[WikiEN-l] Something on the nature of working for free

[Keegan Paul]

>
> On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 9:02 PM, George Herbert
> <george.herbert at gmail.com> wrote:
> > It's important to keep in mind that volunteers - anyone you're not
> > compensating for the work - do what they want, and won't do that they
> > don't want to.  A lot of volunteer organizations implode when people
> > at the core forget that.
>

That article is hilarious.

That's why I always say if I got paid for Wikipedia, I'd quit.  I wouldn't
be able to say no thanks when asked to go do something I hate, like
patrolling new pages which just makes me want to delete everything.  Or turn
off page creation.  Or get desysopped for mass deletions.

Now, the interesting part of the voluntary nature of Wikipedia is that there
does illogically persist an ideology of status, and "moving up the ladder"
just like in a professional world.  In a paid environment, the motivation is
usually power, money, skillsets, and networking.  On Wikipedia, you can take
out two of those motivating factors, but it's up to you which two you
choose.

~Keegan

-- 
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Keegan