[WikiEN-l] Just what *is* Jimbo's role anyway? - personality cult

[Seth Finkelstein]

> David Gerard
> It surprises me when our odder critics claim Wikipedia is the
> personality cult of Jimbo Wales. I really can't imagine L. Ron
> Hubbard putting up with the crap Jimbo does ...

	Hey, I resemble that remark! :-)

	More seriously, the problem in your statement above is that
there are different types of personality cults. Apocalyptic cults
which commit mass suicide get a huge amount of publicity. But for
obvious reasons, they tend to be self-limiting. Despite jocular
references to "drinking the Kool-Aid", Wikipedia is NOT a doomsday
type of cult. It's more of "New Age" cult. They're different.

	But being any sort of cult leader is no easy task. You can't
just sit back and expect the followers to come to you. They've got to
be recruited, and that's a tough job. Then the followers need to be
retained, as at least some of them are going to get unhappy with
selling flowers at the airport or working in the fields all day (or
reverting vandals), and want to leave. Cults tend to use both physical
and psychological means of control, though most people just hear about
the lurid physical elements and don't consider the manipulative
psychological elements.

	Wikipedia is really interesting in a way, since it doesn't
have any physical aspect, so it has to rely entirely on psychological
aspects. Which, in fact, means the leader putting up with a lot of crap.

-- 
Seth Finkelstein  Consulting Programmer  http://sethf.com/
Infothought blog - http://sethf.com/infothought/blog/
Interview: http://sethf.com/essays/major/greplaw-interview.php