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