On 22/04/07, Matthew Brown <morven(a)gmail.com> wrote:
On 4/22/07, David Gerard <dgerard(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
The problem is that doing lots of OTRS leaves one
with a ridiculously
distorted view of the content of Wikipedia. Wikipedia is HUGE.
I agree. Just as police officers have a distorted view of society
through dealing with its worst elements constantly, OTRS volunteers
are constantly subjected to the worst, most problematic articles on
Wikipedia. It's easy to start thinking these are representative,
rather than outliers.
These articles are indeed outliers, and we do know that - we do
actually edit the rest of the wiki, on occasion, too!
But we have one point seven something million articles as of the time
of writing; the absolute number of "outliers" is very, very large. And
we can't simply dismiss a problem by saying "well, relatively
speaking, it's a small problem" - it's still a problem. Being exposed
to it continually makes you more alert to it, but that doesn't mean
it's being confabulated.
--
- Andrew Gray
andrew.gray(a)dunelm.org.uk