On Jul 24, 2006, at 2:06 PM, Stan Shebs wrote:
But I don't think there's a whole lot of incentive or reward for leadership, so attempts tend to be brief and unsuccessful. Even if one manages to organize several like-minded editors into a cooperative effort, the newest of newbies can still come in and disrupt, oftentimes with the support of onlookers shrieking about cabals, and the would-be leader sees his/her investment in WP come to naught.
Then don't. Make a fork. Only allow "like-minded editors" to edit it, and go for it. Heck, maybe it will work better than what we've got now. I, at least, would be glad to have the competition. And as for money issues, until/unless you get massive traffic, the hardware costs won't be too high. I'll chip in some (~$25) seed money, if you really need it.
This is not a joke. If you think you can make more progress in producing a free encyclopedia by working in an environment where "the newest of newbies" can't "come in and disrupt", then do it, and show us. Rent some hardware, install Mediawiki on it, copy over a recent database dump, apply whatever restrictions you think will help you, and get down to work. If it really works better than what we've got here, I'll bet many good editors will flock to it; if not, then we'll have a real-life example to point to when this discussion comes up again. And even if it just lets you, Stan Shebs, write a few more excellent articles, that's a win in itself. By all means - go to it!
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Jesse Weinstein