Thomas Dalton wrote:
Everyone thought that about editing too, until Wikipedia proved everyone wrong.
Wikipedia didn't prove them wrong by showing that vandalism doesn't happen, it proved them wrong by showing that vandalism can be dealt with.
Yes, exactly.
The way we deal with it involves having some people with more power than the vandals.
This is wrong. Wikipedia was working right from the start, even before adminship existed.
You can move the goalposts wherever you like, you still end up needing some people with more power than the vandals.
You're also forgetting that Wikipedia is not the only wiki, and that MediaWiki is not the only wiki engine. Most other wiki engines do not have an "admin" user level at all, and last I checked the Pattern Repository was still working just fine.
Timwi