[WikiEN-l] "Exclusion" essay

[Erik Moeller]

On 7/20/06, Elisabeth Bauer <elian at djini.de> wrote:

> One hypothesis:
> Allowing too much "fancruft" in Wikipedia creates an imbalance in the community
> structure. There is a really large pool of 15 year old, computer savy kids (some
> may be older) who get easily attracted to writing wikipedia articles about f.e.
> star trek compared to a very small pool of for example experts on let's say
> homer.

What? We have lots of Simpsons articles! ;-)

An alternative hypothesis: The kind of editors who would avoid
Wikipedia because it accepts the work of 15-year-old Star Trek fans
might also be likely to run into social problems when arguing about
the influence of the Iliad on modern storytelling -- because, in their
character and their social interaction, they are simply not used to
notions like the search for consensus, or collaboration in WikiLove.

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia _built_ by a community, and the
encyclopedia can only be successful if the social interactions of the
community are healthy. Therefore, expertise cannot be an excuse for
aggressive or dismissive behavior. If there is a group of
knowledgeable people who cannot exist in the social environment of
Wikipedia, then we should provide other means for them to contribute
than being a full member of the community -- rather than trying to
restructure our content and, by extension, our community to allow them
to fit in.

I personally find it amazing and wonderful that so many teenagers wish
to contribute to a work of knowledge. That many of them do so in areas
of popular culture is hardly surprising, and the environment of
Wikipedia is well suited to gradually expose them to new ideas and
knowledge.

Erik