[Foundation-l] Message to community about community decline

[MZMcBride]

Ryan Kaldari wrote:
> On 3/28/11 5:20 PM, MZMcBride wrote:
>> There's a theory that doing something like editing a free online
>> encyclopedia is a niche activity, with a finite amount of people who will
>> ever be willing to participate. If we accept this theory, it makes the very
>> strong focus on increased participation look rather silly.
> 
> So we should just be satisfied with our Pokemon articles and leave it at
> that?
> 
> I for one would like to one day see a Wikipedia that isn't obviously
> written by people like us, i.e. white male American geeks. Maybe it
> would include better articles on children's literature, cooking,
> hip-hop, knitting, sharia law, wine, and African dance. Maybe it would
> have more featured articles on books than video games. Maybe it's
> article on sexism would be about more than just the Men's Rights
> Movement. Maybe it would include statistics from places like Brazil and
> Mozambique instead of just the United States and Texas.
> 
> Now that I think about it, I believe it would actually be a pretty
> awesome website. Too bad we'll never let that happen.

I wonder, has any other part of the Internet followed this seemingly
mythical trend that the Wikimedia Foundation is putting forward, where
increased participation magically leads to better content?

When I look around to other parts of the Internet with high levels of
participation and very low barriers to entry, I don't hear much signal in
the noise. For examples, look at the content of YouTube comments, Facebook
Wall posts and comments, tweets, etc. Increased participation might build a
bigger "movement," but a niche activity is still a niche activity, no matter
how many strategic plans, consultants, and buzzwords are thrown at it.

MZMcBride