On Aug 5, 2005, at 2:51 PM, Poor, Edmund W wrote:
I created a new page, this time I did it right. Angela
would be proud.
[[Wikipedia:anti-elitism]] is based on a couple of Internet articles
that
old guy, whatsisname, some philosophy professor who helped out for
a few
months in Wikipedia's early days. Oh, yeah, Larry Sanger.
I was wondering where all this VFD-RFC-RFA stuff was really
heading, so
I
dipped into MeatBall, and that led me to the social dynamics of
wikis -
which ended up with Larry's critique of Wikipedia's anti-elitism.
He sees it as causing our 2 biggest problems:
1. a perception of unreliability (justified or not)
2. an often unpleasant an even hostile working atmosphere
Larry Sanger did many good things for Wikipedia, set many important
policies which have served us well. However, as anyone who tangled
with him learned from experience, an "often unpleasant and even
hostile working atmosphere" was often part of working with him. He
did not respect other people and believed he could bulldoze them,
based on his authority as a Wikipedia administrator and as an expert
in academic philosophy. His contributions may have correctly parroted
was is being taught in freshman philosophy courses, I grant that, but
there is no doubt that perspective can be improved on.
Fred
Well, I'm off to my 5:30 P.M. irc meeting. Do check out the proposed
policy
page, if you're interested in the big picture. Sanger's no slouch.
Ed Poor
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