[WikiEN-l] "So fix it." "The next day someone will fix it back."

[MacGyverMagic/Mgm]

On 4/1/07, Fastfission <fastfission at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Excerpt from NY Times Magazine, "Questions for Douglas Hofstadter",
> 4/1/07:
>
>
> Q. Your entry in Wikipedia says that your work has inspired many
> students to begin careers in computing and artificial intelligence.
>
> A. I have no interest in computers. The entry is filled with
> inaccuracies, and it kinds of depresses me.
>
> Q. So fix it.
>
> A. The next day someone will fix it back.
>
> http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/01/magazine/01wwlnQ4.t.html
>
> My thoughts:
>
> It strikes me that there is really a crisis of confidence in people
> that editing Wikipedia will have any long term effect. I have heard it
> many, many times from people on the web and in person as well as seen
> it in print. "Why bother, someone will just change it back later, or
> erase it?"
>
> I think it is too important to be dismissive about this approach. Even
> correctly cited things can be removed or butchered, even incorrectly
> cited things can stay on. I'm not sure that increased calls for
> citation will solve or even mitigate the problem. Any academic can
> tell you that citation is hardly a gold standard; it is not what
> convinces people of the accuracy of any claim. In the end that comes
> down to trust, and that comes down to authorship, and that comes down
> to things that Wikipedia doesn't, won't, and maybe can't do right.
>
> At this point, Wikipedia's epistemology privileges the persistant, the
> dedicated, and those with a lot of free time on their hands. Which is
> a set of qualities which describes both the best _and_ the worst
> editors.
>
> I don't have an answer though. Just something to muse on, in the face
> of some rather derisive high-brow publicity from an immensely popular,
> immensely intelligent person.
>
> FF
>
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Depending on how Stable versions will be implemented, they could stop the
butchering of proper citations and avoid the addition of well-cited but
incorrect material.

Mgm