown between TDV and BBC hosting - the community changed
> irrevocably.
>
I'm sorry that I have no idea of the facts surrounding that situation,
so I can't comment.  Was h2g2 released under a free license?

> It strikes me that the foundation stands between the community and
> hostile reactions to what the community says and does.  I've seen at
> least one case where people tried to use Wikipedia to further a
> grievance, and in that case killing the content was entirely correct:
> subsequent investigation showed that it bore only the most tenuous
> relationship to the truth.
>
> I understand there is an issue with the Justin Berry article right
> now.  People are jumping up and down over it, it seems - why?  It's
> only been a couple of days.  It's like the whole Brian Peppers thing;
> in the end life's too short to worry about the *temporary* absence of
> something on Wikipedia, just go out and write an article on something
> else :-)
> Guy (JzG)
> --
> http://www.chapmancentral.co.uk
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:JzG