> 'Forget altruism. Misanthropy and egotism
are the fuel of online
> social
> production. That's the conclusion suggested by a new study of the
> character
> traits of the contributors to Wikipedia. A team of Israeli research
> psychologists gave personality tests to 69 Wikipedians and 70
> non-Wikipedians. They discovered that, as New Scientist puts
>
it<http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16349-psychologist-finds-wikipe…
> -grumpy-and-closedminded.html>,
> Wikipedians are generally "grumpy," "disagreeable," and
"closed to new
> ideas."'
>
http://www.roughtype.com/archives/2009/06/the_sour_wikipe.php
>
> I wonder how the mailing list will react....
>
on 6/27/09 6:07 PM, Fred Bauder at fredbaud(a)fairpoint.net wrote:
Always knew this, Wikipedia is generally an outlet for folks who have
low
interpersonal social skills, or at least insufficient outlets for self
expression. As to "Disagreeable and closed to new ideas", that is
policy,
Wikipedia is a compendium of established knowledge, not a place for new
ideas, which we call original research.
C'mon, Fred; it is "policy" to be "disagreeable"? And as
for "closed to
new
ideas"; that may be appropriate to the body of the encyclopedia itself,
but
it applies very much in the various Mailing Lists & Talk Pages. Take a
good
look.
Marc Riddell
OK, an error, it is not policy to be disagreeable, policy is to be civil,
and on the mailing lists and irc too, but I'll stand by the observation
that Wikipedia is a dull place, "Just the facts, Ma'am", and intended to
be.
Fred