On 7/2/05, Erik Moeller erik_moeller@gmx.de wrote:
A parallel community grows in that section of Wikipedia of people who primarily play games.
I would pay good money to hear someone talk about the rise of wiki-gaming as an internet phenomenon. Maybe this is a novel fundraising idea?
There are people who, in spite of our best efforts, will never become useful contributors to the site.
We've encountered a few, and have entire chapters of process on how to handle them. You'd rather filter them out in advance, according to some set of profiles?
post-discovery discouragement may no longer work, because these users have their Wikigames ghetto to return to and come back from, where rules like NPOV are as relevant as Schopenhauer is to the Furry fandom.
You think this is different from the "Child-love article cluster" ghetto? If the notion of a wikigames ghetto that were attractive to people who didn't already admire and use the encyclopedia weren't funny, I would be more worried. Let's wait until we actually have a problem -- say, more than 10% of game-playing users who are not also active wiki contributors or newbies -- and then see what's going on.
The very fact that wikigames have cropped up - when there are so many instant-gratification sites online to play these games - is fascinating. I think it may be good for the community; you don't. Let's see where it is going before judging it!
SJ