On Tue, 31 May 2005, Michael Snow wrote:
Phil Sandifer wrote:
May I ask what communities these are? Particularly the one with hundreds of thousands of members.
[snip]
That leaves craigslist, in my opinion, as the one realistic candidate for a more "polite and productive" community on a scale similar to Wikipedia. If someone knows more about the seamy side of craigslist than I do, feel free to enlighten me to the contrary. Presumably their forums can occasionally breed bad behavior, as with all such creatures, but I know of little else. It's also interesting to note that craigslist happens to be the only one of these sites we have not yet overtaken in terms of traffic. Perhaps we should take more interest in figuring out what lessons we can pick up from their experience.
Check out the "Rants & Raves" section. I can't speak for any other local version of Craigslist, but at portland.craigslist.com there have been a number of flame wars that make any exchange on EN-wikipedia look not only polite but extremely intellectual. (Currently, amongst the usual posts bashing gays, fat women, national corporations, & city government, there is a dispute over pornography that makes no sense & I have no desire to get to the bottom of -- but is noteable because one side is attaching workplace unsafe pictures to their contributions, thus disrupting the forum to prove their point.)
I honestly doubt any community is entirely "polite & productive". To paraphrase the late Douglas Adams, the problem with people is people.
On the other hand, I do find the classifieds on Craigslist quite useful -- which I consider is Craiglist's most important feature. Does this mean that we should consider Wikiclassifieds? (The ability to edit other people's personal ads offers the potential for continuous and immeasurable entertainment, although it might not be worth the resulting trouble.)
Geoff