[Foundation-l] breaking English Wikipedia apart

[brock.weller at gmail.com]

I agree with helping wikiprojects collaborate but couldn't disagree more
with making them more powerful or in charge of certain wikis. It seems like
at some point, anecdotally pegged as somewhere in early 2006 from those I've
discussed this with, we as a community stopped enculturating our new users
and as a consequence the identity of being a 'Wikipedia Editor' was less
important and the Wikiprojects started to take over, with
sometimes disastrous results. The free culture part of our mission was
tossed out by groups working on tv shows and movies, the fiction project
turned us in to some sort of fan guide with spoiler warnings and hidden
boxes that make it harder for an encyclopedia to do what it's supposed to
do- give you information. And let's not forget the CVU and it's bite-tastic
militaristic approach, giving badges and ranks to those who gave the most
ominous warnings to IP's figuring out the edit this page button really
works. It took years (and I'm only slightly exaggerating when I say nearly
blood as well) to bring these groups back in to the fold.

Wikiprojects get sucked in to their one area and sometimes lose sight of the
fact that this is a project with goals. It's an encyclopedia, and topics
have to be worked into a form that makes sense in an encyclopedia. It's free
content. It's editable by anyone. These are all things core to what we are.
Increasing cooperation between wikiprojects is a very good idea, but not
giving them separate fiefdoms to govern.
-Brock


On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 7:29 PM, <dex2000 at pc.dk> wrote:

> Sorry for refering to my earlier mail which was not added. It was my mail
> from 25.2.2011, but I think i summarized the suggestions later anyway.
> Regards
> Sir48/Thyge
>
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