On Thu, Nov 26, 2009 at 9:02 PM, George Herbert george.herbert@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