In a message dated 3/11/2007 2:19:59 P.M. Pacific Daylight Time, charles.r.matthews@ntlworld.com writes:
In essence it *is* a popularity contest as Sarah suggests. I have no interest in learning how to expand my popularity or add others to my list.
I would see it as an 'avoiding unpopularity' contest, to some large extent. Our conduct rules reward staying out of conflicts, and staying very calm and detached when you are in them. This makes sense, to me. It's a working environment.
It's worse than a modern academic environment. Articles attack, don't interrelate, citations get improperly cited and improperly ignored. It's worse than the USENET because at least on there you can't get blocked, and I see even worse cases of unfairness there. Wikipedia has only taken what's bad with the USENET it seems to me right now, and it's even gotten some unrealistic publicity lately.
Vincent <BR><BR><BR>**************************************<BR> AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at http://www.aol.com.