[Foundation-l] Organization on Wikipedia that deals with content issues.

[James Heilman]

A Committee to Deal with Content Issues

Wikipedia does not seem to have any formal arbitration committee that deals
with content.  I have been involved in a number of cases in which such a
committee would be exceedingly useful ( ADHD, Rorschach test, abortion,
etc.).  Currently I am involved in a dispute regarding the interpretation of
the literature regarding Transcendental Meditation (TM) which has been going
on for years.  There are about 5 editors who admit to being practitioner of
TM and only or mainly edit the subject area of TM.  They have been using
Wikipedia to promote this organization / religion.  As they have been
reasonably polite no actions were taken during the recent Arbitration case
and ArbCom stated that it does not feel they should / are able to address
content issues.

An RfC was filled with a couple of comments however the TMers felt that the
comments were uninformed, insufficiently numerous, and therefore not
relevant.  An RfC is also not binding and has no method for enforcement.
These editors have been taking turns reverting changes they disagree with.
The question is should Wikipedia be written by those who are interested in
writing a well referenced work of knowledge or by special interests who wish
to push a particular point of view.  Wikipedia currently does not have an
effective method to deal with these types of special interest groups who are
set on promotion or advertising.  If Wikipedia is ever going to become well
respected by academia it needs effective measures to deal with these sort of
issue.

-- 
James Heilman
MD, CCFP-EM, B.Sc.