[Foundation-l] Comparison of Chinese Wikipedia, Hudong and Baidu Baike

[Apoc 2400]

I do not read much Chinese, but I have found Baidu Baike and Hudong
interesting. Let me share my impression of how they differ from Wikipedia.
* Like most of the Chinese web, there is little regard for copyrights. Most
of the article text seems to be copied from news articles, the official site
of the subject or various government websites. The images come from anywhere
on the web.
* They encourage rather than avoid the social networking and game-like
aspects of the community. As the CNN article says, there are general
chatrooms, friend functions, points, rankings etc.
* They are not at all strict with sources. We should remember that Wikipedia
became hugely popular before we really got serious about sources, and most
non-English Wikipedias are still mostly unsourced.
* They are generally anarchic. Not towards things the government might
object to, but to things like BLP, and sources. Celebrity articles are full
of gossip.