[WikiEN-l] Anti-elitism

[Fred Bauder]

On Aug 5, 2005, at 2:51 PM, Poor, Edmund W wrote:

> I created a new page, this time I did it right. Angela would be proud.
>
> [[Wikipedia:anti-elitism]] is based on a couple of Internet articles
> that
> old guy, whatsisname, some philosophy professor who helped out for  
> a few
>
> months in Wikipedia's early days. Oh, yeah, Larry Sanger.
>
> I was wondering where all this VFD-RFC-RFA stuff was really  
> heading, so
> I
> dipped into MeatBall, and that led me to the social dynamics of  
> wikis -
> which ended up with Larry's critique of Wikipedia's anti-elitism.
>
> He sees it as causing our 2 biggest problems:
> 1. a perception of unreliability (justified or not)
> 2. an often unpleasant an even hostile working atmosphere

Larry Sanger did many good things for Wikipedia, set many important  
policies which have served us well. However, as anyone who tangled  
with him learned from experience, an "often unpleasant and even  
hostile working atmosphere"  was often part of working with him. He  
did not respect other people and believed he could bulldoze them,  
based on his authority as a Wikipedia administrator and as an expert  
in academic philosophy. His contributions may have correctly parroted  
was is being taught in freshman philosophy courses, I grant that, but  
there is no doubt that perspective can be improved on.

Fred

>
> Well, I'm off to my 5:30 P.M. irc meeting. Do check out the proposed
> policy
> page, if you're interested in the big picture. Sanger's no slouch.
>
> Ed Poor
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